Taxpayers Should Cut Up Uncle Sam's Credit Cards

My dad used to say, “Public officials should never borrow money, except in an emergency, like a war.”

As the mayor of a small town in Montana, he put that principle into practice. Buying a new dump truck was not an emergency. If the city didn’t have the money to buy it, the answer was no. Even if state or federal funds were available to make the down payment, if the city couldn’t come up with the rest of the money, the answer was still no.

Most vendors feel the same way when it comes to political campaigns. Candidates running for political office have to pay up front for printing costs and med...