Dumbo

Do my eyes deceive me? Is a newly minted leader among Maryland Republican lawmakers now slamming the sort of budget cuts he’s been demanding? Is he now concerned about the household budgets of state employees? Has the Maryland GOP suddenly lost its compass and the stomach for trimming state spending at the same time?

After a nasty internal fight for “power” within the minority caucus that never got much press because everyone involved wanted to keep it that way, newly crowned Senate Minority Leader, Republican Senator Allan Kittleman issued this amazing statement as his first order of business.

"Governor O'Malley's proposal to now cut one-quarter billion dollars from a budget only three months old will wreak havoc to state employees and those who depend upon state services for their livelihood.”

Forget for now that someone needs to explain to the good senator that state budgets must be balanced as a matter of constitutional law.

It seems Sen. Kittleman has just learned that the current Bush/McCain economy will have a dire impact on Maryland’s tax revenue and Sen. Kittleman now thinks that the “havoc” it will create is someone else’s shame.

Really? Stop the presses!

New headline: MD GOP condemns budget cuts, blame hinted

After shouting “cut, cut, cut” for months, Maryland Republicans now come down on the side of state workers and will fight for their economic future in the coming legislative session.

Just kidding. I made that last part up. That’s not going to happen. What will happen is that the Republicans will try to sound like they care. The words will be in direct opposition to their previous demands. Then they will try to point a finger of blame in any other direction possible.

And, unless they try something new, they will be lazy and not do the work that is required to back up their rhetoric.  

Does anyone recall any GOP concern for the “havoc” their demands for budget cuts would have caused state workers before this Bush/McCain economy hit like a mountain of devalued Lehman Brothers stock?

We call this stuff a flip-flop; a really dumb one, too.

We all know the Maryland Republicans flip-flopped on the budget long ago. We know they eventually proposed a budget that endorsed and spent 85 percent of the revenue increases they opposed in the 2007 Session. They did their best to hide that fact, but they did it.

That sort of makes the current GOP position a flip-flop-flip. No one said covering your rear end as the world swirls around you is easy. But, no one ever lost money counting on people having short memories.

Even with the NATIONAL economy (Only a fool would declare this to be a state or regional problem.) in the dumps, what Democrats have done in Maryland is protect, as much as possible, services important to middle class families; education, economic development, the environment, controlling college tuition increases and much more. They also eased the state tax burden for most middle class families.

Did Republicans care anything about that before? Not if you believed their old words.

Did Republicans care anything about state workers who might be impacted had their empty but predictable ideas been implemented? Not if you believed their old words.

Now they want people to think they’re really a bunch of old softies concerned about state workers.

If you believe those words maybe you’re the Dumbo.