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| Happy days are here again under Nick Matiello |
By Steve Ahlquist, RI’s
Future
It’s not often you hear a high ranking Democrat from a solidly
blue state say, “the focus has to be on eradicating the safety net and not
bolstering the safety net.”
It’s not often a conservative Republican goes that far. But that’s exactly what Rhode Island’s Speaker of
the House, Rep. Nicholas Mattiello, said to an
Interfaith Coalition focused on poverty this week.
Mattiello preceded his comment with his usual rhetoric of
building a strong economy with good jobs as being the best route out of
poverty, and that the safety net should be funded at “appropriate”
levels.
House spokesperson Larry Berman offered
this clarification: Speaker Mattiello, “means that if we alleviate poverty,
there will be no need for a safety net. He wants to improve the economy and get
people working to eradicate poverty.”
The RI Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty has held this event on the second day of the
General Assembly being in session for the last seven years and traditionally
the Governor, Senate President and Speaker of the House are invited to speak.
Usually the assembled politicians say a few nice words about
keeping the plight of the poorest Rhode Islanders in mind as they maneuver bills
through the system, whatever their actual intentions towards the poor might be.
But Mattiello, beginning his first full term as speaker, seems
eager to chart a new course: He’s being upfront about his intentions slash
social service programs to “appropriate” levels.
A staunch conservative, Mattiello has the solid backing of both
the NRA and Right to Life.
He has the strong backing of conservative Republicans. House GOP
leader Brian Newberry says, “Philosophically,
he’s just closer to us than his predecessor.”
Meanwhile, Mattiello has targeted progressives within his own
party. He endorsed progressive
legislator Maria Cimini’s Democratic primary challenger “because she
didn’t back him for speaker, didn’t apologize for that and because she doesn’t
agree with him on policy.” Cimini lost her primary.
When the Providence Journal asked
Mattiello where the cuts would be made this session, the Speaker answered,
“Eligibility for human-service benefits and so forth. Let’s see where we are
versus our neighbors …. Prioritize which ones are more important and look to
cut expenses out of them.”
In his first term as speaker, Mattiello cut the corporate tax
rate from 9 to 7%, now the lowest in New England, and raised the exemption
on the estate tax to the first $1.5 million of wealth. He’s
eager to cut funding for Healthsource RI, one of
the most successful state run Obamacare programs and has even suggested closing
the system down and “giving it back to the federal government.”
RI Monthly quotes Mattiello as wanting to steer the state away
from being, “on the leading edge of the social agenda” but can economic policy
be so readily separated from issues of social justice? Rhode Island has
the highest poverty rate in
New England, yet when workers organize to help themselves out of poverty,
Mattiello has led the charge to slap them down.
Mattiello likes to talk about jobs and the economy, but people are
more than their jobs. People have value beyond the economy. Like it or not, the
government has a role in securing that there is a system, a social safety net,
to prevent the most vulnerable from facing the worst life has to offer. And
maybe, along the way, we can even help lift people up.
Steve Ahlquist is a writer, artist and
current president of the Humanists of Rhode Island, a non-profit group
dedicated to reason, compassion, optimism, courage and action. The views
expressed are his own and not necessarily those of any organization of which he
is a member.
His photos and video are usable under the Creative Commons
license. Free to share with credit.
Consider supporting Steve Ahlquist by clicking the Patreon
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Email: atomicsteve@gmail.com
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Twitter: @SteveAhlquist
"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never
the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” - Elie
Weisel