Leadership Quote by Jeanne Kohl-Welles

“During these continued tough economic times” is politician-speak that does two jobs at once: it acknowledges real pain while laundering responsibility into the weather. The economy becomes an ongoing condition, not a set of decisions anyone can be blamed for. By framing hardship as “continued,” Kohl-Welles signals empathy and realism, but also lowers expectations. If times are persistently tough, then compromises, delays, and incrementalism can be sold as inevitabilities rather than choices.

The phrase “writing a sensible, fair budget” is calibrated to soothe competing audiences. “Sensible” reassures moderates and business interests that this won’t be a values-first spending spree; “fair” reassures labor and social-service constituencies that austerity won’t be indiscriminate. It’s a classic triangulation move: pair a technocratic virtue with a moral one, then let each listener hear the word they came for.

“Provides real opportunities” is the key soft promise. It avoids measurable commitments (dollars, programs, timelines) while borrowing the emotional uplift of economic mobility. “Washington families, workers and businesses” is a deliberate triptych meant to collapse potential conflict. Families imply social services and education, workers imply wages and protections, businesses imply growth and tax sensitivity. Listing them side by side performs unity; it suggests that a single budget can serve all three without trade-offs. The subtext is that trade-offs are exactly what’s coming, and the rhetorical goal is to pre-legitimize those choices as reluctant, reasonable, and broadly aligned with the public good.