Deb Billado: VT Democrats have wrong priorities for post-covid recovery

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Deb Billado, chairwoman of the Vermont GOP.

The Vermont legislature just adjourned for a two-month break in what would normally be the economic boom time period of summer tourism season. Of course, these are not normal times. Events are canceled, restaurants and lodging establishments are closed or operating at limited capacity, and tens of thousands of Vermonters are out of work.

When we come through the other side of this COVID-19 crisis, fixing our economy needs to be our number one priority. We need to get people back to work, help businesses start employing people again, and allow citizens to rebuild the financial security they lost during the shutdown.

Rather than increasing taxes and making regulations more complicated and expensive to comply with, our lawmakers should be putting policies in place that will make Vermont a better, easier place to find and create work and save for the future.

Deborah Billado, chair of the Vermont GOP

But this is not what our Democratic controlled legislature is doing. While Vermonters were waiting in hours long lines to get military surplus MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) in order to feed their families, Democrats were focused on passing the Global Warming Solutions Act, with the objective of tamping down any economic activity that uses fossil fuels. This is the opposite of being helpful.

At a time when the state treasury is facing a more than a $400 million revenue shortfall, the Global Warming Solutions Act will cost taxpayers nearly a million dollars we don’t have for three new six-figure-a-year state employees just to get the program started. After it is up and running, and “any person” can sue the state for not meeting emissions reduction goals with the taxpayers picking up the tab for the legal fees, Katy bar the door.

During the debate over the Global Warming Solutions Act, Democratic and Progressive legislators actually complained that it didn’t go far enough because it didn’t raise taxes high enough or spend enough taxpayer money on things like electric vehicle and renewable energy subsidies. What they really said they wanted is a carbon tax on gasoline, diesel and home heating fuels. Re-elect them in November, and that’s exactly what you’ll get! A regressive, economy killing tax on those who can least afford it at a time when citizens are at their most vulnerable.

While our lodging industry is in dire straits, unable to take new reservations and dealing with countless event cancellations, these same legislators’ priority was to make it illegal for hotels, B&Bs, etc. to leave mini-plastic shampoo bottles and conditioner out for their guests. This is helpful, how?

While our restaurants and retail stores are struggling with how to serve cash-strapped customers and dealing with a contagious disease, the majority’s priority was to enact a ban on sanitary plastic bags, and impose a 10 cent per bag tax/fee on paper bags, driving up grocery costs at a time when people can least afford it.

A recent article in the Valley Reporter discusses local business owners’ frustrations: “[T]he impact of the political climate in Vermont on their ability to run a successful business was significant. She cited a minimum wage law that increased front-of-the-house hourly wages by 50 percent which means that front-of-the-house workers (receiving tips) are earning an average of $49 an hour which can’t be shared with back-of-the-house employees. ‘That’s one reason why Vermont has not turned out to be a good place for us. The Legislature doesn’t understand the reality of running a business and thinks that business is bad and that business owners are bad,’ she said. ‘Those kinds of things should be considered in policies and they’re not, which have catastrophic downstream conditions.’”

While the Democrats’ agenda may have been somewhat defensible six months ago, it is totally inappropriate now. The times and circumstances have changed dramatically, but their agenda hasn’t.

Vermont Republicans understand that we need to put policies in place that will lead to economic growth and higher employment. Government’s role needs to be one of actively easing burdens and cutting red tape, not creating more of the same. If the next chapter in Vermont’s history is going to be a story of success, we need to elect many more Republicans to the Vermont House and Senate, to get our economy moving in the right direction again.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/ Drug Addiction Clinic Vita

13 thoughts on “Deb Billado: VT Democrats have wrong priorities for post-covid recovery

  1. Thank you Deb for such a precise article.
    If only everyone was smart enough to comprehend the validity of it.

  2. Thanks Ms. Billado for another great message detailing the task ahead and what it will take to fix what has been broken by the destroyers who ruined and and continue to tear our state and nation apart limb from limb – Democrat Party and their evil minions.

    • Excellent video….comrade….yes this demonstrates in a very easy simple way how states and countries are subverted, ie. taken over by an outside power without a fight or whimper.

      Vermont for practical purposes is no longer part of the union, the United States, we are a colony of the United Nations.

      Governor Scott
      Lt.Governor Zuckerman
      Senate Leader Ashe
      House Leader Johnson

      Are all shilling, pimping for the NWO. They take their directives from the WHO. The zoning and planning are directly from the United Nations, Agenda 21, Agenda 30, Sustainable Communities (what ever they may be calling it today). We no longer hold dear the rule of law, science or even the whiff that there might be something greater than our own egotistical selves. Our educational system dictated by a global cabal. Our election system and borders distorted to such degree that sovereignty is no longer ours, destiny is controlled by forces outside of Vermont. We are no longer a free man, we are no longer willing to choose our own path or course, it shall be dictated by the state, all knowing and seeing that it is. Vermont is the farm team for socialism, we need to be the farm team for Americans.

      This is the playground in which we play. We have much work and education to do.

      When we can not overcome the gravitational pull of the sofa, “smart” phone and television, others devise ways to steal our lunch. And here we are, it’s 11:50 am and we have not lunch.

    • Thanks Mr. Metivier…sobering message -everyone needs to see this short clip esp the old-school Democrats! The globalist cabal aided and abetted by the Democrat Party and other assorted leftist factions are trying their hand at Tin Pot dictatorship by ‘temporarily’ mandating masks… indeed attempting to usher in totalitarian tyranny in plain sight.

      We the Patriots and true Conservatives were right all along…and it’s not that hard to figure out the Democrat Party and all of it’s pied-pipered Brown Shirts.

      • Why Face Masks DON’T Work, According To SCIENCE

        “So much debate over whether or not we should be wearing masks in order to fight C0VlD but multiple scientific studies over the past decade have already settled this question. Not only do medical masks not prevent the spread of virus, but a 1995 study proves that wearing a cloth mask can put you at greater risk for infection.”
        Ben Swann breaks down the science:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8upEg-bEJ8

        first comment didn’t post if it does – sorry in advance for dupe 🙂

        • Spoiler alert: Wuhan Flu scamdemic about to lose ‘pandemic’ status lol – and if the numbers of deaths dip any deeper CDC [reports] will no longer call coronavirus an epidemic as of 7/3? yet we’re not hearing this as maskwarriors continue battle of blame and shame – and we’re under threat of statewide forced maskings around US? Wow just wow *facepalm*
          – BenSwannRealityCheck
          C0R0NAVlRUS Cases Surging but Deaths are Not, Here’s Why
          40,377 views•Jul 9, 2020
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHneIqBNpp0

        • This link to the video about the science of masks is great. Too bad the Gov will not watch it. No sense in getting educated. Pols never admit to a mistake.

  3. When we come through the other side of this COVID-19 crisis, fixing our economy needs to be our number one priority.

    ‘We’ don’t need to ‘fix’ anything. All ‘we’ need to do is get out of the way and let the economy and the markets do their thing. We’ve had enough of people trying to ‘fix’ things. It’s the ‘fixing’ that creates the problems.

    • We need to fix our economy for national security.
      A nation and a people that are broke and up to their eyeballs in debt, this is a national security risk- a personal security risk. Look at what we have just gone through. If you had some money in the bank, things sure looked different for you.
      I pray we have learned these vital lessons and go like the wind to fix all of this.
      We must do this for our kids.

  4. Lord folks. Let this resonate with you. PLEASE get over your Dem./Prog. knee jerk biases about Republicans. We aren’t the bad guys…look at the ideas here…look at the issues she’s raised. Is Deb onto something here? Think about it. We’ve gone astray Vermont. Our government is off the rails. Let’s get it fixed.

Comments are closed.