When watching this week’s GOP tirade against the poor, one is almost comforted by the fact that eventually even these hard-line monstrosities will one day need help, and small comfort that they won’t be ignored by decent people and shall, at the very least, receive some. Although one does wonder if the un-Ballanced and Wit-less-tichs of the Montana Legislature would even know to ask for help. We aren’t accusing them of being self-aware enough to realize their own hypocrisy; we honestly believe they might be completely allergic to the idea of helping anyone for less than piles of cash, even if that someone were themselves.
For nearly sixteen hours, over two days, of disheartening House floor session, nearly one hundred amendments to the budget were offered up by the House Democrats. Their attempt to restore a truly balanced budget, one that actually used our taxes in the service of all Montanans, is to be applauded. Sisyphean though it ultimately proved, as every single amendment was voted down along party lines, the Democrats at least fought.
The Republican majority finds itself lost at sea, with about as much control over their actual direction as an iceberg. Floundering would be immeasurably preferred to this unguided mob of incendiaries. It has gone so wrong that someone today referred to Nancy Ballance as “Montana’s Iron Lady”, which we would agree is ideal if she’d been left out in the winter to rust. Sadly, she and her cohorts have just decided that running this jewel of a state into the ground, or perhaps letting burn to the ground, is preferable to having actual people living here.
It’s the only possible explanation for their actions. Whilst anchored in Helena this week, we’ve decided to take up residence at, newly opened, The Hawthorn Bottle Shop & Tasting Room, for several glasses of delicious red wine. After all, if we must see this much red in our day, some of it should be pleasing.
—E.C. Bourbon