Our Republican Legislature: Dare to be stupid

I have to say that I really don't understand the Republicans in the legislature. I know that they think government is the root of all evil and they want to eliminate it, but they also seem to want to bankrupt it along the way. These two articles 1 and 2 from the East Valley Tribune show how short-sighted they really are.

On one hand they want to cut education and health care spending for the poor during an economic slow down. As the governor rightly points out, people need more educational opportunities and health care spending during a down turn.

This goes back to my seemingly Sisyphean argument that education should be as constitutionally mandated as nearly free as possible. When education is cheap people can retool easier during an economic downturn. This makes for a more flexible and vibrant economy. I can imagine a person who works in construction (and is finding less work) wanting to go to school to become a computer programmer, a project manager or even get a construction management degree. It should be as painless as possible to do this because in the end it benefits everyone. People taking advantage of educational opportunities will consume less public resources over the long-term because of increased income. They will pay more in taxes to offset the increased educational spending and their increased buying power will stimulate the local economy. Not only that, but a highly educated work force draws new industry to Arizona.

The other article addresses the Republican insistence that we make a tax cut permanent when we are running a deficit. I know it is wishful thinking given recent batch of Conservatives, but they used to value fiscal responsibility as one the primary pillars their philosophy. What happened? First, the tax will not be reinstated until 2010, so what is the rush? When we are running a huge deficit that is likely to run into 2009 (and get bigger), why would you even be concerned with this now? How about this, lets deal with this next session before the tax is reinstated? Lets wait and see how things look next year...

I have to say that the Republicans almost seem determined to relegate themselves to minority status.