Picture's Worth A Thousand Words
The front page picture in today's Arizona Republic (Monday, June 8) couldn't have been more apt. Five legislators standing or sitting around awaiting, as the caption tells us, for "a House vote Thursday on a budget."

That's what most Arizona legislators have been doing for the past five months: Awaiting instructions from their so-called leadership on what budget to pass. It's a sorry story of democracy crippled by inertia and in the hands of a few people. The result is a Republican legislative budget package that is a disgrace; an assault on basic services while protecting special interests.

The Arizona Republic has done a credible job the last week or two in providing information on how the budget plans of Gov. Brewer, the Legislature's Democrats and the Legislature's Republican majority differ. But the newspaper has failed, so far, to give any accounting of what rank-and-file legislators have been doing for five months.

I ask because my two District 21 Representatives, Warde Nichols and Steven Yarbrough (both shown doing nothing in the picture) have been strangely quiet. (Nichols did surface briefly to help grab more tax dollars for private schools and his own private businesses). With all the idle time these past five months, why weren't they holding forums within the district educating taxpapers on the issues involved in the multi-year budget crisis, and soliciting suggestions on proper priorities.

That's what an involved, active State Representative would be doing. I regret that I don't have one in District 21, and I'm afraid many other Arizona taxpayers have the same problem.

Republicans take aim at universal health care
In the Legislature, Republicans are moving House Concurrent Resolution 2014 forward. The effort at a 2010 ballot issue would do essentially what one narrowly rejected by voters last year would have done: protect the for-profit health care industry.

The new ballot issue would "Prohibit any law or rule from directly or indirectly compelling any person or employer to participate in any health care system." Freedom of choice. Very compelling. Except there is another way to look at it. If appoved, this would prevent consideration of any type of universal health care proposal in Arizona.

Are we ready to close out that option? With more than a million Arizonans without health insurance, and hundreds of thousands of others in perilous insurance situations, closing any options is grossly premature.

Rep. Phil Lopez (D-Tuscon) had it right when he told the Arizona Republic, "This is an ideologically driven effort because they don't like government, and they don't want government running health care."

Organizational mess in GOP's LD 4
Chaos ruled at the recent organizational meeting of the Republican Party in Legislative District 4. Read this article in the Sonoran Alliance blog, and don't miss the comments as well. Try to look past writer Lyle Tuttle's habit of using "Fact" before most sentences, including several which were conclusions on his part. It's an interesting read.