A session of defense for the reactionary direction of the last four years
Published January 16, 2015
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, January 15, 2015.
At first glance there didn’t seem to be a lot of news on the first day of the 2015 General Assembly session, nothing unexpected anyway. The House elected Rep. Tim Moore as Speaker and the Senate re-elected Senator Phil Berger to his third term as Senate President Pro Tem.
There were the usual promises of openness and bipartisanship even as Berger was taking full credit for the state’s economic recovery, as if North Carolina alone had bounced back from the Great Recession with no help from the national economy or the policies of the Obama Administration.
Moore broke with tradition by not making much of a policy speech after his election as Speaker, instead talking to House members in a folksy manner in mostly general terms about his hopes for the next two years.
Berger and Moore held the customary opening day news conference too, answering questions from reporters about their priorities for the session and how they will respond to proposals from Governor McCrory and outside groups about Medicaid, business incentives, teacher pay, local tax changes, and ethics laws.
There wasn’t much news in their answers either. Other than their illogical opposition to Medicaid expansion, neither Berger nor Moore took positions on most of the issues they were asked about, deferring instead to “we’ll have to wait and see” in most of their responses.
That’s actually the most important story of the opening day of the session, the lack of bold statements by legislative leaders that marked the first days of the sessions in 2011 and 2013.
Back then Berger and then Speaker Thom Tillis promised tax reform, education reform, opposition to gay marriage, rollback of environmental regulations, deep cuts to unemployment benefits and much more.
This year there were such no grand pronouncements or bold new initiatives, just a pledge to keep pushing the state in the same direction, as unwise and counterproductive as it may be.
If you are looking for a possible theme of the 2015 session, it’s that it is likely to be a defensive year, when the Republican majority tries to hold the line on the reactionary agenda they have enacted since they assumed power in 2011.
They didn’t want to expand Medicaid then and they don’t now, despite McCrory’s second thoughts. They keep defending their massive tax cuts for the wealthy even as the cost of the tax shift keeps growing as the budget shortfall increases, threatening education funding and further raises for teachers and state employees that legislative leaders have promised.
They are not sure about reinstating the historic tax credit program that the 2013 tax reform eliminated or how to replace revenue local governments lost with the elimination of the business privilege tax.
Rep. Paul Stam, re-elected Wednesday as Speaker Pro Tem, announced there would be a hearing about “religious freedom” when lawmakers return to town for work on January 28. That’s a code phrase for trying to figure out how to defend marriage discrimination in the face of federal court decisions overturning the state ban on same sex marriage passed in the 2012 primary.
Part of the largely defensive posture might be that lawmakers have already approved much of their hard-core agenda, from private school vouchers to fracking to Robin Hood in reverse tax plans that force cuts to the government they disdain.
Part of it might be that they realize the 2016 election is right around the corner and not only are their own political futures at stake, but Governor Pat McCrory faces a tough reelection battle too and will likely try to run as a thoughtful moderate he thinks the voters will support instead of the rubber stamp for the far-right ideologues he has been for the last two years.
That doesn’t mean that Berger and Moore and other legislative leaders are changing their stripes at all or that they will stop their assault on the fundamental institutions of the state like public schools, the university system, the social safety net, and what’s left of the regulatory structure that protects our land and air and water.
The assaults will no doubt continue. But they are more likely this year to slash and burn in small isolated ways, not massive sweeping changes that draw so much attention and public outrage. They understand their agenda does not enjoy widespread support and that they dodged a bullet in November, thanks to the nationalization of a state election in a favorable off-year electoral environment.
That’s why the session’s opening day may have seemed a little understated.
Berger and Moore are still determined to keep North Carolina marching to the Right and defending the anti-progress they have already made. They just won’t be so noisy about it.
January 16, 2015 at 9:49 am
Norm Kelly says:
I always try to guess the author from the headline prior to actually reading the post. Most of the time, this is ridiculously easy when Chris is the author. Then as I actually read the stuff he writes, it becomes even more obvious that Chris is a left-wing radical. Anything done by libs in political circles, endorsed. Anything done, proposed, or even spoken by Republicans or conservatives, vilified.
'hold the line on the reactionary agenda'. And what were they reacting to? History lesson. Libs controlled Raleigh. They spent money like it was water. They expanded spending at the same time they told us the budget was cut to the bone. They accepted money from the central planners to implement high-speed rail in our state when there was/is no plan of how to pay for it long term. Didn't they pay for the tea cup museum? Didn't they also purchase the Parton theater that was otherwise going bankrupt? Even though the state could NOT afford to expand unemployment payments, the libs in Raleigh still chose to expand these payments. This caused our state to take a loan from the central planners. Just another lib scheme, with no long-term thought process involved. What was the lib plan in Raleigh to pay back the feds on this loan? When the central planners wanted to expand unemployment payments again, and the state couldn't afford it again, what was the lib plan? Simple: borrow more money from the central planners. How was that good for the economy or the majority of state residents? How was the state to pay back this loan or the next loan when the budget was 'cut to the bone'? There was no plan from the libs on how to do this. NONE! The reaction was to the runaway spending of the prior rule of Raleigh by lib pols! The proper reaction was to cut spending. To find a way to pay back the loan. To actually cut the budget to the bone for the benefit of the majority of state residents/tax payers. This is poison to left-wing radicals.
'They understand their agenda does not enjoy widespread support'. Which means in the most recent elections, Republicans lost in big fashion and demon pols swept the state. Obviously, because the majority who chose to vote sent the majority Republicans packing and the legislature is now controlled by kindly, loving, for-the-children libs. Right? Is this what I understand from Chris's post. Voters rejected the agenda, proved there is not widespread support for our legislature because we kicked them out of the majority, and Republicans are now the minority party in Raleigh? Really? Talk about living with rose colored glasses! Only a die-hard, left-wing radical would conclude that Republicans don't have widespread support. Only a true radical would say that continuing a Republican majority was a slap in the face, a slap-down of the agenda that was so obvious to everyone who went to the polls. The Soros-sponsored ads, the constant rantings of the buffet slayer, and the non-stop support of demon pols by the N&D, made everyone in the state aware of the agenda of the Republicans. Yet, somehow, voters chose to leave Republicans as the majority in both chambers of the Legislature. Which obviously translates into 'not widespread support'. I don't understand why this wasn't obvious to me, or to the majority of voters, or to the majority of Republicans in the legislature. I guess it's conservatives who are living with rose colored glasses not to see the obvious signs right in front of us.
'Berger and Moore are still determined to keep North Carolina marching to the Right and defending the anti-progress they have already made'. Properly written would have been '... defending the anti-progressive agenda ...'. As for the march to the right, it's also a march to the right (meaning proper direction). Do libs complain when there's a march to the left? A march toward less freedom, more government control? Do libs complain when pols decide to take more money from people, leave less money in the hands of people who actually earn it? Do libs complain when taxes & fees are raised? Why is it so hard for libs to wait to see how things fall out? The numbers for the budget are not in yet. But libs want us to panic anyway. Very little research will reveal that even when libs controlled Raleigh, raised taxes & fees, raided funds meant for other purposes, the state budget was still 'short' right to the last minute for multiple years in a row. But since libs don't control Raleigh, it's panic time! More freedom. Less government control. Smaller, more efficient government, more power to the people. Sounds like the principles this country was founded upon. What a radical thought!
January 16, 2015 at 11:09 am
Richard Bunce says:
"Republican majority tries to hold the line on the reactionary agenda they have enacted since they assumed power in 2011"
Chris can check off his polemic screed box for the day...
Assumed power? Elected to the majority in the Legislature.
Reactionary agenda? Agenda they promised as candidates to the people that ended up electing them and reelecting them to the majority in the Legislature.
Chris is in denial about recent NC election results.
