It was almost as if the legislative witness from ConocoPhillips was there to help the campaign of fellow ConocoPhillips employee Kevin Meyer, a candidate for lieutenant governor in Alaska.
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If the governor and Legislature follow the existing PFD formula in the law for dividends, the amount spent on them next year would almost double, from $1 billion to $1.9 billion. That would mean deficits of $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion a year though 2027, according to the current revenue forecast.
The $100 million Mike Dunleavy now describes as easy money just waiting to be cut from the budget by consolidating school district health coverage is another illusion.
Read MoreBefore he quit the Legislature to run for governor, Mike Dunleavy should have applied himself to examining the state budget. Had he done so, maybe he wouldn't be spreading a fable about one element of state spending that is obvious to anyone who has ever looked into the subject.
Listen closely to former Sen. Mike Dunleavy as he speaks with conviction about the state budget and oil prices. He rattles off numbers like a desperate timeshare salesman, which makes it hard to tell which statistics are real and which are imaginary.
Read MoreRepublican Mike Dunleavy can always get a laugh when he says the most important campaign question is about how tall he is, but it's no joke that he has failed to produce a coherent plan for state finances.
Sen. Dan Sullivan described McCain as his mentor and close friend. But Trump went on mocking the dying McCain at rallies and Sullivan stayed silent.
Read MoreMy wife and I drove north to Fairbanks on the Parks Highway Monday from Cantwell and while we never saw any signs of the Alaska State Troopers, we saw plenty of reckless drivers hitting 80 mph or 90 mph, expressing their conviction that no one would stop them for speeding.
Read MoreAt one point Sen. John McCain wondered aloud about how Alaskans felt about being put on welfare as the recipients of unwarranted federal earmarks.
Sen. Tom Begich, brother of gubernatorial candidate Mark Begich, responded to my post complaining about the failure of both Begich and Republican Mike Dunleavy to offer a sensible fiscal plan.