This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, September 7th, 2007. I'm Caleb Brown.

Limiting state spending is a key challenge for those who want to limit this size and

scope of government.

Not surprisingly, efforts to strictly limit state spending through constitutional

caps face some strong opposition from those who think expanding government is just fine.

Cato Institute adjunct scholar Michael News says even though states need strict limits on spending,

opponents of tax and expenditure limitations have gotten smart about how to keep caps on

spending at bay.

How do the opponents of these types of spending caps cast the debate? What the opponents of these spending caps cast the debate?

What the opponents of these spending caps have been very good at doing is trying to paint these

scare stories of drastic cuts in public services that will take place if a spending cap is put in place.

As I said in the earlier podcast, the Colorado Taxpayers Bill of Rights is, I think, the best

model we have for an effective spending cap.

Unfortunately, Tabor's reputation has been kind of tarnished by what's happened in Colorado.

That Tabor again was doing very well. It was creating solid economic growth in Colorado.

It was generating large amounts of tax relief.

And I think it's doing very well up until 2001 and in 2001 a few things happen first

He's September 11th attacks they had hit Colorado pretty hard because it was right before ski season

and a lot of people would otherwise

be making trips to Colorado didn't go skiing that year or didn't do the tourist see

things they'd usually do that hurt the economy. Also in 2001, Colorado had a very

severe drought, the worst drought in their history.

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