Enough is enough. Before the dust settles on the $1.3 billion extra dollar bills flowing to the state treasury from tax increases foisted on taxpayers in 2007, lawmakers and others are grumbling for more.
Among the proposals are squeaking out more funds from businesses recently hit with a corporate income tax hike and extending the sales tax to items purchased on the Internet. The U.S. Constitution prohibits the latter proposal. But the rule of law is but a quaint anachronism to crusaders intent on safeguarding their slice of the government pie.
It is as if the state budget is the Bible and cutting it would be sacrilegious. For those who make their living from government -unions, state employees, and favored charities of state lawmakers among them- trimming the budget is a high crime.
But how to prioritize the budget is not a spiritual question. It is a financial one. And if the response in Maryland to President Barack Obama’s trillion-dollar health care proposal — a sweeping overhaul to the system that seeks to insure every American through in part a public plan — proves anything, Americans want less government.
It was an almost surreal experience to see hundreds of people waving homemade signs to protest health care reform legislation — or “health insurance” reform legislation as the administration now calls it — Monday evening in Towson, where Sen. Ben Cardin, D-MD, held a town hall meeting. This is Maryland, a state where pasting a “Maryland Democrat” bumper sticker on one’s car is like advertising “The sky is blue.”
Most of the people I spoke with told me they were registered Democrats. And save for a few who attended an anti-tax Tea Party earlier this year, none said they had attended a protest. Some of the signs waved at the event were “Share my work ethic, not my salary;” “Sick of Obama Care;” and “Live Free.”
All the cars in the parking lot were from Maryland, putting the lie to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who declared protesters “Astroturf” – professional agitators bused in from throughout the country.
And many seemed at a loss for yelling something derogatory, settling for “Give me your money!” to the small band of “health insurance” reform supporters with pre-printed signs, the only sign of professional intervention that night.
It was as if protesters had never ventured beyond yelling cheers for their children’s soccer teams. And given the temperature – 95 degrees at 7 PM – only those truly incensed at government spending would have come out that evening.
Dale Croston, 63, of Edgewood, was one of the protesters Monday night. The electrician, who described himself as a Democrat and wore an American flag polo shirt, decided to protest because “If they don’t see bodies, they don’t see the problem.” He said he was tired of members of Congress telling Americans how to live when they did not have to abide by the same rules.
Mona Lane, a 46-year-old nurse and Bonnie Goetz, a 57-year-old nurse, both from Towson, wondered why the government needed to overhaul every aspect of the health system in only a few weeks. And they questioned how government, which they said could not run anything well, could manage something as complex as a national health care system.
Their turnout, like that of thousands of others across the U.S. at similar events, does not bode well for health care overhaul in Congress. But it should also serve as a warning for Gov. Martin O’Malley and state legislators who think that they can quietly pass more taxes on a pliable public.
Those same newly minted protesters may not be happy to learn that the size of the state government payroll, according to the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, grew by 1,049 people from 2007 to 2008 – crisis times – as the economy was tanking. That far outstrips, on a per capita basis, the 3,600 state government workers California hired in the year ending in June.
Health care may outrank other issues, but once organized there is no telling where these powerful voices may turn their attention next. Legislators should restrain their spending or expect the formerly silent masses to turn their wrath on them.
