Robin Hood Is In the Building

The story of Robin Hood, perhaps more metaphorical than real, has been told from generation to generation since the 14th century. Whether one is apt to believe in the man is moot, the point is what one might call paleo-populism, or in some corners, paleo-socialism: steal from the rich and give to the poor. It clearly applies to the current economic environment in AZ. But with a twist.

In the midst of the greatest budget crisis in Arizona's history, a "reverse Robin Hood" syndrome has afflicted the state's legislature. From Lake Havasu City to Phoenix, on through Mesa and all the way to White Mountains, a group of well-healed Republican legislators has decided that the top priority of the state is to take care of its most wealthy on the backs of Arizona's middle class and low-income citizens. This is trickle down economics, a Ronald Reagan standard, on steroids.

Those corporations which are apt to be bailed out (ostensibly because they are too big to fail) when they make egregious mistakes (call them accounting errors, if you will), the same corporations whose income tax rate was at a lower percentage than the number of fingers one can count on his or her left hand after an accident with a large knife, are the beneficiaries of the AZ state legislature's largesse. It seems like slight-of-hand that a state which is not only broke but in a deep shade of red (rather like blood) can be shelling out over $100 million per year to the group who needs it least. It feels like prestidigitation...because it is.

In a magic trick that would make Harry Houdini green with envy, Republicans have said that the meek shall inherit the debt and the rich will inherit a zero tax rate. How was this amazing trick pulled off? One can call it sorcery, but others might say that the Republican-led legislature knows how to run a propaganda machine, the type that Joseph Goebbels and the Nazis would blush at. Count most Arizona citizens baffled; they know not what hit them or that anything did hit them. In fact, some are calling it a victory for democracy that the wealth wasn't "redistributed to the poor." Others would say that Robin Hood's alter ego, his Mr. Hyde, has made an appearance across the Atlantic from Sherwood Forest.

For whom did the AZ legislator see fit to serve a nice helping of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle?" None other than those effete, liberal, union-loving, America-hating educators, the very bane of modern society. One need only read the opinion column of the Arizona Republic to know that teachers are in the same company as thieves and...anyone else who makes less than $50,000 per year.

Witness the damage: AHCCCS took a $500 million hit (sick people are apparently non-essentials, too); education funding was reduced by $420 million. These are the victims, the very entities that are bleeding red not only from lack of funds, but also from the legislature-inflicted wounds borne upon them.

However, we have a balanced budget in Arizona (shhhhhhhhhh, don't say a thing about how the state is asking local municipalities to help foot the bill in order that the rich get even richer. It's our secret, OK?), and that's what matters. Robin Hood's alter ego would unequivocally agree.