Governor Kristi Noem has had nothing to say yet about the House’s crushing of her briefly revived food-tax repeal yesterday. But eager reader Bob Newland points out the quote of the week that Noem made Monday night right after the Senate held out that brief glimmer of hope for her marquee campaign promise:
All three of the major proposals would cut or cost around $104 million. Lawmakers say they will hash out their differences and craft a budget in the coming days. Regularly scheduled legislative session ends on Thursday. But Noem said the conversation could go much longer.
“Listen, we don’t have to pass a budget this week. If these legislators want to sit here and take a couple months to do the right thing, I’ve got nowhere to go,” she added [Lee Strubinger, “Lawmakers to Weigh Revived Tax Cut Proposals Ahead of Thursday Deadline,” SDPB Radio, 203.03.06].
“I’ve got nowhere to go”—really? Is Noem saying her jetsetting days are done? Is she acknowledging that she can’t get traction as a national candidate against more appealing and effective governors like Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley? Did Corey Lewandowski finally dump her? Is that why she skipped both CPAC and the Club for Growth donors meeting last weekend?
Right before declaring herself in a no-fly zone, Noem made an interesting comment about the budget and her willingness to veto it:
Noem has threatened to veto the overall budget bill if she does not agree with whatever tax cut is included.
“That seems like a really irresponsible budget,” Noem said to reporters Monday. “We don’t have to pass a budget this week. If these legislators want to sit here and take a couple of months to do the right thing, I’ve got nowhere to go” [Annie Todd, “Legislature Votes to Kill 2 Tax Cut Proposals Tied to Grocery and Property Taxes,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2023.03.07].
The budget forming up in the Capitol is irresponsible? That’s funny: Republican leaders like Representative Will Mortenson have been bending over backwards to say that the tussle over which tax to repeal is just a disagreement in the mechanics of reaching the goals that Legislative Republicans and the Governor share. The budget that comes out of Joint Appropriations this week will include over 95% of what the Governor asked for. To say that the coming budget is “really irresponsible” sounds like a flip-flop on the budget Noem herself proposed.
But let’s not expect too much follow-through on Noem’s Monday statements. She seems to be throwing out more Trump-flavored word salad, thinking that a couple half-baked quips will remedy her inattentive and ineffective governing style. Noem will forget her words (just as she forgot her opposition to repealing the food tax when she needed campaign-boosting headlines), sign her budget, and hop back on her jet for more coastal-elite fundraisers before the end of the month.
She can always go back to barrel racing. It’s repetitive too.
Noem Nothing made drumpf’s short list of Veep candidates, along with Scary Flake of Arizona, Nicki the unloved Haley, formerly guv of somewhere and the fruit of Mike Huckabee’s loins, the present guv of Arkansass.
Tom Emmer, magat, declares Mt Rushmore destroyed in a fund raiser? Saw this at Raw Story but ir is behind their paywall.
e, I saw a story about that as well. It seems that her way to Trump’s heart is to nip at the heels of Desantis — governor on governor. I don’t like the path that charts for SD if we have to pay the price for Noem to out-crazy Desantis.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a liar-for-pay and Arkansas’ first female governor, knows how to twist arms and cajole to pass a terrible bill through the Arkansas Legislature and into law. And she passed her school choice bill and told ABC News that she is not endorsing Trump for President all in the same week.
The bill rolls back child labor laws. How’s that for shoving innocent kids in harm’s way? A bill that mean is too mean for South Dakota’s legislature (maybe next year?) and stakes out a new frontier for outrage that is lobster dinner to the whackadoodle MAGA crowd. Just think about it. Scandals are making the top of the news about exploited children working in hazardous settings and meat packing factories, and what is The Huckster’s political reaction? Unshackle industry and let them exploit kids legally!!
The Huckster has balls. She doesn’t rely on her looks to slide ahead. She’s beyond help from Botox. Yet, she’s the rising star in a Republican Party that still hides under their desks when Trump’s name is heard. Sarah, not Kristi Noem, was chosen to deliver the national GOP’s anti-woke presentation after President Joe Biden’s recent State of the Union Address. All of this from someone’s who did not get elected to the state and U.S. House of Representatives and who is still in her first term in any elected office.
Did I not yet mention that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is 11 years younger than Queen of Snowflakes Kristi Lynn Noem?
Don’t get me wrong. The Huckster is a creep. But she works much harder, is five times smarter and a whole lot meaner and more ruthless than South Dakota’s lazy current governor. Armed with a great, popular idea and a promise to eliminate the state sales tax on food, Kristi Lynn can’t get to first base with a legislature that is more than 90 percent Republican. Arkansas’ legislature has GOP control of 29-6 in the Senate and 82-18 in the House.
Go home, Noem. You ain’t fit to run a state that’s not even one third the population of Arkansas.
Young Ms. Governor Huckabee Sanders is very smart, and very pretty, and will probably go places and do things.
O, you’ll see enough of DeSantis, the delusional shortstop. The short girly voiced demigod is coming America’s way. It’s going to be wonderful watching the boy swing for the fences when he should be bunting.
She has no place to go??? Well, I guess they didn’t want her at the big Conservative Confab last week, where Trump headlined, and she’s not on either the MSNBC or Fox News list of Republican contenders. Lewandowski apparently can’t book enough “fee for service” speaking engagements and her fund raising opportunities in the Sun Belt are withering away. Perhaps she could book a Conservatives With Common Sense breakfast at whatever Black Hills Greasy Spoon Grudznick is favoring these days.