In 1932, a man took the stage at the Democratic National Convention and said, “While Republicans prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.”

This individual then enacted legislation that helped revive the United State’s economy. This man was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the legislation enacted was collectively known as the New Deal.

While the New Deal and its legacy are still being debated today, there is one thing that cannot be denied: The economy rose from the ashes throughout the 1930s.

A compromise that FDR had to make was deficit spending for an improved economy.

We find ourselves at the crossroads of history once more; one could argue that the economy has been reduced to a pile of ashes just as it was by Black Thursday in the late 1920s.

The government already has a stimulus package planned, plus the additional money from the bailout the banks received. It seems as though the federal government is going about this the right way, but where does that leave Arizona? We can only take our share of the stimulus package, and we are not allowed to deficit spend.

Article 9, Section 4 of the Arizona Constitution states that we must have a balanced budget: “Whenever the expenses of any fiscal year shall exceed the income, the legislature may provide for levying a tax for the ensuing fiscal year sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency, as well as the estimated expenses of the ensuing fiscal year.”

An estimate in the Phoenix Business Journal puts our state deficit at $4.5 billion. Because it is unconstitutional to operate on a deficit, the legislature is constantly fighting the state’s pocketbook. But slashing programs will not help us get back on track; rather, it will leave a trail of wreckage. This wreckage is due to Arizona’s incapability to venture into deficit spending.

The inability to operate on a budget deficit is hurting students as we speak. The state Legislature is talking about cutting the amount the state gives to state universities by up to 40 percent. Deficit spending is among the issues addressed in an e-mail sent to students, staff and faculty on Wednesday by ASU President Michael Crow. “Borrowing funds, running a budget deficit [which Arizona is constitutionally allowed to do for one year] and raising taxes, are not politically popular. But the alternative will be even less popular — creating for Arizona a Third World education and economic infrastructure,” Crow said.

If Arizona were allowed to deficit spend, we as residents of Arizona and especially as students, would be better off. More opportunities would be available to us. Being fiscally conservative is important, but we must know the time. Now is not that time. We must keep funding, as opposed to cutting, the programs that will drive the economy in this recession. Progression is what will move us into the 21st century; regression will keep us in the 20th century.

The idea of prolonging a recession is asinine, but by cutting programs that matter most to the public, the government is doing exactly that. Because Arizona is not allowed to operate on a deficit, Phoenix may not live up to its name. The economy is in ashes, but the question is, can we rise from them?

Reach Andrew at andrew.hedlund@asu.edu.