Sooner Politics.org
  • Front Page
  • Oklahoma News
    • Oklahoma Reports
    • OCPAC
    • Oklahoma Constitution News
    • Citizen of the Year
    • Oklahoma History
    • Today, In History
    • Oklahoma Center Square
    • Faked Out Sports
    • AP Wire
    • NewsBreak Oklahoma
    • Inside the Capitol
    • Lawton Rocks
    • Muskogee Now
    • OSU Sports
  • Podcasts
  • SPTV
    • Fresh Black Coffee, with Eddie Huff
    • AircraftSparky
    • Red River TV
    • Oklahoma TV
    • E PLURIBUS OTAP
    • Tapp's Common Sense
  • Editorial
    • From the Editor
    • Weekend Report
    • 3D Politics
    • Reagan Speaks
  • Sooner Issues
    • Corruption Chronicle
    • Constitutional Grounds
    • State Groups
  • Sooner Analysts
    • OCPA
    • Muskogee Politico
    • Rooke Report
    • SoonerPoll
    • Everett Piper
    • Andrew Spiropoulos
    • Tulsa Devil's Advocate
    • Eddie Huff & Friends
    • 1889 Institute
    • Steve Byas
    • Michael Bates
    • Steve Fair
    • Josh Lewis
    • Tulsa Today
    • OK2A
    • Dr. Jim Meehan
    • AFP Oklahoma
    • Sooner Tea Party
  • Nation
    • Bongino Report
    • Breitbart News
    • Daily wire
    • Steven Crowder
    • InfoWars News
    • Jeff Davis
    • Alex Lains
    • The F1rst
    • Nigel Farage
    • NewsMax
    • America's Voice
    • Ron Paul Institute
    • Bill Gertz
    • Emerald
    • Just the News
    • Trey Gowdy
    • Fox Politics
    • National Commentary
  • Wit & Whimsy
    • Libs of Tiktok
    • It's Still The Law
    • Terrence Williams
    • Witty Cartoons
    • Will Rogers Said
    • Steeple Chasers
    • The Partisan
    • Satire
  • SoonerPolitics.org

House Freshmen Who Got 'Pawned'

7/31/2017

Comments

 

Part 4 of Rep. Jason Murphey's Review of the 2017 Oklahoma Legislature

Senior House member,  Jason Murphey , continues his 'no holds barred' report on the disastrous 2017 legislative session. 
  In this report he calls out the appropriations gang who manipulated freshmen legislators and details the overwhelming success that was had by this scheme.
  According to the 2017 RINO Index, 21 freshmen Republicans voted rather consistently for various revenue-raising bills. Those political novices were;
​- Babinec, Greg
- Baker, Rhonda
- Bush, Carol
- Downing, Tim
- Fetgatter, Scott
- Ford, Roger
- Frix, Avery
- Hilbert, Kyle
- Kerbs, Dell
- Lawson, Mark
- Martinez, Ryan
- McDugle, Kevin
- McEachin, Scott
- McEntire, Marcus
- Newton, Carl
- Osburn, Mike 
- Teague, Tess 
- West, Josh
- West, Kevin
- West, Tammy
- Worthen, Rande
Here is Murphey's 'blistering' report...
Picture

PictureChairman Jason Murphey
The Dastardly Art of Freshman Pawning
07.31.2017
Much of the time and energy of this legislative session was consumed by the push to raise taxes, even if those taxes were unconstitutional.

This push was led by a group of "increase taxes at all cost" ideologues who deployed an array of tactics and strategies to convince their colleagues to raise taxes.

One such tactic utilized the deployment of the most systematic and aggressive strategy of freshman pawning that I have ever seen. 

What is freshman pawning, you ask?

Freshman pawning is a particularly dastardly strategy utilized by appropriations leaders to give the newest legislators direct ownership of some of the most controversial components of appropriation leadership's agenda.

I saw this first hand as a member of the House Appropriations Committee where I often witnessed a freshman legislator presenting a tax increase on behalf of the Appropriations Committee Chairperson.

It is a great honor for a new legislator to receive a request for help from the high ranking appropriations leaders.

They would likely make their request after a bit of flattery. 

“You are doing a great job so far. We have a complicated tax policy bill and will need someone with your intellectual firepower to guide it through the process. Would you be able to present the bill on our behalf?"

How does a freshman say "no" to this request?

It takes wisdom to see through this flattery and tremendous courage to stand up to the pressure and say, "No, thank you.”

This is an effective strategy because upon acquiescing, the new legislator has officially bought into the tax increase scheme and "joined the team."

Not only are they now supporting value-betraying tax increases, they are actively sponsoring them. They have become a key part of the team effort to "find solutions" by raising taxes. 

This made them quite susceptible to voting for the other tax increases -- including those that were clearly unconstitutional. After all, it's hardly fair for the new lawmaker to ask other legislators to vote for "his" tax increase when he is unwilling to vote for theirs.

You can only imagine how much pressure is placed on new lawmakers. 

You should also know that not all new legislators bought into the scheme. I had tremendous respect for those who found a way to escape being pawned. 

I absolutely hated to see this aggressive policy of freshman pawning. It will haunt the legislature and the people of Oklahoma for years to come.

There were hardened, politically secure legislators who have long ago given up on enacting true oversight and implementing efficiencies; they would have happily presented the tax increase bills. There was absolutely no actual need to encumber the new lawmakers with such political toxicity.

These new lawmakers were not guilty of the sins of the veteran House members that put the state into a fiscal crunch. They had not voted for the many millions of bonds and debt, they had not greatly expanded the state's medical welfare system, they weren't responsible for the state's record high spend level of nearly 19 billion dollars last year and they had not failed to reform the budget and fiscal oversight system. There was certainly no obligation on them to betray their core principles and raise taxes.

At the start of the session, many freshman legislators still believed they could hold government accountable. They wanted to find new efficiencies and cut costs. Had our appropriations officials invested as much time and energy into reforming the system as they invested into raising taxes, the new legislators would have been in near unanimous support. 

Just weeks earlier, I don't think any of these individuals would have even considered voting in favor of clearly unconstitutional tax raises -- and most certainly wouldn't have believed they would be the ones to present tax increase bills. 

Now that session is over, they have a decision to make. They can come to terms with what happened to them, understand how they were used, and earn redemption next year; or, unfortunately, I'm afraid that most will give in to the all-too-human tendency of denial. 

If so, they will convince themselves that there was no other way than to increase taxes, and they will consider themselves to be "enlightened" as to the true state of state government.

This new state of enlightenment leaves little ability to see and understand the true problem: the state's tendency to spend money -- spending that has resulted in a record high of nearly 19 billion dollars, legislators who are unwilling to take on the sacred cows of inappropriate and inefficient government spend, and a completely broken legislative budget process that provides lawmakers with only a modicum of oversight and no comprehensive purview of actual state spend.

Next week I will describe more of the tactics used by those who endeavored to raise your taxes.

@JWMurphey

Comments

    Sooner Politics
      Editorial  

    Picture
    David Van Risseghem reports the events and adds some perspective. 


    Search Our Archives.

    Get A Daily News Email

    * indicates required

    Get new posts by email:


    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    August 2015
    January 2015


    Subscribe in a reader
    ​We recently moved our blog. Our archives are still partially stored at our old site. 

    Author

    David Van Risseghem  is the Publisher of SoonerPolitics.org. The resource is committed to informing & mobilizing conservative Oklahomans for civic reform.  This endeavor seeks to utilize the efforts of all cooperative facets of the Conservative movement...

    ​"No politician 'checks off every box" in your list of issues. You have to prioritize and use personal discretion regarding every current and future issue that you can imagine. Then you have to also judge integrity & consistency. A candidate's openness to study the issues & courage to think for themselves. Then you need to review their honesty & work ethic.  I respect any voter's decision, when they've informed themselves and took voting seriously." - David Van Risseghem
​FRONT PAGE •  OKLAHOMA NEWS • EDITORIAL • SOONER ISSUES •​ STATE GROUPS •​ SOONER ANALYSTS •​ LAWMAKER'S JOURNAL •​ NATION •​ NATIONAL COMMENTARY •​ CARTOONS •​ ​
Picture

918 . 928 . 7776

 SoonerPolitics.org is committed to informing & mobilizing conservative Oklahomans for civic reform & restored liberty. We seeks to utilize the efforts of all cooperative facets of the Conservative movement... Content of the diverse columns are solely at the discretion of the dozens of websites who create the content.   David Van Risseghem  is the founder of this platform.
 Sooner Politics News is a platform, not a media site. All our bloggers get their feeds promoted regardless of content. As soon as We suppress or delete even one posting, we become an endorser of whatever We didn't censor..The publisher doesn't (and could not) logically agree with all the content, so we would not expect any rational reader to agree, either. What we do hope, is that readers will think for themselves, and at least be better informed of the issues, events, and values that our citizen journalists work hard to provide for free.. We automate much of the tasks so that our sources' content gets as much exposure as possible. We encourage constructive discussion & debate. The solution is more free speech, not less.​

  • Front Page
  • Oklahoma News
    • Oklahoma Reports
    • OCPAC
    • Oklahoma Constitution News
    • Citizen of the Year
    • Oklahoma History
    • Today, In History
    • Oklahoma Center Square
    • Faked Out Sports
    • AP Wire
    • NewsBreak Oklahoma
    • Inside the Capitol
    • Lawton Rocks
    • Muskogee Now
    • OSU Sports
  • Podcasts
  • SPTV
    • Fresh Black Coffee, with Eddie Huff
    • AircraftSparky
    • Red River TV
    • Oklahoma TV
    • E PLURIBUS OTAP
    • Tapp's Common Sense
  • Editorial
    • From the Editor
    • Weekend Report
    • 3D Politics
    • Reagan Speaks
  • Sooner Issues
    • Corruption Chronicle
    • Constitutional Grounds
    • State Groups
  • Sooner Analysts
    • OCPA
    • Muskogee Politico
    • Rooke Report
    • SoonerPoll
    • Everett Piper
    • Andrew Spiropoulos
    • Tulsa Devil's Advocate
    • Eddie Huff & Friends
    • 1889 Institute
    • Steve Byas
    • Michael Bates
    • Steve Fair
    • Josh Lewis
    • Tulsa Today
    • OK2A
    • Dr. Jim Meehan
    • AFP Oklahoma
    • Sooner Tea Party
  • Nation
    • Bongino Report
    • Breitbart News
    • Daily wire
    • Steven Crowder
    • InfoWars News
    • Jeff Davis
    • Alex Lains
    • The F1rst
    • Nigel Farage
    • NewsMax
    • America's Voice
    • Ron Paul Institute
    • Bill Gertz
    • Emerald
    • Just the News
    • Trey Gowdy
    • Fox Politics
    • National Commentary
  • Wit & Whimsy
    • Libs of Tiktok
    • It's Still The Law
    • Terrence Williams
    • Witty Cartoons
    • Will Rogers Said
    • Steeple Chasers
    • The Partisan
    • Satire
  • SoonerPolitics.org