Cagle, at the Hall County Republican Convention, said the state House and Senate budget impasse is not resolved yet.
Cagle wants to hold the line on spending while keeping PeachCare in the surplus budget.
"I think that needs to be used for PeachCare for the necessary items relative to emergency, but we don't need to get into a fight about who can spend the most, because at the end of the day, unfortunately the taxpayers don't win," Cagle said.
PeachCare, the state's health insurance program for poor children, is nearly broke, and the General Assembly is in its final days of its 40-day session.
The State's Public Defender system, with its taxpayer funded legal defense for indigent defendants, also needs state cash to keep going.
Cagle questions the system as it now operates.
"We don't need a system that is put in place that allows an individual who cannot afford a defense to have a better defense than that of someone who could," Cagle said. "That sets up an uneven playing field."
DEAL: PARTISAN DEMOCRATS
Congressman Nathan Deal of Gainesville also appeared at the convention and said Congressional Democrats are more partisan than ever and seek to embarrass the president.
Deal said they are seeking justification for the firings of eight U.S. attorneys despite White House claims the dismissals were proper.
"They would not want to make those reasons known but I think they are now put in the posture of having to do that," Deal said.
The former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales agreed Friday to testify at a Senate inquiry next week into the firings.
Deal also said Congress' narrow vote on a conditional bill to fund the Iraq War was totally unrealistic.
Lawmakers voted 218-212 Friday, mostly along party lines, for a binding war spending bill requiring that combat operations cease before September 2008, or earlier if the Iraqi government does not meet certain requirements.
"So what they have done is the next thing they can do...try to put conditions that cannot be met or perhaps (are) totally unrealistic," Deal said.
The bill marks the first time Congress has used its budget power to try to end the war, now in its fifth year, by attaching the withdrawal requirements to a bill providing $124 billion to finance military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of this year.
NEW HALL PARTY CHAIR
Hall County Republicans elected a new chairman Saturday, chose delegates to the 9th District Republican Convention next month, and adopted a resolution calling for partisan elections in Hall County cities.
New party chairman Paul Stanley said Hall still has immigration and education issues and it's the party job to elect Republicans who can solve problems.
"The same issues we've been facing for a long period of time, we're not seeing a lot of movement on the resolution (of those prolems)," Stanley said.
Stanley said another big job for the party is getting people out to vote for the candidates the party supports.
TEXT OF RESOLUTION CALLING FOR PARTISAN ELECTIONS IN MUNICIPALITIES:
WHEREAS, The two political parties hold significantly different views about the basic role and priorities of government, and
WHEREAS, These differing views naturally lead to differing approaches in every area of policy making, and
WHEREAS, These differing approaches just as naturally lead to differing policy proposals in response to specific problems and opportunities, and
WHEREAS, Even when officials from different parties agree on an aim for a policy their differing views about the general role and proper means of government often produce disagreement about what provisions will actually achieve that aim, and
WHEREAS, The inevitable differences in policy that flow from different views about the proper role and means of government are of substantive consequence to voters, and
WHEREAS, This means that a candidate's party affiliation is in fact one of the most important pieces of information a citizen needs for casting an informed vote, and
WHEREAS, Non-partisan races for general policy-making bodies in effect deny citizens this important piece of information about a candidate, therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Cities of Clermont, Gainesville, Flowery Branch, Lula and Oakwood take all actions needed to switch to partisan elections for municipal posts.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/3/92678