Whew! I was a little worried after T-Paw said that a government shutdown for a month or so would be just the lesson we uppity Americans needed to take seriously the austerity measures they want to force on us that we would see a growing chorus of Republicans calling for the shutdown. But Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is deviating slightly from the Republican script to assure Jake Tapper that she doesn't want a government shutdown. After all, the government is a "necessary evil", isn't it?
Facing an oncoming federal government budget crisis, Republican governors Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Jan Brewer of Arizona both agreed that a government shutdown would not be productive for the country.
"I think government is a necessary evil," Brewer said. "But it's necessary to provide services, and they should be able to come to some solution. We need to trim the budget and move on."
"We appreciate our public employees but our job as governor is to look after our taxpayers," Haley added.
I wonder, who exactly do the governors think are the taxpayers? Corporations? Not hardly. The wealthy? No, not so much. No, you nimrods, the taxpayers ARE the teachers, the firefighters, the cops, and the other public employees whose jobs you want the right to cut without union protections.
Nevertheless, it's quite a change for Brewer to go from claiming her position was divinely mandated to saying that government is a necessary evil. Is she saying God put her in charge of evil? I'd guess there's an argument to be made for that.
Like all states, Arizona is facing hard financial times, but this is a question of priorities. While Courtney’s life is on the line, Brewer eagerly signed tax cuts for businesses into law last week — cuts that will cost Arizona $538 million by 2018. Yet the governor has dragged her feet in offering the mere $1.36 million needed to save Courtney and her cohort’s lives, and she has consistently ignored 26 possible funding solutions from a member of her own party.
For Brewer, the fact that Courtney’s plight is forced to take a backseat to business tax cuts is “sad but necessary.”
Brewer as a death panel? Evil, yes, but necessary, I don't think so.
