I’m awake as we attempt to re-train my daughter to sleep in her bed (read: let her scream it out at 4:30 in the morning), so I figured I’d troll the Internet to see what kind of political stories are out there at the moment. The pickings are pretty slim this early in the morning:
Lawmakers facing tough negotiations — Bryan Corbin, writing for the Evansville Courier Press runs down the upcoming negotiations in the General Assembly: I-69, the budget, gambling, funding health coverage, increasing the minimum wage, the HPV vaccine, and fireworks.
Also in the Courier Press, by Thomas Langhorne, an article on Brad Ellsworth’s 2008 re-election chances.
The Terre Haute TribStar has the results of a poll of residents of West Central Indiana on their opinions of Gov. Daniels. They like the idea of increasing cigarette taxes to pay for health care, and the option of full-day kindergarten. They don’t like outsourcing major government functions or privatizing the lottery. Wait, never mind, the article refers to a web-based poll on Sen. Tim Skinner’s website where nobody even knows how many respondents there were. Nice piece of journalism.
Good round up from yesterday in the Indy Star by Mary Beth Schneider and Theodore Kim on where the General Assembly stands as we head into the end game. (Oddly, years after the Indiana Law Blog debunked the notion that the General Assembly is actually mandated to pass a budget, references like these are still common: “The only thing that can force lawmakers to meet beyond the April 29 session deadline is failure to pass a state budget.” It’s definitely a good idea, and there would be hell to pay if they didn’t do it, but it doesn’t actually seem to be required by the state Constitution.)
Also in yesterday’s Indy Star is an article discussing Gov. Daniels disappearing act. He’s normally been quite chatty with the press. But since mid-February, he hasn’t been talking that much. The speculation in the article is that, after shooting himself in the foot by lipping off about what he called a “whopping big tax increase” sponsored by the Democrats, the Dems slashed the Governor’s proposed cigarette increase, dealing a serious blow to the Governor’s health care initiative. Daniels said, “I’ve learned in the last couple of years that while the General Assembly’s meeting, I need to be careful. You know, let ’em work and not do too much color commentary, because even when you don’t intend to, your words can sometimes have consequences or can be misunderstood.”
Yeah, Pat Bauer’s a thug like that. That’s how he rolls.
I guess South Bend isn’t that far from Chicago, so Sean Connery’s character’s line in the Untouchables probably applies.
If the governor (1) calls for a tax cut; and then (2) criticizes the dems for trying to raise taxes – it’s hardly “thuglike” for the dems to withdraw their tax proposal.
And, as I understand it, another issue was that they would only pass a tax hike if they could get an even D-R split on the hike, which didn’t happen either. But the same principle is at work.
The Dems didn’t withdraw their tax proposal, they spiked Daniels’ tax proposal.
Doug, Tully made that same comparison a while back.
Look, it’s more about politics than policy. They wanted to be protected from partisan attacks in the next election cycle about raising taxes. While I think the Dems are probably MORE In favor of the idea than even Daniels, they are also not naive.
For being a clever wily (albeit poorly coiffed)politician, Bauer gets bashed. Either change the rules or learn how to play the game.