How the Vermont Legislature Steals From Us

Jul 152011

As David Simpson said, their manipulations were so masterful they “managed to arrange it so that every member could cast a vote in support of a bill which they ensured would not pass.”

Here’s a quick education on how the corrupt politicians sitting in the Vermont Legislature are stealing from us.

1. They claim to be working for us.

B.S. They ignored expert testimony from UVM that they’re taxing us into the ground. Then they hired a farce of a commission to OK their tax raises against farmers, the middle class and working poor. This year, many of us have been bumped up a tax bracket, even as food prices have about doubled.

2. They claim to want to shut down Vermont Yankee.

They refused to even consider making Entergy pay fines for polluting our groundwater. They refuse to collect any tax at all from Entergy for their use of Vermont’s natural resources, a for of corporate welfare worth tens of millions annually. They’re just taking care of their political careers, and their friends.

3. They claim to have an energy plan.

They don’t get it. No amount of cash borrowed from China and put into pork projects will replace the abundant cheap energy from oil… oil that is now past its peak, no longer cheap, and wars are fought over it. Our kids have to go die for it. This has got to stop. We have to relocalize our economy, return to Home Rule and Town Meeting, and provide cheap (or free) efficient public transport. Not embark on grandiose, Soviet-style central planning schemes.

4. They claim to have balanced the State budget these past few years.

B.S. Another lie. I know the Vermont budget better than they do, because I’ve actually read it. It’s bloated, full of pork and payoffs to left-wing organizations that endorse them for re-election. The budget doesn’t balance, so in 2010, an election year, they crawled to DC for a $400 million bailout.

Who hired this current Legislature? You and I! Who can fire them? You and I!

A $400 million payoff from a federal government that is itself so impoverished that they had to borrow it, bought the Vermont election for the Democrats in 2010. Many Vermont non-profits, in return for a cut of that money, endorsed the incumbents. Betraying their own cause, for a piece of the pie. That’s how politics in Vermont works!

For 2011, the Legislature got ‘only’ $100 million from the feds, so they cut programs to the least fortunate (who have no voice in Montpelier).

Why did they proceed to blacktop roads all over Vermont, roads that didn’t need it, as other roads & bridges fell apart?

Why will Omya, a foreign corporation, get a brand new railroad spur to spirit away Vermont’s mineral wealth, for which Omya pays not a dime back to Vermont?

Vermont’s railroad bridges and connections need serious investment, yet the money to do these important capital projects, Montpelier threw into Wall Street. Yes, your pensions… into the Wall Street casino. More on that later.

Vermont kids are coming to school hungry, but corporations don’t have to pay their taxes. That’s the bottom line. Our incumbent politicians give away $1.2 billion a year in corporate welfare, impoverishing our people. In a state where few have access to higher education, businesses are closing, farms failing and foreclosed. Most who can manage college, leave Vermont for good. Ask any Democrat and you’ll hear that the bailouts are ‘working’ and that the recession ‘hardly touched Vermont’. Hardly touched them, that means it hardly touched them and their lobbyist buddies.

The remedy? Vote ‘em out in 2012. Vote ‘em all out. That’s why the Vermont Thirty are running. Will you run with us? Please click here if you’d like to run, or can support someone clean in your district. The pay for half a year’s work is better than most Vermonters make in a whole year!

Here’s a letter that I received from Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, illustrating how Montpelier’s brand of sleazy politics has been adapted to Texas…

“Rarely in the history of this legislature has the State’s leadership so masterfully worked against the will of its members and the people they represent.” – TX State Rep. David Simpson

Dear Robert,

The defeat of the TSA Anti-Groping Bill in Texas is heartbreaking.

And the dirty tricks used by Texas’ Republican leadership can seem devastating…

But this is not the end.

We will not give up. We’ll be back in other states and we’ll make them regret their actions in Texas!

Before I explain the nitty-gritty, I should make it clear who deserves some political pain:

Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and Speaker Joe Straus.

As Dave Nalle, an Austin liberty activist, put it, it’s a carnival trick. There are “three hollow coconut halves and a large marble.”

The marble is the TSA bill, and the three coconut halves are named Perry, Dewhurst, and Straus.

“Hands continually shuffle or pass the TSA bill marble under the hollow coconut halves, hiding it from the eyes of you, the public, the citizens of Texas.”

But what, specifically, did these scoundrels do?

As David Simpson said, their manipulations were so masterful they “managed to arrange it so that every member could cast a vote in support of a bill which they ensured would not pass.”

And all three can claim they oppose TSA groping while guaranteeing the bill to end it was defeated…

After the bill passed unanimously through the Texas House, the TSA wrote a stern letter to the Texas legislature claiming it would be forced to impose a no-fly zone upon the state of Texas.

An act of political war for states’ rights minded liberty activists.

But for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, it was an excuse to begin single-handedly “peeling off the votes” needed to pass the bill through the state Senate.

What makes his treachery so jarring was what happened as the special session called to take care of unfinished business came to order.

Dewhurst wrote a letter to Governor Perry urging him to add it to special session. The letter was widely publicized.

So kill the bill behind the scenes, but broadcast your loving support all over Texas.

Genius…

But establishment politicians didn’t take over our country by being stupid.

Expectedly, Gov. Rick Perry, who controls what bills are put on the agenda for the special session, did not immediately heed the call of Dewhurst’s political theater.

In fact, he waited, and waited… and waited some more.

An open records request showed over 10,000 individual pieces of correspondence received by the governor’s office in favor of the anti-groping bill.

And finally he acted.

But you see, he had waited long enough. He knew it wouldn’t have the time to pass with only 2 short weeks in the special session without special assistance for the legislative leaders who control the rules.

Now the marble was passed to Speaker Joe Straus.

The Speaker of the House controls the rules in the state House. And rules are where bills go to die.

Parliamentary procedure is an Orwellian whirlwind tyrants use to spin you into confusion.

I won’t go into all the details here, but don’t be fooled.

Speaker Straus knew what he was doing.

He purposefully delayed, first by adjourning when the bill was scheduled to be considered and then by making sure it would be bunched up on the final day of the session – guaranteeing failure. His best trick was that by waiting until the last day he could bring the anti-groping bill up under a special rule that requires a 4/5ths majority (80%!) to pass.

After the TSA and statist politicians started opposing it, even the wildly popular anti-groping bill didn’t have 80% support.

So what do we take away from all of this?

Who would have thought 4 years ago that this bill would even be introduced? The fact that they had to go to such extraordinary lengths to stop us should confirm our commitment to this fight.

Already Utah and other states are moving on their own anti-groping legislation.

And the opposition to the out-of-control TSA grows with every report of assault, theft, and naked radiation scanning.

We’re stronger than ever before.

And they’re afraid.

For those activists in Texas who fought so valiantly, take a break, relax and refresh, and then come back ready to hold them accountable when they next face the voters.

In Liberty,

Matt Hawes
Vice President

P.S. C4L must expand its efforts if you and I are to stop the TSA and its assault on civil liberties. If you’re able, please chip in just $10 to help my staff and me recruit even more Americans to this fight.

P.P.S. If you’d like to read more about all the details concerning what happened here are some links:

Texas Leadership Fails Texans

The Carnival of Deception – Dallasblog.com

Republic Leadership Derails “Restrain the TSA Legislation” in House

Simpson Rips State Legislature