Posted on 06/16/2014 11:13:01 PM PDT by Libloather
There is nothing quite like calling a political opponent’s bluff, which is what President Pro Tem of the State Senate Phil Berger Sr. did to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) North Carolina Conference President Rev. William Barber.
Barber has been the leader of the “Moral Monday” protests at the North Carolina General Assembly, which oppose much of what the Republican-led North Carolina legislature has done.
What Berger asked Barber in a letter dated April 2 was exactly what Barber wanted the legislature to do. Barber replied in a letter dated April 17 with his “Five Point Moral Framework” and a 14-point agenda that, according to Barber, “we have been advocating since 2007.”
Berger had those points drawn up in bill form by the General Assembly’s nonpartisan staff, complete with an estimate of what it would cost to implement the changes that Barber is promoting. The estimate of the cost is over $7 billion. The entire state budget is about $21 billion, so this would add about 33 percent to the state spending. According to Berger, to generate the additional revenue to pay for these changes would require raising the corporate income tax from 6 percent to 50 percent.
Some of the changes to the state budget requested by Barber include providing health care for all the uninsured in North Carolina, including the undocumented aliens, which would cost an estimated $6.8 billion.
The request to fund the Medicaid expansion would require an expenditure of over $17 million in administrative costs alone.
Expanding the pre-kindergarten program to meet the requirements Barber requested would cost an estimated $172 million.
Tripling the funding for the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities would cost $9.5 million.
The creation of a human rights department including a human rights secretary and an advocacy division, investigative division and education and outreach division would cost an estimated $8.5 million.
Doubling the minority economic development funding would cost an estimated $32 million.
Increasing North Carolina’s workforce development funding by 50 percent would cost an estimated $360 million.
Doubling the affordable housing program funding would cost an estimated $14 million.
Providing in-state tuition for all undocumented aliens at UNC and community colleges has no listed cost, but it certainly wouldn’t be free.
Equalizing the per-student funding for all the historically black colleges and universities would cost an estimated $36 million.
Subsidizing all child care for families on waiting lists would cost an estimated $224 million.
Another change that has no cost listed but would be extremely expensive would be to allow collective bargaining for public employees. Currently government employees can unionize but the union cannot negotiate contracts.
Barber also wants reparations for those involved in the Wilmington race riots of 1898 and the Communist-Klan shootout in Greensboro in 1979. The proposed bill puts aside $20 million for those payments and $260,000 to administer the payments.
No cost is attached to raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, but it would be expensive for businesses in the state and would raise unemployment.
Barber’s request includes that the death penalty be abolished in North Carolina, which requires rewriting a number of state statutes.
It is difficult to believe that all of those people who gather at the state legislature on Mondays to protest really want the state to increase spending by over 30 percent, or for that matter for the state to increase taxes to raise an additional $7 billion a year. But if the proposals that Barber says his group supports were enacted that is what it would cost.
Berger noted that not a single state representative or senator has presented a bill requesting that these changes be made, indicating that Barber may not have support for his plans on either side of the aisle.
Moral Monday—does that exclude morality on the other weekdays? Oh I’m sorry it was never about “morality.” Silly , stupid me. The next thing will be “gay Sundays.” No wait...................
You mean there are people who are still alive who were involved in race riots back in 1898?
I’m so sick of these charlitans posing as Christians. They support nothing but “ legal” theft.
“...It is difficult to believe that all of those people who gather at the state legislature on Mondays to protest really want the state to increase spending by over 30 percent...”
Sure. It’s not going to come out of their Welfare/EBT/illegally-obtained, tax-free money.
In fact, most of those programs will undoubtedly put a lot of skim/scam money in their pockets. Like it does everywhere else.
When you see a zero sum game, you KNOW it is not about the grace of God.
So exactly what is the morality of greed and theft???
Or about one sided guilt tripping? If we wanted to point fingers at the black community for being naughty it wouldn’t be all that hard....
You mean the race riots incited by the Democrats and the racist Josephus Daniels? These are niw considered by many to be the first and to date the only coup d’etat in American history.
Need to throw THAT back to NAACCP.
The usual Black hue and cry - “Just give us all your money, Whitey, and we’ll call it ‘moral.’”
Is there really anyone, anymore, who falls for this racialist hustle?
Moral of the story......people vote for morons!!!
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