Democrats' Double Standard; George Flaggs Pouts; Billy McCoy Taxes the Sick

The Democrats proclaimed their righteous indignation the other day on Governor Barbour's staff budget:

Gov. Haley Barbour had the Senate slip $300K into a spending bill. What was the $300K for? Glad you asked. Raises for his staff. We’re in a budget crisis and the guv wants to give raises to his people. That’s fiscal conservatism?

But the Democrats don't want you to look at what the Democratic House Leadership did. Here is more of it revealed in the Clarion Ledger:

House leaders and Gov. Haley Barbour are at loggerheads over the governor's office budget. The House attempted to extend, for one more year, a cap on salaries for the governor's staff. Senators had voted to remove the cap, but the House wanted to leave the salary cap on the governor's staff because of the tight economy.

But Barbour's budget already had been voluntarily cut 6.5 percent before the House attempted the additional line-item cut in governor's office staff salaries. Strange, but the House raised staff salaries this fiscal year. Double standard?

Like other agency heads, Barbour should manage his own office budget, including staff salaries.

The editorial was mostly about Democrat George Flaggs' "self-serving stunt" as he pouted over losing amendment votes in the House. Facing a deadline hours away where the whole state government could shut down, he required legislation be read to postpone the passage of the compromise legislation by three hours.

Flaggs defended the move as one designed to register an emphatic protest and to call attention to what he called the "exclusion" of many in the House who disagreed with the majority position on the Medicaid bill.

He said that because of Barbour's political strong-arm tactics, House members had little time to read the bill and that the measure was being "rammed down our throats."

Poor thing. Flaggs was upset because Haley Barbour provided the leadership necessary to keep our state functioning despite the delays and obstructions by Democrats like Flaggs. The irony is, Flaggs called this thunder down on himself. Remember?

State Rep. George Flaggs, a Democrat from Vicksburg, urged Gov. Haley Barbour today to stay in the state and "provide leadership" while budget talks continue.

Before we leave today's lesson in Democratic hypocracy, Sid Salter points out the difference in rhetoric and reality.

“I personally don’t like the hospital tax of (even) one penny. That’s just a personal situation. It may be that some amount has to be used. We live in a world of compromise here. It’s just repugnant to me that we would tax a sick person. And I don’t care what you say, that’s what it boils down to: The patient, or customer, pays.” - House Speaker Billy McCoy, Associated Press, January 2, 2009

"As the Legislature prepares to wrap up the down-to-the wire budget mess, it seems that all the plaintive rhetoric about the evils of "taxing the sick" was just that — rhetoric — offered by mega-salaried hospital administrators at Mississippi's profitable "not-for-profit" hospitals who were far more worried about their bottom lines than about providing health care for the poor, the blind, the disabled and children. When push came to shove, the state's hospitals and the Mississippi Hospital Association agreed to "tax the sick" right along." - Sid Salter Blog, July 1, 2009