By Steve Brawner
© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

We should think less about which tribe political candidates belong to, or where they fall on the left-right spectrum, and more about whether they govern responsibly – like, for example, former University of Arkansas System Trustee David Pryor.

Pryor is best known for being a former governor and senator. He’s a Democrat, for what that’s worth.

This column isn’t about any of that. Instead, it was Pryor who, along with current board member Cliff Gibson, voted in 2016 against a $160 million expansion of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium to 76,412 seats, including 3,200 new premium seats for rich people. The other eight board members voted yes.

Pryor opposed the project for several reasons. He argued that the university had higher priorities and that it wasn’t the right time to expand the football stadium. A big concern was the fact that the expansion was financed largely by a $120 million bond issue, ultimately backed by the state.

“A bond issue is a debt of the University of Arkansas,” he said in 2016. “It is a debt of the people of Arkansas, and ultimately if something goes wrong, who’s responsible? And that’s the people.”

So what could go wrong?

Recall the football program’s condition in 2016. The Razorbacks had finished 8-5 that season under Coach Bret Bielema. The year before, they had finished 7-6 and had trounced Texas in the Texas Bowl. Following that win, then-Athletic Director Jeff Long gave Bielema a raise and a contract extension.

Bielema appeared to have the program moving in the right direction. But then he was fired two years later after a 4-8 season. Long was fired, too, before the season even ended. Bielema’s successor, Chad Morris, won only four games in two years before he was fired Sunday after Arkansas’ embarrassing 45-19 home loss to Western Kentucky.

The program will now pay Morris a reported $10 million or some other ridiculous amount thanks to his buyout clause, though he’s required to look for work elsewhere. Meanwhile, the department is already embroiled in a contract dispute over the money it’s been paying, and then not paying, Bielema to not coach. Next year, the UA could be paying millions to three football coaches, two of whom it fired.

It becomes harder to pay back a $120 million bond issue financing a stadium expansion when the newly expanded stadium is half empty. Saturday’s announced attendance was 42,985. That means 33,427 seats were unfilled at the beginning of the game, and more so as Western Kentucky’s points piled up. Pryor is looking more and more right with each passing multi-touchdown loss.

So let’s apply this to national politics. Elected officials in Washington should govern the country the way Pryor attempted to govern the University of Arkansas – conservatively, pragmatically, responsibly and realistically.

Instead, starting in 2017, Congress and the president cut taxes and increased spending in order to expand an already expanding economy. I guess they wanted to turn an 8-5 season into a national championship.

Unfortunately, like the UA Athletic Department’s debt, the federal budget deficit also expanded. This past fiscal year, Uncle Sam ran almost a $1 trillion deficit, equal to almost $3,000 for every American. That money was added to the cumulative national debt, now $23 trillion.

A $1 trillion deficit is unprecedented in a growing economy, and annual deficits will remain that high for the foreseeable future – until the economy inevitably starts experiencing some losing seasons. Then we’ll really be swimming in red ink.

As for Arkansas’ congressional delegation, all the members voted to cut taxes in 2017. Then, all of them except Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Bruce Westerman voted to increase spending, after all but Westerman had voted for a budget deal that paved the way for the spending increase.

A lot of lawmakers apparently were thinking like the eight other members of the UA Board of Trustees were thinking in 2016: Times are pretty good, the sky’s the limit, so let’s go for it.

Instead, could we all just stop using debt to expand things for a while?

Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.