As Vermont’s sole representative in the U.S. House, what has Rep. Becca Balint done to improve the plight of Vermont’s youth, the working class, senior citizens, and small businesses? If parroting her party’s line on national issues and feigning outrage over international events count, then she sure has done a lot.
Meanwhile, the forgotten men and women of Vermont struggle to survive the policy outcomes inflicted by Balint and her progressive colleagues. Balint served in the Vermont State Senate from 2015 to 2022. During her tenure, the state budget increased from $5.1 billion to $7.71 billion.
Becca’s voting record can be found at https://www.ethanallen.org/bbalint. It is emblematic of the voting records of her ideological sisters and brothers who dominate Montpelier. They continue to devastate the state by pushing for high taxation and high spending on failed programs with no accountability. Since Balint’s rise to power, every measurable metric in Vermont from health care, crime, and homelessness to academic proficiency in public education, drug addiction, and economic opportunity has deteriorated.
Republicans last held majorities in both the Vermont House and Senate in 1986. That was 40 years ago. Yet, throughout my adult life, I have heard members of the Democratic and Progressive Parties blame all the state’s problems on those “terrible, racist Republicans.”
No one, save for far-left zealots, buys this caricature. Yet Vermont Republicans spend all their efforts trying to disprove it. Instead of confidently pursuing Republican priorities, they campaign – and when elected, govern – as though their highest purpose were to demonstrate to the Left that they are enlightened, moderate, respectable, and unlike their party’s base. Professional Republicans simply want to rent a room in the house that the Left has built. This is not a winning formula.
It is long past time for a genuine course correction toward a future in which every Vermonter can thrive. The obstacles, however, are structural. That the government is the state’s largest employer ensures that a majority of the middle class will keep voting for “big government” left-wing parties. An upper class of wealthy retirees and second-home owners, a large welfare-dependent population, and a dwindling private sector – courtesy of progressive policies – means that not enough people need the local economy to flourish.
Ultimately, Vermont lacks a large enough constituency whose livelihoods depend on business formation, job growth, and broader economic prosperity. Until this changes, neither will the political majority in Montpelier nor will those who represent Vermonters in Washington, D.C.
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