Trego's Mountain Ear

In our Senate election, we may have a choice – Tim Sheehy has a position entry on fiscal responsibility, explaining that we need to “rein in out-of-control” government spending.  He emphasizes that he can balance a checkbook.

I have hopes for Tim – but I have evidence that Jon Tester can balance a checkbook.  I figure that if Jon had been as irresponsible with his own money as Congress has been with ours, he wouldn’t have a farm in Big Sandy anymore.  If he spent his own funds with Congressional abandon, he’d be running with an address that read Park Bench, Missoula, Montana.

The problem is that it’s easy to spend other people’s money.  If I vote for Sheehy, I’m voting for hope that he’ll keep that position on fiscal responsibility.  At the lowest level of government – the school board – I have observed how much easier it is to spend other people’s money.

If the Senate election did not have the distinction of one candidate campaigning with a pledge toward fiscal responsibility, if it were just a choice of how “likable” each candidate is, I’d probably vote for Tester.  We have a fair share of politicians that have come into Montana, and Jon Tester does have deeper roots in the state . . . but some of our finest Montanans came from other states.  Granville Stuart, whose attitudes got him the title of Mister Montana, grew up in Iowa, and came to Montana after an extended tour in California.  A lot of our California immigrants have turned out to be good Montanans.  Anyway, I’ll be casting a ballot based on a single issue – fiscal responsibility.  One candidate promises it – and I will vote with the hope that he lives up to that promise.