Next stop, kids: Alabama's House of Representatives
The Democrats in Alabama tried to filibuster their Republican counterparts' budget shift. Sadly, the Dark Sith lords which are the Republican Senate in Alabama have won and, as with most Republican policies, the
biggest losers are children.
Defeating Democrats' attempt to filibuster a large budget shift, Republicans in Alabama's state Senate approved transferring $100 million from the education budget to the general fund to help cover a large deficit.
Why is this happening? In part it's because Governor I'm-a-super-moral-hypocrite-and-probably-corrupt-sketchball
Robert Bentley, under attack from within his own party, is unwilling to expand Medicaid to Alabamans. So says
Senator Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro):
Before his filibuster was cut off Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro railed against the Republican super majority in the Senate calling them cowards for failing to make big businesses pay their fair share yet too easily deciding to "rob children" of their education dollars.
[...]
"We are a bunch of cowards who are afraid to say to the governor take the pen and expand Medicaid," said Singleton. "This (transfer of education money) is a cop out, a cop out by the Republicans who will not expand Medicaid and who will not raise taxes on the big businesses in this who do not pay their fair share. Instead they are willing to put this on the back of school children."
Hear, hear. These lawmakers are
indeed a bunch of cowards.
The legislation now goes back to the House of Representatives which last week voted to transfer just $50 million in education dollars. The next move is that a so-called conference committee made up of senators and house members will be appointed to try to reach agreement.
Remember a few weeks ago when
Alabama state Senator Paul Sanford set up a GoFundMe page for the state's budget? Well, the people that put money on that and commented almost all said they wanted their money to go to education. So, even though it was a poorly conceived publicity stunt on his part—he didn't even want the input he pretended he was asking for.
Not sure what to expect from the Alabama House. If it's anything like the bonehead-bullshit artists in the state Senate, the school children of Alabama are out of luck.