Today’s Denver Post news story on Governor Bill Ritter’s signing of Senate Bill 228 offers the generous headline: “Colorado’s fiscal knot loosens”.
I’ve taken the liberty to complete the thought with my own sub-headline: “Noose nearly large enough to fit around taxpayers’ necks”.
The article is correct insofar as it points out that the impact of this bill in repealing limits on the growth of discretionary government spending likely won’t be felt for a couple years. But that provides little solace, especially when you listen to the righteous confusion coming from the Democratic cast of characters behind this anti-taxpayer legislation.
Enter Bill Ritter:
“Let me be crystal clear: Regardless of what any opponent might tell you, this does not raise taxes nor does it increase spending,” the Democratic governor said. “In fact, as a prudent step, it decreases spending during good times to support a rainy-day fund.”
Sure…. Crystal clear as an old-fashioned shell game.
Then there’s the new state senate majority leader adding a religious dimension to the policy debate:
“This is a fight for the soul of Colorado, and it’s just beginning,” [John] Morse said.
Nothing is quite so sacred to Democrats as tax dollars. Face The State expounds:
…the battle plan is simple. Repeal TABOR, then raise taxes. General Morse leads the charge.
Finally, there’s our “drive a stake through the heart of TABOR” state treasurer:
“You don’t have to look any farther than the state of California to know that having a ‘Gordian knot’ of conflicting measures acting upon on your state budget is a recipe for disaster,” [Cary] Kennedy said.
Ummmm, yeah. And white is black and up is down. California got into a heaping mess of multi-billion dollar fiscal troubles because of reasonable limits on the growth of government spending? Thanks, Rod Serling, for that little trip into another dimension.
Leave it to Democrats to ignore the message voters sent last November in shooting down Amendment 59 by a 10-point margin, and to continue working to fit the noose for taxpayers’ necks.
Memo to Ritter, Kennedy, Morse, and the tax-and-spend Democratic caucus: Remember the story of Haman. We all get to vote again in 2010.
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