Blame Game

When <a href="http://governor.mt.gov/governor/govbio.asp">Gov. Brian Schweitzer</a> announced a special session to pay for the fire fighting costs this year, the Montana Blogs started up. Depending on which blog you read, either the Republicans or the Democrats were to blame for this and that was the end of the story. As normal I didn't believe either side since they were only swinging for political advantage. Now I see a story that does tell a little more.<br />n<br />n<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/09/03/news/state/20-blame.txt">Plenty of blame with session</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>f you're a hard-core Democrat, the story behind this week's legislative special session goes like this: <a href="http://governor.mt.gov/governor/govbio.asp">Gov. Brian Schweitzer</a> this year wisely tried to set aside an extra $19 million to combat wildfires, but Republicans in the Legislature cut out the money.<br />n<br />nIf you're a devoted Republican, the story reads like this: Republicans tried to budget an extra $10 million for firefighting during the Legislature, but Democrats diverted that money on the last day to hire more tax collectors.<br />n<br />nAs in all things political, neither narrative is exactly right – nor exactly wrong. The more pertinent question might be, "What difference does it make?" And the answer is, not much.<br />n<br />nNo matter which political side had its way on firefighting funds during the regular legislative session this spring, it's quite likely we'd still find ourselves in a special session.<br />n<br />nAs of last week, the state had already run up a $35 million bill for fighting fires just this year – way more than either side had proposed to set aside for the next two years.</blockquote><br />n<br />nSo it turns our neither side budgeted enough so both are to blame. I know both the left and the right will argue with the above stated positions but it's the truth. Let's quit playing the blame game and get the job done. Everybody and their dog knows that fire seasons have been getting worse so why not try to budget enough for them instead of ignoring the situation in hopes it will go away. If both sides would have done the job right in the first place they wouldn't need to be spending my money for this special session to fix the problem.<br />n<br />nJust so this is clear, the Republicans and the Democrats in the Legislature did not budget enough money for fire fighting and neither did <a href="http://governor.mt.gov/governor/govbio.asp">Gov. Brian Schweitzer</a>. The costs for this year are all ready higher than than all concerned budgeted for two years. Quit pointing fingers and fix the problem. <br />n<br />n<strong>You don't fix the problem until you define it. John W. Snow </strong>