I feel like a chump. 
 
This entire past year, Arnold Schwarzenegger had as a central theme to his campaign for re-election the fact that he would oppose any increase in taxes.  I think it would be fair to say that this was a central theme to his campaign.  As a matter of fact, in a candidacy that often times stressed issues that were not very appealing to core Republican voters, it was his focused contrasting of Phil Angelides’ "The Tax Man" against his own rhetoric of opposing new taxes that helped to mollify, and excite the GOP base to support his candidacy.
 
Yet, the very first business day following his inauguration to a second term, the Governor rolls out a new massive government incursion that is straight from the playbooks of the Democrat Party, with a centerpiece being tax increases.  I don’t get it.  This Governor understands that what makes this country great is the idea of individual liberty and individual responsibility.  Yet, he has thrown out the notion of individual responsibility, trading it in for this new "shared responsibility" rhetoric which is no more than a justification for a massive explanation of government intrusion into, and further regulation of healthcare delivery in this state.
 
We have already had numerous FlashReport contributors weighing in on this plan, including Barry Jantz, Jennifer Nelson, and Mike Der Manouel.  Mike succinctly asks one question about universal health care, where has it ever worked?  Britain’s system is bankrupt.  Canada’s is beset with rationing and long wait times.  Tennessee abandoned its system.  Maine has had nothing but problems.
 
I am sure that as they read their newspapers this morning, tens of thousands of Republican donors and volunteers are wondering how Governor Schwarzenegger could so easily (and quickly) break his promise to Californians not to raise taxes.  At the center of this new healthcare proposal is a requirement that employers that have a least ten employees provide insurance, and if they don’t, a new 4% payroll tax is imposed on them.  In addition, there are new taxes proposed on doctors and hospitals.  Then there is a huge increase in socialized medicine as state-provided healthcare programs are massively expanded to cover millions more people.  And over-arching the entire proposal is a mandate that every Californian is required to have healthcare insurance, a slippery slope towards the notion that it is no longer the responsibility of individuals and families to provide for their own well being, but rather that healthcare insurance is a responsibility of the government.
 
Of course, none of these concerns cover the huge concern that the Governor wants to include in his program the biggest illegal-immigrant-magnet of all time — providing free health care coverage to criminal aliens.  Good grief.
 
I’m not sure which is worse.  Having the Governor renege on such a major campaign promise as he starts his new term, or the actual plan itself which is such poor public policy.
 
Either way, this morning I am just really disappointed in the Governor.  Like I said above, I feel like a chump.  And I’m not alone.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.