O'Malley - Ignore the Facts

You have to admit - sometimes Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley has quite a sense of humor.  Do you read his blog?  I read it through the Patch series of websites (Eldersburg Patch, Westminster Patch, Owings Mills Patch, etc...).  His latest blog post is called The Facts.  The funny thing is - I couldn't find any facts in the entire post.

I'm fairly certain that O'Malley really isn't writing this blog.  It's one of his staff members and O'Malley puts his name on it when it's done.  Perhaps O'Malley forgot to read this one before it got published, because quite honestly, this is embarrassing for the Democratic Party.

So let's review the blog post.  O'Malley is all bent out of shape by the Change Maryland organization.  He claims that it's a GOP partisan organization founded by a Bob Ehrlich appointee.  Okay.  So what?  Most organizations are partisan.  Change.org.  AARP.  NRA.  AFL-CIO.  NEA.  These are all partisan organizations.  However, O'Malley makes an unnecessary personal attack on the former Governor Bob Ehrlich appointee Larry Hogan by claiming that he is a "  failed congressional candidate and failed would-be candidate for governor.  "  Okay, if you want to use them fightin' words, John Kerry is a failure, Al Gore is a failure, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is a failure, Casper Taylor is a failure, Frank Kratovil is a failure.  Why so insensitive?  I though O'Malley was all about the party that cared about people?

In another "FACT", O'Malley says that he inherited a $1.7 Billion structural deficit from Bob Erhlich that increased spending 34% over 4 years.  True, but the devil is in the details.  The overwhelming majority of that spending increase was mandated by legislation passed by the Democratic-led Maryland General Assembly under the Democratic former-"failed" Governor Paris Glendening.  We all know about the Thorton education Bill - massive increases in mandatory spending on education without a funding source.  That bill has been haunting every governor since its passing.

In the chart that O'Malley provides, it states that there has been $8 billion in cumulative reductions in the O'Malley Brown administration.  Note that he is now calling everything the O'Malley Brown administration.  He's selling his partner in crime so that he can be our next governor.  Back to the facts - there has not been $8 billion in reductions in spending in Maryland.  The fact is that the state budget has increased every year that O'Malley has been in office.  Those reductions, including the projected reductions from FY2013, mostly include reductions in anticipated spending or reductions in desired spending.  I want to buy a Ferrari.  Therefore, I added $300,000 to my household budget this year to purchase a Ferrari.  My household budget then went to $360,000.  When I realized I could not afford to spend $360,000 because I did not have revenues to support it, I removed the purchase of the Ferrari and now my household budget is $60,000.  Look!  I just reduced spending by $300,000!!!  (Can you smell the crap from where you're sitting?)

So while we've always known Martin O'Malley to be arrogant, condescending, and generally untrustworthy when it comes to giving the people of Maryland the facts, this recent blog post is just over the top.  And I'm over the top, so I know when someone is over the top.

O'Malley, whoever your ghostwriter is, you better give him a dog biscuit and tell him to settle down.  Marylanders can see right through the BS.