This article which appears in the State, a local South Carolina online newspaper, is an article that raises many questions but does not really endeavor to answer many of them. The article, which appeared in the opinion section is aimed more at the general public in South Carolina than to any law makers of officials. The author Cindi Ross Scoppe looks at the different ways that our state may have to use in order to try and make ends meet. She points out that while the federal government essentially has an unlimited line of credit and can run in a deficit whenever it so chooses the states and local levels do not have that same luxury. She also points out that while households and business' essentially have to only look out for themselves that the government, both local and national, have to look out for a myriad of different interests and the big picture as well.
The article essentially is an appeal to people to think about the big picture in a way, to look at the fact that if the state does not do something to try and make ends meet then we basically will not have any of the benefits that we currently enjoy. She makes arguments for multiple different ideas of ways to try and lower our current state budget, ideas that I am sure many people will not like. However, in the current situation there are no good or easy answers, and everything will require a sacrifice. So the ideas of decreasing or cutting scholarships, or freezing teachers salaries while scary, are most likely necessary in order to try and weather the current financial crisis. While she does propose several different ideas Ms Scoppe does a good job of looking at both sides of the various different possibilities. However, she does not offer any real answers, of which there probably are none, just her thoughts on the subject.
