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Buyer's Remorse, or Voter's Remorse...

phobicsquirrelphobicsquirrel Posts: 7,347 ✭✭✭
...
With all the GOP victories over the primaries in 2010 and the koch directed Tea Party, most if not all of these states are winding up in worse shape then they were in and now it seems as though these people who voted for these corporate shills are wishing they didn't.

NEW JERSEY: Last year, Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) budget raised taxes on the working poor and middle-class by cutting the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and homestead rebates — yet still found money for lucrative corporate tax cuts. This year, Christie’s budget calls for $200 million in business tax cuts, while cutting mental health services, $540 million from Medicaid, and witholding property tax rebates for seniors until public workers give up many of their health and pension benefits. Many New Jerseyans have said they prefer a tax on millionaires to Christie’s draconian cuts.

MICHIGAN: Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) budget would make Michigan’s already regressive tax system even more unfair for the state’s poorest residents. The plan cuts taxes on business by more than 86 percent while slashing $1.2 billion in funding for “schools, universities, local governments and other areas.” Snyder also wants to raise personal taxes by 30 percent — an increase that will fall disproportionately on Michigan’s lowest income residents.

GEORGIA: Last week, the Georgia House passed an austerity budget that will increase health insurance costs by more than 20 percent for state workers, teachers and retirees and cut funding for state universities by $75 million. The House has already gutted the state’s HOPE scholarship program, and is now considering implementing a regressive new tax system that would lower income taxes for the rich while raising the sales tax on basic necessities. House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal (R), meanwhile, has introduced a bill that would implement a flat income tax rate and cut corporate taxes by 33 percent.

FLORIDA: At a Tea Party rally last month, Gov. Rick Scott (R) unveiled his budget, telling supporters he would make the state the most “fiscally conservative” in the nation. The budget would slash corporate income and property taxes, lay off 6,700 state employees, cut education funding by $4.8 billion, and cut Medicaid by almost $4 billion.

OHIO: Gov. John Kasich (R) has proposed cutting 25 percent of schools’ budgets, $1 million from food banks, $12 million from children’s hospitals, and $15.9 million from an adoption program for children with special needs. A Kasich staffer revealed yesterday that these cuts are more about politics then budget-balancing, telling the Cincinnati Dispatch that “even if there weren’t an $8 billion deficit, we’d probably be proposing many of the same things.” The plan includes tax cuts for oil companies, a repeal of the estate tax and an income tax cut for the rich that former Gov. Ted Strickland (D) halted last year because of the state’s fiscal crisis.

IOWA: Gov. Tom Branstad (R) began this year proposing a budget that included a $200 million tax cut on commercial property taxes and corporate income but would freeze spending on schools, cut $42 million to state universities and lay off “hundreds” of state workers. Since then, the Governor has already begun laying off state nursing home workers and frozen funding for mental health services. The budget is now moving through the politically divided legislature, where Republican-controlled House committees have gone even further, approving tax refunds for upper-income Iowans while cancelling infrastructure investments, eliminating preschool for 4-year-olds, closing Iowa workforce development offices, and making even deeper cuts to public universities.

PENNSYLVANIA: Gov. Tom Corbett (R) presented a budget last week that would cut taxes for corporations, while freezing teacher salaries, cutting dental care for Medicaid recipients, and eliminating more than half of the state’s universities. Yet the state has lots of revenue potential in northern Pennsylvania, where out-of-state energy companies’ “fracking” of natural gas has reaped them hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. Corbett has refused to tax these companies, many of which helped fund his gubernatorial campaign, and has instead opted to lay of more than 1,500 state workers.

MAINE: Despite calling for “shared sacrifice” Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) budget would cut income taxes for Maine’s wealthiest one percent, while actually raising property taxes for the state’s middle class. This so-called “jobs budget” freezes healthcare funding for working parents, cuts money for schools and infrastructure and raises the retirement age for public workers. Yet LePage was still able to find more than $200 million in tax cuts for large estates, business and the rich.

WISCONSIN: The tax cuts Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed earlier this year (120 million after a couple of weeks in office) worsened his state’s fiscal condition, so now Walker is planning to raise taxes on the poor, eliminate $26 million in tax credits for seniors and single mothers and cancel property tax rebates for low-income Wisconsinites making less than $24,000 a year. He is also pushing for ending all collective bargaining rights to public workers even though they agreed to a lot of the proposed cuts. He also has put up in his "budget saving Bill" that he would have the right to sell off public energy sources without bidding. Speculation has it that koch industries would be the buyer since this group has such a foothold on Walker's governorship.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has proposed ending the state’s corporate income tax, even while she calls for cutting physical education, K-12 schools, and Medicaid. Haley has received pushback from Republican colleagues: last week the legislature rejected her plan to force state employees to pay more for health insurance.

KANSAS: Facing a $493 million budget shortfall, Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has called for eliminating the corporate income tax while proposing a $50 million cut to education. With majorities in both Houses, Republicans have proposed a cut to the federal Earned Income Tax Credit that would push 6,500 families below the poverty line.

ARIZONA: Last October, as she ignored 26 other possible funding solutions, Gov. Jan Brewer (R) implemented painful cuts to the state’s Medicaid program, which resulted in 2 deaths and left 98 Arizonians waiting for transplant funding. After months of protests, Brewer finally agreed to set aside $151 million in an “uncompensated-care pool to pay health-care providers for ‘life-saving’ procedures, including transplants.” However, House Republicans refused to restore funding for organ transplants because, as House Appropriations Committee chair Jon Kavanagh (R) said, “not enough lives would be saved to warrant restoring millions in budget cuts.” Then, while peoples’ lives were in danger, Brewer eagerly signed tax cuts for businesses that will cost the state $538 million.

This is all just a small little tidbit of what's going on. And the sad thing is, it seems as though it's okay to keep cutting workers and public worker's benefits or pay or even social programs, it's not okay to raise the taxes on the very people who have had it so good over the last decade. But the right is demonizing teachers, union workers and even firefighters but not mentioning a word about what really is causing these so called "budget" cuts on working families. On a national stage the GOP have already been pushing for eliminating the EPA, FDA, cutting any regulation on wall street, attacking women on their rights - including re-defining rape, and the list goes on.

Michigan Governor Snyder also recently signed his new "take over" bill ......

This week, the governor of Michigan signed a bill into law giving himself the power—through a state-appointed manager—to declare cities insolvent and hand them over to a handpicked emergency manager vested with the power to cancel collective bargaining agreements, fire elected officials, call millage elections and dissolve a municipal government.
Thousands of union protesters rallied inside and outside the state capitol as Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, signed the bill late Wednesday. And when the governor appeared Thursday at an auto plant ceremony in Wayne, Mich., celebrating the launch of the 2012 Ford Focus, he was booed by unionized workers (see video below).
Synder and his supporters claim that emergency management will only be needed in rare emergencies. However, Snyder's 2012 budget all but guarantees an epidemic of municipal financial crises. The budget cuts $92 million in revenue sharing with cities and towns.
Revenue sharing is a longstanding policy where the state helps local governments pay for for essential services like police and fire protection. Local governments will now have to compete for the remaining $200 million in revenue sharing under criteria that are as yet unclear.
Michigan already had legislation that allowed the governor to declare a fiscal emergency. However, under the old law, the Local Emergency Financial Assistance and Loan Board chose the manager. Under the new law, the emergency manager is chosen by the governor and serves at his pleasure.
The new law gives the emergency manager the power to modify or terminate collective bargaining agreements between governments and public employees.
However, the U.S. Constitution limits the power of a state to unilaterally dissolve a contract between a state and a private party.
According to an analysis of Michigan House Fiscal Agency, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the (Koch-foundation-supported) Mackinac Center for Public Policy urged the state to give greater power to emergency managers.
Snyder's policies are setting up a conflict of interest. The more he starves cities and towns for funding, the more likely they are to end up in financial emergencies. The more cities fall into financial crisis, the greater the governor's power to impose his anti-union agenda.
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Comments

  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402
    Pheebs - post the link where you got this stuff; I wanna know your sources. Please tell me it isn't the Daily Kos or some rag like that

    On-topic: Considering the cadillac benefits packages these unions get, plus the fact that they're paid for with MY tax dollars, really doesn't endear them to me in the slightest. Lest you forget - Gov't workers are SUPPOSED to be paid less than their private sector counterparts in exchange for job security - they can almost never be fired, but the tradeoff is that they're (theoretically, but not in practice) paid less.

    So no, I don't have any Buyer's remorse, and I think that in 4 yrs, once the cuts have begun to take effect, the Governors will be re-elected in a landslide. Indiana's Haley Barbour (spelling?) cut Gov't contracts, and was massively unpopular (I think around 30% approval ratings) - but after 4 yrs, it turns out his cuts reinvigorated the State and brought in new business, and the guy was re-elected with 60% of the vote.

    Now let me set you straight - unions aren't necessarily a bad thing; in the private sector, they've done good work in the past, and have helped a lot of people.

    But answer me this Pheebs - who exactly do Gov't workers need to be protected from? These are people employed by the State. I know you think corporations = evil, but I also know you probably like Gov't programs, which means you trust the Gov't to administer them.

    This is a contradiction in liberal thought I've never understood - on the one hand you trust the Gov't to take my tax dollars and spend them on social programs, but then you turn around and say you don't trust the Gov't to deal fairly with the people it employs. Which is it?

    EDIT - almost forgot - what's wrong with people donating to the tea party or Republican party? Why are you singling out the Kochs? Lately the Left wing has been in a tizzy ever since they found out that the Kochs, some rich businessmen with conservative leanings, donated to Republicans (no surprice - the Kochs had listed this giving on their website for years and no one cared until Nov. 2010).

    Why would you single them out, but give a pass to all the billionaire/trust fund babies supporting the Democrats? From Progressive Insurance founder (forget his name) to George Soros - you can't condemn people for giving to Republicans without pointing out the people who have, for decades, been giving to progressive causes.

  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    I will only say you are dead wrong the govt. employees cannot almost never be fired----if its true, thats evidence I would love to see. The most over looked thing here is that many govt workers get good benefits and make more than most people in the private sector....but why is this? The answer that often applies, and if convienently overlooked by many, is that those govt. workers have Bachelors or Masters Degrees (or higher) for their position and would thus be doing work that many could not do in the private sector----i.e. not too many manual labor jobs in the state or federal govt. Also, govt. workers pay taxes-----so while yes, you pay some for their benefits and salary....part of their own money goes to pay themselves, something people in the private sector do not have to contend with.
  • SmokySuitSmokySuit Posts: 429
    I will only comment on the aspect of this that I know personally. As a Teacher in NJ I can attest to the fact that many teachers (especially us younger ones) are in line with Gov. Christie. I will gladly pay 1.5% to my health care to ensure that the pension plan won’t go bankrupt!! I also support his ideas of doing away with tenure, promoting merit pay, and setting a cap on salaries. I know there are a lot of great older teacher in the system but there are also a lot of them that have the “o well, I’m tenured” mindset and they do the bare minimum! It’s very hard to get fired so they F-off on the job with no worries, that not fair to the kids!!! Younger teachers like me end up holding after school tutoring to help the kids in their classes.
    Personally I think Virginia has it right – no public sector unions! One of the only things FDR ever said that I agree with: “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations ... The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for ... officials ... to bind the employer”
  • SmokySuitSmokySuit Posts: 429
    Also as a teacher I sure don’t make anywhere near a million dollars a year but that “millionaires taxes” is BS! I understand there are a lot of millionaires that got their money by just playing the market or inheriting it or by other less productive ways, but there are also a lot that get their money through very productive ways. Men like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin & Larry Page (Google), to name a few deserve their money. Every day I use Microsoft Office, my IPod, Goodle, and a ton of other inventions that make my life better. These guys deserve the money they make. Why should they pay extra taxes just because they’ve been ultra successful? Redistributive taxation is morally wrong and insane in a nation that is supposed to be about individualism.
  • Husker44Husker44 Posts: 172
    I have no remorse. In fact, where can we get courageous people like this in the federal government as representatives?
    The cuts the states are making are the cuts we need at the national level.
    But the cowards in Washington print money rather than making tough decisions. It is sickening.
  • fla-gypsyfla-gypsy Posts: 3,023 ✭✭
    Husker44:
    I have no remorse. In fact, where can we get courageous people like this in the federal government as representatives? The cuts the states are making are the cuts we need at the national level. But the cowards in Washington print money rather than making tough decisions. It is sickening.
    +1
  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    PS.....I am hoping each day to wake up and hear Rick Scott is no longer my governor-------it keeps me going.
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    fla-gypsy:
    Husker44:
    I have no remorse. In fact, where can we get courageous people like this in the federal government as representatives? The cuts the states are making are the cuts we need at the national level. But the cowards in Washington print money rather than making tough decisions. It is sickening.
    +1


    And another +1

    Marty

  • cabinetmakercabinetmaker Posts: 2,560 ✭✭
    fla-gypsy:
    Husker44:
    I have no remorse. In fact, where can we get courageous people like this in the federal government as representatives? The cuts the states are making are the cuts we need at the national level. But the cowards in Washington print money rather than making tough decisions. It is sickening.
    +1
    +1
  • DSWarmackDSWarmack Posts: 1,426
    cabinetmaker:
    fla-gypsy:
    Husker44:
    I have no remorse. In fact, where can we get courageous people like this in the federal government as representatives? The cuts the states are making are the cuts we need at the national level. But the cowards in Washington print money rather than making tough decisions. It is sickening.
    +1
    +1
    +1, and please look up air traffic controler for missiles (or planes) for that matter and tell me what they make. I know for a fact it is not less than what I make!
  • The ColonelThe Colonel Posts: 206
    As a government worker I am with the Squirrel on this one.. as are all of my teacher friends from Wisconsin....
  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,405 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Vulchor:
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
    Indeed, he's stepped in it now!
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • fla-gypsyfla-gypsy Posts: 3,023 ✭✭
    When the pendulum swings to far left, it always swings back to the right. How far is the question.
  • SmokySuitSmokySuit Posts: 429
    Vulchor:
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
    I was wondering how long it would take before this degenerated into insults. No comment- lol let's just talk about cigars... How about those Punishers? Lol
  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    Wasnt an insult Smoky----just a joke man. Those of us through these political messes here for a few years know when its a real degeneration. This is just a little ribbing on my part, and I take it too.
  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    Quite right Gypsy------the ebb and flow if American politics personified. If not, we would have 30 yr dictators in power wearing big game hunting gear and picnic tablecloths on his head.
  • stephen_hannibalstephen_hannibal Posts: 4,317
    Vulchor:
    Quite right Gypsy------the ebb and flow if American politics personified. If not, we would have 30 yr dictators in power wearing big game hunting gear and picnic tablecloths on his head.
    No thats an insult. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  • SmokySuitSmokySuit Posts: 429
    Vulchor:
    Wasnt an insult Smoky----just a joke man. Those of us through these political messes here for a few years know when its a real degeneration. This is just a little ribbing on my part, and I take it too.
    I assumed it was in jest, as was mine. No worries.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    SmokySuit:
    Vulchor:
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
    I was wondering how long it would take before this degenerated into insults. No comment- lol let's just talk about cigars... How about those Punishers? Lol
    this is exactly why laker and i dont get involved anymore.

    someone will insult another, be it by accident, or joke, or on purpose and then its all down hill from there.

    gone from this forum are the days when a serious civil discourse can be had about anything political.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,405 ✭✭✭✭✭
    fla-gypsy:
    When the pendulum swings to far left, it always swings back to the right. How far is the question.
    Why am I thinking of Edgar Allen Poe?
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    kuzi16:
    SmokySuit:
    Vulchor:
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
    I was wondering how long it would take before this degenerated into insults. No comment- lol let's just talk about cigars... How about those Punishers? Lol
    this is exactly why laker and i dont get involved anymore.

    someone will insult another, be it by accident, or joke, or on purpose and then its all down hill from there.

    gone from this forum are the days when a serious civil discourse can be had about anything political.
    Youre wrong...dont try and find trouble where there is none. And Laker was invovled a day or so ago on a topic.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    Vulchor:
    kuzi16:
    SmokySuit:
    Vulchor:
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
    I was wondering how long it would take before this degenerated into insults. No comment- lol let's just talk about cigars... How about those Punishers? Lol
    this is exactly why laker and i dont get involved anymore.

    someone will insult another, be it by accident, or joke, or on purpose and then its all down hill from there.

    gone from this forum are the days when a serious civil discourse can be had about anything political.
    Youre wrong...dont try and find trouble where there is none. And Laker was invovled a day or so ago on a topic.
    i saw he was involved.
    i was kinda disappointed being he told me he wouldnt be. but at some point im not his father. i cant tell him what to do and would never try to.

    and i hope i am wrong. i see that as i was posting so was someone else clarifying the situation. yes i see that it has started off well. i am just going off the past experience in this type of thing. ill stay out and just hope that it doesnt degrade.
  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    Disappointed? Why do ------nevermind, not going down this road. Im sure we can handle ourselves, thanks...see you later.
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402
    Kuzi - politics is argument. Even the Founding Fathers got into shouting matches over it; Washington was reputed to have had to separate fights by grabbing both participants and shaking their brains out. It's just a myth that people can have a calm discussion while sipping tea on topics that they hold very dear. Just not gonna happen; if we can have a calm, unpassionate discussion on anything, then the topic is uncontroversial to begin with.

    That said, being civilized, we don't have to insult one another - we can have heated debates and call the other side's view naive or dumb, without attacking the person (slight difference, I know, between attacking the view and attacking the person). No need to completely withdraw from all arguments just because some feathers might get ruffled

    Vulchor:
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
    Vulchor - you forgot naive in that list ;)

  • SmokySuitSmokySuit Posts: 429
    Amos Umwhat:
    fla-gypsy:
    When the pendulum swings to far left, it always swings back to the right. How far is the question.
    Why am I thinking of Edgar Allen Poe?
    The Pit and the Pendulum, slasher horror 19th century style - ooooo yeeaaaa!
  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    xmacro:
    Kuzi - politics is argument. Even the Founding Fathers got into shouting matches over it; Washington was reputed to have had to separate fights by grabbing both participants and shaking their brains out. It's just a myth that people can have a calm discussion while sipping tea on topics that they hold very dear. Just not gonna happen; if we can have a calm, unpassionate discussion on anything, then the topic is uncontroversial to begin with.

    That said, being civilized, we don't have to insult one another - we can have heated debates and call the other side's view naive or dumb, without attacking the person (slight difference, I know, between attacking the view and attacking the person). No need to completely withdraw from all arguments just because some feathers might get ruffled

    Vulchor:
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
    Vulchor - you forgot naive in that list ;)

    $hit....I knew I was forgetting something....too busy thinking of saving the whales I guess;)

    BTW Smokey, the more I look at your avatar (if thats what its called) the more I want to have a cigar with that freaking duck......since Gilbert Godfried isnt available anymore and whatnot.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    xmacro:
    Kuzi - politics is argument. Even the Founding Fathers got into shouting matches over it; Washington was reputed to have had to separate fights by grabbing both participants and shaking their brains out. It's just a myth that people can have a calm discussion while sipping tea on topics that they hold very dear. Just not gonna happen; if we can have a calm, unpassionate discussion on anything, then the topic is uncontroversial to begin with.

    That said, being civilized, we don't have to insult one another - we can have heated debates and call the other side's view naive or dumb, without attacking the person (slight difference, I know, between attacking the view and attacking the person). No need to completely withdraw from all arguments just because some feathers might get ruffled

    Vulchor:
    OHHHHH Colonel-----your days of "most favored status" from being a newb are over.........But Phobic, Laker, and I welcome you to the "Land of the misinformed, bleeding heart, morons club"-----just a little humor boys
    Vulchor - you forgot naive in that list ;)

    i understand politics is argument. but this forum has been down this road before. and when it gets off topic and personal it pisses people off.
    its happened before.

    vulchor: why would i be disappointed? because i respect laker and his word. we discussed with each other that we would stay out of this type of thing because it seems to bring out the worst in people. we dont want to be a part of something that brings out the worst in people.

    as said before, i cant tell him what or where to post and never would. we are all adults here and can, as you said, handle our selves.

    i'll just hope for the best.
  • VulchorVulchor Posts: 4,848 ✭✭✭✭
    I know Kuzi....you said that twice now. If your not getting political anymore, fine. Then dont police those of us (any of us for that metter) who are engaging in what, at least has seemed to be, a discussion. Its like the guy who doesnt vote, then complains about the official. Or mediating a fight where no mediator is wanted, or in this case needed.
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