Grassroots anger bubbling over on NC House budget
Former state legislator Nathan Ramsey (R-Buncombe) simply attempted to pat his former colleagues on the back this week:
That set off a debate that drew in current and former legislators, as well as some steamed members of the grassroots:
I wonder how many of these Big Government Republicans will dare show up to rub shoulders with real in-the-trenchs Republican activists at the state convention after what they have done?
It is good to see Blust come our swinging.
This budget is corporate welfare run amok. It is something I would have expected out of Black and Basnight but it is horrifying to see it coming out of alleged Republicans. It looks like some of this malfeasence will need to be corrected in the primaries.
And they have directly gone against the state Republican platform on their payola to the corrupt green energy boys. Disgusting.
They are DEMOCRATS. They enact Progressive legislation and then pat each other on the back.
btw, did you see the recent article in the Charlotte Observer about the corruption surrounding one of those Progressive Republicans?
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article21431058.html
And Nathan Ramsey wonders why he lost? Republicans didn’t vote for him because he failed the conservative message
Wonder how many current Republican legislators are in swing districts? Acting like this, they’re playing russian roulette with their supermajority. McCrory might actually be able to make vetoes stick next year which of course, is what he wants.
Nathan Ramsey and Liston Ramsey share the same last name, came from the mountains, and share the same Big Government ideology. Are they related? Inquiring minds and all that!
Naaaa. Don’t get your panties in a wad. It’s just what Republicans do now, get used to it. We raise taxes and harass church going people for their beliefs. It’s fun. It’s a Republican thing. It’s the New Republican Brand. (NRB) It appeals to a broader base and all that matters is me getting re-elected. What me give up my job? Hell no, I’m doing exactly what the Chamber tells me to do, that’s who I work for. That is until 3 weeks before the election, then I go back to the district and shake a few babies, kiss a few hands, get my picture in the paper for doing something for my buddies at the Chamber, joooooob creation always sounds nice. Then tell the dumb sheep, hey I’m working for you. Get re-elected and then go back working for my pimps at the Chamber of Commerce. Politics it’s cyclical, you know a circle goes round and round again. It works out great!
C’mon guys no cheating… doesn’t Larry Pittman do that schtick at Charlie Goodnights in Raleigh every Tuesday night.
Seriously. Im a news junkie and know the score. Most of these guys voted for Voter ID, tax reform all the budgets you liked, regulatory bills, and every gun abortion and religious bill that came to the floor. Now because of a committee vote that only delayed approval of a bill you do approve of and a budget that I suppose couldn’t have been stingier you have decided to attack them. This is a super majority that reduced taxes got unemployment way down, retired about 5.5 billion dollars in debit in less than 5 years and they don’t even deserve the benefit of the doubt? I went to my legislator here and yes he told me some of this and pointed out that through 2014 only 10 states had made it back to 2008 level budgets despite population growth and inflation. He thinks we crossed over that an joined that group in 2015. The real questions are I don’t know the answer to this, Why so little faith? Why withhold the benefit of the doubt? I recall in Eddie Murphy Raw the query…. “Eddie.. Eddie… What have you done for me lately Eddie”… maybe a little forbearance is in order.. Just saying …
”Benefit of the doubt”??????
This bunch gave us a tax and fee increase, not a tax decrease. No doubt there!
This bunch larded the budget with lots of special interest corporate welfare pork. No doubt there!
This bunch sided with Obams’s war on affordable energy with their subsidies to renewable energy, that will raise our electric bills. No doubt there!
This bunch was AWOL on defending religious liberty. No doubt there!
This bunch is still trying to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens. No doubt there!
We have the same problem in Raleigh that we have in Wasington, and that is Republicans who want to act like Democrats. I am sure we will be hearing lots more about that at primary time, and we should. We need lots more Dave Brats to step forward and renew our party with the principles on which it is built.
Your graituitous attack on Larry Pittman, a solid conservative in the House, who had not previously been mentioned in the article or in the discussion, outs you as an establishment big government type who does not like conservatives or conservative principles.
Actually I was having fun with you. I’ve met Pittman before. He’s ok by me. Have a sense of humor. I was trying to get you to open to the idea that not everything is lost. So ok on the serious side I get the fee increase comment.. what tax increase? What rate did they hike it too? Just asking.. I made a lot of points and you provided not one factual rebuttal..
Facts? You cited mostly ancient history, and not too factually. This session has been the big disaster, Moore so than the last one.
The GOP House majority passed a bill earlier in the session temporarily lowering the gas tax, but then rather quickly raising it to more than it would have been.
As to your ancient history, I will just cite the first one you mention as an example. The voter ID bill passed by the House was a bad joke. TIllis had it watered down to the point that it was useless. It was the conservative Senate that toughened it back up where it stood for something, and the House caved, fortunately, and finally agreed to the Senate version. That was fairly typcial last session, where the House under Tillis tried to go liberal, but then had their hand called by the Senate. Under the new leadership this session it is even Moore so.
There is loads of corporate welfare in this budget that needs to be eliminated. The very worst part is the subsidy for the corrupt crony capitalists of the renewable energy special interest. This not only wastes our tax money, but the more of that crap that is built, the more it raises our electric bills. Any legislator who voted for the renewable energy corporate welfare will not get my vote next year. Take that corporate welfare and spend it on roads or education or just reduce spending.
And for the third year in a row, language facilitating government drone use in North Carolina has been slipped into the budget, instead of having a full legislative airing. (Whatta shocker!)
Thanks, GOP leadership!
(Will this be reported anywhere? Absolutely f***ing not.)
Smart progressives do smart things. Dumb progressives . . . well that is a different story. Last time, we had dumb progressives like that Moral Monday circus, which did not accomplish anything for the progressive cause.
This time we got smarter. We slipped a progressive onto the Speaker’s staff as his Chief of Staff, which put a progressive voice right in the middle of things.
More importantly, we progressives bought influence. We bought two GOP consultants who were for sale to the highest bidder and made them progressive consultants at least for our hard core environmental movement that paid the freight. That is what really gets things done. These slick dudes can trick GOP legislators into throwing their own party and its platform under the bus while doing our progressive bidding.
It is too bad that Civitas outed the fact that our hard core environmental movement had bought Dee Stewart and Paul Shumaker. They would have been even more effective for our cause if that could have been kept quiet, but they were progressive heroes all the same, even if it was for a big pile of Benjamins instead of a genuine love of polar bears.
I am sure that President Obama is very appreciative for the work that Stewart and Shumaker did in advancing his green agenda. Even Michelle Obama, the FLOTUS, is happy that those House Republicans even supported her Food Deserts crusade by throwing some corporate welfare money at it. This session has been one of the best for progressives in a long time.
Owning consultants has lots of benefits. For those scratching their heads about why Richard Burr has been voting with the progressives in Washington so much, just think about this – Paul Shumaker is his consultant.
And it will get even better for us progressives. Dee Stewart has his boy Craig Collins running for state Republican chairman. Just think how much more we can do for the progressive cause if we can neuter the GOP organization by having Dee’s boy sitting at its head. As Collins says, Dee is his friend, so there will be lots of influence there.
You never see these two troublemakers Dee Stewart and Paul Shumaker at events. They need to be more public and paraded around so we can catch up with them and ask a few questions. Do they live in North Carolina, if so where?
It would also be interesting to see what Ag Dept Troxler gets out of this. Who is paying for he and his wife to have so much fun in Red China? How many Commie friends do they have now,eh? Inquiring minds want to know.
China is where much of the apparatus used in the renewable energy biz comes from, often with high pollution in its production, as this major British newspaper discovered and reported:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1350811/In-China-true-cost-Britains-clean-green-wind-power-experiment-Pollution-disastrous-scale.html
I wonder if Troxler has jumped on that bandwagon?