During the special session called by Gov. Haley Barbour to pass certain economic-development bonds, Mississippians have been told incessantly by Barbour's office and the state's media that the House of Representatives has been "obstructionist." The drumbeat has been that the House is costing the taxpayers money every day they don't simply pass Barbour's bill and go home.
The truth is: Since Barbour came to office last January, he has virtually controlled the state Senate. If the House was as compliant as the Senate, Barbour's ideologies would be rubberstamped and sent immediately to his desk for signature after very little discussion.
Barbour's negotiating skills have been in scant evidence since his term began. He has declared "no new taxes," regardless of whether Mississippians would welcome a tobacco tax to fund education and health care (they would, studies say); he has cut both Medicaid and education. He has called two special sessions with specific plans of only what he would take, leaving very little room for representatives of the people of Mississippi to negotiate.
The House, however, is a scrappy lot—and it held to its guns in this latest special session. In essence, Barbour cherry-picked some (important) bond issues from a longer list of bond needs—from funding of the Ayers settlement to roads and bridges. His message was: Approve my bonds, or nothing. And had the House approved his bonds, there was no guarantee that the others would go anywhere during the budget train wreck that awaits in January. Are they supposed to simply trust him?
We applaud the House for standing its ground—and apparently winning a compromise—even when Barbour went off the reservation with political complaints about "racial quotas" that would be funny if they weren't very worrisome. The House has shown that Mr. Barbour can't simply call a special session every time he has a quota of his own to fill, costing the taxpayers $30,000 a day and then blame it all on the House because other lawmakers try to represents interests of their constituents. And shame on the state's media for not providing more balanced coverage of what's really transpired in Gov. Barbour's latest shell game.
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