If anyone wants to share with us what is in the water that Republican State Senator Roy Ashburn is drinking these days, please share it with us. For years now, a longtime FR friend (with a healthy dislike of the “Bill Thomas Machine” in the greater Kern County area), Ashburn has been a reliable conservative in the legislature, and a team player.
Lately, however, he seems to have “senioritis” – and this ailment is causing him to act in a peculiar and most unfortunate manner. Right now, more so than at any point than I can recollect, legislative Republicans have unified around a common line in the sand – that our state’s fiscal woes have been directly caused by year after year of massive spending increases (40% growth in less than 4 years) – and that California taxpayers should not be punished by the legislature’s overspending with the imposition of new or higher taxes.
Only one Republican legislator that I know of (out of nearly fifty) has made open noises about supporting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “capitulation budget” (as we call it) which on the paramount issue of our day, whether to increases taxes, is a terrible plan. You see, the Governor’s proposal increases by BILLIONS of dollars the state sales tax. The Governor is quick to add, “But wait, it is actually a tax CUT because there is one cent increase in the sales tax for just a few years, and then he proposes that the sales tax rate drop to a quarter-cent below its current rate.”
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September 13th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Why does there always seem to be a wimpy Republican who snatches defeat out of the jaws of victory?? If Ashburn caves, we just need to make sure he never wins an elected office again in CA.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Let’s give Roy a chance to vote.