You see all of the examples where the politicians automatically align into opposing camps, in Washington, in California, even in the case of Katrina where most politically active people can only see the mistakes made at either just the federal level or just the state/local level.
So when you don't get this knee-jerk reaction, the people involved should be congratulated.
Here in Colorado the state budget has been squeezed between the Tabor amendment which basically reduces the state budget in real dollars each year and various funding referendums - particularly one that forces an increase in real dollars for K-12 education.
The last two years forced some pretty bad spending cuts along with playing every game possible to put off further cuts. But another year and the cuts will be horrible.
So what happened?
The liberal and conservatives, the Democrats and Republicans, the governor (Republican) and legislature (majority Democrat for the first time in awhile) got together. And they hammered out a compromise.
Is anyone happy? No. But it is something they can all live with. And you now have most of the political leaders supporting an amendment for the upcoming election. And it provides a workable solution.
(You still have the nutso right against it. But they won't be happy until taxes are reduced to zero.)
So instead of each side posturing to it's base. Instead of promising the electorate the services they want and no new taxes. They did the grown up thing and came up with a real solution to the problem
So thank you to those who delivered this compromise. And thank you to all that are supporting it, even if it's not exactly what you want. Because at it's best, politics is the art of coming up with something workable that everyone can live with.
