By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Published: July 9, 2013 1328
"The saddest part? The people hardest hit by the policies and decisions of the current crop of legislators will gladly vote for them again."
Tim Murphy, Rutherfordton, NCRead Full Comment »
In January, after the election of Pat McCrory as governor, Republicans took control of both the executive and legislative branches for the first time since Reconstruction. Since then, state government has become a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in the courtroom and access to the ballot.
The cruelest decision by lawmakers went into effect last week: ending federal unemployment benefits for 70,000 residents. Another 100,000 will lose their checks in a few months. Those still receiving benefits will find that they have been cut by a third, to a maximum of $350 weekly from $535, and the length of time they can receive benefits has been slashed from 26 weeks to as few as 12 weeks.
The state has the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the country, and many Republicans insulted workers by blaming their joblessness on generous benefits. In fact, though, North Carolina is the only state that has lost long-term federal benefits, because it did not want to pay back $2.5 billion it owed to Washington for the program. The State Chamber of Commerce argued that cutting weekly benefits would be better than forcing businesses to pay more in taxes to pay off the debt, and lawmakers blindly went along, dropping out of the federal program.
At the same time, the state is also making it harder for future generations of workers to get jobs, cutting back sharply on spending for public schools. Though North Carolina has been growing rapidly, it is spending less on schools now than it did in 2007, ranking 46th in the nation in per-capita education dollars. Teacher pay is falling, 10,000 prekindergarten slots are scheduled to be removed, and even services to disabled children are being chopped.
"We are losing ground," Superintendent June Atkinson said recently, warning of a teacher exodus after lawmakers proposed ending extra pay for teachers with master's degrees, cutting teacher assistants and removing limits on class sizes.
Republicans repealed the Racial Justice Act, a 2009 law that was the first in the country to give death-row inmates a chance to prove they were victims of discrimination. They have refused to expand Medicaid and want to cut income taxes for the rich while raising sales taxes on everyone else. The Senate passed a bill that would close most of the state's abortion clinics.
And, naturally, the Legislature is rushing to impose voter ID requirements and cut back on early voting and Sunday voting, which have been popular among Democratic voters. One particularly transparent move would end a tax deduction for dependents if students vote at college instead of their hometowns, a blatant effort to reduce Democratic voting strength in college towns like Chapel Hill and Durham.
North Carolina was once considered a beacon of farsightedness in the South, an exception in a region of poor education, intolerance and tightfistedness. In a few short months, Republicans have begun to dismantle a reputation that took years to build.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?_r=0
It has come to our attention that a bill we have been monitoring that contains a provision to give licenses and jobs to illegal aliens (HB 786) will come up in the NC House for a vote tonight!
Republican Speaker Thom Tillis is trying to provide these licenses to illegal aliens, probably to please the big money backers he wants for a US Senate run in 2014! You can count on ALIPAC opposing the federal candidacy of Tillis and any lawmaker who supports licenses and benefits for illegal aliens.
We need some help here in NC from our friends around the nation.
Please help us saturate the NC House offices with calls and e-mails asking them to oppose and vote against HB 786 and the licenses for illegals contained in the bill!
Sample Message
"I'm calling/writing to ask Representative ________ to oppose and vote against HB 786 'RECLAIM NC Act.' because this bill will give licenses and jobs to illegal aliens. The bill guts the E-verify program designed to stop illegals from stealing NC jobs! The vast majority of your constituents oppose licenses for illegal aliens and will be very disappointed with any lawmaker supporting HB 786. Please take action to kill the illegal alien license bill HB 786 tonight!"
Here is the list of NC lawmakers that contains the phone numbers and online contact info you need (call and email them all please)....
http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/membe...sChamber=House
Remember to use individual and personalized calls and messages using your own distinct version of our message.
William Gheen of ALIPAC will be going to the NC General Assembly tonight to try to stop this bill. Please reinforce William's efforts to hold the line in NC.
| Make sure you call Speaker Thom Tillis's office 919-733-3451 Thom.Tillis@ncleg.net to let him know |
The ALIPAC Team
www.alipac.us
"The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot." ---Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico
Immigrating America Into a Colony of Mexico
We’ve got an even more ominous enemy within our borders that promotes “Reconquista of Aztlan” or the reconquest of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas into the country of Mexico. With 9.2 million Mexicans now living in America, their goal of colonizing our country back into Mexico moves forward. A more sobering reality stems from the evidence that it’s Mexican-American citizens in the forefront of this disintegration of our country.
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PAT BUCHANAN
WHOSE COUNTRY IS IT???
PAT BUCHANAN ON OBAMA’S HISPANDERING FOR THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES:
more at this link – post on your Facebook and email broadcast
BUCHANAN ON HISPANDERING OBAMA’S CONTEMPT FOR OUR LAWS AND BORDERS:
What is the response of Barack Obama, who took an oath to see to it that federal laws are faithfully executed?
He is siding with the law-breakers. He is pandering to the ethnic lobbies. He is not berating a Mexican regime that aids and abets this invasion of the country of which he is commander in chief. Instead, he attacks the government of Arizona for trying to fill a gaping hole in law enforcement left by his own dereliction of duty.
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