Thursday, February 26th, 2009...12:05 pm
Cannibalism, Republican Style
This is from the Arizona Guardian (full article only available by subscription, the bastards!):
[Jan] Brewer on Wednesday criticized GOP lawmakers who claim they didn’t know the full extent the cuts would have on public services. She also defended state agency directors against accusations they deliberately made the most painful cuts possible to spark public outrage.
The sharp comments for her fellow party members come as the governor’s office publicly stepped up its efforts on budget negotiations.
Brewer said she was fully aware of the grief the $1.6 billion in cuts and fund sweeps would cause when she signed the budget plan earlier this month. State lawmakers, she added, should have known as well.
The article goes on to give quotes from Pamela Gorman and Ron Gould, who have been pretending to be shocked at the cuts that state agencies have been making. I say pretending because this is the natural consequence of their political beliefs. They have been saying that folks ought to “bootstrap” and go it alone. Now that their constituents understand what they meant, they are going back on it. That’s standing up for conservative principles.
Wait, they didn’t think that cutting agency budgets would hurt services? Oh, yeah, these guys are supply siders. You cut funds and the invisible hand will make up for the shortfall with pixie dust.
Another example of this from the article:
While the governor said the lawmakers should have know the ramifications of what they were doing, Sen. Thayer Verschoor, a Republican from Gilbert, said that was nearly impossible given the size of budget problem.
“To sit there now and say I should have known everything that was going on at DES or DEQ is just not realistic,” he said.
To sum up: we had no idea what was going on. We don’t honestly know how to do the job we were elected to do, really.
Are these guys still the party of responsibility?
Even though the governor acts like she is the only adult in the room here, remember that she swallowed what the legislature gave her, hook, line and sinker with little pushback or contribution to the final bill. She reportedly demanded that she get a budget to sign quickly so it wouldn’t interfere with her trip to the Super Bowl.
NB – Jan Brewer drawing by Arnulfo Bermudez.
12 Comments
February 26th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Don’t forget that in the middle of all those cuts, they found $1.6m in new money to give Joe Arpaio. They absolutely knew what they were doing, and their “we had no idea” act is really insulting.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Maybe they are starting to see that they could get hammered in the next election…although I may not be around here to see.
February 26th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
They know, and they don’t care. Their’s is a purely faith-based ideology. If it works – great. If it doesn’t – even better because that means God is sorting out the unworthies.
February 26th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
In all this concern over the budget, the war against women’s right to control their bodies plows forward. This makes me so mad, I get speechless – but not so much that I couldn’t respond to Barto’s response to my email against he omnibus abortion bill. The jist of her case for making abortion as difficult as possible for a woman in Arizona is that women have to be given information and then be required to consider that information for a period of time to see if they are sure they are really sure they want to do this. Then there is the nonsense about conscience – a pharmacist who has objections to birth control and/or abortion should not have to dispense these products, even when a woman’s doctor prescribes them. Does this also apply to a pharmacist who has objections of conscience about the use of antibiotics?? Or any prescription of a Doctor?
Frankly, I don’t want the state legislating the most sensitive decisions a woman may have to make. And I bitterly resent the position that a woman doesn’t know how to make these decisions, so the State must legislate.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Brewer is trying to establish herself as the “voice of reason” in Phoenix, which is laughable, but she knows she needs more than the base of her party to win a general election. I hope that she keeps lobbing more of these verbal grenades at those on her right flank as it will make it more likely that she has a primary opponent (Hayworth?) and that the circus which will then ensue turns people off to the GOP. Goddard does not knock my socks off, but if the Republicans have a schism, I hope we have the good sense to avoid one of our own.
February 26th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Hey, for once I won’t complain about the post but I will complain about the lead-in.
If the Arizona Guardian’s articles are worth quoting, they are probably are worth paying for – and that’s no joke!
February 27th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Doesn’t Governor Brewer appoint the heads of these agencies making the cuts? Doesn’t she, therefore, control much of the Executive Branch? Therefore, can’ t she issue directives to her heads if she doesn’t like the cuts her agency heads are making? If yes, then why are the Republican legislators complaining about the agency heads to the media? They should be discussing their concerns directly with Governor Brewer.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
This is why I think we should require lawmakers to keep office hours and spend time in agencies.
We’ll give them a pay raise when they take the time to learn about the agencies the govern.
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Ken:
The problem with your logic is that because legislative pay is so bad, only people who are already retired and/or are independently wealthy (enough that they can afford to take at least half a year away from work if self-employed, or have an employer willing to let them go for half a year plus whatever other time they may need) can run.
We shoot ourselves in the foot by paying the legislators so poorly that a lot of people who might actually be in touch with reality can’t run.
I understand the sentiment that this crew doesn’t deserve a cent, but the reality is that if you don’t pay legislators better then we’re likely to continue getting the same nimrods elected.
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Actually, our pay is competitive with other states, I looked it up…..it is actually pretty easy to backdoor raise the Legislature…..giving out a better per diem for each day of session, could do it should do it…..take a look a the legislative pays scale of the varying states. In my best estimation, when per diem is factored in, Arizona legislators are paid poorly, in the bottom 5th, we raise the per diem, we could be competitive…..
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
“Hey, for once I won’t complain about the post but I will complain about the lead-in.
If the Arizona Guardian’s articles are worth quoting, they are probably are worth paying for – and that’s no joke!”
Thane, if the Invisible Hand Of The Free Market deems that Ted should get AZ Guardian content for free, what’s it to you?
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
“The problem with your logic is that because legislative pay is so bad, only people who are already retired and/or are independently wealthy (enough that they can afford to take at least half a year away from work if self-employed, or have an employer willing to let them go for half a year plus whatever other time they may need) can run.”
I’m not sure which is worse, the independently wealthy or retired legislator (out of touch), or the one with the employer who ‘graciously’ gives them leave or even keeps them on staff (with the unstated, or perhaps stated, expectation that they will support the interests of the company). Republicans have an unfair leg up because they tend to come from big business, idle wealth, or affiliation groups willing to sponsor them.