Governor Culver will give his Condition of the State speech this morning. I will be posting after his speech. I can’t wait till he opens with the false premise that the condition of our state is strong, we all know the troubles that we are in. I’m also sure we will be reminded that we are in a much better position than most other states, while that might make some feel better it doesn’t mean anything.
During Culver’s campaign and early months in office he liked to say that those who are given much, much is expected. In his 2008 condition of the state speech he said” The Condition of our state is strong! First of all, our fiscal house is in order. The budget you passed and the one I signed was fiscally responsible.” All Iowans, except maybe Senator Gronstal, knows that isn’t the case.
The fact is Chet Culver and the Democrats have not lived up to the standard they set for themselves.
Iowa would be better off if they didn’t increase spending by a BILLION dollars last session.
Iowans would be better off if the huge tax and fee increases wouldn’t have happened, because now in a financial downturn our state government has no other option than to knock on our doors and ask for more of our hard earned money, money we need to live.
More this afternoon.
Now back to our Governor to hear him say something like, “While frolicking in fields near Effigy Mounds, I never once imagined that my path in life would take me through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then to Grand Avenue to be the Governor of the great state of Iowa….
Herschel,
ReplyDeleteMay I set up the state of the state?
It was great to sit at the state house yesterday and watch my friend Renee Schulte take the oath of office, certainly the expected highlight of my day.
But my other friend, referred by the Quad City Times as "Congressman" Kraig Paulsen delivered the unexpected "play of the day" with his opening komments to the assembly, copied below.
Kraig, way to go!! This is leadership!!
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We, in this session, will be facing difficult and sometimes painful decisions. But they are certainly no more difficult or painful than the decisions that Iowa’s families and taxpayers are making everyday. We must remember that state government is not the only entity facing uncertainty. With that in mind, we must protect families and taxpayers – not ask them to dig deeper in their own pockets to solve a budget problem that this Legislature created for itself.
Since it is impossible to move forward without first understanding your past, we need to remember something. When the 82nd General Assembly closed its doors last May, we walked out of here $563 million in the red. Today, due to the hardships and disasters of 2008, we walk in here $779 million in the red. But let’s be clear about this. The initial shortfall of $563 million was not caused by George W. Bush or Congressional Democrats as some have claimed, it was not caused by sliding stock markets or housing crunches. It was caused by a lack of discipline and a failure of duties with Iowans’ dollars. That being said, House Republicans are ready to look toward the future and craft solutions.
Mr. Speaker, this blame game serves no one well – so my pledge is this, as long as we are able to look forward and work towards solutions I have no interest in laying blame. However, if blame is continued to be misplaced, as Republicans believe it has in the last several weeks, I will continue to talk about the pork of the last two years – the 2,600 new state employees – the 17+% spending increases. Mr. Speaker, Republicans prefer to move on, I hope Democrats feel the same.
The first order of business should be a meaningful disaster relief bill that helps the thousands of Iowans who can’t sleep in their own home at night.
clearly Culver's speech was written on bar napkins from Tonic... wow.
ReplyDeleteafter listening to the state of the state through culver's eye... i need drink.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much land the state will need to buy from Bill Knapp to make these infrastructure improvements?
ReplyDeleteis wondering how much to charge Chester for using a video produced by us - for us?
ReplyDeleteWe have a AAA bond rating, which is a license to double our red ink.
ReplyDeleteNice solution, Chet. Maybe we could hire more state workers to do these infrastructure upgrades...
So sweaty chetty wants to borrow $700 million dollars backed by "gambling" revenues to deal with this bloated and out of control budget which is $700 million dollars in the red during the worst economic crisis ever suffered for all of his constituents - r and d?
ReplyDeleteHow is he going to do that when he wants to sell the lottery and gambling revenues are down all over the world. Las Vegas is empty. No one has any extra cash to pay for the increased gas tax, let alone go out and gamble the milk money too.
The dirty secret he doesn't want you to know is that if gambling revenues don't materilize, the taxpayers pay again and again and again.
We should not borrow our way of this mess. Cut programs. Reduce the budget. Don't give us the trick of cutting education just so the school boards can kill us on property tax to more than make up the difference.
Chetty - get rid of programs. For instance, could someone please tell me why CIETC is still in business sucking up tax dollars?
does anyone else think it's weird that obama is using Lincoln as his inaugural theme? Lincoln - the same one who was the first presidential candidate for the GOP - the party of Lincoln? The same republican party that emancipated blacks and formed their party for the sole purpose of ending slavery? The same republican party who's far right wing in the day were the freedom fighting abolitionsists and underground railroad volunteers, who now fight for the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for the unborn and the oppressed around the world? The same republican party who fought to pass the Civil Rights Act? The same republican party who fought for and brought us the right for women to vote?
ReplyDeleteObama is highlighting the republican party in his inaugeration?
Interesting. Guess he couldn't find anything as substantial in his own party to honor. The slaveowners and segregationists were all democrats.
Interesting how today again, there are no comments. One person made most of the comments again. Hmmmmm.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog you have hhere
ReplyDelete