The Brazen Martin O’Malley

Not just no, but hell no.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

I can’t speak for residents of other states but I can sure as heck speak for Maryland. Around here, we’re looking down the barrel of an almost $700 million deficit in 2009 that will come darned close to tripling to $1.8 billion in 2010. Now, if you were a Governor faced with a shortfall like that would you:

A) Cut spending as far as possible and look for ways to increase the revenue stream through?
B) Increase dozens of government programs, pray that getting slot machines will cover the shortfall, and throw a last-minute hail mary state employee furlough play to show everyone just how dire the situation is?

If you chose B), then congratulations, you could slide right into Governor Martin O’Malley’s shoes and no one would notice.

Right before Christmas, I noted how the Governor’s furlough plan is slated to save about $34 million while at the same time he’s spending over twice that to buy up some property to keep it safe from nefarious chicken farmers. This week, he upped the ante of idocy.

O’Malley distributes something called the One Marylander newsletter every week in which he brags about the good things the state government is doing for we poor peons outside of Annapolis. Here’s a chunk of the latest Proclamation from On High.

ver these past two years, even in difficult economic times, we continued to protect our shared priorities, strengthening Maryland’s middle class and expanding opportunities for more of our citizens:

* Together we made record investments in K-12 education, including in school construction to replace temporary learning shacks with modern classrooms.
* Together, we enacted what the Washington Post called the most “sweeping [reforms] in the nation” to keep Marylanders in their homes and avoid foreclosure.
* Together, we expanded access to health care to 100,000 of our neighbors who otherwise would have gone uninsured. We closed the Medicare “donut hole” so that our seniors can get access to the medications they need, and we became one of only a handful of states to assist small businesses in providing health insurance to their employees.
* Together, we made important strides toward the greener, more sustainable future all of us prefer for our State and our planet. We created the Chesapeake 2010 Trust Fund, restored our Office of Smart Growth, updated our Critical Areas laws for the first time in a quarter century, passed landmark Clean Cars legislation, and set some of the most ambitious goals in the nation to reduce energy consumption.
* Together we made important strides toward improving public safety in every region of our State – expanding DNA fingerprinting, closing the backlog of 24,000 DNA samples we inherited from our predecessors, reforming Parole and Probation to better target violent offenders, and creating regional, cross-border law enforcement partnerships to crack down on gun violence and gang activity.
* Together, we enacted the nation’s first living wage law, reformed our State’s ground rent system eliminating the creation of new ground rents.
* Together, we improved transition services and health benefits for our veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and increased the veterans scholarship fund to honor our local heroes.

This newsletter, by the way, is sent via e-mail to every state employee. So while our budget is circling the drain and employees are facing a salary cut right smack in the middle of the holidays, here’s Governor O’Malley bragging about how much money we’re spending on these weak-tea, Nanny State, money-wasting programs. Oh, but it goes on.

Over the last year we did not sit back and let our structural challenges overtake us. Instead we came together to make progress around the opportunities we had to make our State and our families stronger.

In the year ahead we will face new challenges with a struggling national economy but we will also face new opportunities – opportunities to invest in schools for the 21st century, new green technologies for a more sustainable future, improved transit options and new investments in our roads, bridges, and tunnels while creating jobs here at home.

You call them “structural challenges”. I call them “fiscal irresponsibility by a progressive throwback who doesn’t know how a balance sheet works”.

And as if his spending jamboree wasn’t enough, he’s promised even more spending next year, which he brazenly calls “opportunities”. Opportunities for whom? Governor O’Malley, the teachers’ unions, and cronies of the administration who are waiting for yet another years’ worth of handouts taken from our pockets. That’s who. There’s no opportunity for the people of Maryland to get out from under the financial hell O’Malley is raining down on us. There’s no opportunity for entrepreneurs to create wealth without the greedy, stifling hand of government sucking them dry. There’s only opportunity for Martin O’Malley and his Democrat pals to grab more and more power for themselves.

What’s most disgraceful is that he has the stones to wish us a “prosperous” New Year. I don’t think he knows the meaning of the word “prosperous”. If he did, he wouldn’t be the spend-happy, big government bungler that he is and he wouldn’t be begging Big Mommy Government to spend even more of our money to rescue him from his own selfish decisions.

(original link via Instapundit)

Other Posts of Interest:

• Maryland Has a Chickens**t Problem, But It’s Not in the Bay
• Who Will Control Your Life - You or Them?
• How the Nanny State Can Be the Conservatives’ Best Friend

Tags: Big Government, Martin O'Malley, Maryland, Nanny State, Progressives

Category: Oh Maryland My Maryland., Our New Democratic Overlords, The Economy and Your Money, The Rise of the Nanny State