Only recently has the Maryland legislature gone into its annual session. However, the Democratic leaders of the Senate and the and the Speaker of the House of Delegates have already started attacking the recently proposed state budget of, Governor Hogan.
No hearings have yet taken place on the budget and the time for compromise is still well in the future. The House Speaker and Senate President appear to act like petulant children, rather than real leaders.
Rather than allow a thorough review by the elected members of the General Assembly, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House have as much as declared the proposed budget “dead on arrival”. Perhaps they have not heard the voices of the voters in the last election, or they wish to continue to jockey for power rather legislate in a bipartisan manner.
Hogan’s budget takes new approaches to putting the state of Maryland on a sound financial footing.
A direction that was not followed by the previous governor and his administration, including the same leaders of the General Assembly for the past eight years. They just seem to fantasize that history will repeat itself and perpetuate old and worn policies in spite of voices from all across Maryland demanding change. This session of the legislature may well provide an indication if vested interest groups in Annapolis, in league with the legislative leaders, will continue to rule the roost.
The Democratic leaders of the General Assembly and their minions seem to have a real problem understanding that the last election was about change.
Democrats might do well to remember that their party Lost seats, in legislatures, across the nation, in the last election. In fact, Republicans now control some seventy percent of the state legislatures in the United States.
A concept and reality the Democratic leaders find very difficult to understand.
The talk of compromise and conciliation has hardly survived the initial weeks of the legislature before political sniping and the policy attacks, by the majority party began. This is unfortunate for the voters of Maryland.
It is no secret that most of the Democratic members of the Maryland General Assembly are of the liberal persuasion. The writer Thomas Sowell has written, “The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. For this reason, we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.” The Maryland General Assembly and the state’s previous Democratic Governor have proven this assumption correct, at least, for the past eight years.
Sound conservative, economic ideas, fiscal constraint and measures to assist businesses, large and small, have been few and far between. It is time for different approaches and different directions for administering and managing the government of the state of Maryland.
There are philosophical and demographic differences found across the state. However, these differences should be resolved by those elected to do the most good for all the citizens of the state. This is a primary function of the General Assembly.
The fact that Maryland elected a Republican Governor has surely unsettled the leadership of the Democrat-dominated legislature. However, since the electorate has spoken, it is not unreasonable to expect the majority party in the legislature provides a little time for the new Governor to put his cabinet in place and begin the legislative process. Keeping the Governor in limbo serves only one purpose. It prevents him from proceeding with the people’s business.
The citizens of Maryland should expect no less.
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Carol Voyles says
It’s difficult to imagine anyone embracing Thomas Sowell’s counsel that “left wing” economic policies always fail. President Clinton created more jobs than any Republican administration since 1980, and his was the only administration to reduce our nation’s deficit – until Obama’s – the only other to do so while creating the most jobs since Clinton.
While we do have problems to solve, our legislators have every right to be skeptical of the proposals of anyone so seemingly reluctant to acknowledge that Maryland is a major STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) employer with one of our nation’s most educated workforces, as well as a lower than average level of unemployment and the highest median income in the nation – all accomplished with a level of revenue collection that is not growing out of control, but has fluctuated within just one percentage point as a share of our state’s growing economy since 1970 (Tax Foundation).
And who wouldn’t question cutting funding to the schools most suited to vocational training when we want manufacturers, cutting future transportation infrastructure funding when we want to remain competitive, and suggesting that 3 years of scientific investigation is enough for fracking, while decades of study aren’t enough for saving the Bay?
House Leader Busch had a very prescient and hardly petulant suggestion: “We must govern with facts.”