Editor’s note: This commentary is by Conor Casey, the executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party.
[T]he veto session is over, concluding weeks of a fabricated drama where the governor took a budget that had passed 173-1 and brought it to the brink of a government shutdown. As Frank Underwood, fictional president in the popular show “House of Cards,” says, “Politics is no longer just theater. It’s show business.” The 2017 legislative session was just that. Gov. Phil Scott dropped the mic after vetoing the $5.8 billion budget and was nowhere to be seen until hours before the veto session. He delegated his most important duties to staff while racing professionally at Thunder Road, cutting ribbons and holding press conferences castigating legislative leadership.
Gov. Scott may be a good man, but that in itself does not make him a good governor. For someone who campaigned as a moderate Republican last election, he has very much followed his party’s playbook of pushing austerity budgets, vilifying public employees and favoring corporations over workers. His saving grace is that the current Republican sitting in the White House is such an ideologue, such a loose cannon, that even former President George W. Bush looks reasonable in comparison.
Indeed, Gov. Scott is not President Donald Trump – and he has used this contrast to his benefit, signing onto letters calling on the president to protect the environment and preserve the Affordable Care Act. However, these gestures are a passive form of opposition and ring hollow, particularly from someone who himself once hedged on whether climate change was actually caused by humans and, in 2013, called on congressional Democrats to offer concessions on Obamacare. Let’s be clear, Gov. Scott talks a good game, but he can’t walk the walk. It is time to hold him accountable for his real positions on critical issues.
Democrats stand with Vermont’s workers and our own Sen. Bernie Sanders in saying it is time to move to a livable wage at $15 an hour, which would give over 85,000 low-income Vermonters a much-needed raise. Gov. Scott stands with national Republicans in opposing a minimum wage increase.
The mantra of “affordability” on the campaign trail made for a good sound bite, but his actions since taking office demand a follow-up question: affordable for whom?
Democrats stand with Vermont families in saying real family values means a common sense paid family leave policy. Gov. Scott says that is the “wrong approach,” ignoring the fact that many workers are forced to choose between caring for a sick family member or earning a paycheck.
Democrats stand with environmentalists and the growing clean energy workforce in favor of clean energy and clean water, while Gov. Scott has no plan for how to achieve Vermont’s environmental goals.
Democrats forcefully oppose Trumpcare, which would kick millions nationwide off health insurance in order to give tax breaks to billionaires. Gov. Scott, on the other hand, has not gone to Washington to tell his party leadership in Congress and the White House to stop this reckless bill before it is too late.
The mantra of “affordability” on the campaign trail made for a good sound bite, but his actions since taking office demand a follow-up question: affordable for whom? Scott has proven to be a goalpost governor, blocking meaningful legislation, while speaking in platitudes and offering few solutions himself. As the dust settles on the 2017 legislative session, it has become clear that Vermonters were sold a false bill of goods. This brand of politics isn’t the Vermont way – it’s show business, plain and simple.
