Posts by Delaware Dem

First, we will tackle the subject of El Somnambulo's year end review over the next three days. The Good. The Bad. The Ridiculous. First up, the Ridiculous. Here is the schedule for the end of the year polling. Today--The Ridiculous. Tomorrow--The Good. Saturday--The Bad. Sunday through Wednesday--Approval Ratings--Governor Markell Thursday, 12-26-13--Approval Ratings--Lt. Governor Denn Friday, 12-27-13--Approval Ratings--Treasurer Chip Flowers Saturday, 12-28-13--Approval Ratings--Attorney General Biden Sunday, 12-29-13--Approval Ratings--Insurance Commissioner Stewart Monday, 12-30-13--Approval Ratings--Senator Carper Tuesday, 12-31-13--Approval Ratings--Senator Coons Wednesday, 1-1-14--Approval Ratings--Congressman Carney

The Governor is about to show us whose side he is on? The rich or the poor.

Gov. Jack Markell, who will present a new budget to the General Assembly next month, will not have a significant boost in new tax revenue to cover mandatory cost increases in health care and education, according to new revenue estimates out Monday.[...] “Even though revenues ultimately are still going to be up from last year, they’re not going to be up enough to cover the automatic growth in Medicaid and the automatic growth in schools,” said Rep. Melanie George Smith, D-Bear, co-chair of the budget writing Joint FinanceCommittee. “That’s the real issue.”

Senate Minority Leader Gary Simpson offers the standard Republican prescription for anything involving fiscal matters: tax cuts and more tax cuts. Even though history has shown all tax cuts do is raise the budget deficit, something the Governor and the General Assembly is trying to close. I assume Mr. Markell will not go down the tax cut course, for if he does, he should just join the Republican Party right now. But what I do seem him doing is trying to cut spending on social services to avoid in any way raising a dime in taxes on his friends in the corporate world.