text: With all due respect to the former US Senator and Anchorage mayor - I tend to feel that this legislature has in fact faced and made the difficult compromise decision to fund this next year's budget with major draw down of savings and moderate spending decreases.
  
  The votes simply were not there to do anything else at this point. In my opinion the legislature is sitting exactly where Alaskan people are sitting on this - not only extremely divided but also very split on any of the alternatives going forward.
  
  This issue is not about the legislature anymore - it's about the people. We have spent so much money for so long - that never had to come from our pockets - that Alaskans have no idea how much government they want to have or how much it should cost. 
  If the CBR was a savings account funded from personal taxes - maybe we wouldn't be spending it now. But like all our oil wealth of the past 40 years - the CBR might as well be someone eles's money. We are certainly spending it that way.