| Pat McDonald, the chair of the Vermont Republican Party, put the state's Republicans squarely in the Ebenezer Scrooge wing of the party exemplified by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. It's not surprising that Eric Cantor would publicly take the position, "Screw the flood victims! No aid without tax cuts," but it's a bit surprising that the Republicans in Vermont would take that same line. Sure enough, though, that's what she's doing. As Bob Kinzel reported on VPR this afternoon: She also wants [Shumlin] to pledge not to increase any taxes for recovery programs and to begin to implement Republican plans to reform education financing in the state. (McDonald) "We've got to make some really tough decisions going forward to get people back on their feet to get businesses open and people back to work." McDonald's so-called action plan, posted on the state Republican Party's web page, calls for freezes and cuts to all other state programs to prepare to return some taxpayer dollars to the state treasury. She also wants to use the crisis to push "education finance reforms" that state Republicans have been pushing for in recent years to attack local control and slash state support for schools, and to raid the Housing and Conservation Board. Republicans in Congress last week have been threatening to shut down the government because Democrats in the House and Senate want to provide hurricane and flood relief to states that were hit hard by Hurricane Irene, including Vermont, although late developments suggest that a deal may be in the works. As Cantor put it right after the storm went through: he believed any additional funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster response budget should be taken from other government programs. The FEMA budget is reportedly under strain after relief responses to the Midwest tornadoes and Virginia earthquake. But McDonald? There are people in Vermont still working hard every day to clean up after last month's flooding. There are people in her own town of Berlin who have been made homeless by the flooding and are still looking for help. But what's her plan? Use the catastrophe that Vermonters are suffering for an opportunity to push her agenda of cutting taxes and undermining public education. I just have one question for Pat McDonald: Have you no shame? |
