As Rhode Island Budget Impasse Drags On, Dem Gov Gina Raimondo Tries To Shift Blame

While Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo has been desperately trying to spin her administration’s stagnant economic record ahead of this week’s National Governors Association meeting in Rhode Island, her state’s Democrat-dominated legislature’s ongoing budget impasse still looms. But instead of getting involved and working tirelessly to help resolve the state’s budget issues, Raimondo refuses to accept any responsibility to address the situation, appearing more concerned with getting good PR from the NGA meeting. In an interview with WPRI-TV, Raimondo laid the blame at legislators, attacking fellow Democrat leaders and lamenting the effect it will have on her image:

GINA RAIMONDO: “Well look I, it’s not a good thing that I’m having this conference now and the legislature hasn’t passed a budget. That’s not good. It doesn’t make us look good. We have you know, the House and the Senate, you know, they’re Democrats, they have the budgets that they each passed are virtually identical. And they can’t a room and sort out their differences in order to come together to get a budget done for the people. That’s going to come up this weekend, and it’s, it’s, I’m not happy about it, and I’m going to have to explain why that is. So those are things that I wish, I wish instead I could be able to say we got our budget done, it’s a balanced budget, we’re cutting the car tax, we’re providing, you know, tuition assistance for CCRI. Instead I have to say our legislative leaders can’t get together.”

REPORTER: “Why are we in this situation?”

GINA RAIMONDO: “Because you have a House and a Senate that are each dug into their position and they—“

REPORTER: “What’s dividing them?”

GINA RAIMONDO: “You know, you have to ask them that, because I don’t think necessarily it is the issue. You know, it’s a spending plan that is, that are practically identical, so at this point they haven’t even gotten in a room together to try and sort it out, which of course is the first step to anything.”

Instead of doing whatever she can to resolve Rhode Island’s serious budget issues, Raimondo appears more concerned with protecting her image, shirking any responsibility for fixing Rhode Island’s while spinning a phony record of accomplishment. Unfortunately for Raimondo, Rhode Islanders want a governor more concerned with results than PR and they will not reward her failure to act on Rhode Island’s budget impasse when they head to the ballot box next year.