Flake endorses fellow Arizonan for House majority leader. I don’t know how much weight this public show of support will throw, but it is certainly, to my mind a neccessary precondition to a Shadegg win. Flake is a nationally recognized spokeman for limited government and reduction of government spending and a vocal critic of ‘earmarking’. … Read more
Ron Drake has apparently settled upon his campaign slogan in his uphill fight against incumbent Raul Grijalva, "We Can Do Better!" Just don’t ask Ron how. As of this writing his page on "The Issues!" still says only check back soon. Wow. I gotta say I’m inspired. It’s clear that what Ron is saying to … Read more
I just finished reading “The Scorpion’s Gate” by former Terrorism Czar, and every Democrat’s favorite Republican, Richard A. Clarke. I cannot say that it was the best fiction I’ve read. It suffered far too much of the novice story-teller’s fault of filling in the gaps in the reader’s knowledge with unrealistic expository dialog which the … Read more
Bill O’Reilly demanded Vermonters deliver the head of a Vermont judge or face economic armageddon. He claims that what he ignorantly considers a lenient sentence requires impeachment of the judge involved. All of Vermont certainly should be annoyed, nay, cheesed at O’Lielly. That’s one state that Bill has offended irrevocably, now if we can just … Read more
Governor Janet Napolitano faces a new session of the Arizona legislature with a large budget surplus and a Rublican majority dominated by ‘small government’ poseurs determined to lay a major tax cut at the feet of their wealthiest constituents. She’s going to have to fight to keep every dollar of revenue flowing to badly underfunded and neglected public purposes, and probably throw a few tax breaks into the mix to sate the ravening dogs of the Right. Her proposed 2007 is a solid start.
I will probably comment further on the Governor’s budget later, but for now, I want to present the Governor’s own words on the budget, which I suspect far too few Democrats, let alone Republicans bother to read. After the jump I pass on her letter to the legislature laying out her budget proposal.
The Governor’s main thrust is to repay the fiscal juggling acts adopted in recent austere years and to enhance core state services: the three major areas of education, prisons and AHCCCS consume 80 percent of Napolitano’s proposed budget. There’s little or no wasteful spending in the Governor’s proposal (though her gesture to the Right of funding for border enforcement, which should be borne by the Feds, is arguably wasteful). It will be interesting to see if the Legislature comes up with a budget of which the same can be said.