A hastily called Joint Committee on Appropriations and budget just recessed and members are filing into the House chamber to push the deal through. The deal includes huge new spending on common education. It hikes fuel taxes, sales taxes, oil production taxes, and several other regressive measures. The economy will no doubt be greatly burdened with carrying the load of an ever-growing state government. Echols started out the floor procedures by moving to suspend the chambers rules which do no allow for a vote on legislation not yet, written, distributed, or read by the members of of the House. It took some suspicious maneuvers to get the motion to suspend the rules to attain the 2/3 vote. It seems to have come down to Chuck Strohm & Sean Roberts (who just happen to be the co-chairs of the Platform Caucus). |
House Floor Leader, Jon Echols, wrote a passionate call for all of Oklahoma to come together for the sake of making Oklahoma a better place for the generations to come. SoonerPolitics believes it's worth echoing. I'm bothered so much by what I have watched and read these last couple days. People are saying such vile things, doing everything they can to shout down those they don't agree with. And now, there are people actually justifying openly mocking a ten year old. A TEN YEAR OLD!!! I didn't know exactly what to say. So I think I'll say this. I am proud to serve the people of Oklahoma and the citizens of House District 90. I am proud that I work with many good people, some are republicans and some are democrats. I'm proud that they, like me, sacrifice time away from their families because they have a burning desire to make the state better. And I'm proud that the vast majority of them fight for their beliefs with honor, integrity, and a hope that at the end of the day the right thing will happen. So in the end, here is my point. I don't care if you are liberal or conservative. I don't care if you are a man or a woman. I don't care if you are a democrat or a republican. If you want to make this state better, you are my ally not my enemy. Maybe we wont immediately agree on exactly what that is, but maybe if we reason together instead of yelling at each other we can reach a point of common ground. I'm not offering to give up my conservative beliefs. And I'm not asking a liberal to give up their liberal beliefs. Maybe we reach that point of impasse where we simply agree to disagree. But please understand even then, if your goal is to make the state better you are still not my enemy nor am I yours!!! Instead we can fight that issue out like ladies and gentlemen. And then, when it is over, reason together again, because maybe we will reach agreement on the next issue. So while the world appears to be getting more and more adversarial and angry, I'll be the guy at the Capitol trying to do his job. To everyone else, stay true to your ideas! Do what it takes to set the world on fire with concepts and ideals that will leave the world a better place! But please leave some room for people like me. People who are far more concerned with leaving this state a better place then they are with embarrassing or shaming those that disagree with them. Then maybe, we can fix some of the many problems that need solutions. And we can give your children and mine a better world then we had. House Leaders Speak Openly On Social Media About Investigation, Answering Many Citizens' Questions..1/15/2017
|
Sooner Politics
|