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Too me a centrist is a strong advocate of responsible spending while being against the conservative social engineering that seems to occur with many Republicans. Luckily, I don't think most Connecticut Republicans are like this-- They are, for the most part, centrists.
Too me a centrist is a strong advocate of responsible spending while being against the conservative social engineering that seems to occur with many Republicans. Luckily, I don't think most Connecticut Republicans are like this-- They are, for the most part, centrists.
Ignoring the frooot loop governor of Maine, Paul LePage, that's generally a good description of any Northeastern Republican.
Single payer insurance, yes. Because the feds aren't going to do it. I'd rather have a federal plan so that people could move freely from state to state for jobs without losing or changing their insurance. It doesn't look as though that's going to happen though. Anyway, you need some taxes to support things. I'm not for free college for anyone, not even community college. You don't support public schools? How are they supposed to get to college, even community college, then?
Towns pay for school's. Made, MY, and TO already or in the process of offering tax paid higher education to residents.
The next governor has to free up budget by (finally) tackling state employee obligations (pension and health care). Without that there will be no budget to meaningfully expand services to any other citizen or cause. And big business will not pay for these obligations.
Simply put, decades of the democratic machine agreeing to ruinous contract terms in exchange for short term political support has brought this state to its knees. I think all serious candidates see this, hence my earlier comment that no one would touch this job - unless they are truly selfless and nearly bulletproof. Who is that?
The alternative is more of the same or someone like bronin who is just passing through.
The next governor has to free up budget by (finally) tackling state employee obligations (pension and health care). Without that there will be no budget to meaningfully expand services to any other citizen or cause. And big business will not pay for these obligations.
Simply put, decades of the democratic machine agreeing to ruinous contract terms in exchange for short term political support has brought this state to its knees. I think all serious candidates see this, hence my earlier comment that no one would touch this job - unless they are truly selfless and nearly bulletproof. Who is that?
The alternative is more of the same or someone like bronin who is just passing through.
As is pointed out here MANY times, the problems our state is facing are not strictly the Democrats fault. Malloy has only been Governor for 6 years. Before that we had 12 years of Republican leadership under Rowland and Rell and they did nothing to address the problem but kick it down the road. Malloy is just the unlucky one to have it all come to a head under his administration. I am NOT defending him but there is certainly more than enough blame for BOTH parties. Jay
The state is reliably blue. There is nothing to indicate is swinging the other way. Look at it town by town. Rural working class towns and a few suburbs are Red all the cities and all the wealthy towns are Blue, as well as most of the larger suburbs. Even if there is fraud it's not likely to be enough to effect an election
How can you be in favor of a single payer system and call yourself a centrist??? There is no money for a single payer system.
We already are a welfare state and these additional programs will collapse the already horrible business climate in CT.
We are on the verge of bankruptcy and you advocate massive spending on a huge entitlement?
This is why CT is going down the toilet.
If you look at polling much like same sex marriage single payer healthcare keeps increasing in popularity. At this point I think a centrist could go either way on it. Polls show 44-55% of voters would support single payer and again depending on poll even 13-25% of republicans would support it.
The next governor has to free up budget by (finally) tackling state employee obligations (pension and health care). Without that there will be no budget to meaningfully expand services to any other citizen or cause.
It doesn't work that way. You can't just kill pension benefits for existing workers. The best you can do is suspend them the next time a union contract is negotiated and move everyone to defined contribution plans like the private sector did 35+ years ago. You can certainly kill any early retirement health benefits for workers who haven't retired yet.
The damage has already been done. The best you can do is make it so the 20-something and 30-something state workers are on defined contribution plans and don't get early retirement health benefits. You kind of have to grandfather older state workers though different states have set the cutoff age quite differently.
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