Do you ever just want to smack some idiot politician upside the head and ask them wtf they are thinking?

My governor – and do pay attention to this asshole because he’s planning on making a run for the White House in 2012 – needs a good smackin’.

While we are no California, my state is in trouble financially. Our congress put together a bill that would enable the state to continue to offer almost all of the services currently offered. To pay for this, there would have been a tax increase on those making more than $250,000 and on alcohol. Seems like a relatively painless fix to me.

However, enter Emperor Pawlenty who swore to not raise taxes once he was elected. He has what is basically a line item veto or unlimited powers and decided to balance the budget himself. Excuse me? Why the hell do we HAVE a congress if the Emperor is going to do whatever the fuck he wants anyway?

Can you tell I am pissed?

This asshole has stuck to his “no new taxes” throughout his reign over my state. He’s simply cut cut cut and passed the need to tax or raise fees onto local governments. Shit still goes up, but the Emperor will be able to honestly say “when I was Emperor of Minnesota, I balanced the budget without raising taxes”. What a jackass.

Yesterday he announced “his” budget for my state. It’s going to hurt so many people horribly. There will be cuts to the healthcare benefits of the poor. There will be cuts to numerous other social programs that are there to help people.  Public schools k-12 will have their state aid payments deferred for months. This means schools will have to borrow money to make their bills. Higher education institutions will have to make drastic cuts to get past the cuts they are facing. City, county, and township governments are going to be scrambling to balance their budgets and finding new ways to take on fees to help make up the difference.

Essentially, the middle and lower classes just got fucked by the governor. Those who could afford to kick in a bit more won’t be hit at all – additional fees or local taxes don’t tend to hit people making quarter of a million dollar salaries anywhere nearly as badly as those making twenty grand a year.

Financially, my family is relatively stable. I don’t like additionally fees, but we can handle them.  We have health insurance. My heart goes out to those who cannot afford additional costs or have to make a choice between food and a trip to the doctor.

Oh, I guess it doesn’t matter. I guess I should be lucky that I have an Emperor that didn’t raise taxes. After all, he did keep a promise.

Peace