Kratovil joins bipartisan bid to hold deficit line
I don’t like to space posts so close together, but this is just in… (there’s a fresh post below too.)
217 House Democrats voted to extend the nation’s debt ceiling to $14.294 trillion, but Frank Kratovil wasn’t one of them. I guess that once again he drew the hall pass from Nancy Pelosi to vote no, which was iffy because the measure only passed 217-212. (There were 5 who didn’t vote, which leads me to wonder where the empty seat is. Since 2 of them were Democrats – Gutierrez and Murtha – they would’ve likely had a majority anyway.)
Delmarva was well represented on the bill as all three representatives (Castle, Kratovil, and Nye of Virginia) voted nay. Needless to say, aside from the Republican Roscoe Bartlett, the remainder of Maryland’s feckless Congressional delegation had no problem putting their grandchildren further into debt.
Since the bill passed the Senate earlier (before Scott Brown could be sworn in and possibly create a cloture roadblock) it will soon be on President Obama’s desk.
While it’s good that Kratovil voted as he did and he deserves kudos, the question needs to be raised: if Frank Kratovil (and, for my friend Melody Scalley down Virginia way, Glenn Nye) are now trying to portray themselves as Republican-lite, why not just elect the real thing in November?
Odds and ends number 21
Once in awhile I do a post to highlight topics which are important but not quite enough to merit a full post. Since I’ve discussed the Scott Brown victory several times this week, I don’t want to keep hammering the subject but I did get additional dispatches worth mentioning. So here goes.
Earlier this week, I spoke with U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Eric Wargotz about helping out with the Brown campaign. This is his “official” release on the subject:
Queen Anne’s County Commissioner Eric Wargotz took time off from his own campaign for U.S. Senate in Maryland to travel to Massachusetts over the weekend to work for Scott Brown’s Senate campaign. Commissioner Wargotz stated, “We felt the single most important thing we could do for our Country was to be in Massachusetts helping Scott Brown be the 41st vote against socialized medicine.” Wargotz volunteered with the Brown Campaign’s “Freezin’ for a Reason” get-out-the-vote effort by going door-to-door in six inches of fresh snow.
“It was amazing to watch the voters take back their Senate seat. The common theme at the polls was that people were tired of being told what do and how to vote. They were tired of machine politics that produced nothing but bigger government, less choices and less freedoms,” said Wargotz. “After meeting voters on their doorsteps, many asked how they could help. These were – Republicans, Independents and Democrats – who had simply had enough. I was witnessing history unfold before my eyes.
The same game-changing history is now unfolding here in Maryland. For decades, Maryland’s U.S. Senate seats have been controlled by special interest groups and have been entirely unresponsive to the needs of the average Marylander. But Marylanders, much like the citizens of Massachusetts, are tired of politicians who think they “own” their seat. The two U.S. Senate seats afforded Maryland by our Constitution are owned by the citizens of Maryland. This fall, look for the citizens of Maryland to take one back!
Whether the citizens of Maryland actually wise up and change their U.S. Senator remains to be seen, but as a campaign tactic this was brilliant. In one fell swoop Eric created a little bit of campaign buzz for himself, learned a little bit about running in a large-scale statewide race, and perhaps created an IOU which can pay off handsomely later on – do you think a fundraiser with a popular sitting Senator wouldn’t be lucrative? Obviously there’s a downside if Brown turns out to be a RINO like his New England counterparts Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins generally are, but in the moment this has to be considered an early advantage in the race for the GOP nod.
Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity was also beaming; here’s part of it:
In crystal clear fashion, (Massachusetts voters) told President Obama and Congressional Democrats to end this health care takeover now.
The meaning and magnitude of Scott Brown’s historic victory is truly stunning.
Consider Massachusetts. Before Mr. Brown’s victory last night no Republican Senate candidate in Massachusetts had won since 1972. The seat he was seeking had been held by Ted Kennedy for almost 50 years and the Kennedy family was on the campaign trail against him. All 10 congressional districts in Massachusetts are held by Democrats. In 2008, the congressional Democrat in Massachusetts with the lowest winning percentage was Barney Frank – and he won with 68%! Just 12% of voters in Massachusetts are registered Republicans.
But, Scott Brown did not win because voters suddenly love the Republican Party. He won not with a message of “Send more Republicans to Congress.” Instead, his most salient message was “send me to Washington to be the 41st vote against the health care takeover.”
The Democrats know this as well. On Sunday when President Obama campaigned with Ms. Coakley, neither of them said one word about health care — the issue on which the President has staked everything. They know that even in Massachusetts — the liberal bastion of the nation – their health care takeover has been rejected by a majority of the people.
Before Tuesday, Massachusetts was the largest state with one-party representation in Congress, yet they have elected the occasional Republican to lead the state.
Phillips has a point, though, when he opines that the message Brown sent was not nearly as much pro-Republican as it was pro-conservative. And perhaps it’s only because Democrats had worked their way up to utter control of Congress by getting the 60-vote majority, but nonetheless Scott Brown was victorious thanks to a nationwide effort. Given a 58-42 Senate majority for Democrats instead of 60-40, maybe Martha Coakley would’ve won and Dr. Wargotz would’ve stayed home. You never know, but being the prospective 41st vote certainly helped Scott Brown win.
And what effect did TEA Party activists have? Amy Kremer of the TEA Party Express had some thoughts:
These (Rasmussen Poll) numbers are amazing. In Massachusetts, one of the bluest of blue states, 40% of voters view the anti-tax, anti-government spending, greater personal liberty tea party movement favorably.
This is an effort that began less than one year ago, and yet the awareness and support for the tea party movement has reached a sizable chunk of voters in Massachusetts.
We saw the first hints of the power of this grassroots uprising in the NY-23 Special Election, where conservatives rose up and forced the GOP to drop their support for the liberal DeDe Scozzafava. On that same day voters in New Jersey and Virginia also delivered a shockwave to the political system.
And now, a great victory has been won in Massachusetts.
Many different groups involved in the tea party movement contributed to Scott Brown’s victory in a number of ways, and each brought their own strengths to the table. The totality of this effort was a massive surge in fundraising for Brown, volunteers for Brown, and hundreds of thousands of phone calls made in support of Brown and the Get-Out-The-Vote effort.
Some of the tea party movement’s critics have repeatedly sought to undermine this movement by sensationalizing the occassional personality clash or difference in tactics by one group or another. But in the end principles drive this movement and the passions of tea party activists brought them together in common cause once again.
To those who oppose this movement and who think that we in the tea party movement are going away, or that we won’t work together, you are wrong. Too much is at stake, and tonight’s victory in Massachusetts is just the start of things to come.
To be fair, the original release also stated that the unfavorable number for the TEA Party movement is 41 percent, and if you use the Rasmussen rating of strong approve/strong disapprove they’re at a minus-6. (The similar factor for President Obama, though, has reached minus-20 at times.)
If you think about it, though, given the constant bombarding of the mainstream media portraying TEA Party participants as lily-white racist gun-toting radicals and liberals’ constant use of the derogatory term “teabaggers” (since the term has a homosexual connotation) to describe them it’s pretty surprising their support is so high in Massachusetts. In a state like Texas or Oklahoma, my guess is that TEA Party approval ratings would be in the 60’s or even 70’s.
Don’t forget, though, that group is the one who nationalized the election. Until the eleventh hour, national Republicans were providing little assistance to Scott Brown, so it was a truly grassroots effort. TEA Partiers and others of like mind realized that, with the proper amount of assistance to get out his message, Brown could actually win the special election.
Of course, on a national scale TEA Partiers would have to multiply their efforts manifold to get similar results because November’s races won’t be as easy to nationalize. But they can stay sharp in the interim with the number of primaries we as a nation go through before the main event (such as Rubio vs. Crist in Florida.)
Obviously it will be difficult to nationalize races like we have in Maryland and Delaware, but it’s possible.
If one good candidate can emerge to face Barbara Mikulski, hard work (and a little corporate help thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision) could convince Maryland voters it’s time to turn away from having a partisan Democrat hack as our Senator.
Delaware may be a harder case because odds-on favorite Mike Castle is comparatively liberal by TEA Party standards, and Christine O’Donnell has ran and lost statewide before. But Democrats may do us a favor and try to keep one Senate seat the “Biden seat” instead of the “people’s seat.” Biden is biding his time about running, though, so he may decide to stay as AG and try again later once his father retires from the political scene.
The impact of Massachusetts will be felt for awhile, but political events have a way of shifting constantly and this euphoria could be just a footnote in a few months. We can enjoy it now, but there’s more work to do.
Message to TPX3: don’t forget Delmarva
Having interviewed one of the main protagonists not once, but twice as a result of cross-country bus tours, I probably have a little more insight than the average person on what the goals of the Tea Party Express were and continue to be.
That’s why I’m a little disappointed with the first look at the route planned for next March and April as TPX3 rolls across the country once again. The route covers 27 states and does briefly run through Delaware and Maryland (via I-95) on its way to the final stop in Washington D.C.
But unless they’re planning a whistle stop somewhere in the northeast corner of Maryland they’re forgetting about a vulnerable Democrat freshman who voted in favor of cap-and-tax, and wouldn’t necessarily pass up a chance to support Obamacare and restoring the death tax if certain conditions were met (I refer to them as his thirty pieces of silver – needless to say they come at taxpayer expense.)
With the looping path being taken already, I don’t think it’s all that difficult to spend an afternoon (most likely April 14, the eve of the next major taxpayer rally in Washington, D.C.) traversing the Delmarva because there’s a lot at stake in the 2010 election in our neck of the woods, too. We’ll have two freshman Democrats (Kratovil of Maryland and Nye of Virginia) running for re-election as well as an open Congressional seat in Delaware as Mike Castle tries to move to the Senate – most likely against Joe Biden’s son Beau, the First State’s current Attorney General. The Democrats already have a pretty strong candidate eyeing that Congressional seat, former Lieutentant Governor John Carney. The “Delaware Way” doesn’t have to be the only way.
Perhaps a good way to convince them to work our way is to show them the money. But I’d rather do it through a simple application of logic because we’re not a people of vast means.
They have the opportunity to influence four different races (if you count Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat which is up for election and held by Barbara Mikulski) in a few hours’ work on a peninsula which too often feels shut out of the political process. So that’s my bid and hopefully they’ll listen.
One step closer to losing more freedom
Well, we tried as best we could but the bad guys prevailed 220-215.
Not that I didn’t expect Pelosicare to pass, but what pisses me off is they got the fig leaf of bipartisanship because of one Republican voting “yes” – Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana, a freshman who replaced former Rep. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson. I presume he comes from an extremely Democrat district, but still that’s pretty inexcusable.
None of Delmarva’s representatives voted for final passage of H.R. 3962 as Castle, Kratovil, and Nye all voted no. However, only Castle voted for the motion to recommit, which would have killed the bill. Castle was also the only one on Delmarva to vote for the Stupak Amendment, which made abortion funding almost completely illegal. So Kratovil and Nye will have some explaining to do to pro-life residents of their districts.
So now the fight moves to the Senate, with their first hurdle being to secure cloture or finding some shady manner of getting around that requirement. Again, with 60 votes against them there the GOP need have only stood back and watched Democrats write their political suicide note but now that stain of “bipartisan” support is indelibly etched upon this bill.
In all, it’s apparent that Congress doesn’t listen to the people anymore. But we figured that from the start.
We’re gonna ask you again: read the bill!
As a guy who likes transparency in government but seems to be greeted with an ever-increasing amount of sleight-of-hand, it’s not surprising that the discharge petition for H. Res 554 has pretty much stalled out at 181 members, including just one member of Maryland’s delegation (Roscoe Bartlett of the 6th District).
I was alerted to this discharge petition last week by Nisha Thompson of the Sunlight Foundation, who apparently reads my website (thanks Nisha!) and noticed I talked about this before:
You have posted about the idea that members of Congress should read the bill before they debate them. The Sunlight Foundation has been advocating for the passage of legislation called H. Res 554 – this is essentially Read the Bill legislation. It would change the House rules, to require that legislation be posted for 72 hours before debate so that the public and members of Congress can read the bill. If legislation is read then debate is based on what is exactly in the bill so that the quality of the legislation can be determined before it passes.
There has been a lot of momentum around this legislation and last week a member of the House filed a discharge petition that would make H. Res. 554 have to be scheduled for a floor vote. We need 218 signatures and are now at
178181. If everyone who supports the 72 hour rule calls their member of Congress and asks them to sign the discharge petition, we can get the Read the Bill legislation a vote!
I updated their number to the current number, and today found out that a growing coalition of groups is uniting behind this concept, particularly in light of the possibility Obamacare may be piggybacked onto another House-passed bill in order to clear the cloture hurdle in the Senate.
(In regard to) amending the Rules of Congress to require that legislation is available on the Internet for 72 hours before consideration by the House: The House and Senate Democratic Leadership apparently do not want colleagues and the public to see legislation before they vote on it.
We urge you to call your Congressman and ask that he or she sign the Discharge Petition in favor of passing a mandatory 72-hour reading period for all non-emergency legislation. Past and future bills, such as the stimulus package and healthcare legislation, should never be passed without Congressmen and citizens being able to read such bills in their entirety.
A Bipartisan bill that would require major legislation to be posted on the web for public review for 72 hours before coming to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives is stalled. Unless Members of Congress from both parties hear from their constituents that they want it passed, it is likely that Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have her way and the bill will be buried.
The coalition, which includes nearly 20 advocacy groups including Americans for Prosperity, Citizens Against Government Waste, Americans for Tax Reform, and Americans for Limited Government, among others, concluded by citing a number of polls which show a vast percentage of Americans (a recent Zogby poll placed it at 91%) want Congress to allow the public 72 hours’ access to legislation pending in Congress. Yet the group claims that:
Democrat leaders disagree. They think that if people know what is actually being proposed, they will oppose it, and they say that giving the public and their colleagues a 72 hour “reading period” will slow bills down too much – bills like the massive healthcare reform bill now winding its way through Congress.
Barack Obama campaigned last year for transparency and openness in government. Yet the House bill, sponsored by 67 Republicans and 31 Democrats, has not only not been brought to a floor vote by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but the Democrat Leadership is doing its best to keep more Democrats from joining a discharge petition to force the bill to the floor.
(But) Democrats are not the only offenders. In 2003, when Republicans controlled the Congress they jammed through the huge prescription drug entitlement bill late at night when most members had not had a chance to read it.
Damn straight we will oppose it because Americans are pretty much fed up with Congress spending trillions we don’t have on projects and programs of dubious benefit. And I don’t see the “independent” Frank Kratovil’s name on the dotted line in support of this bill yet. (Those of you across the Mason-Dixon line in Delaware should be pleased to know that Mike Castle was the third to sign. Now if someone could get his mind straight on cap-and-tax we could get somewhere, but I digress.)
Congress is in charge of creating the budget, but it is also supposed to be a body representative of the people. Maybe not every person cares about where their tax dollars are spent, but I do and there’s a huge number of Americans who agree with me and have unburied their heads out of the sand over the last few months, deciding enough is enough.
When over 90% of Americans believe that there’s a lack of transparency in Congress, that to me seems like a very bipartisan kind of majority. It seems the only people who aren’t for this are the ones who have something to hide, and the rush to get these things done with as little public discussion as possible suggests Congress is hiding a lot – as one example don’t forget the President’s original goal was to have Obamacare passed before the August recess. All for a bill which wasn’t slated to take effect until safely after his re-election campaign in 2013!
So the assignment for tomorrow, kids, is to call your Congressman and tell him or her to add their name to the discharge petition. (If they have, take the moment to thank them for doing so.) It’s highly doubtful House leaders would otherwise allow this resolution out of committee so we need to push them into action some other way.
Again, Congress, get your act together and read the bills!
Turnover in Delaware
According to the Sussex Countian, Republican Joe Booth was the overwhelming winner of the Special Election held today in Delaware’s 19th Senate District.
The election was made necessary due to the passing of a Democratic fixture, State Senator Thurman Adams, who died earlier this summer. Adams had held the seat since 1972 and daughter Polly Adams Mervine was among the four running for the post as the Democratic candidate.
The unofficial totals are as follows:
- Joe Booth (Republican) – 4,335 (63%)
- Polly Adams Mervine (Democrat) – 2,085 (30.3%)
- Matt Opaliski (Independent Party of Delaware) – 408 (5.9%)
- Wendy Jones (Libertarian) – 56 (0.8%)
Plus there were 10 write-in votes.
I noticed that Booth had a booth at the Delaware State Fair when I visited there last week, so it’s obvious he was quite prepared to run this race. And the overwhelming victory for a Republican helps to chip away at the Democrats’ Senate advantage. (it’s now 25-16; alas the GOP held a 22-19 edge prior to last year’s election.)
(Let me try that again, from the top. The Senate advantage for Democrats drops from 16-5 to a slightly less disgusting 15-6 while the House of Delegates will be 25-15 in favor of the Democrats until Booth’s seat is filled. It was a 22-19 GOP advantage there until the 2008 election.)
Since Booth is moving up from the House of Delegates to the Senate the same process could begin anew under Delaware election law, just on a smaller scale covering House District 37. (Although in my reading of the law this may not happen for awhile since the General Assembly doesn’t reconvene until next January.) In that case, the Democrats have the opportunity to place the House of Delegates to a larger advantage by turning the seat over to their side.
Most sad about this election situation is that the state Board of Elections website didn’t have the results. (Update: they are up now.)
Effigy optional
Read this and ponder how much is already going on locally. This comes from Bill Wilson at Americans for Limited Government:
Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged more than 400,000 ALG activists nationwide to “hold rallies, demonstrations, tea parties, and protests in opposition to Barack Obama’s insidious efforts to take over the health care system and take away private health options from the American people.”
Wilson said that “Homegrown, grassroots efforts staged in front of House members’ district offices and at town hall meetings across the nation against ObamaCare are all the more imperative as Blue Dog Democrats attempt to defend the compromise they reached this week with House leadership on the language for the health care bill.”
Wilson said local efforts in Congressional districts throughout the month of August will culminate in the August 22nd “Recess Rally,” which Americans for Limited Government is co-sponsoring.
“There are going to be boots on the ground in districts across the country, and they’re not going to be happy when the politicians return home for their August recess and try to defend this mealy-mouth ‘compromise’ reached by the Blue Dogs,” Wilson promised.
The deal reached between Blue Dog lead negotiator Congressman Mike Ross (AR-CD4) and House leaders would cut $50 billion out of a bill that Kaiser Health News reports would cost more than $1.5 trillion.
Said Wilson of the deal, “96.6 percent of a catastrophe is still a catastrophe. The government-run health care legislation still creates an unsustainable entitlement that will permanently shackle taxpayers to an insurmountable burden that can never possibly be paid back.”
The House legislation proposes to cover individuals individuals up to 400 percent of the poverty level, or making approximately $43,320 or less annually, will be eligible for some level of health coverage under the plan whether through the public “option,” Medicaid, or otherwise.
“Barack Obama has promised the impossible: expanding care to 45 million without raising costs or increasing the deficit,” said Wilson.
“An average premium goes for $4,700, bringing the total cost of the additional care to 45 million more people to roughly $211.5 billion extra annually. That money is not going to grow on trees—it’s going to come off the printing press and from overseas loans from China and Japan,” Wilson explained.
Wilson instead promoted what he called the “private option” as an alternative to the bill proposed in Congress. ”We desperately need entitlement reform, not an entitlement expansion. The private option means giving all Americans the option not to participate at all in any government-sponsored plan,” said Wilson.
Wilson continued, “It means unrestrained consumer choice, unrestricted insurance companies, the removal of all insurance coverage mandates, no obligatory coverage either for employers or individuals, market-set pricing instead of government-appropriated and controlled pricing, increased competition by reducing and removing those barriers to entry for insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and other health care institutions, and finally, entitlement reform.”
“Medical institutions are already in the red, and they will not emerge by permanently funding the health care system by a government that has expanded the national debt for every single year since 1958. That is a path to certain national insolvency,” Wilson concluded. (Emphasis mine.)
When you look at the political awakening which has occurred in our fair region just in the last six months (remember, the Rick Santelli rant which led to the initial April TEA parties occurred in mid-February), it’s a fascinating study in political activism. In that span we’ve had two TEA parties (April 15th and July 4th), seen the formation of a local Americans for Prosperity chapter, and had the protest that inspired the title of this post. Even the Salisbury city election occurring in the midst of the planning of the original TEA Party seemed quite sedate by comparison.
(An interesting sidebar occurs to me in reviewing the healthcare protest post because I also added the items from Melody Scalley there – how much is this grassroots awakening helping her in the Virginia House of Delegates District 100 race or the Independent Party member, Libertarian, and Republican running in a special election just across the border today in Delaware Senate District 19. From what I’ve heard, even the Democrat in that Sussex County district is running as sort of a Blue Dog.)
So I don’t know yet if we’ll have a formal event locally on August 22nd but I suspect the protest last Tuesday at Frank Kratovil’s doorstep won’t be the last one we’ll see – not by a long shot. It may even shake up the Republican Party establishment a little bit.
Late edit, Monday 10 a.m. Julie Brewington at AFP reminded me that the Congressman will be touring around the Eastern Shore this week, and he’s scheduled a number of agriculture-related events this week (probably to brag about the billion dollars he cost taxpayers in the middle of the night.) From his Congressional website, this is his official schedule for the week.
Note that:
All events listed are open to the press but RSVPs are appreciated to ensure proper accommodations.
Kratovil (and Castle) make your utility bills skyrocket in time for the Fourth of July
While I was away this evening Frank Kratovil and Mike Castle made it almost a Delmarva sweep voting in favor of H.R. 2454, the Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” energy tax. Only a brave Democrat in VA-2, Glenn Nye, kept it from being three-for-three in the anti-American vote department.
I’m curious to know what was promised to the two of them to get them to vote for a bill that, according to Bill Wilson of the group Americans for Limited Government, would “increase the prices of oil, gasoline, coal, and natural gas across the board, and thereby ‘incentivize’ alternatives like solar, wind, and hybrid vehicles. It won’t work, because the alternatives are inefficient, have a lower yields, and are more expensive.”
Perhaps the devil is in the details, such as the 300-page amendment tucked into the bill early this morning. In any case, I breathlessly await the poor excuses that both of these Congressmen will have when they drag their tails back to their district over the Fourth of July weekend. I know I have hard questions for them.
Budget troubles to the north, too
I wrote last night about what Rick Pollitt is doing about Wicomico County’s budget, and elements of that approach are also being taken about 60 miles to the north in Dover.
But Governor Jack Markell is really laying the hammer down on state employees. This comes from an e-mail sent by Markell’s office:
My proposal is for all state employees to take a temporary 8 percent pay cut. Delaware’s state employees are hard-working and underpaid. Over a period of many weeks, they told me over and over again that they preferred that the sacrifice be shared by all rather than have some employees suffer layoffs. The only alternative to laying off workers is to temporarily cut the pay of all state employees, and I believe that is a better path to take. The proposed 8% pay cut will save us from laying off 1,500 people and $91M in the 2010 fiscal year. This decision, while difficult, keeps our public servants employed and our core commitments met without adding to our unemployment rolls. Of course, I cut my own pay by 10% the day I took office.
I’d be curious to know what the difference is between what Markell made as state treasurer and the reduced rate as governor (maybe taking 90% of the governor’s salary was still a hefty raise for him); nonetheless it makes for good press and the appearance of shared sacrifice.
He also brings a small amount of detail into what he plans on doing to correct the budget deficit:
Guided by our principles (of fiscal responsibility, compassion by keeping our core commitments, and shared sacrifice), our solution to the $750 million shortfall would:
- Reduce spending by $331M
- Reallocate special funds by $40M
- Leverage $155M in federal stimulus funding
- Raise $55M by re-authorizing a sports lottery and getting a fair deal for Delawareans
- Increase our revenues by $166M
- And raise fees and fines by $12M
Notice I said “small” amount of detail. It’s not spelled out where the $331 million in cuts would be made (assuming the $91 million he saves by cutting state pay is part of the number, that still leaves $240 million of cuts) nor does he show where the $166 million in revenue comes from.
He’s also putting a lot of trust in that stimulus funding, perhaps hoping we conveniently forget that the federal spigot can (and should) be turned off at any time.
I will give Jack Markell credit for one thing, however. When our governor faced a similar situation in 2007, he raised taxes by over $1 billion and then compounded the problem by getting $500 million in additional spending for health insurance for a small portion of those in Maryland who have no health insurance. At least on the surface it doesn’t appear that Governor Markell is planning any sort of ambitious spending programs with Delaware’s financial situation the way it is.
One other thought that comes to me is what the payback will be for the state employees. You can bet your bottom dollar that someplace that 8 percent cut will be restored to them, particularly if the state workforce is unionized. My guess is that restoring that lost income will be job one for Markell whenever the extra money is found to do so.
And even at 92% of their pay, the full complement of state workers makes for a potent political force. There’s strength in numbers and if Markell’s budgetary gamble pays off it’s a sure bet that those workers will be easily led back into his corner just in time for his re-election campaign in 2012.
Maryland’s pod
This morning I took a little time to see about something I assumed would be true and I was absolutely 100% correct. So far there have been 64 recorded votes in this Senate session and our two erstwhile, well-meaning, but for the most part incorrect Senators have voted in the exact same manner all 64 times. At least in Delaware you get a little variation between Senators Carper and Kaufman – they have voted at odds with each other 6 times in 59 votes.
To tell you what this means, let’s look at what the not-so-Free State’s not-so-dynamic duo has supported in just this edition of Congress.
They both voted for the “porkulus” package conference report. In addition, they voted against a direct rebate on taxes rather than spending the money (in other words, they feel the government knows better where to spend your money than you do), voted for ACORN funding with the “porkulus” money, for maintaining the Clinton tax on Social Security benefits, against decreasing our taxes in general, for expanding the government in general with “porkulus” funds, and for maintaining a tax break for their Hollywood friends.
If that wasn’t bad enough, they allowed the expansion of SCHIP, but against expanding it to the unborn. Meanwhile, they also cast their ballots in favor of people scrapping their private insurance to get on the government dole and against the true intent of the SCHIP program, which was to help low-income children be covered. Nor will the unborn in other nations we assist be spared, in part because of their votes.
They also voted to allow the tax cheat Timothy Geithner to head the IRS and against true freedom of choice whether to join a union or not.
Yet the majority of Maryland voters elected these two – only six counties voted against both the last time they were on the ballot. (We should thank the voters of Carroll, Cecil, Garrett, Harford, Queen Anne’s, and Washington counties for their common sense – unfortunately the lower Shore needs to become hip to Senator Mikulski’s true record by November of 2010.) I have to ask if these sorts of votes are what the electorate truly wanted.
There has always been a “throw the bums out” attitude among the general public, EXCEPT when it comes to their own bum. I’m sure both Senators are decent people in person, I don’t recall meeting either in person so I couldn’t say from personal experience. But their voting record is dreadful, particularly in this session which has primarily focused on pocketbook issues. Simply put, they don’t trust you with your money and believe only the government that placed us in this economic mess can allow us to get out of it. If that’s not a definition of insanity, it’s pretty damn close.
Then again, Maryland voters have proven time and again that they vote with their eyes wide shut and against their better interests – that is, unless they enjoy being sheeple.
Listening to the choir
This was yet another blog idea which landed in my mailbox; as always it took root in my fertile mind and began the questioning process. I haven’t talked a whole lot about Delaware lately, but this item was chosen especially for my friends there:
Governor-elect Jack Markell will host a public town hall meeting, Tuesday, December 16, to solicit ideas from Delawareans as to how his administration can make state government as effective and efficient as possible. Due to the national economic downturn, Delaware is facing significant revenue shortfalls over the next two fiscal years, and Gov.-elect Markell is looking for innovative, out-of-the-box ideas to cut spending.
The meeting will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the DART/DTC auditorium on 119 Lower Beech St., which is in the Wilmington Riverfront area.
Please feel free to share this invitation with persons who you think would be interested in attending.
All right Jack, consider your request done. Now I have a question on the philosophy of this townhall meeting that your incoming administration should consider.
First of all, this announcement of yours brought to mind something that you said when you first announced to be Governor of the First State. I’ve been on Jack’s e-mail list since his Treasurer run in 2006, and it didn’t take me long to comb my archives to find this nugget from June 19, 2008:
I didn’t want to play favorites. I care about every inch of this state, and I will be governor for every single Delawarean. It only makes sense that my campaign will kick-off in every single town. We have great momentum. Up and down the state, my fellow Democrats are telling me they are ready for new ideas, and a new direction. I’m ready to bring new leadership to Dover, and bring bold Democratic solutions to the problems we are facing in cities and towns all over Delaware.
Yet when it’s time to begin to consider what you’re doing to combat Delaware’s budget shortfall, you schedule this town hall meeting in an area where you drew most of your support, at a time hard-working Delaware residents would find inconvenient at best. Perhaps this will make a good backdrop for the on-the-scene news report during the 6:00 evening local news (with film at 11, as the old television saying goes) but to me it would be more like preaching to the choir. Maybe budget cuts aren’t the “bold Democratic solutions” you were thinking about when you signed up to run for the gig, but it’s the hand you’ve been dealt by your Democrat predecessor. Certainly states aren’t alone in having to make hard choices – ask the half-million plus Americans who went to sign up for unemployment benefits a week ago.
Nor is this the example I would expect from a campaigner who made outstanding efforts to reach out to everyone in the state by scheduling 57 campaign events in 57 hours and through his Tour de Delaware. I may disagree with the ideas Jack has, but can’t fault the hard work involved in getting them out on a personal basis (especially as a guy who’s rediscovered the joy of getting the bike out when the weather’s nice over the last summer as my physical shape improved.)
In order to be a governor for everyone in Delaware, I would hope that your budget-cutting meeting isn’t just a one-time deal and that you seek to spend more time listening to your opposition and considering good counter-arguments as they apply to what they have to propose. Had I decided to locate my abode just a few miles north of where I live now I would be one of those you govern over, and you do directly affect many good friends of mine who live just across the Mason-Dixon Line in Sussex County. I’m sure a good deal of the residents at the southern end of the state already have the “red-headed stepchild” complex of being the forgotten part of Delaware.
Here in Maryland Governor O’Malley preaches a “One Maryland” concept but only seems to govern in the interest of those who live within a few miles of the I-95 corridor between Baltimore and Washington. Governor-elect Markell, if you truly want to be a different kind of Democrat it behooves you to meet face-to-face with voters all over your state as you did while campaigning, not just give the time to those who gave you the votes to be elected.
Crossposted on That’s Elbert With An E.
Not pleased is an understatement.
But that’s the way the ball bounces I suppose. I’ll be interested to see how the precincts break out.
Of course, when McCain only wins 52.5% of the vote in a county that Bush and Ehrlich both carried with 60-plus percent that’s not a good sign.
And 56 percent for Kratovil? All I have to say is be careful what you wish for. Needless to say, plan on me keeping a REALLY sharp eye on how he votes, assuming he hangs on to his overall margin. You all got your precious Eastern Shore representation, but like the actual geography of Frank’s home location yards from the Bay Bridge, I suspect you’ll find his moderatism and independence are of the same ilk – just enough to say they are there, but not enough to really be meaningful. In fact, I think neither will be found by the end of the first half of the 111th Congress.
Then again, none of that may matter now since there’s going to be some fingers on the scale, so to speak, now that Question 1 has passed. It doesn’t surprise me that it did, but still it’s disappointing.
I almost feel more sorry for my friends in Delaware though because they’ve REALLY screwed the pooch in that state. To go from a 22-19 GOP majority in their House to a 26-15 Democrat one and to elect a Governor who reminds me of Martin O’Malley – I guess that is some good news for Maryland since Delaware will definitely lose a lot of its attractiveness.
Anyway, I suppose I have to rethink my educational approach a little bit because obviously the class didn’t learn its lessons as well as I thought they did. (I also have a few choice words for a number of my blogging cohorts, but that comes under separate cover.)
I didn’t get many pictures from the day, either. Definitely I was disappointed with the weather and for obvious reasons there wasn’t much to celebrate. But I’ll carry on nonetheless later today and probably spend most of the remainder of the week cleaning up the tangled wreckage of Election 2008 before moving on to other subjects I’ve neglected over the last few weeks.
Folks, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a mixture of disappointed and angered over how this turned out. The votes were against us, but neither my cause nor my determination has been defeated. I just have to work twice as hard, that’s all, because in the end I still know I’m right.
Please note that the opinions expressed on monoblogue are not necessarily those of the Wicomico County Republican Party Central Committee, of which I'm a member. (But they probably should be.)
News from the loony left:
