For the record, I am happy we have Dick Cathcart and Jack Markell, I really am. These two are absolutely hardballers and having them in opposition right now over the budget is a great thing. There should be fighting over this. Never would I want to see happy bandwagoners supporting something as drastic as this budget will be, without asking hard questions. No apologies to those who disagree with me, but you can not approve first and ask questions later.
Others are leading you to believe that this is political grandstanding. OK, but on whose part? You can’t single out either side, because, by acceptance of definition, they are all doing it!
Markell and Cathcart, keep puffing your chests, because that is exactly what you should be doing! All the pundits who ARE trying to curry favor to “their side” should hopefully come to understand that this is exactly how you get someone to the table, plain and simple. It’s how unions do it, it’s how management does it. I have no criticism for either of you on this.
What I do expect, and hopefully I am not optimistic, is for this to be resolved by the early AM on July 1.
It was a shot across the bow, yesterday. I think the Democrats have been getting a little punch drunk on one party rule. It was a call back to reality. The state will work better with a synergy of competing ideas.
I am actually OK with a little obstructionist showboating if it forces them to pluck the low-hanging fruit of spending cuts. That is, as long as the Repubs offer up cuts in services to their constituents instead of just demanding that the Dems take all the heat.
But if the Repubs are holding out for their sour little prevailing wage obsession - then shame on them.
Are cuts in bureaucracy really cuts in service?
If nearly $400,000 per year was not going to a certain hack with some training in methodology, would higher education really suffer? How many lesser hacks who serve on do-nothing commissions are really providing service to the public?
Will Markell and friends launch a sneak attack on the senior citizen school tax credit at the end of the session?
The timing could be brilliant as it would catch the opposition (and the public) off guard. From a long-term political perspective, it would be stupid as not everyone in certain age range is suffering memory loss.
There is no bill number but there is a lot of chatter. Time to contact some legislators as well as voters who could be adversely affected by such a money grab.
Now is the time to head them off at the pass.