I’ve been loath to comment on the intraparty Republican squabble brewing over Governor Bill Owens’ compromise budget agreement with the Democrats. But things are heating up, reports the Rocky Mountain News today. Apparently the governor is unhappy with the House Minority Leader’s public opposition:
“When the next volume of Profiles in Courage is written, there won’t be a chapter about Joe Stengel,” Owens said. “I was amazed. He knew exactly what was in it. There were no surprises.”
Sorry, governor. I have to state my firm conviction that what you are doing is neither fiscally nor politically sound. I say that as a conservative and as a Republican, respectively. The former tells me that approving this deal means $1,500 more in taxes paid by the average family of four over the next five years. The latter tells me that approving this deal gives the Democrats a powerful advantage and tremendous leverage in their campaign to hold on to control of the state legislature in 2006.
My stance shouldn’t surprise many who know me. But it doesn’t hurt working for the Independence Institute, either. In case you hadn’t heard, my boss Jon Caldara has squared off with the governor over TABOR, Amendment 23, and the budget compromise deal on an episode of Independent Thinking that was videotaped today and will air tomorrow. You won’t want to miss it, so if you have to be gone, set your VCR or Tivo:
When: Friday, 8:30 p.m.
Where: KBDI-Channel 12
Update, Friday, 10:00 a.m.:
More on the governor and his exchange with Caldara from Jim Tankersley in this morning’s Rocky Mountain News.
Once more the certain and ugly truth about Bill Owens comes out, and it pains me as a Conservative to say it: He is like Hillary Clinton, like Bill Clinton, like John McCain: He has one interest:
Him.