Blogs Mar 3, 2012 at 8:56 am

Comments

1
Democrats? Play hardball?
2
and the republicans are right. the D's are abject failures in terms of leadership. Gregoire has been a nightmare, and Lisa Brown ought to resign after this fiasco is resolved. if you really care about the poor in this state, then act like it. understand the pathology of your opposition. if Lisa Brown was the lead negotiator for a business in a merger negotiation, she'd get fired over this. abject failure. she should be deeply, deeply ashamed. please post the email addresses of her and other senate leadership. the flying monkeys will take care of the rest.
3
That will win the Democrats lots of votes.
5
Republicans would love the Democrats to adopt that slogan. They may even pay Goldy's salary to go work for them to implement it.
6
Goldy, I think at one point last night (this morning?) I think Ed Murray made the point that if the Senate Republicans expect to see any more reforms then they should know that Dems have demands, too.

I think your "Special Session" headline should have said "Special Sessions".

Step 1, the Dems must make reform demands on tax loopholes and 1% income tax, and every other new tax they can think of.
Step 2, insert them into the budget.
Step 3, move the policy bills for those tax changes forward.
Step 4, gie the red counties the government they can pay for, and not a fucking dime more. If your life is shitty in redneck country as a result, move. Enabling republicans results in what you got last night. They will both take your money and stab you in the back, Lisa Brown.
Step 5, 1 through 4 should be done in perpetual Special Sessions called by the governor. She has nothing to lose, but Rob McKenna does, no fundraising for you!

Want Levy Equalization, then pay for it with an income tax. Pretty simple stuff.
7
It's a "plate", not a "base".
8
Rodney Tom has got to go.


Rodney Tom for State Senate (D)
P.O. Box 594
Medina, WA 98039
Email: Rodney@rodneytom.com
Phone: 425-466-1030

Rodney Tom for State Senate Campaign
P.O. Box 594
Medina, WA 98039
Phone: 425-250-8211
9
The only thing left is for some viking solutions. #burnitall
10
goddamn i wish i were a republican

it must be fun to be party of a political party that has its shit together

too bad they are somewhere between dangerously atavistic and outright evil
11
If you put 15 Democrats in a room, you'll get 20 different opinions.
12
I hope Lisa Brown changes her tune on levy equalization and the entire subsidization of GOP Washington.

And I really like the idea of perpetual special session to keep the Robster from raising money. Lovely, that.
13
waaaaahhhhhh Republicans don't respect the process!!!! *had already planned to disrespect Republican caucus process*
14
@ 10, The Dems have their shit together have they not been running the state for the past 30 years? Or do you not like facts

@ 11 The GOP is the same way to an extent, not as big of a tent but a big tent.
15
and as every major leaguer knows, when their pitcher beans one of your batters, your pitcher has to bean one of theirs. Otherwise, they'll just bean all your batters without fear of retribution, until your entire team is brushed back six feet off the plate.

No, the point to any baseball game is to WIN, not to start fights to satisfy the preschooler in you. To use the baseball metaphor, how about stepping up to the plate and getting a grand slam? A grand slam would be meaningful tax reform or properly funding education. It takes courage to step up and hit (and not just fight) when the other side is playing hardball.
16
@11: Also true of Jews, I might tell you.
17
You wanna know how to get the Republicans? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue. *That's* the way! And that's how you get the Republicans. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?
18
Time to redline all the tax-subsidized Eastern Washington counties.
19
@17, the Republicans have the arsenal locked up already, in the form of a budget that was actually passed. The time for an armed conflict is over. The Dems can only plead for surrender terms now.
20
@19, the House can refer that bill to WM committee and gut it, pass it back at 11:59 pm on the last day of session.

The House bill was referred to Senate Ways & Means on 3/2.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.…

Not much point in a surrender when you control the calendar.
21
Will @18: OK. And they'll redline all your food. Yeah, that will work out well.
22
Godly, we are a bunch of pussies, at least in this state. That's the problem.
23
No revenue, no budget + No more subsidies for the east side. Make control of taxes local and let the small government, big services teabag crowd eat their own lunch.
24
@21 really? Exactly what percentage of your food supply do you think comes from within the state?
25
@20, they will go directly into a special session. The Governor will have to order one because she won't have a decent budget bill to sign by next Wednesday. So we have no idea what the "last day" will be.
26
A point that is particularly galling is that for all of the Republicans talk about being "ignored" and how all of this was necessary because the Democrats wouldn't incorporate any of their ideas - it's simply not true.

A side-by-side of the two budgets has been posted here - it's even reasonably legible (thanks Publicola):
http://publicola.com/wp-content/uploads/…

If you don't have a lot of time - scroll to the bottom; it's only eight pages. The "Grand Total" line? $208M - that's the difference between the original budget and the only that had to be developed in secret and introduced with a coup because Democrats can't be trusted.

And that $208M is the difference in the CUTS. To be very, very clear about this, the Democrats had agreed - in addition to the four-year-budget and all - to $564M in cuts, and the Republicans want $773M. BOTH budgets are all-cuts.

And even that $208M is a fiction. Look a little further up page eight, under "Natural Resources". The only difference between the Democrat column and the Republican column is the $67M assigned to "MTCA Related Shifts". MTCA stands for "Model Toxics Control Act" - defined here (http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/9406.pdf) and "innovative CITIZEN MANDATED toxic waste cleanup law".

So one-third of this $208M - this totally unreconcilable gulf that required the Republicans to throw the legislative schedule into chaos and complicated every political dealing for the foreseeable future - one-third of that is achieved by taking the money that was being used at the direction of Washington State citizens to clean up hazardous waste.

You want to guess whether the problems of dealing with that waste are going to get any cheaper while this program is zeroed-out? You think that cleaning up toxic waste is just another big-government scam?

There was no point to this. The budget the Republicans introduced isn't some pure expression of fiscal sensibility that had to be nailed to the door and accepted as revealed truth. This doesn't make sense when looking at the very limited policy disagreements between the two bills.

This was an expression of political power. Those behind it - to paraphrase Jon Stewart - "Have mistaken not getting everything they want all the time with being oppressed."
27
The first thing I would do is strip Rodney Tom of his senate chairmanship. That will shape up the rest of those stupid road killed.
28
To strip someone of a committee chairmanship requires a majority vote of the Senate, which the Democrats don't have. If Tom, Jim, or Tim, were really turncoats, they would strip all the Democrats of their chairmanships. Welcome to the minority.

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