Newly minted chairman of the Mississippi Democrat Party former state representative Bobby Moak was Paul Gallo’s guest on SuperTalk Radio Thursday morning.
After dodging questions on his position of changing the Mississippi state flag and challenging the “spin” of Mississippi’s “great” economy, Moak took to comparing the handling of the state’s budget by the current Republican leadership to Donald Trump and foreign policy.
When asked if he thought the current state of the budget has to do with giving tax incentives over the years, Moak said, “It has to do some with that, because, a lot to do with that, because if you look at the numbers, the numbers where they are short are corporate taxes.”
Gallo noted that legislative Democrats, Moak included, voted for some of the tax incentives and relief bills. Moak said he voted for a few of them but said the current majority owns it, essentially giving his members a pass, which is what current House Minority Leader Rep. David Baria also tried to do during the 2016 session.
Moak tried to hit the Republican majority by referencing 2014’s HB 799. In doing so, he threw his Democrat caucus under the bus.
You see, if Moak were going to try and absolve his Democrat colleagues of any responsibility in this matter, he probably should have chosen a different piece of legislation to reference since, as shown below, he was the only vote against HB 799.
I asked around to a few longtime House members if they can remember why Moak voted against this measure. All whom I spoke with said they either didn’t recall his voting against it or that they didn’t remember Moak voicing the reason for his opposition at the time.
As you can see from the vote above, the entire Democrat Caucus, minus Moak, voted for HB 799 – everyone from the House Minority Leader Rep. Baria to Bill Minor’s budget guru turned Central Public Service Commissioner Cecil Brown who has taken to criticizing the Legislature on the stump.
HB 799, like other tax relief bills over the past few years, with the exception of this past session’s franchise tax cut, enjoyed true bipartisan support, but yet you wouldn’t know that from the gross revisionism Moak, Baria and the Democrat Party in Mississippi is now fully engaged in as they attempt to paint Republicans as incompetent bunglers.
It can only be assumed that either then House Minority Leader and now party chair Moak did not share his wisdom with other House Democrats and whip his caucus to oppose this measure in 2014 and others like it along the way, that House Democrats voted for the measures with an eye to their upcoming reelection, or else they all chose to ignore Moak’s “leadership.” Either way, it is not a good omen for the future of the Democrat Party in Mississippi under Moak.
Moak also told Gallo, “In the past five years, the Republican supermajority and the majority have taken us to a point that the Democrats when they held power for the last 100 plus have never taken this state.”
Although Moak meant this to be unflattering to Republicans, I believe the truth of what Mississippi’s GOP leaders have been able to accomplish in just five short years, from education to fiscal reforms, has gone a long way in righting the ship that was sinking thanks to the 140 year reign of Democrats.
What Mississippians must keep in mind when listening to Moak is that it is his job to hang a dark cloud over Mississippi’s current state government spewing as much doom and gloom as possible if his party is to ever have a reasonable chance at electoral success in this now bright red state, and that means Mississippi Democrats will continue their revisionism for the foreseeable future.
The good news for Moak is that Democrats don’t have much more ground left to cede. There’s really nowhere to go but up.
***The full audio of Gallo’s interview with Moak can be found here.***
Magnolia Tribune
