The State Budget process in Arizona has shown several fundamental truths for the former Party of Lincoln. They are:
- The Big Lie on the 2020 Election is alive and well as evidenced by their enactments of several provisions like putting watermarks on ballots, going after social media sites that tell the truth about Republican officeholders and seekers (Jake Hoffman and his voting troll farm for example,) and a commission to analyze the results of the Sham Audit taking place in Maricopa County. These same Republicans thought making election day a state holiday and allowing for same-day voter registration (while allowing better voter registration access for Republican-friendly hunters)Â were somehow bad for the Democratic process (for them anyway.)
- Never mind what the voters have said at the ballot box. Voucher expansion denied. No problem. Republicans will just slide in an amendment expanding it anyway. A surcharge tax for the super-wealthy to better fund public schools through Proposition 208. We will pass a flat tax mechanism that protects the wealthy who can not bear to lose $35 on every thousand dollars they earn after the first $250,000.
- Trickle Down Economics that largely benefits the wealthy, despite it being discredited historically time and time again, is still the gospel for the former party of Lincoln. It is so bad that, in order to protect their tax cuts for the wealthy, the Republicans in the Arizona State Legislature refused to go along with Democratic amendments to give poor pregnant women access to state-run dental insurance and for a greater number of impoverished children to enroll in KidsCare.
Think about it. Arizona Republicans, in order to protect their tax cuts for the wealthy, have no compunction about telling poor pregnant women and children that need health care to p–s off.
So heartbreaking. The amendment to help 30k new #AZ children access health insurance through #KidsCare failed to pass when it received no GOP support in their #AZBudget. https://t.co/Y1qnnxuM86
— Kelli Butler (@KelliButlerAZ) June 25, 2021
It should also be noted that Republicans would also have thrown vital local services like law enforcement and firefighters under the budget bus if the coalition of local governments had not protested so much about the potential cuts to state revenue sharing programs.
Working, Middle-Class, and even Wealthy voters in Arizona need to ask themselves.
Do Republicans serve and work for all the people?
Judging from their budget priorities, the answer is a definitive no.
Vote them out in 2022.
An unsolicited suggestion: Tailored Democratic ads for state offices should outline how state Republicans consistently disregard/block the will of the majority Arizona voters in favor of their horrible policies:
“In spite of the majority of Arizonans voting to limit expanding charter school vouchers Republican Representative/Senator X voted to expand them. When Republicans win Arizona loses.”
“Despite the 40 year failure of trickle down economics, a policy that unfairly favors the wealthy at the expense of everyone else, Representative/Senator X keeps voting for tax breaks for those who don’t need them. And we wonder why Arizona is always short of money for public schools, roads….. When Republicans win Arizona loses.”
Just a couple of ad ideas that could also be incorporated on the national level. Simple, true & potentially effective. Rinse & repeatedly repeat. We need to purge State government of these destructive right wing clowns.