Both Barrels Boscola: Senate Dem Opposes Raising Taxes, Supports GOP Budget

Floor Remarks from Senator Lisa M. Boscola (July 20, 2009)
___________

To pass a state budget that spends more money than we have in our state Treasury is lying to the same people who sent us here to be frugal with their tax dollars!

It’s lying to the people who have always been forced to pay the freight for every government program that comes down the pike! People can deal with the truth . . . trust me. They’ve been dealing with it in their own lives – cutting back and changing their own spending habits . . . doing MORE with LESS.

That’s called “reality.”

Spending a BILLION – or 2 BILLION dollars more than what we have available is called “fantasy.” It really is that simple.

So let’s stop playing games and stop pretending that we can make everything “good again” if we just had a few billion more dollars to spend. People’s paychecks are really stressed right now.

They wish they had more money to spend, too! The recession has taken a huge toll on everyone. And we all know that it will take more than just one budget cycle before our Commonwealth’s finances are going to return to anything resembling normal.

So, Mr. President, let’s put an end to the violence of uncertainty over this state budget. And that’s really what some people are doing by dragging this process out . . . by forcing state employees to go without paychecks.

Stop dangling the threat of higher taxes over taxpayers’ heads! No matter how some people in this building try to minimize it or downplay it – it’s wrong.

I’m tired of hearing that it’s ONLY 50 dollars more . . . and hearing that our state income tax is 1 of the lowest in the country . . . It’s 1-point-5 billion dollars that you want to take out of people’s pockets . . . period! It’s 1-point-5 billion dollars working families won’t have to spend on their own needs as they see fit . . . based on their own circumstances.

Don’t insult people by telling them that it’s only “pennies a day” . . . Just be honest and admit that you want to steal more of their money because you want government to spend more!

That’s reality . . . you don’t have to sugar-coat it. Because I’m not going to sugar-coat it, either.
Now is the time to cut . . . and cut . . . and cut some more. Cut spending to the bone – and leave taxpayers’ paychecks alone!

Click here for the full remarks.