Spending and More Spending

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to a report in the Washington Times, says efforts like the Minuteman Project--under which some folks are sitting in lawn chairs next to barbecue grills in Arizona in order to ward off would-be illegal immigrants--are what happens when the federal government doesn't do its job of securing the border. He wants beefed-up border spending, but in making his case, he relies on the same tired logic used to argue for any federal expenditure: the old "if we can afford to do X, then we can afford to do Y." In Schwarzenegger's case, it translates this way: "When we can afford the war in Iraq," he says, "we can afford to control our own borders."

You hear this kind of talk all the time, but only in the federal context. It doesn't work on the domestic front, at least not in my house. ("Hey honey, because we can afford to buy that new car we needed, we can afford a trip to Vegas for me and my buddies, right?") This is not that difficult, folks: When you spend money in one place (wisely or not) that means you have less to spend elsewhere, not more.