Another Direction for Wealth Redistribution

This has to stick in the craw of anybody who’s struggling to make monthly housing payments and considers continued employment to be a month-to-month thing (emphasis added):

Carcieri immediately put legislative leaders on notice of the likely need to borrow from the state-run disability-insurance fund earlier in the state’s budget year than anyone could recall. In one such letter to Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere, the governor noted that he can only do so when: “All cash in the General Fund, including the payroll clearing account has been or is about to be, exhausted.” …
Approximately 420,000 private-sector employees in Rhode Island, and some municipal employees, pay 1.3 percent of their gross wages — up to a maximum wage base of $54,400 — into the TDI trust fund.

When it comes to government-run insurance, everything is ultimately part of the general fund, and it’s clear, when push comes to shove, where the government’s priorities lie.

… the state is lurching from pay period to pay period in an atmosphere of increasing uncertainty about the state’s ability to raise the revenue that the governor and legislative budget-writers anticipated when they cobbled together this year’s budget.

It’s time to cut expenditures and shrink the size of Rhode Island’s government. Any other solution will only exacerbate the problem.

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Mike
Mike
15 years ago

“It’s time to cut expenditures and shrink the size of Rhode Island’s government. Any other solution will only exacerbate the problem.”
What a stupid, bigoted wacko right-wing response. The solution is to meet the growing needs of the community. Stop protecting The Rich and “invest” in the Democrat hacks, public-employee greedheads, welfare witches and undocumented Americans from every Third World sinkhole on the planet.
“Jesus was a community organizer. Jerzyk and Segal are spoiled prep school sons of multi-millionaires”

Howard
Howard
15 years ago

Obama’s first, second, and third priority is to get elected. If that means pandering to large numbers of people who want a free ride, he’ll be happy to throw them a few crumbs as a way to get their votes. He will also turn democracy and capitalism on it’s head, and villainize the affluent and successful in our society, in order to rally the masses behind him. With evangelical zeal Obama will convince his followers to replace reason with hope and belief … to blindly follow him … never challenge him … and embrace his words as gospel. In the real, and unforgiving world of economics however, when you immediately gratify everyone by feasting on the goose that lays the golden eggs, the economy looses it’s ability to continue generating growth and wealth. Obama is promising everyone a piece of the pie, whether they helped bake it, or not … but, only in a socialistic, or communist state do the non-contributors demand to share equally in the property that belongs to others. Immediate gratification is like a drug to the malcontents, but in the big picture, every farmer knows that you never eat your seed crop. If Obama gets elected, America will turn into a third world country, with massive government welfare programs, unable to generate jobs for it’s citizens, and unable to compete in the global markets. Keep America safe, free and strong … elect McCain/Palin on November 4th.

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