"The governor has convinced himself that this isn't his budget."
State Sen. Themis Klarides
The Connecticut Republican leadership recapped the 2015 legislative session at the State Capitol on Thursday. House Republican Leader Themis Klarides urged the governor to veto the budget if it wasn't the plan he wanted.
“I find it interesting that we have gone so far down the rabbit hole in this state, particularly this session,” Klarides said at the press conference. “Yet with all due respect to Sen. Looney, he said this is a budget to celebrate -- $1.5 billion of new taxes. Making signs to hold up at every business, telling them to get out, because we’re making it so difficult for them to stay in this state, and hurting the middle class, to the tune of almost one billion dollars, that’s a budget to celebrate?”
Klarides criticized Governor Dannel Malloy’s rhetoric about whether the budget the legislature passed was “his” or not.
“The governor, of course, he has convinced himself that this isn’t his budget,” Klarides said. “When he signs one, this isn’t the budget he wanted. I always believed that if the governor had to take a lie detector test, he would pass it, because he convinces himself of what he says, no matter how ridiculous it is. I would urge him, if he doesn’t believe that this is his budget, then he should veto it, we should start over. Because otherwise, it’s hypocritical. We sit here every day, and we talk about -- in these committee rooms -- how we’re going to help the people of this state, how we’re going to help them live better lives, safer lives, and how we make Connecticut as great as it can be, as great as it once was.”
Klarides said the state is "stomping all over" the American dream every day, citing her own immigrant family background.
“Four years ago,” Klarides said, “when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, in the budget that was passed -- the budget that the governor swore, and swore, and swore for four years was going to make this state better, and get us out of the hole, the $3.5 billion deficit we were in four years ago -- that that was going to fix it. And here we are, with a $3 billion deficit -- nothing fixed; things worse; and companies leaving.”
Klarides questioned why the legislature would pass a budget that “hurts the people we are trying to protect.”
Watch the press conference footage below courtesy of CT-N:
