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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

REPUBLICANS PRIORITIZE CORPORATE GIVEAWAYS AND THE ÜBER-WEALTHY OVER CHILDREN AND WORKING FAMILIES

Pima County Democratic Party
Jeff Rogers, Chair
August 3, 2009

Legislative Republicans are playing a game of reverse Robin Hood, taking from Arizona's working families and giving hundreds of millions of dollars to pamper the super-rich and corporate interests.

The Phoenix Republican machine, that once wanted to refer a temporary one cent sales tax to the voters to fund education, has decided that tax giveaways for corporations and the wealthiest of Arizonans is a better use of those tax dollars.
“This kind of Scottsdale-first prioritizing has become the hallmark of this Far Right Legislature,” remarked Jeff Rogers, Pima County Democratic Party Chair. “They’re operating under the delusion that their complete and total disregard for education and the working families of Arizona will go unnoticed by the voters next year.”

The Republican majority has had 200 days to put together a budget and have not yet done so. The constitutional deadline was June 30 and they still can’t get their act together. When the Right Wing and the Far Right Wing of the GOP reach a compromise, it hardly represents progress for Arizonans.

Southern Arizona's Republican delegation of Al Melvin, David Stevens, David Gowan, Frank Antenori, Vic Williams and Jonathan Paton has spent the legislative session favoring the interests of their Phoenix bosses over those of their constituents.


Sen. Melvin explained that his decision-making process does not include consideration of the voters he represents:
“Frankly speaking, most of the issues that come up—it’s not a struggle for me. I have the Republican platform. I have the Bible.”
Melvin quotes neither chapter nor verse in explaining how $650 million in giveaways aimed mostly at the wealthy would be a greater priority than teaching kids, healing the sick or protecting the elderly from hard economic times.

The Legislature has not gotten the work done but has found time to play around with ideological excesses and imposed a Far-Right agenda on the people of Arizona.

They voted to strip bar owners of the right to ban guns from their businesses. This deadly combination of guns and alcohol flies in the face of reason, but reason has no place in their legislative priority to turn every page of the Republican Platform into state law.

Arizona’s children and working families are being victimized by the Phoenix political bosses and their minions in the legislature as the Republicans ramp up their ideological war on progress.

Arizona deserves better.