"… these people
keep saying there's got to be other ways to do it. I'm calling their
bluff" – Governor Dannel Malloy, announcing his plan for a pre-special
session, closed door meeting.
“These people” are, of course, minority Republicans in the
General Assembly who have been consistently shooed out of room by Mr. Malloy during
budget negotiations. The above quote suggests that Mr. Malloy, beset by
continuing deficits, is now prepared to negotiate in good faith with side-bar
Republicans. Mr. Malloy clearly is signaling that the “greater good” should
take precedence over the lesser good sometimes supported by majority Democrats whose
political livelihood depends upon securing the active intervention of special
interests.
In politics, however, appearances may be deceiving. In the
minds of Machiavellian politicians, appearances are often intended to deceive, and
while Mr. Malloy is no Machiavelli, he has in the past attempted to marginalize
Republicans by preventing their direct participation in budget negotiations.
Mr. Malloy’s “bluff calling” may be regarded as a brief
pause in the majority party’s thus far unsuccessful attempt to render
politically ineffective the sometimes successful resistance of minority
Republicans. Majority Democrats continue to man all the heights in Connecticut
politics. They’ve captured from moderate Republicans the Governor’s office, the
entire U.S. Congressional Delegation, and all the Constitutional offices in
Connecticut; Democrats also hold the General Assembly in their unrelenting
grasp.
It is events – not the Republican Party alone – that seem to
have persuaded Mr. Malloy to include Republicans in his pre-special session,
closed door budget deliberations. Though he may do so any time he chooses, Mr.
Malloy has not decided to convene a special session which, unlike the
closed back door pre-special session he recommends, would be an open and public
proceeding. Open and transparent proceedings, any good Machiavellian will tell
you, are less susceptible to political manipulation and media deception.
There is no reason why Mr. Malloy and his confederates in
the General Assembly – President Pro Tem of the Senate Martin Looney and Speaker
of the House Brendan Sharkey -- should not commit, before the closed door
pre-special session meeting, to a date-certain for the special session. Without
such a commitment, Majority Democrats very well might reject any proposal made
by minority Republicans – after Republicans have committed themselves in
semi-permeable, closed door sessions to specific proposals that could be used
against them in the upcoming General Election by crafty media supported
Democrats with progressive knives in their teeth.
It already is well known that majority Democrats have
continually addressed repetitive deficits through tax increases. The tax
increases – both the largest and the second largest in state history – have
served mostly as temporary budget deficit patches and sops to progressives in
the Democratic Party who appear to believe that increasing taxes during a
protracted recession will, to borrow an expression from former President John Kennedy “lift all the boats.” Actually, Mr. Kennedy’s solution to the
stagflation of his day was to cut taxes, thus priming job pumps and business
expansion in the private economy.
If you can’t raise taxes to discharge chronic deficits – and
Mr. Malloy has insisted several times, most recently this week, that he has no
intention of causing further damage to Connecticut's fragile economy by raising
taxes again – there is but one course open to you. Cut spending. To do this,
Mr. Malloy will need a few Republicans pulling on the General Assembly oars.
Let us call this the appearance of a rapprochement with
the battered Republican minority, remembering always that in the political
theater appearances are sometimes purposely deceiving.
A number of things must change before Connecticut, to employ
a Trumpism, is made great again. The right taxes, those that spur business
activity and job production for all companies in Connecticut, must be put on a
solid footing, remembering always that cautious businesses, those operating
under the Damoclean sword of uncertainty, will not use their resources to
increase jobs and the state’s wealth. Long-term spending must be reduced by
about $1.5 to $2 billion. Schooling, particularly in urban areas, must be
reformed, possibly through a voucher system that would allow parents a greater
choice in selecting better schools for their children. The tax code should not
be used in a punitive manner to punish entrepreneurial success; rather it should be used
to reward socially beneficial behavior. Connecticut, still one of the richest
states in the nation, should use its
wealth to enhance and enlarge the greater good, which almost always is the
enemy of the lesser good assiduously courted by those politicians who are the
handmaidens of special interests. Open government, like contracts openly
arrived at, enhances democracy; closed proceedings strangle democracy in its
crib.
A date, agreed upon by Mr. Malloy and Democratic and
Republican leaders in the General Assembly, should be set for an open special
session, preceded by open public hearings that may be attended by anyone – even
overlooked municipal leaders – whose testimony could be vital to permanent
solutions that will cauterize suppurating economic wounds and re-open an access
road to Connecticut’s prosperity.
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