In the latest round of budgetary "boo-hoos," Democrats in the Arizona House of Representatives issued a press release today littered with frightening rhetoric slamming the latest Republican budget plan.
If bipartisan budget talks are over, the Democrats say, it's the Republicans' fault. They add that the GOP plan would essentially take Arizona to hell in a very expensive handbasket.
"If the state wanted a recipe for economic disaster, it got the best cooks in town," says House Democratic Whip Chad Campbell. "Arizonans should be prepared, because no one wins from this except big corporations and the wealthy."
The release contains a plethora of Bush-ian fear-inducing adjectives, such as "risky," and "dangerous," and plays on fears about everyone's favorite electoral demographic: the elderly.
"[The] Republicans' plan only guarantees more deep cuts to education, the disabled, and seniors, something [Governor Jan] Brewer vowed she wouldn't support," the press release contends.
A big problem the Dems have with the GOP plan is the "risk" that voters won't approve a one-cent sales tax increase.
Another area of doom and gloom for them is the Republicans' plan to put a three-year cap on education spending.
The GOP plan doesn't call for more cuts in funding, but it argues that, since the state's hurting for money, it must stop spending so much of it.
The press release signals that so-called cooperative budget negotiations -- described by both Dems and GOPers as a bipartisan love-fest for the past two weeks -- are over.
Nice to see things getting back to normal.
