You just can’t satisfy those Dems. For years, they said “If we only got a majority vote on the budget, it would solve all the fiscal problems of the state.” I actually agreed with them. In tough budget years, the only way they could get a tax increase was because, in order to have a budget, some Republicans had to vote for it. Once they voted for the budget, which some felt compelled to do, voting for the taxes included in that budget was easy. Republican activists would beat them up for voting for a budget that “included” tax increases (even though a trailer bill would be necessary to actually enact the taxes), and Democrats would accuse them (rightly) of being hypocrites if they didn’t vote for the taxes. The pressure of being “responsible” (meaning the state had to have a budget), and the political hit for voting for the budget with taxes, made it easy to actually enact the taxes once the budget was passed.
That pressure is gone now. It will not be that big a deal in budget surplus years. The Dems will spend like drunken sailors in those days. But we are not there now. In tough years, Dems will have to pay a political price for the spending in the green years, just like they are doing now. However, they won’t be able to press Republicans into voting for taxes. There is no pressure now to do the responsible thing and put out a budget. The Dems can do that on their own. They created the crisis in the past 10 years by insisting on unrestrained spending (from $78 billion to $102 billion), now they have to solve that spending problem, all on their own.
They got what they wanted. If the budget is late, it is their fault. It is a majority vote budget, that has to be balanced, and can’t be balanced with borrowing. All of the budget fixes of the past are now coming home to roost on the Democrats, and they are whining, because they don’t have to political will to do what must be done, and that is cut spending.
I can say that, for once, I love this budget debate. This is exactly where Republicans need to be in the discussion. There is no excuse now for a vote for a tax increase. There is no pork for Republicans who sell out. There is no “out” for the Democrats, to pass the blame for the budget woes on the Republicans. The problem is their problem. They own it, and they have to pay for it.
Should Republicans just sit on the sideline? Of course not. They should have solutions, cutting welfare entitlements, reducing state bureaucracy, reforming government pension, proposing pro-growth tax policies, and eliminating anti-job regulations. The difference between now, and before, is that when the Dems reject these ideas, as they always do, Republicans can say “Ok, then I am not voting for this budget,” and the government doesn’t shut down. The Dems have to figure out a way to make things work.
They wanted a majority vote budget. They have it. I wanted it for them. They want to be the rulers, but they don’t want to take responsibility for their decisions. Now they have to, and quite frankly, that is exactly how a republic should work.
This is going to be a fun week politically. Let’s see how it all works out.