More free advice for the GOP

by | Aug 6, 2014 | Editor's Blog, NC Politics | 4 comments

In the wake of their contentious legislative session, I want to offer Republicans some free advice. 

First, stop blaming the Democrats. On issues from teacher salaries to coal ash GOP defenders repeatedly say, “The Democrats did it.” Preschool should have taught you that two wrongs don’t make a right. Besides, you got elected because of what Democrats did or didn’t do. Finally, pointing fingers at the party out of power makes you look like whiners. You’ve been in control for going on four years now. Your grace period ended awhile ago.

Second, quit claiming you increased education funding. You didn’t. If you had, schools would have had more money. They didn’t. Per pupil spending went down, classroom size grew, school supplies were in short supply and extracurricular activities were canceled. Claiming you gave schools more money either means you are lying or you misspent the money since it never made it to the classrooms. Blaming Democrats or the federal government for short falls doesn’t work either since it’s your job to find the money. That’s what you were elected to do.

Tone down your Carolina Comeback rhetoric. It rings hollow. Nobody is feeling like the economy is roaring again. There are still fewer jobs than there were before the recession. Wages are flat and a lot of the people who have gone back to work are in part-time jobs or jobs that pay considerably less than the ones they had before. Bragging about a comeback that nobody feels hurts your credibility more than convinces people we’re on the right track. 

And about those tax cuts. Maybe big business and the wealthy feel them, but the rest of us don’t. After ending the Earned Income Tax Credit, taxing services and increasing the tax on electricity, the working poor are paying more, not less. The rest of us are basically breaking even. They haven’t spurred the economic growth you promised, but they have led to cuts we didn’t want (see second point). If you are hell bent on cutting taxes, focus on the middle class, not the rich. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work. It never has and never will. 

Contrary to your beliefs, your election in 2010 and 2012 was not about remaking state government. It was about cleaning up cronyism, putting people back to work, finding more money for public schools and teacher salaries and instilling confidence in government. So far, you’ve failed on all accounts. So, admit when you are wrong, stop passing the buck, and start looking for new ideas. Some of them might be on the other side of the aisle. 

4 Comments

  1. Edward Barnard

    Good article Mr. Mills. I concur with every point and if we demand vote tabulation verification we will see a major change of demeanor in the corporate/Republican party!

  2. Thomas Ricks

    The GOP has determined that it can be as nasty, deceitful, dishonest, racist, mean and disgusting as they possibly can and that they are still competitive in this state, and that meembly bothers are still determined to equate both sides as equal.

    How many people do you know that you’d trust your life with?

    How many people do you trust to be able to get away with whatever they want?

    Yeah. Republicans are humans. They have figured out the mall security guard is too fat to catch up to them.

  3. Eilene

    and as far as that increase in education spending, NC has an interesting system where the state appropriates money to the schools, then decide they can’t really afford all that, and they send the school districts a bill, which the district has to pay back to the state. So even the money we actually got, we didn’t get all of it. We had to give it back.These guys are tools.

  4. Troy

    Well stated Thomas.

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