Crazy Republican Quote of the Day

From the Buzz:

"There's a big difference between cuts and reductions...We're not cutting anything. We have to balance the budget. We're doing what the people of Florida expect us to do ... This is not the United States Congress. We cannot spend in a deficit. We have to live within our means."

-- Ray Sansom (R-Obfuscation)

While there is a difference between eliminating and cutting a program, there isn't any difference between cutting and reducing a program. These are synonyms. Really. By any standard or definition. Except in crazy Republican world.

Besides, most of this rationale is a straw man argument. Nobody said that you didn't have to balance the budget. And, of course, there are two ways to live within your means -- cut spending and increase revenue. Republicans appear to be allergic to the latter, regardless of the circumstances. That's fiscal irresponsibility. I'm one of those people of Florida Sansom speaks of, and what I expect the legislature to do is maintain services (or even improve them) while keeping taxes at a reasonable level. I'll wager I'm in the majorit on this particular expectation.

Silly Republican Arguments

The Republican leadership of the House opposes using Florida's reserve budget funds to avoid cuts to education that would harm our already devastated education system, saying that such proposals amount to "legislative malpractice." This ignores a lot of things, such as the fact that Charlie Crist supports using the reserves, that the economy is in a bad place (largely due to past Republican legislative malpractice) and the very fact that this is why we have reserves, to help us avoid cutting necessary programs (such as education) in bad economic times. Besides, anyone with a basic understanding of economics, or just basic common sense, knows that education is the most important investment we can make to guarantee long-term economic stability in the state.