Time to quit playing

“When Democrats are criticized, they counter-attack. When Republicans are criticized, they apparently believe in ‘the soft answer which turneth away wrath.’ In politics, however, a soft answer is like blood in the water that provokes piranhas to more vicious attacks.” —Thomas Sowell

I read this in my Patriot Post today (yesterday’s edition, the 07-12 Chronicle.) And these words ring quite true. It seems to me also that Democrats like the politics of personal attack a little more than the GOP does.

If there’s one thing I have to say about Maryland politics, though, right now the GOP isn’t the recipient of much criticism. Comapre this to the oft-quoted Senate President Mike Miller in 2005: (GOP leaders are) “going to be flying high, but we’re going to get together and we’re going to shoot them down. We’re going to bury them face down in the ground, and it’ll be 10 years before they crawl out again.”

Of course, at the time it appeared that there was a pretty good chance that Governor Ehrlich would be re-elected after Democrats Doug Duncan and Martin O’Malley shredded each other in an expensive primary fight for the governors’ chair, while Kweisi Mfume and Ben Cardin were among a host of Democrats threatening to do the same as they ran against odds-on favorite Michael Steele for the U.S. Senate seat. Well, to their credit, the Democrats managed to pile up enough votes in their strongholds to stave off both Ehrlich and Steele.

After the GOP losses in 2006, Maryland is seemingly back to its normal political course as the Democrats hold all of the statewide offices and the GOP is once again beaten back to its few strongholds in Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. So the anti-Republican political rhetoric has been toned down – after all, they now can keep their powder dry for most of the rest of this election cycle. Besides, by 2010 they’ll need to figure out a way to blame the four O’Malley years of bloated spending and rapidly increasing taxes on the last GOP administration.

Oh, you wonder why we on the right call the Democrats “tax-and-spend”? Here’s just a few examples on just the state level. I’m not even going to go into the federal level, where it’s claimed in the 2008 budget that we’ll stop deficit spending IF Bush tax cuts expire in 2010 (essentially a huge tax hike) – never mind revenues have increased since these tax cuts took effect.

In Maryland, Democrats have called for the following eight “revenue enhancements”. These bills can be found on the General Assembly website, search by bill number. All I did was look under the subject “taxation” and pick the most obvious ones!

  1. A $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax (HB288/SB207, also HB754);
  2. Sales tax increases of either 1/2% (to 5.5% – HB434) or 1% (to 6% – HB393);
  3. A 10 cent per gallon increase in the gasoline tax (HB821);
  4. Doubling the current tax on alcoholic beverages (HB757/SB422);
  5. If you wish to exercise your Second Amendment rights, an additional 10% tax on guns considered “assault weapons” (HB441), or 5 cents per round on ammunition (HB1393);
  6. An additional 2 mill property tax, which equals 2 cents per $100 of valuation if my math is correct (HB486/SB644);
  7. A 5 cent deposit on cans and bottles (HB839);
  8. And a repeal on the limits on the rate and collection of pollution permit fees (HB1218).

Plus, while it’s not a tax per se, some Democrats want to create a single-payer health system in Maryland (HB400).

So which Democrats support these bills the most? Well, here are a list of co-sponsors who are listed on at least five of these bills. Why am I not surprised that most of these folks represent Montgomery County?

The king of taxation: freshman Delegate Saquib Ali (District 39, Montgomery) who’s co-sponsor of seven of these bills.

The prince: another freshman, Delegate Craig L. Rice (District 15, Montgomery). He has five co-sponsorships to his “credit” and is lead sponsor of HB441.

And the “dirty dozen” who have five co-sponsorships (plus lead sponsorships as noted):

  • Fourth term Delegate Elizabeth Bobo (District 12B, Howard);
  • Third term Delegate William A. Bronrott (District 16, Montgomery), who’s the lead sponsor of HB757;
  • Third term Delegate Rudolph C. Cane (District 37A, Dorchester/Wicomico);
  • Fourth term Delegate Virginia P. Claggett (District 30, Anne Arundel);
  • Fourth term Delegate Barbara A. Frush (District 21, Prince George’s/Anne Arundel);
  • Freshman Delegate Tom Hucker (District 20, Montgomery);
  • Second term Delegate Anne R. Kaiser (District 14, Montgomery);
  • First elected term Delegate Jane E. Lawton (District 18, Montgomery);
  • Freshman Delegate Roger P. Manno (District 19, Montgomery);
  • Fourth term Delegate Maggie I. McIntosh (District 43, Baltimore City), also lead sponsor of both HB486 and HB1220;
  • Second term Delegate Karen S. Montgomery (District 14, Montgomery), also lead sponsor of HB400;
  • And finally, seventh (!) term Delegate Samuel I. Rosenberg (District 41, Baltimore City).

I also need to point out that my delegate (not by my choice, I was outvoted) Norm Conway is a co-sponsor of HB754, which is billed the “Children and Working Families Health Care Act of 2007”. I was going to say that naturally, Conway is a Democrat, but then I saw Wicomico County Delegate Page Elmore on that list too, once of the few Republicans who are calling for this tax increase. Page, it ain’t going to help, the Democrats will run somebody against you whether you vote and sponsor with them or not.

Meanwhile, the GOP has quietly put together two bills of particular interest, neither of which has any chance of passing. HB809/SB942 is a “taxpayer’s bill of rights” that’s desired to appear on the 2008 ballot, while my Senator, Lowell Stoltzfus, introduced what he billed the “Budget Reconciliation Act of 2007.” As he stated last week on Bill Reddish’s radio show, the General Assembly has “no will to do cuts” to the budget. So he introduced some pruning of the budget to help our situation, rather than assuming Free Staters have deep enough pockets to pay for everything on the liberal wish list.

Well, Maryland, you now have a list of suspects in the case of the 2007 taxpayer wallet pickpocketing. And you can let them know how you feel.

In my case, I’m one member of the Maryland GOP that’s not going to be afraid to call people what they are. If Democrats want to tax and spend our state into bankruptcy I suppose it’s their right, but I’ll be damned if they’ll do it without me saying something about it! It’s going to be interesting to see if my left-wing cohort at The Greenbelt sees fit to include this in the upcoming Carnival of Maryland #3 because this will be the article I submit. I guess I’ll find out Sunday, won’t I?

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

6 thoughts on “Time to quit playing”

  1. That was good, you made me laugh. When they talk about the balance of the MBA shifting south and west, I think it’s moving somewhat to the left politically as well. (Guess I’ll have to work a little harder!) 🙂

  2. Pingback: The Greenbelt

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