Arizona, In a Nutshell : AZ IMC

As red states go there aren't many that can match the particular shade of crimson found in Arizona. The GOP has maintained a stranglehold on the legislature for time immemorial, which makes for an excellent case study, as Democrats are literally (and continuously) blocked from participating in the budget process.

How have the Republicans fared? Not well, if you can believe such iffy indicators as bookkeeping and arithmetic, which project a budget deficit of around $2 billion. The only thing more telling than past performance is their laundry list of solutions to the economic morass that has materialized on their watch.

Republican governor Jan Brewer, who has been on the job for well over a year now, keeps saying the solution lies in a "temporary" one-cent state sales tax. Given that most Arizonans already pay about 8 cents on the dollar, this would represent a net tax hike of 12.5% across the board, recession or no recession.

At the same time, she also wants to see a "phased reduction" in corporate income tax rates, even though Arizona ranks in line with other states of similar scale, such as North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia, and far lower than such places as Indiana, Minnesota or Pennsylvania. She says this will lead (somehow) to job creation...

But that theory - Reagonomics - has already fallen flat on its face, on a national scale no less, as George W. Bush's wetnursing of Big Business yielded just 4.8 million jobs over an eight-year period. Compare that to the tenure of Bill Clinton, whose tax-and-spend policies created some 23 million jobs, and balanced the federal budget at the same time.

As usual, conservative lawmakers have also reached for the meat axe, hoping to chop their way out of the shortfall they created. The latest trimming came out to $100 million, but the legislature wanted to hack off much more, as Brewer had to veto more than double that amount in proposed cuts to K-12 education.

They also slated 8 state parks for closure. This is not merely a travesty for the locals, or a reduction in fees collected; it also makes Arizona less of a destination for tourists and the money they spend. How much sense does that make when tourism impacts our economy to the tune of a million dollars a day?

Arizona Department of Transportation has cut its workforce by one-third. As of next month, ADOT will close 12 of its MVD offices, forcing some residents to travel 100 round-trip miles for essential services. Arizona Department of Public Safety (i.e., highway patrol) saw its budget reduced by 15 percent. Funding of state universities will be cut by $141 million.

At the same time, municipal services are being slashed, including public transit. Arizona has lost a greater percentage of jobs than most states - even Michigan. A good many states are in the same leaky boat, but only here do the attempted fixes amount to a game of Blind Man's Bluff.

All in all, nobody seems to be particularly optimistic about the near future, and yet they also seem quite content to keep sending Republicans back into their elected offices. Mental health experts will readily identify this behavior as sado-masochism.

In Arizona, we just call it business as usual.

come on here...
by AZ and Divisional Betrayel Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010 at 10:54 AM

Please have some information.
Bill Clinton looted the Social Security Fund so Bush could give it to the people who bought both of them.
We have here a classic case of creating two mythical opponents in struggle when it's in reality, a Punch & Judy puppet show while the pick pockets who run amok in the crowd, turn into snarling wolves ripping our hamstrings out to devour us.
Or is that too simple?
Let me make it even more clear
( you may wish to disagree )
The money that buys " both " parties and hires idiots to rant in shallow slogans, a reinstatement of this myth; have no excuse for this sorry State's economic crisis when the wars rip us all off and the banksters who create these wars, take the rest.
These puppet presidents are a result of criminality gone full bloom. In a land of double speak and outright lies.