Governor Cooper, Senate Leader Berger Tussle on Twitter Over Lack of Budget

RALEIGH – It seemed pretty clear to us that the current budget stalemate, and thus the associated lack of new spending levels for things like teacher raises, falls squarely on the shoulders of Governor Roy Cooper. After all, the General Assembly, after weeks of deliberation, passed a $24 billion budget with bipartisan support that included said teacher raises. Cooper then vetoed it, demanding something he knows he’ll never get in exchange for a signature while bullying the formerly budget-supportive Democrats into falling in line to guard his veto.

Yet, Cooper is still on his high horse, pushing the fanciful idea that somehow Republicans are depriving teachers of their pay increase.

For 90 days, our educators have been at work while Republican legislators have lied, cheated and taken a vacation. It’s time for them to do their jobs and negotiate a budget that gives teachers the significant pay raises they deserve. https://t.co/H285MuevtN pic.twitter.com/lfoNJndbkJ

— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) October 8, 2019

Again, this is Cooper, who vetoed the teacher-salary-raising budget, referring to Republicans that have raised teacher pay nearly every year since 2013 while still maintaining fiscal sanity. Well, Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-NC) took notice of the above tweet and just could not help but set the record straight.

That’s just not helpful, @NC_Governor. You know full well you vetoed every teacher pay raise this legislature has passed. If it were up to you, teachers wouldn’t have gotten the pay raise they got last year… https://t.co/CQ0mGyoQHh

— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) October 8, 2019

He’s right. Cooper has been so beholden to driving political wedges manufactured by the social justice warriors and everyone else racing farther to the Left that he’s rejected out of hand all the bills landing on his desk that actually do the things he advocates for. That’s because when it comes to substance, Cooper and the Democrats are woefully lacking. All they know is bludgeoning Republicans with lies like Cooper’s above in hopes that enough people are fooled into again giving them the keys to the car in 2020.

So, will the budget standoff continue all the way to 2020? Let’s hope not, but we shouldn’t underestimate the petulance of Democrats when they can’t get their way. Perhaps we’ll get more twitter battles along the way.