On Monday it looked like we Marylanders were going to have a good week with our Republican governor, elected last year in the worst voter turnout in modern Maryland history. Governor Hogan called a press conference and announced he was cancer free. When he announced last June he had cancer, the news reports were bleak, but he started chemotherapy, which ended in October, and the results have been good. And more good news followed — later that day the governor’s spokesperson announced that Hogan would be taking no position on the admission of Syrian refugees. But something must have happened over night. Yesterday, he hopped aboard the bandwagon of fear mongers:
Following the terrorist attacks on Paris just four days ago, and after careful consideration, I am now requesting that federal authorities cease any additional settlements of refugees from Syria in Maryland until the U.S. government can provide appropriate assurances that refugees from Syria pose no threat to public safety.
Hogan was elected in 2014 largely as a result of the dismal turnout (150,000 fewer voters voted in 2014 than had voted in 2010, when Martin O’Malley was overwhelmingly reelected), and because Democrat Anthony Brown’s attacks on Hogan backfired. Elect a Republican governor, Brown warned, and he will impose restrictions on abortion, birth control, and marriage equality. Hogan countered he had no intention of doing anything like this — he understood that Marylanders were socially progressive. No, Hogan asserted, he would devote his energy as governor to reining in outgoing Governor Martin O’Malley’s runaway spending. Thanks to O’Malley, Hogan claimed, Maryland was facing a massive budget deficit, and Maryland needed a no nonsense, business oriented Republican like him to fix it.
And "fix it" it did, at least he “fixed” the citizens of Baltimore and awarded the folks who elected him in rural Maryland and the outer reaches of suburbia. First, he announced massive cuts in education, $68 million in total, $20 million alone in cash strapped Baltimore City (the $11 million cut I mentioned in the linked diary was a gross underestimate). Then, Hogan cancelled Baltimore’s red line, a necessary project, as no east-west rail line now exists in Baltimore. Planning had been in the works for a decade, and millions of dollars had already been spent, all for nothing. Finally, he announced that not a dime of state funds totaling $2 billion would be spent on Baltimore City’s potholed streets, and mere pennies on the streets of Baltimore County which surrounds most of Baltimore City. But all these cuts were unfortunately necessary, because, you know, O’Malley and the Democrats had spent like drunken sailors and had created this massive deficit, and we’ll let you know soon how bad this deficit is.
Then, just a few weeks ago, the figures were released. This massive deficit turned out to be a half billion ($500,000,000) surplus, with a $215 million surplus forecast for the following year! Surely this self-proclaimed moderate would restore his cuts! Surely he would spend the $68 million ($20 million for Baltimore City) that the state legislature insisted the governor spend for Maryland’s public schools. Surely he would restore the cuts in Baltimore City public transportation and streets. And, with Baltimore City now topping 300 murders in 2015, surely Hogan would spend some of this surplus to combat some of the root causes of this violence — job training and job placement for teens drawn into the drug gangs for want of any legitimate means of income, day care centers so that young mothers could work, even beefing up Baltimore City’s police — once a Republican cause.
But, NO NO and NO, Hogan replied. Though there is no deficit now, no deficit tomorrow, no deficit in the near future, we have to cut cut cut because there will surely be a deficit sooner or later. So it should be obvious by now, Hogan’s claims to being a moderate were a lie, he, like his compatriots, are only interested in shrinking the size of government down to the size of a bathtub. And now he has joined the chorus of the xenophobes, whipping up the bigots that form the Republican base.
The good news is that yesterday Maryland’s Democrats were not silent in the wake of Hogan’s outrage. Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Chris Van Hollen called it “shameful that Governor Hogan and others would seek to exploit people’s justifiable safety concerns by further fueling their fears.” His primary opponent, Congresswoman Donna Edwards, stated that Hogan’s position “is against the values we hold dear as Marylanders and as Americans.” Congressman Elijah Cummings stated:
Preserving the safety of Maryland’s residents and providing refuge for Syrians fleeing violence are not mutually exclusive; we can and must do both.
And Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake invited the refugees to find a home in her (and my) city:
I hope that refugees from Syria will look to our city as a potential place to call home.
And Maryland’s former governor and presidential candidate Martin O’Malley said our nation should welcome 65,000 Syrian refugees.
Well, this is what happens when the Democratic base couldn’t be bothered to vote.