Rhode Island Politics

There could hardly be a better symbol for the errors — becoming ever more detrimental to the people of Rhode Island — in mindset of the General Assembly than Senator Dan Issa’s perennial bill to tax expensive clothing: At some point, though, he said, “expensive clothing goes beyond being about filling a basic human need…

In expressing reluctance to cut social programs, some Democrat leaders in the General Assembly have placed such programs in the context of compassion. In point of fact, Rhode Island spending on all social services in Fiscal Year 2005 was in the top third nationally [we are ranked fifteenth]. Our spending in the category of “Medicaid/Vendor…

Charles Bakst does readers the service of eliciting the sort of comments from legislators that one would expect him to want to hear: Interestingly, Senator Montalbano’s speech quoted Hubert Humphrey’s plea to care for the sick, the needy and the handicapped. Montalbano told me that, sure, the budget must be balanced and there’ll be pain…

I’m afraid I have to say that I don’t share Dan Yorke’s optimism. I’m coming to believe that the silent (read: apathetic) majority that many of us have assumed to exist is dwindling toward mythdom. I’ve been beating this drum regularly, of late, but allow me to repeat: Almost 30,000 fewer Rhode Islanders lived in…

A recent op-ed by House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino (D, what else) further illustrates the game playing that our legislators apparently intend to perform instead of fixing Rhode Island’s deep and structural problems: RHODE ISLAND’S fiscal crisis is also our moment of opportunity. By finding ways to make our tax dollars go further, we…

Justin wisely warns that we should pay attention to what our legislators are (or aren’t saying) when it comes to Rhode Island’s “looming financial crisis.”TM For his part, Dan Yorke has blogged his prediction for what’s going to happen. For some reason (heh), Dan predicts that the state’s political class will fail to properly address…

Members of the General Assembly were setting up a lie even before their first meeting of the year (if you can call it that). From Sunday’s Providence Journal: The legislature and the governor promise no tax increases. Legislative leaders repeat: “Everything [else] is on the table.” Interest groups fear the coming session will be “the…

I’m glad I wasn’t in the midst of a gulp of coffee when I read this yesterday: “We are not here today to cast blame on anyone,” House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, said of the huge back-to-back deficits. “The time for finger pointing is over.” Uh, yeah. I’d say there’s still a-plenty of…

We all know we need to cut the state’s budget deficit. And while Monique has laid out some specific areas for potential budget cuts, our legislature did what it has done so well over the years: looked for the quick fix. Rhode Island’s part-time lawmakers returned to the State House yesterday, opening the New Year…

Of course, I’ve got to highlight the good sense of my townsman Stephen Miller (whom I don’t believe I know, by the way): The many issues facing Rhode Island today are not problems, they are symptoms of the real problem — us! Our extremely liberal, entitlement-based attitude permeates everything we do in Rhode Island. The…