Don Roach: Carcieri Makes Chafee Look Like a Genius

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Don Roach, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

Curt Schilling.

Don Carcieri.

Lincoln Chafee.

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One of these is not like the others. One of these men made a wise choice discerning what would happen if 38 Studios came to Rhode Island.

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Boy, writing this piece makes me cringe. I had hoped to tackle the gay marriage issue Obama stirred last week. However, I think Travis Rowley did an admirable job of that and you should check it out. Now, if I am to be a credible political analyst worth the few minutes every Wednesday you read my musings, then I need to call it like it is.

And unfortunately, through a comedy of errors Lincoln Chafee looks like a genius as he denounced the 38 Studios deal struck by Schilling, Carcieri, and the General Assembly in 2010. Then-candidate Chafee said (bold mine):

A serious misrepresentation has been made to the taxpayers of this state about the value of this deal. The time to put a stop to it is now. The original information used to make this decision was flawed. First, the initial job numbers were inaccurate. Second, new information about the slowing growth of the video game software industry requires a serious second look. Third, some of the loan’s proceeds will be used to pay off a Massachusetts bank loan of unknown size, not create new jobs. The conclusion is inescapable: this is an insider deal that does not serve the best interests of citizens.

This may be the one and only time I’ll say this during Chafee’s four year tenure – Chafee was right! We talked last we about why this deal was bad for Rhode Island and there’s no need to rehash all of that. Tne thing I will add, however, is that a few commentators noted that I left out the fact that government involving itself into private enterprise is usually not a good idea. That’s true and what’s happening now is exactly the reason why government should stay out of business.

But, we do need to give Chafee his due for being one person who was very apprehensive about this deal. In recent days, Chafee has also scoffed at the idea of giving the company access to additional taxpayer dollars to assist them with their current financial troubles.

There will be no 38 Studios bailout – it is not too big to fail.

Now what?

Now comes the really difficult part. The state is on the hook for $75 million and we need 38 Studios to survive so that you, me, and our neighbors don’t foot the bill for Governor Carcieri and the General Assembly’s abject failures. Speaking of the General Assembly, they don’t get a pass here as this deal had to pass their eye test as well. It did and look where we are? If there ever was a reason to reconsider voting for you incumbent this fall, this is it!

Back to the point, what the heck do we do now? If we let 38 Studios fail people like us who didn’t have anything to do with this deal will reap the punishment. I’m holding out hope the Schilling can work with our leaders to work out a deal that helps the company survive and get back on its feet.

Time will tell.

Yet, what bothers me most is that Don Carcieri opened the door for Lincoln Chafee to look the hero, the genius. He’ll be able to say in 2014 he was against this deal from the start whereas the Republican candidate was not, the Republican Governor supported the deal, and that he – and only he – has the best interests in mind for Rhode Island resident.

Ugh…Thanks Governor Carcieri.

Don Roach is a member of the Rhode Island Young Republicans. Don can be reached at [email protected].


 

 

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