Why are so many Republican candidates and governors using taxpayer dollars to maintain their lavish lifestyles? From stays in the Ritz-Carlton to rides in $12.5 million state helicopters, Republicans across the nation—while calling for conservatism in government—are showing their true values: wastefulness and hypocrisy.
Republican governors are cutting core priorities like education while handing all the breaks to the wealthy special interests, and polls are showing that voters are fed up.
Here’s the rundown:
Missouri
After Peter Kinder’s adventures at the Ritz-Carlton on taxpayers’ dime, it isn’t surprising that Missourians are not too keen on their Lieutenant Governor.
What is surprising is that Republicans are leading the crusade against their own presumptive nominee.
GOP leaders across the state are expressing their embarrassment with Kinder, whose “bizarre antics and undisciplined behavior” have turned him into a “punchline” within the party.
After spending an average two months per year in luxury hotels at the taxpayer’s expense – and posting several strange comments on Twitter – Republicans are labeling him as overly “eccentric, anxious and awkward.”
A Republican state senator put it bluntly: “I don’t think [Kinder] has a chance to beat Gov. Nixon. Every single person that I’ve talked to feels the same way.”
New Jersey
While Chris Christie has been high on taxpayer-funded helicopter joyrides, the New Jersey governor’s poll numbers have been dropping.
Editorial boards across the state are ripping Christie for commandeering the state helicopter —meant for homeland security and transporting the critically injured—to his son’s baseball game. The New York Times noted that Christie “has spent the last year and a half demanding sacrifices from everybody else in his state,” including wage freezes for state workers and slashes to Medicaid. The paper concludes that the governor’s $2500-an-hour helicopter rides indicate that taxpayers “need protection from the highflying governor” whose rhetoric far outstrips his actual accomplishments.
Other newspapers agree: The New Jersey Record called the fiasco “a prime example of government waste,” and The Star Ledger blasted Christie for using pilots that could have been “inspecting rail systems, ports, and nuclear and chemical facilities” – not chauffeuring the governor.
It sounds as though Christie is willing to ask for sacrifices from everybody except himself.
This news comes on the heels of the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that Christie’s drastic education cuts were unconstitutional and a growing scandal involving one of his education appointees.
New Jersey residents deserve better.
Pennsylvania
Kinder and Christie aren’t the only Republicans with spending problems.
After proposing deep cuts to education and asking for sacrifices from public employees, Governor Tom Corbett has given raises to his inner circle and new luxury cars to his executive team and their wives.
Apparently, the only “shared sacrifice” that Republican governors like Corbett believe in is for nurses, teachers, first responders, and other public employees—not his inner circle.
House Democratic spokesman Bill Patton said it well: “The only thing Tom Corbett has sacrificed since taking office is his public approval rating.”
Florida
Down in Florida, Rick Scott’s name – like his party – is radioactive.
Both Republican candidates for Miami-Dade mayor are scrambling to distance themselves from the uber-unpopular governor.
With an approval rating of 29 percent and a budget that is seen as unfair by the majority of Floridians, Scott’s predicament mirrors the failed policies of Republican governors across the country.
Polls are showing widespread buyer’s remorse with newly elected Republican governors in battleground states, a trend that doesn’t bode well for the 2012 Republican ticket.
