By Ed Randazzo
As a result of the of the SD 2009 election, Democrats hold 5 of the 35 SD Senate seats and 19 of the SD House seats. What are the SD Democrats doing to prevent another shellacking in 2012?
Not much.
Apparently the chairman of the SD Democratic Party is simply counting on a backlash from voters who will have felt the effects of the budget cuts taken in 2011. They will roll out the old charges of mean-spirited insensitivity against the Republicans.
SD Democratic Party Chairman Ben Nesselhuf says “I think you’re going to see the real impact of this year’s budget which will be hitting hard during the campaign next year.” Of course it will, Ben. It is the unpalatable but necessary price we all have to pay to offset the structural deficit. Budgets are not cut back without pain. The voters of SD knew that cuts had to be made and they elected the super majority of Republicans because they believed that GOP plan for eliminating the deficit by budget cuts, not tax increases or the raiding of reserves, was the wise and prudent policy to pursue.
Instead of strategizing for a winning policy in 2012, the SD Democratic Party leadership should concentrate on sound fiscal policy or they could wind up even more irrelevent in SD government.
No, firing teachers and professors and cutting back on health care assistance are not the “necessary” price we pay. We have the option of finding the revenue to support the programs we need. We have the option of raising sales taxes, which while regressive would still do less damage than the job losses and economic decline caused by the budget cuts.
And if Democrats were in charge in Pierre, Republicans would be doing the same thing (and you’d be all for it!), strategizing for victory in the next election, just as the GOP did all through 2009 and 2010 in the face of Dems in charge of the White House and Congress.
http://madvilletimes.com/2011/02/sb-174-budget-cuts-triple-job-losses-compared-to-extra-penny-sales-tax/
Predictable as the sunrise, you progressives have one, and only one, solution for everything….TAXES, TAXES, TAXES. You are the enablers of the spending addicts……the Debtocrats. Do you handle your household budget the same way? Have you borrowed and spent your way out of debt? Or perhaps you just wish to run up the debt and have someone else pay for it. Your position is short-sighted and irresponsible. Raising taxes has NEVER resulted in increased revenue. The fact is you don’t have the option to raise taxes, not on Dennis Daugaard’s watch.