House Republican Leader Larry Cafero said in recent conversation with this writer that the “common sense budget proposal” being put forward for the second session in a row by Republicans needs to be considered and acted upon by the Democrat majority. The Republican proposal is based on seven common sense principles.
• Spend no more than you make.
• Borrow only what you can afford to pay back.
• If it is not broken don’t fix it, but if it is not working get rid of it.
• The more government tries to do the less it does well.
• Government doesn’t create jobs, people do.
• We should have all the government that we need but only the government that we need.
• Empower local governments to make local decisions.
Cafero says there has got to be a change in philosophy on the part of state Democrats.
“When you start out with the premise that the money that you (taxpayers) earn is the government’s money and if you are lucky, you’ll be allowed to keep it, when that is truly your philosophy then you feel free to spend anything you want. When your philosophy is that government can solve every problem, therefore all we need is the money, then that is how you get a mindset that has resulted in the fiscal crisis we are in.”
Even though the Common Sense proposal was ignored by the Democrat majority last session, Cafero is confident that this time things may be different.
“I think, not willingly but reluctantly we are going to be listened to because there is a new dynamic at work. Even though for the first time in state history we have an entire federal delegation that is democratic as well as all statewide office holders from governor to attorney general being democrats and both chambers of the legislature being majority democrats, there were a couple of things that sent shockwaves through the Democrat Party this election cycle. One thing being that while Connecticut missed the Republican wave that swept across the rest of the country, House Republicans began the election season with 37 out of 151 members and for the first time in a long time we (Republicans) held all of our seats and picked off 14 Democrats and now we have an opportunity to pick up even more seats in the special elections. We (Republican legislative candidates) had a common platform that we campaigned on, “The Common Sense Commitment to Connecticut.” It paid off because people got it.”
In other words, Democrats may hold the reins right now, but the people are watching.
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