Monday, June 22, 2009

Did someone forget to tell the Governor that the Legislature has reached an agreement on a budget?

Normally, one would travel from the State Capitol to the Clarion-Ledger building by walking right past the Governor's Mansion:


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But if we're to believe what we're hearing from Haley's foot soldiers, the news of a budget deal must have followed this route:


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In short, it appears as though Haley is going to attempt to deny the existence of a deal in an effort to avoid having to take responsibility for a looming state government shutdown. In all honesty, Barbour wants the budget negotiations to fail, as he sees it as a way to amass power. According to Barbour, he can run state government via his fiat in the event a budget is not passed.

Barbour should know better. This game of budgetary chicken didn't work out well for the GOP during the Clinton Administration, and it won't work this time. Here's why: The general public, on a very instinctive level, views Democrats as the ones who support government services and Republicans as the ones who oppose them. As a result, the public can't envision Democrats willingly shutting the government down and ending state services. They can, however, see Republicans doing so. After all, Republicans get elected to office railing against "big government" and touting private sector alternatives. It's truly that simple.

And if Phil Bryant and Alan Nunnelee aren't careful, they're going to wind up the real casualties of this debacle. Barbour doesn't have to go before the voters of this state again. Bryant's running for Governor, and Nunnelee is setting up a Congressional run. The voters will not look favorably upon a government shutdown on their watch.

5 comments:

Jim Craig said...

That's unbelievable. The Governor is quoted as saying, "I don’t anticipate critical services of state government shutting down if the Legislature fails and doesn’t pass a budget . . . There are some things that can be done by executive order."

Say what?!? The Governor HIMSELF shut down the tobacco settlement funding for the partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, on the theory that only the Legislature can authorize the expenditure of State funds.

n said...

I have no idea what you're talking about, but this post is really funny.

Kingfish said...

I'm sure you were upset all those years Buddy, Tim, and Brad ran the government as their little fief.

Matt Eichelberger said...

Kingfish,

Buddy, Tim, and Brad had every right under our outdated state Constitution to exert the power they did. That's just the way our government is structured. Wanna join me in a call for a new state constitution?

Anonymous said...

How about renaming your blog "The Contagion Theorists", subtitle "Adventures in Jim & Matt's World Post-Frontal Lobotomies".