Consequences are the results of choices. So, as Rhode Islanders confront a half-billion dollar budget deficit, they should reflect upon the decisions that caused their State’s economic distress. After all, the State’s current fiscal condition was never a fated scenario. Alternate policies could have been employed.
So what decisions led to Rhode Island’s economic crisis?
The easy answer to that question is that Rhode Islanders have chosen to elect Democrats for the past seven decades. But why is it so dangerous to give Democrats the reins of state power?
Rhode Island’s steepest annual expenditures are the benefits bestowed upon the State’s unionized public employees, and its entitlement programs (a chunk of which is channeled directly to the State’s illegal population). Rhode Islanders are consistently ranked amongst the highest-taxed citizens in the nation. So are their companies. In its State Business Tax Climate Index from last year that ranked the 50 states in terms of “business friendliness,” the Tax Foundation ranked Rhode Island 50th. Massachusetts was 34th.
Who is it again that has a reputation for taxing and spending? Who has insisted on ballooning state government with market-proof, taxpayer-funded, public-union employees?
And what about Teresa Paiva-Weed (D-Newport, Jamestown), Senate Majority Leader who killed legislation that would have cracked down on the State’s illegal work force and opened up job opportunities for legal citizens who are today unemployed? Which party does she belong to again?
Nobody likes to play the blame game, but in this case it can
be instructive.
The Republican Party’s platform has always screamed for carefully limited welfare and a low-tax climate; strict adherence to immigration law, and opposition to union politics. Now The Providence Journal editorializes,“The cost of government,notably in benefits for public employees…has risen much faster than the public’s ability to pay for it. Something has to give.”
Something has always had to give.
In his column in The Providence Journal last month, chairman of the House Finance Committee Steven Constantino (D-Providence) wrote, “With the hard work of passing the Rhode Island state budget behind us, it is time to step back and reflect on what we have accomplished,and where we go from here.”Rep. Constantino would love for voters to retain their ignorance by only gazing toward the future.But they would be wise to also peer back to the past to observe the recklessness of the State’s ruling party.
Empowered public unions, a stifling tax structure, and give-away spending habits are not consequences. They are, in fact, the policies Democrats desired,voted for,and enacted.Rhode Island’s skyrocketing unemployment rate is the consequence.
Democratic leadership is taking its toll on all Rhode Islanders. The union-run public education system is failing by most measures of academic performance. In order to slash years of embedded spending, attractive athletic programs are being cut from state universities, monetary aid to towns is threatened, and convicted criminals are being released early into the streets of economic recession.
One might argue that Republicans most often occupy Rhode Island’s gubernatorial seat. Therefore, they also share responsibility for the State’s fiscal despair. It’s true that Rhode Island voters, although they have elected scores of Democratic legislators throughout the years, have usually preferred a Republican governor (it’s almost as if they possess an instinct to place an adult at the head of the household).
But there is no denying the imbalance of power that has existed within the State House. When a Republican occupies the executive office, Rhode Island’s gubernatorial seat is widely regarded as one of the weakest in the country.Rhode Island Democrats boast the third highest concentration of party members within a state legislature,an unfortunate dominion that most often secures veto-proof majorities.This governmental condition is why Governor Carcieri told the audience at this year’s RIGOP Convention,“I need more Republicans with me in the State House.”
No doubt about it, the Rhode Island legislature has a disappointing history of governing “liberally.”Kneecapped Republicans have been limited to arguing and bartering with their political counterparts – good enough to delay the coming calamity,but not enough to stop it.
For certain, conservative cries for responsible fiscal governance have been widely ignored by the Rhode Island left. For the past several decades the nation has been swept up in a conservative revolution – slapped with Reaganomics and welfare reform; warned of illegal immigration and the expansion of public sector unions.Talk radio began to successfully communicate these ideas, along with resonating notions of individualism, family, and the inefficiencies of government.
But Rhode Island Democrats don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh. They read Bob Kerr.
The good news is that Governor Carcieri is actually succeeding in setting the stage for the State’s economic comeback. He is enacting policies that are diminishing the size of the state workforce, restructuring public union contracts, and cracking down on illegal immigration.
Oddly enough, Democrats have been buttressing the Governor’s reforms.
Recently passed legislation includes the injection of market competition into municipal workers’ insurance benefits, the ap- proval of mayoral academies, and a discontinuance of the union-backed ban on charter schools. Democrats are also beginning to bend on pension reform that includes the implementation of defined contribution plans, rather than defined benefit plans. And the Democrat-controlled General Assembly recently approved Governor Carcieri’s budget—a budget that cut spending without raising taxes. All staples of Republican governance.
The Providence Journal categorized many of these changes as “politically inconceivable a few years ago.” They overtly represent conservative reform that contradicts the liberal policies that Democrats have allowed to incrementally deteriorate the State’s fiscal health for decades. Democrats must have finally stumbled upon the RIGOP’s website.
The Democratic Party is like a cancer that has the ability to cure itself whenever the body is about to wither (or whenever voters begin to pay attention). Because the reality is that the policies currently being implemented to rectify Rhode Island’s economic anguish are also the ones that would have helped to avoid it.
Elected offices are reserved for the wise and moral; not the neglectful and foolish. So what should be done with Democratic legislators suddenly doing their best Republican impressions? Well,there are 75 Republicans running for office this election cycle. For anyone unfamiliar with Republicans, they are the ones walking around these days saying ‘We told you so.’
Travis J. Rowley is the author of Out of Ivy: How a Liberal Ivy Created a Committed Conservative, and the vice-chairman of the RI Young Republicans. He can be reached at trowley@idiversity.org.
