Maryland is a leader nationally in progressive politics and business, Gov. Martin O’Malley told a Washington think tank this week in a speech that could outline his main talking points if he becomes a presidential candidate.
O’Malley has said he is considering running for president in 2016 and he has increasingly appeared in the national spotlight in meetings on Capitol Hill and on news programs.
O’Malley Thursday touted before the Center for American Progress Maryland’s repeal of the death penalty, gun control measures, the Maryland DREAM Act and the legalization of same-sex marriage.
“The ideology of the past no longer serves the challenges of these rapidly changing times," he said Thursday, according to his published remarks.
O'Malley also cited a Chamber of Commerce report that ranks Maryland No. 1 in entrepreneurship. He noted Maryland’s stature in income and public education, its triple-A bond rating and its leadership in women-owned businesses.
He said heavily Democratic Maryland has taken a balanced approach in maintaining its fiscal health, unlike his GOP counterparts in other states.
“States with Republican governors generally tried to cut their way to prosperity,” he said, according to his published remarks, “continuing down the merry path of cutting taxes for the very wealthy, hoping against cruel experience that somehow it would trickle down to the rest of us.
“In Maryland, we made different and better choices” in the form of cuts, revenues, reforms and investments, he said.
Some groups have criticized Maryland for its high taxes, particularly on business.
For the text of O’Malley’s speech, click here.