"fiscal conservative" Baron Hill encourages Gov. Daniels to spend a lot of money

When Baron is busy campaigning and posing as a fiscal conservative back home-- he's busy in Washington, pretending to be a fiscal conservative.

Now, he's added one more wrinkle to his resume. Coming to the Indiana State House in an attempt to persuade Gov. Daniels and the legislature to spend a lot of money.

Here's Lesley Stedman Weidenbener in the C-J...


U.S. Rep. Baron Hill said yesterday that Indiana should accept all the federal stimulus money available for unemployment insurance -- even if it means expanding the state's current program....

Baron seems unconcerned with paying for both higher federal and state spending in the future.

Gov. Mitch Daniels said last week he "probably" will decline some of the money the stimulus package makes available for the state's unemployment program because it might make the resulting benefits unsustainable once the federal money is gone....

"It looks like a very bad fit and a bad bargain for Indiana," Daniels said. "In exchange for short-term money, a state would have to commit itself to very large expansions of benefits and eligibility going forward. Very expensive."

Exactly...

But Hill said the state should "figure out a way to spend all the money we possibly can on unemployment benefits."

Hill sees himself as an amazing man-- quite capable of acting as our federal representative, while knowing what's best for state government and one of its specific programs.

Hill voted for the $787 billion federal stimulus package, which makes money available to schools, provides tax cuts to individuals and gives state and local governments new funding for infrastructure programs....