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Now that we are coming closer to a two-party system in Arkansas some interesting events are occurring. It seems Governor Beebe and other old line Democrats just can’t get the message that the overwhelming majority of Arkansans don’t want to mire the country deeper in debt with Obamacare.
The actions of the liberals in this state remind me of some of the Frenchmen when it seemed the Nazis in 1939 & 40 were probably going to take over the French homeland. Leaders and many of the countrymen urged France to work with Adolph Hitler and get the best deal they could make before the coming occupation.
Mirroring this action our Governor, Attorney General and others insist upon continual communication with Kathleen Sebelius and others in the Obama administration. They evidently believe if we just work with them, Obamacare will be less destructive. In doing so they are ignoring the wishes of the electorate and are surrendering. They then have the gall to criticize the Republicans who are refusing to fund initial disbursements to implement Obamacare.
The Arkansas Dem-Gaz on Thursday March 31st revealed the tired old tactics of the Democrats – scare the people. For the last five election cycles the liberals have warned the voters, don’t vote for the Republicans. They will take away your Social Security and the elderly will have to eat dog food. Ex-Senator Lincoln learned the hard way that dog just won’t hunt. Evidently Kathy Webb, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, thinks we are still only ignorant rednecks. She says, “If we don’t pass this budget, 170 employees would be out of work, Blue Cross and other insurance companies would layoff thousands of their workers and 17,000 Medicaid questions would remain unanswered.” Let’s get real. I’ll bet all the money that Ms Webb received in her last campaign that nothing close to that would occur.
If the Insurance Department laid off 170 employees, it is probable that it would be necessary to rehire only one-half that many to get the work done. What in the world would any of us do if we couldn’t get immediate answers to Medicaid questions? That would be catastrophic. Probably the bigger insult to all of us is to believe Blue Cross would layoff thousands because the budget appropriation is not made. If you were CEO of Blue Cross, I’m sure your first step would be to layoff all employees, shut down the operation and surrender to those mean Republicans.
On Thursday March 31st the appropriation bill finally passed, but the Republicans made their point. As I understand it the one million dollars in the bill that was allocated to planning for the Obama-Beebe bill was excluded, to be decided later. We should be proud of our own Josh Johnston who was a leader in standing firm against surrendering to the federal government. At least our representative read the desires of the majority in his district. Too bad our Governor, Attorney General and others cannot listen.
At the same time the health care fiasco was developing the Democrats tried another move that was blatantly politically biased. If you have been reading the Arkansas Dem-Gaz the last two weeks, you have seen the redistricting map that is proposed to separate the four congressional districts in Arkansas.
This map is the epitome of gerrymandering. The most obvious trick involved putting the city of Fayetteville in the mostly south 4th district. They couldn’t approve of a plan that encompassed any area close by so they created a little finger of land northward to encompass Fayetteville. The point is obvious. The tree huggers and the coal plant haters are in and around Fayetteville. As long as they voted in the conservative northwestern stronghold of the 3rd district, their votes for congressman were in the minority. So let’s change things so that all the liberals can help the 4th district stay Democratic. Folks, the Democrats in Chicago have nothing on us. None of the sponsors of this corrupt move can present any logic. Draw your own conclusions.
About the only defense of this ridiculous map comes from one of the Democrat leaders of the senate. According to the Dem-Gaz Mr. Bookout says, “You can look at gerrymandering in a lot of different states and I have seen things that look like snakes so that this is some concept that this is some wild hair out there – that’s not the issue when we look at it.” So Senator Bookout just what is the issue? So how do you like that for a defense? It may be a crime but it’s not as bad a crime as has been committed by some of our fellow politicians in Louisiana or Mississippi. Doesn’t that sound like some eight year old kid caught stealing five dollars? He considers himself innocent because his brother stole ten dollars.
We should also be on the defensive for redistricting of our own state legislative districts. I have heard reports our Governor is attempting to get rid of three or four troublesome Republicans by his own type of gerrymandering.
If there was ever any doubt we need a regime change and a political party change in this state, the hi-jinks of this legislative session should alleviate any doubt.
(Jerry Jackson of Heber Springs writes his “conservative viewpoint” column each Wednesday)
Now that we are coming closer to a two-party system in Arkansas some interesting events are occurring. It seems Governor Beebe and other old line Democrats just can’t get the message that the overwhelming majority of Arkansans don’t want to mire the country deeper in debt with Obamacare.
The actions of the liberals in this state remind me of some of the Frenchmen when it seemed the Nazis in 1939 & 40 were probably going to take over the French homeland. Leaders and many of the countrymen urged France to work with Adolph Hitler and get the best deal they could make before the coming occupation.
Mirroring this action our Governor, Attorney General and others insist upon continual communication with Kathleen Sebelius and others in the Obama administration. They evidently believe if we just work with them, Obamacare will be less destructive. In doing so they are ignoring the wishes of the electorate and are surrendering. They then have the gall to criticize the Republicans who are refusing to fund initial disbursements to implement Obamacare.
The Arkansas Dem-Gaz on Thursday March 31st revealed the tired old tactics of the Democrats – scare the people. For the last five election cycles the liberals have warned the voters, don’t vote for the Republicans. They will take away your Social Security and the elderly will have to eat dog food. Ex-Senator Lincoln learned the hard way that dog just won’t hunt. Evidently Kathy Webb, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, thinks we are still only ignorant rednecks. She says, “If we don’t pass this budget, 170 employees would be out of work, Blue Cross and other insurance companies would layoff thousands of their workers and 17,000 Medicaid questions would remain unanswered.” Let’s get real. I’ll bet all the money that Ms Webb received in her last campaign that nothing close to that would occur.
If the Insurance Department laid off 170 employees, it is probable that it would be necessary to rehire only one-half that many to get the work done. What in the world would any of us do if we couldn’t get immediate answers to Medicaid questions? That would be catastrophic. Probably the bigger insult to all of us is to believe Blue Cross would layoff thousands because the budget appropriation is not made. If you were CEO of Blue Cross, I’m sure your first step would be to layoff all employees, shut down the operation and surrender to those mean Republicans.
On Thursday March 31st the appropriation bill finally passed, but the Republicans made their point. As I understand it the one million dollars in the bill that was allocated to planning for the Obama-Beebe bill was excluded, to be decided later. We should be proud of our own Josh Johnston who was a leader in standing firm against surrendering to the federal government. At least our representative read the desires of the majority in his district. Too bad our Governor, Attorney General and others cannot listen.
At the same time the health care fiasco was developing the Democrats tried another move that was blatantly politically biased. If you have been reading the Arkansas Dem-Gaz the last two weeks, you have seen the redistricting map that is proposed to separate the four congressional districts in Arkansas.
This map is the epitome of gerrymandering. The most obvious trick involved putting the city of Fayetteville in the mostly south 4th district. They couldn’t approve of a plan that encompassed any area close by so they created a little finger of land northward to encompass Fayetteville. The point is obvious. The tree huggers and the coal plant haters are in and around Fayetteville. As long as they voted in the conservative northwestern stronghold of the 3rd district, their votes for congressman were in the minority. So let’s change things so that all the liberals can help the 4th district stay Democratic. Folks, the Democrats in Chicago have nothing on us. None of the sponsors of this corrupt move can present any logic. Draw your own conclusions.
About the only defense of this ridiculous map comes from one of the Democrat leaders of the senate. According to the Dem-Gaz Mr. Bookout says, “You can look at gerrymandering in a lot of different states and I have seen things that look like snakes so that this is some concept that this is some wild hair out there – that’s not the issue when we look at it.” So Senator Bookout just what is the issue? So how do you like that for a defense? It may be a crime but it’s not as bad a crime as has been committed by some of our fellow politicians in Louisiana or Mississippi. Doesn’t that sound like some eight year old kid caught stealing five dollars? He considers himself innocent because his brother stole ten dollars.
We should also be on the defensive for redistricting of our own state legislative districts. I have heard reports our Governor is attempting to get rid of three or four troublesome Republicans by his own type of gerrymandering.
If there was ever any doubt we need a regime change and a political party change in this state, the hi-jinks of this legislative session should alleviate any doubt.
(Jerry Jackson of Heber Springs writes his “conservative viewpoint” column each Wednesday)
