Gov. Brewer wields her veto pen to slay the Tea-Publican radicals

You know that we live in dangerous times when our radical Tea-Publican legislature can make über-conservative Gov. Jan Brewer look moderate and sane.

After losing in the Court of Appeals to these Tea-Publican radicals earlier on Tuesday, Court rules lawmakers can challenge Medicaid expansion, Gov. Brewer exacted her revenge late in the day by wielding her veto pen to slay these Tea-Publican radicals.

Brewer vetoed House Speaker Andy Tobin’s bill, HB 2367 (.pdf), which would have required state officials to seek federal approval to impose a five-year limit on an individual’s right to receive coverage from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, and permission to impose a work requirement.

Brewer said a five-year lifetime enrollment cap could mean kicking more than 212,000 people out of the program, and another 253,000 children would lose coverage when they turn 18 “as the bill makes no exception for enrollment during childhood when determining the five-year limit.”

The bill passed the Senate on a party-line 17-12 vote, and  a party-line 35-22 vote in the House, including the “mythical moderate Republican” Ethan Orr (R-Tucson).

Brewer vetoed the annual guns in public buildings bill from gun worshipers and fetishists, HB 2339 (.pdf), which would have allowed guns in public buildings and events that do not provide security guards and metal detectors at each entrance. This is the third time Brewer has vetoed a version of this bill.

Choose wisely for governor in November, because the gun worshipers and fetishists will keep trying, it is their religion and they are religious zealots.

The bill passed the Senate on a near party-line 16-12 vote (Sen. John McComish was the lone Tea-Publican no vote), and a party-line 34-22 vote in the House, including the “mythical moderate Republican” Ethan Orr (R-Tucson).

Brewer also vetoed the bill from gun worshipers and fetishists to punish the City of Tucson and Councilman Steve Kozachik for adopting common-sense safety ordinances, HB 2517 (.pdf). The bill would have prohibited towns and counties from regulating firearms more strictly than the state does. If a local government passed such a regulation, the law would have required the courts to declare it invalid and allow any government official involved in the regulation to personally be fined up to $5,000 and be removed from office. Any person who felt they were adversely affected by the regulation (i.e., gun worshipers and fetishits) could have sued and sought up to $100,000 in damages.

The bill passed the Senate on a near party-line 17-12 vote (note: Sen Barbara McGuire (D-LD 8) voted for both gun bills), and a party-line 34-22 vote in the House, including the “mythical moderate Republican” Ethan Orr (R-Tucson).

Brewer vetoed “Dances with Wolves” Sen. Gail Griffin’s bill, SB 1211 (.pdf), which would have allowed state employees and ranchers to kill a Mexican gray wolf, a protected endangered species,  if it is caught in the act of killing or wounding livestock (or entering the U.S. without proper documentation and illegally trespassing because they are Mexican gray wolves. Oh wait, that was her other bill, HB 2411).

Brewer said SB 1211 was both unnecessary and conflicts with federal law. “A state simply does not have the power to allow a ‘take’ on federal lands,” the governor wrote. (“Sean Hannnity is on line one, Governor.”)

The bill passed the Senate on a near party-line 18-12 vote (note: Sen Barbara McGuire (D-LD 8) voted yes), and a party-line 37-22 vote in the House, including the “mythical moderate Republican” Ethan Orr (R-Tucson).

Brewer vetoed another Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) backed bill, HB 2281 (.pdf), which would have exempted property leased to a religious institution from taxes if the property is owned by an educational, religious or charitable organization. it would have shifted the property tax burden from commercial property owners to home owners. Brewer said “There is insufficient data to determine the size of the tax shift to homeowners and businesses that would have occurred as the result of this legislation.”

The bill passed the Senate on a near party-line 16-14 vote (Sens. John McComish and Steve Pierce joined with Democrats),  and a near party-line 33-25 vote in the House: shockers! The “mythical moderate Republicans” Ethan Orr, Heather Carter and Kate Brophy McGee voted no.

Guess which one of these votes the Republic’s Laurie Roberts and the Daily Star’s Timmeh Steller will use to to try to convince you that there are “moderate” Republicans in the legislature?

I give Jan Brewer credit where it is due. But let’s not get too excited. I am sure she will do something soon to prove that she is not as moderate as these vetoes would suggest.