Democrats in elected office tend to get bullied into doing what leadership wants, or they get primaried. Using New Hampshire as an example, it has long been the practice of House leadership on the Left to bully and intimidate members who won in more moderate districts to leap left or get the f out. For as long as I’ve been doing this, about 17 years, I have shared stories that prove the point, and Democrats in power don’t act differently in any other state.
Votes advance far-let policy. If your vote is not needed, you can get permission to vote the wrong way for appearance’s sake. This is also permitted where there is no chance of defeating a bill they would otherwise do their damnedest to stop. And while New Hampshire has had the good fortune of successive Republican majorities, some very slim and always plagued with the infected left-leaning small Rs, Maine has been trying for the Vermont model, which is to say, the California model. (Related: The Democrat Party Destroys Everything They Touch.)
NH Dems, like all Dems, wish to grow the government and use it to funnel money to favored NGOs and special interests that help them retain power. Republicans will do this, too, in their own way, and there is plenty of evidence of the appearance of being bought on both sides that we’ll be sharing in the coming weeks and months, but no one does it better than Democrats.
The classic example is Dem budget writers in the Granite State saying they need to look to the sky for revenue estimates. Overestimate, spend it, then cry about how you can’t cut programs or services. Raise a few new taxes and do it again. The flip side of this coin is to take massive, one-time or limited federal handouts and use them to fund recurring obligations – existing programs that are expanded or new ones created by the grant. The 2009-2010 Dem Legislature created a nearly one billion dollar deficit this way with the understanding they’d be back in charge in 2011 to raise the taxes.
Related: NH Democrat Susan Almy – Repeal Tax Cuts, Give Fiscal Committee Power To Tax at Will
The 2010 Tea Party revolution wrecked that plan. New Hampshire gave to-proof supermajorities to both houses and sent two Republicans to Congress, which hasn’t happened since. That state legislature cut a billion dollars from the budget and overrode the Democrat Governor Lynch’s veto. The last time, we cut a budget as well, if memory serves.
Maine, having leaped down the same hole Vermonters recently realized they’d like to climb out of, used – as did many a state – gobs of one-time COVID money along with other inflation-inducing gimmies, to crank up spending with funds that never truly existed. The result is a massive deficit. A hole so deep that even Maine Democrats have realized the political climate will not brook raising the taxes they wanted to fill it.
The current numbers appear to be closer to 670 million, not the 900-plus reported months earlier, but it’s still a lot.
“The governor’s been saying for a long time that this was going to be a tough budget cycle,” Appropriations Committee Co-Chair Rep. Drew Gattine (D-Westbrook) said. “That’s going to require us to make some tough decisions.”
Wait for it.
“We can’t grow government that quick, we have to put the brakes on, and I think even the governor agrees there have to be some cuts made, because there’s no appetite for raising taxes,” House Minority Leader Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) said. “You’re not going to see that. We’re already one of the highest taxed states in the country. We can’t go any higher on the tax increases. So we’re going to have to make cuts.”
That’s a Republican, and I’d be ashamed if I were one in the Pinetree State. No worries, we have those here, too.
We can’t grow government that fast. There’s no appetite for raising taxes. But what if there was or voters were indifferent? Would you be all in on growing government?
That’s your minority leader.
Maine is in big trouble.
