Maryland Democrats Want Us To Pay For Their Malfeasance

Maryland has a transportation trust fund that taxes collected from the sale of gasoline (and other items) go in to and the money is supposed to cover the cost of repairing bridges and roads. Unfortunately, this trust fund has become a slush fund for the Democrats in Maryland. This fund has been raided for years to cover budget shortfalls. Instead of actually doing things in a responsible manner, the Democrats insist on adding more and more programs that give taxpayer money to one social welfare program or another and then use money from other sources (like the transportation fund) to pay for them.

The state is in a financial mess and the Democrats used billions of dollars from the trust fund to pay for stupidity and mismanagement. Now that they have completely screwed up our finances and mismanaged the money they already collected from us, they have a plan on how to make up the trust fund shortfall.

They are Democrats so you know what it is. They want to raise taxes. Maryland imposes a 23.5 cent per gallon tax on gasoline and Democrats want to add 12 more cents to that increasing it to 35.5 cents a gallon. As if Obama’s energy policies driving gasoline up to the $4.00 a gallon mark are not bad enough, Maryland wants to add more pain at the pump.

This gas tax increase was introduced during the legislative session but it went nowhere, in large part because of rising gas prices. But now, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is looking at a special session in order to raise the gas taxes. He promised he would not raise taxes but it looks like that is a promise that will be broken and this broken promise will hurt all the folks who voted for him. The poor folks who live off the taxpayer are still going to have to fork over more money to fill their gas tanks. Hope it feels good folks.

As for the transportation trust fund, it seems to me that it is the height of arrogance for politicians to take our money and direct it to a fund for a specific purpose and then use that money for everything except what it was intended for and then claim it needs to raise taxes to make up for the malfeasance. We paid you once and you had the money. Why should we have to pay more to make up for your mismanagement?

O’Malley says that people generally oppose a tax increase on gasoline but when the roads are bad enough they might not mind paying. I don’t care how bad the roads get, I don’t want them to raise taxes on gasoline. Get rid of all the programs that the state has to pay our money to illegal aliens and we might have enough to fix the roads.

The legislators are promising that they will not use the new money for anything else. That is what they were supposed to do the last time.

They can change the rules anytime they want and they will do whatever they want regardless of the rules.

If they followed the rules the transportation trust fund would not be out of money.

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

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Why Politicians Are Afraid Of A Shutdown

The Democrats dropped the ball, punted, kicked the can down the road, or any other cliche’ you want to use describing ignoring an issue, on the federal budget. Charlie Rangel said they just didn’t get to it. Maybe they didn’t get to it because they took so much time off to campaign. Maybe it was because they were worried about passing a budget prior to a big election. Who knows but the absolute certainty is that the Democrats were negligent in their duty when they did not pass the budget.

Is is also an absolute certainty that if they had passed a budget we would not be nearing a government shutdown.

Democrats believe that a shutdown would benefit them politically and at least one Republican believes Obama planned this out last year to help him with his reelection. Republicans believe it would benefit them politically and it probably would since Democrats caused it.

But neither party wants the government to shutdown because of something not related to whom would benefit politically. Members from both parties (particularly Democrats) do not want the government to shut down because people would see how little their lives changed because of it. Essential services will continue despite what we have been told. The non essential services would stop and about 800,000 federal employees would be furloughed until a budget passes. This has happened in the past (a number of times) and old people did not die in the streets, they were not forced to eat cat food, and airplanes were able to land with the assistance of air traffic controllers. People were no worse off when the shutdown ended than they were when it began.

In times past that fact went unnoticed and people went back to their old ways. With the majority of the public demanding spending cuts and common sense it is likely that many more will make the point that they were not harmed by any shutdown. They were able to live their lives without the nanny state.

And this has politicians scared. Democrats depend on a voting base that lives off the government or benefits from one government program or another. LBJ enslaved the blacks with his Great Society and they have been dependent on the government ever since. They have also been a reliable voting block just as Johnson said they would (though he used rather racist terms to describe it).

If people finally wake up and realize that life did not end when government stopped working the politicians will be hard pressed to explain why some gee whiz program needs to pass (it will undoubtedly be for the children). People will know that they can get along just fine without the nanny state.

All non essential employees will be furloughed and those who are essential will work and eventually be paid. One thing that is unbelievable is that the government would allow the members of our armed forces to go unpaid. The Republicans introduced and passed legislation in the House that would guarantee that members of our armed forces get paid no matter what. Obama said he would veto it and that it is nothing more than a distraction.

The Commander in Chief of the armed forces would veto a bill that continues pay for the troops and then calls such a bill a distraction. Someone tell me again how it is the Democrats can claim to support the troops when this kind of crap goes on. If the troops are non essential then let’s get them on planes and get them home.

The reality is that the bullets, IEDs, rockets, missiles and the enemy will continue to pose threats to our troops regardless of the budget situation. The wars don’t stop just because there is no budget.

Amazingly, Obama and all the members of Congress will get paychecks. Perhaps we should designate the people who protect Obama everyday as non essential and let him fend for himself.

Don’t worry though. Even with a shutdown Obama and his family will be able to take a mini vacation.

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

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Business As Usual In Maryland

The People’s Republic of Maryland is a sorry place with regard to the elected slugs in Annapolis. Blair Lee has a great piece outlining what is taking place in the Legislature and it is not pretty. The Governor and his Democrats are playing games with tax increases (after raising taxes to historic levels a few years ago) and pretending that there are no increases. They are calling tax increases fees (something they hammered former Governor Ehrlich over) and they are moving money all over the place.

Speaking of hoaxes, lawmakers are pulling a fast one with the new money that the teachers and state employees must contribute to their woefully underfunded pension fund. O’Malley and the legislature are siphoning off $120 million of new pension contributions to pay for other programs. Yep, it’s another raid just like the raids on the transportation fund, the parks fund, the university’s reserves, etc.

This is the kind of crap that got us into trouble in the first place. They have a tax set up for one thing and then they rape that fund to provide money for some social program or to pay bribes to supporters and then they whine that there is not enough money in the previously funded program and then claim thy need to raise taxes AGAIN. They are guilty of malfeasance and should all be tried, convicted and sent to jail.

Read the article and see if there is any way to make what the Maryland politicians are doing ethical. Look and see if this kind of crap is OK with you or if it makes your blood boil. If you live in Maryland get out and vote to get rid of these cretins and replace them with people who actually know how to manage money.

It is time to jail these criminals and start over.

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]