WAMs… Walking Around Money is one of the worst offenses to small government. It allows politicans to hand out huge chunks of taxpayer dollars to influential people in their districts so they get re-elected. No big surprise here, but PA Governor Fast Eddie is the kind of such moves, as this great (and depressing) article from the Tribune Review points out.

As Mr. DeCoursey reported, “One top Democratic businessman, and a Rendell donor, said, ‘Hey, if he has a choice of letting businesses pay taxes, keep them and invest them, or handing them out most of $600 million next year as he runs for re-election, he is going to spend that money on the “Governor WAM” program, not on little business tax cuts that everyone will forget as soon as he passes them.’”

Of course, any racket such as this needs an “enforcer,” a guy who sells paste as diamonds. And Rendell’s guy usually is Dennis Yablonsky, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

So let me get this straight. Rendell vetoed business tax cuts that would’ve gone to EVERYONE to instead be able to hand out $600 million in taxpayer dollars to his buddy. Flagrant, yet, it will not be mentioned by the press.

As a heads up, I am going to be upgrading SaveTheGOP to Word Press 2.0 sometime in the next week, so if it goes down temporarily you know what happened.

Too many conservatives think political change will occur simply because ideas are right, or that Americans are naturally conservative and need only to have the blinders pulled from their eyes. Frankly, I think both ideas are poppycock. If victory was won because you had the right ideas, LBJ would never be elected, and neither would Arlen Specter. If Americans are naturally conservative, then they are damn obstinate about keeping on their blinders.

No, it seems much more likely that sustained political change only follows where the culture has already gone. Point in case: there isn’t a single abortionist in South Dakota. Say what you will about Paul Gourley, we can have few beefs with the state he comes from.

It’s important to note that this didn’t come about only through legislation, or even mostly through legislation. While laws requiring minimum standards of safety can drive up costs, the most significant (yet least quantifiable) factor is social. “Many doctors in South Dakota who say they have no personal objection to performing abortions… cannot risk their careers and community standing by offering the procedure.” In other words, social shunning would result from performing abortions. Shunning, of course, requires a culture in widespread opposition to something.