“An abomination, pure and simple”

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by David Safier

When the Star writes an editorial using the line, "an abomination, pure and simple" and it's not talking about murder or some other unspeakable act, you know something must be truly awful.

Here's the entire sentence from this morning's editorial:

The budget-balancing proposal floated by the state Legislature's Republican leaders on Thursday is an abomination, pure and simple.

I could write thousands of words about the Republican budget proposal and Napolitano's counter proposal, but the Star does the heavy lifting, so there's no need to repeat it. Here's the short version:

From the Republicans, a 20% cut in K-12 funding — about $1000 per child — a 30% cut in state aid to universities and a $372 million cut in state health care. Some of these figures are spread over two years.

From Napolitano, about $1.5 billion from bond sales, $1 billion cut from state agencies, and a number of other cost cutting and revenue generating measures. She's also counting on federal money (Republicans are saying they may refuse federal help if they don't like where it's targeted). Her budget makes far smaller cuts in university spending and actually increases K-12 spending slightly.

I have no idea whether the Republicans are serious about their proposal or whether it's a bargaining ploy. They may figure, when you threaten to cut off someone's head, you could look merciful when you just lop off a couple of arms and a leg.

My guess is, Pearce & Co. — yes, that means you, Al Melvin — are deadly serious, and some other Republicans are planning to play good cop to Pearce's bad cop. But no matter what happens, the result will be very, very ugly, and very, very painful.

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1 thought on ““An abomination, pure and simple””

  1. There is no need for the Arizona legislature to vote for the Pearce and Company budget. After all Janet Napolitano did provide a balanced budget didn’t she?

    There is nothing wrong with borrowing money to pay for ongoing government spending is there? It doesn’t need to be paid back with interest does it? Does it?

    Government deficit spending is a good thing right? I imagine it has gotten the US government where it is today, spending 9% of the budget on interest.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#Budgetary_Treatment_of_Interest_Expense

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