Pat sounds like Bev.

patbevIn 2012, Bev Perdue came to the conclusion that she had enough of a GOP majority on Jones Street and escaped Raleigh to the safe confines of Harvard’s Kennedy School and New Bern.  Lefties and their media cohorts bemoaned the impending “conservative revolution” in Raleigh.

Nowadays, Gov. Pat McCrory, the alleged leader of the “revolution,” is sounding A LOT like his predecessor — bashing Jones Street Republicans for allegedly starving the bureaucracy:

The state Senate on Thursday produced a new budget offer that Gov. Pat McCrory threatened to veto because the proposal includes the 11 percent teacher raises that he and House Republicans say will come at the cost of too many other state responsibilities.

The House issued another offer that inches their proposed teacher raise from 5 percent to 6 percent. McCrory said in a statement that he supported the House position.

“This is a long-term, sustainable and affordable plan in which I stand with our teachers, our students, our principals, our superintendents, business leaders, House Democrats and House Republicans,” McCrory said. “The Senate is currently standing by themselves with no visible support outside of the Beltline of our state capital.

“I will veto the latest Senate plan or any plan that resembles it because I know of no financial way we can go beyond the House proposal without eliminating thousands of teacher assistants, cutting Medicaid recipients and putting at risk future core state services.” […] 

Bev couldn’t have said it better. Democrats can take sound bites from McCrory like this and run them in ads against Republican legislators. bill-cosby-500

The legislature appropriates a pot of money while the local leaders make staffing decisions.  Tom Apodaca does not have a say as to whether Miss Smith’s kindergarten class in Pleasant Garden gets a teacher assistant.  North Carolina has some of the highest overhead in its public education system in the country. It would be nice to have the “leader” of the “conservative revolution” take that issue head-on. 

“Cutting Medicaid recipients” is actually scaling back the state’s program to meet the actual requirements set by the feds for medicaid.  For years, North Carolina’s money-bleeding Medicaid program has been paying for a lot more than what the feds require be paid for under the program.  Whether you’re talking about your home, or your business, or your government, getting your financial house in order involves weeding out luxuries and making payment for necessities the top priority.

Who knows what’s really going on here.  Gov. Pat may see this kind of thing as helping his old friend Speaker Thom with his Senate race.  In reality, it’s creating a lot of intra-party discord and hurting the party’s public reputation.  On the other hand, Gov. Pat could simply be showing his true big government colors and throwing conservatives under the bus.  Some Charlotte conservatives I know tell me McCrory regularly did this type of thing to them while he served as mayor.  It appears he’s taken his act on the road to the state capital.