One of the big reasons I have not been posting for a month has been work. But the other has been rage. Pure, unadulterated, unbridled rage. The votes by Dels. Page Elmore (R-Wicomico) and A. Wade Kach (R-Baltimore) for the "Slots Referendum Bill" sent me into an apoplectic rage. Every time I sat down to write, the vitriol was uncontrollable. But now, I have calmed down (somewhat) and I can think and write clearly again.
A. Wade Kach sent out a long description why he voted for the Slots Referendum Bill. His basic argument: if the bill didn't pass, an even worse tax plan was around the corner.
Sorry, Wade, but that dog won't hunt, and it won't hunt when you stand for re-election in 2010, either.
The General Assembly, in passing the Slots Bill, essentially gutted the Maryland Constitution.
Why? It's actually pretty simple. The Maryland Constitution does not provide for a referendum mechanism. So the General Assembly, with the acquiesence of that hippie liberal Attorney General Doug Gansler, proposed a constitutional amendment to slide a referendum through the back door.
That's right, the Slots Bill is nothing more than a constitutional amendment.
Using the amendment process like this repugnant and despicable, and I don't care what the alternative tax plan was.
if the General Assembly, and its members, are so willing and ready to twist the Maryland Constitution to fit their political needs -- ie, not being held accountable for doing their jobs and actually voting yes or no on a five-year old proposal -- then why should the citizens of Maryland care about that Constitution? If the General Assembly and the Attorney General (not to mention the O'Guvnah) are so willing to ignore both the original intent and applied intent of the Constitution, why should we bound by it either?
Why should the citizens of Maryland regard the laws of this state -- all promulgated under the authority of that Constitution -- as anything more than drivel?
If the Government is so ready and willing to cast aside the principles of its founding document, then why should the governed any longer consent to it?
We elect a General Assembly to represent us. To make difficult-- and sometimes politically hazardous -- decisions. How to tax, what to tax, how to spend, what to spend. Sometimes those decisions aren't popular. Sometimes they are not easy to make. But it is the job of Delegates like Page Elmore and Wade Kach (and all their dirty, depsicable Democrat friends) to do that job. That is the price of electoral victory.
Trying to backdoor a referendum through the amendment process is a betrayal of our Constitution and our electoral process.
And, while it might seem like a cliche, "two wrongs don't make a right".
Just because Mike Miller and Mike Busch are threatening a much worse tax package -- that would be worse for the state -- does not justify in ANY WAY -- violating the Constitution of the State of Maryland. Especially when the whole exercise is a corrupt attempt for legislators to avoid accountability in 2010. That was one of the lessons I learned as a student of Wade Kach's at Loch Raven Middle School in 1983-84.
We should be honest-- the entire slots game is a farce. The line that we are trying to save the horse racing industry is a joke. Horse Racing is an AARP sport, and a small one at that... go to Pimlico or Laurel or any basic weekday, and count the number of fans in the grandstand. The are probably less than Republican Delegates in the General Assembly.
The trickle-down benefit to farms and farmers is minimal. Few if any horse farms in Central Maryland actually raise and breed thoroughbreds. Fewer farms actually supply grain or hay or straw to the tracks.
So then what is this all about? It's about O'Guvnah and his liberal, socialist allies trying to keep up their profligate spending on jobs programs for their liberal supporters and fellow whore-mongers. They can't raise revenue through honest means to do this, so they expand gambling. Anyone who has ever played SimCity could see this coming.
If this really were about saving the tracks -- and the industry-- those slots parlors would be at Laurel, Pimlico, etc. After all, there is already gambling there-- and the companies that own them know how to run gambling operations.
Instead, we are looking at slots parlors south of the stadium complex in Baltimore, at Rocky Gap, and at the harness track in Worcestor-- just across Assawoman Bay from Maryland's favorite tourist trap.
How do you spell MORE REVENUE, MORE SPENDING, MORE CORRUPTION?
For this, Wade Kach and Page Elmore joined the Democrats to abuse the Maryland Constitution and create a referendum process where one doesn't exist.
I was wrong-- three wrongs don't make a right.
In the Declaration of Independence, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin made their first charge against George III the following:
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
When the General Assembly, the Governor, the Treasurer, and the Attorney General refuse to assent to the laws of the State of Maryland, why should we?
And what should we do about it?