Brownback, of course, is McDucey's Koch-fueled hero and role model. From the Kansas City Star:
Gov. Sam Brownback promised Kansans that his deep income tax cuts favoring the wealthy would bring lots of great new things to the state.
Instead, Brownback — and residents — have been enduring a steady drumbeat of bad news after the cuts took effect. [...]
At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing how jobs had grown in metropolitan areas across America.
Unfortunately for Brownback, the report showed that the Missouri side of the state line had gained jobs at four times the rate of the Kansas side. And yes, that’s after including new employment in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.
So much for Brownback’s promise that jobs would be fleeing Missouri-side cities for Kansas after the tax cuts.
Shortly after noon Tuesday, a judicial panel in Shawnee County released a ruling that Kansas was inadequately funding K-12 education.
That could mean the state would need to pump in $500 million extra a year or more to bring schools up to par.Does that sound at all familiar so far, my fellow Arizonans? Back to the Kansas City Star:
Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, Kansas officials released figures showing the state had collected $15 million less than expected in December.
And that was after the state in November had dramatically lowered revenue expectations for the rest of this fiscal year.
Now that 2015 has started, the governor and the Legislature need to avoid repeat bouts of bad news on jobs and revenues.It's not like any of this is a surprise... to readers of the Arizona Eagletarian anyway. It was foreseeable and foreseen.
Now with McDucey, Brnovich, Douglas and Reagan set for swearing in on Monday, the chickens come home to roost.
This is no time to be passive. Speak up and speak out.
If McDucey chooses to not fight the legislature's lawsuit on the Medicaid restoration, rural Arizona will be the first to take massive job cuts, as hospitals statewide will face immediate crisis.
Arizona's going to be in a world of hurt unless we get those boneheads to change course.
-----
Perhaps we can identify with Patrick Henry's famous speech to the Second Virginia Convention, at St. John's Church in Richmond, VA in 1775. Henry went on to become the first post-colonial governor of that state.
They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us... Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable -- and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take: but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Notice in the article the only "solution" the Kansas legislature is looking at to deal with their massive budget shortfall is cutting government programs. In other words, the massive shortfalls are not a defect, but a benefit in conservative minds. It allows them to do the bidding of the Kochs and Grover Norquist in making government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.
ReplyDelete