Today, in the Modesto Bee, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Jose Mercury News, the Governor and his staff have taken to attacking Republicans, and specifically Jeff Denham, in the budget fight.  This is a huge mistake.

Dan Dunmoyer, one of the Governor’s staff, a former Nolanista, and a good solid conservative, as well as Mike Genest, the State’s Finance Director, who was the head of the Republican Senate fiscal staff under Jim Brulte, and my advisor when I sat as the lone Republican on the Senate Health and Human Services Budget Subcommitte, wrote articles for the Modesto Bee and the LA Times.  The Genest article is the most disturbing, since it mentions Denham by name, and appears to be naive to the fact that the Democrats are trying to recall Denham.  Genest, whom I like and respect, in his zeal to promote the Governor’s plan, is putting Denham at severe risk.  That is a most dangerous game, and one that a Republican Governor would never play.  Not even Pete Wilson, in the time when he called any Republican legislator who would not vote for his tax increase f—ing irrelevant, did anything publically to put any of them at risk.  The move by the Governor is a serious mistake.

Let’s put one thing to rest.  The current budget is not a Republican budget, and does not represent Republican values.  This Governor put out one Republican budget, and that was in 2004, in the 04-05 budget, when he proposed actually decreasing spending.  Ultimately the budget increased spending by about $1 billion, but that was still the smallest increase in my time in the Legislature.

This current budget is not even close.  Despite an increase of over $20 billion in revenue since this Governor took office, the budget is still in a deficit position.  To claim that this is reflective of Republican values, as the Governor, Genest, and Dunmoyer do, simply ignores 40 years of Reaganism.  The budget does not reflect Republican values, and to claim it does only hurts the Governor’s credibility.

In defense of the Governor and his staff, no budget put out by the Legislature under the control of the Democrats has ever reflected Republican values, and all budgets have been simply "the best we can get."  This one is no different.

The budget is also not balanced.  One would think that 4 years of strong revenues would enable the Governor to produce a balanced budget, produce surpluses, and cut taxes.  That would be a Republican budget.  He has chosen, for solid political reasons, to not pursue that course.  The proper thing to do, given the political position he has chosen to take, would be to privately recognize that fact, sit down, and negotiate privately with the Republican Senators.  Instead, he and his staff have decided to up the ante, and do the Democrats’ dirty work publically.

That is wrong.  Schwarzenegger has never been a conservative.  Dunmoyer is, and Genest, during his time in the Senate, knew what conservatives were thinking and did a great job of helping them achieve their goals (he was of great value in the car tax discussions).  It is a bad idea to engage in this kind of theatrics, and will not help pass the budget.

Governor, if you want a budget, sit down and negotiate with the Senate Republicans.  You have angered Republicans with a lot of your decisions in the past by hopping into bed with the Democrats.  This would be a good time to kiss and make up with the Republicans.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.