Maryland Governor Lies Through His Teeth
by Big Dog on Jan 27, 2008 at 12:19 Political
The history of Maryland politics is full of Democratic Governors. There have been 36 Governors elected since 1838 (the year the people began voting for them) and only 7 of them have been Republicans. In the last 41 years only two Republicans have held that office so it is fair to say that most of the policies and bad times have been the result of Democrats, especially since Democrats have ruled the legislature forever.
In 2002 the State elected Robert Ehrlich who inherited a budget that was in the red and a built in structural deficit. What this means is that the Democratic Legislature enacted spending bills that were signed into law by a Democratic Governor and those bills required that the state spend money on various programs. The bills never secured a funding source so the state was left with a structural deficit. Ehrlich eliminated the deficit and left 2 billion dollars in surplus. During his four years in office he tried to pass a slots bill that would allow gaming which would help reduce the structural deficit and this was soundly rejected by all the Democrats including current Governor Martin O’Malley.
In 2006 the Democrats in Maryland exercised their strength (more than 2:1 in numbers) and removed Ehrlich from office replacing him with a slick talking liar named O’Malley. O’Malley has been running around saying that he inherited a deficit which is a lie. He inherited a budget surplus which he promptly spent paying off the people who bought him during the election. The deficit he actually inherited was the structural deficit that was the result of Democratic incompetence. O’Malley though, continues to tell people that the last Governor caused and left all the problems and this is a flat out lie.
O’Malley called a special session where he and his Democratic colleagues raised taxes in Maryland. They did not just raise a tax or two, they raised every tax imaginable in the largest all at once tax increase in the history of any state in the US. This was done, according to O’Malley. to address the deficit he inherited from the last administration. O’Malley made it sound as if Ehrlich had run us into the ground and he had to raise taxes to save the day when in fact he had to raise taxes to pay the bills incurred by the Democratic legislature.
Interestingly, the current Governor raised taxes to the tune of about 1.3 billion dollars to address a deficit of 1.8 billion but then he and his Democratic toadies in the legislature added 1.5 billion dollars in spending which, in effect, makes the tax increase a zero gain. We will still have a deficit.
And get this, part of the budget deficit plan is based upon the state getting, you guessed it, slot machines. However, instead of the legislature passing a bill and the Governor signing it, they have decided to put it to referendum on the 2008 ballot. This means slot machines will be voted on by the public and will, if passed, become part of the state constitution. If this does not pass the state will need to raise taxes again. I wonder if it would be too much to ask them to put tax increases to referendum. No, if it is an important decision they don’t actually want any constituent input. Remember, if your vote counted they would not let you do it.
For his part, Governor O’Malley has been playing the victim of a bad past administration (playing the victim is what liberals do best) and he has been acting as if he did all he could to fix this without raising taxes. He made a few symbolic cuts and decided not to fill about 500 vacant state jobs but the cuts are negligible and they are certainly not the best that cold be done.
Maryland will soon be in the doldrums of a recession because of the burden placed upon the citizens by the Governor and the Democrats in the legislature. There is a huge movement under way where many Marylanders (particularly Republicans) are moving to Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Others are shopping in those states to avoid Maryland taxes and still others are finding ways to invest money in a fashion that will prevent Maryland from stealing it. US Savings Bonds are not subject to state and local income taxes and smart tax advisers can provide valuable information.
Couple this with the number of businesses that are leaving the state r that have decided not to come here and Maryland is in for a real problem. O’Malley figures he will be part of a Clinton administration and is not worried about what he does to rape this state or the poor he claims to want to help. He is unaffected by what he does because his residence is paid for by taxpayers, his electricity is paid for by taxpayers, his groceries are paid for by taxpayers, his transportation is paid for by taxpayers and all his other household expenses are paid for by those of us who were raped by the Governor. He has no bills, he has no financial problems and he is able to live quite well off the backs of the citizens of this once great state.
Martin O’Malley is a poor leader, he is a cry baby who whines about everything and no matter what happens he never takes responsibility because it is always someone else’s fault.
Come to think of it, he would fit right in with the Clintons.
Tags: deception, governor, liar, Maryland, tax increases