Earlier this week, the Governor referred to state legislators who couldn’t come to an agreement on a fix to the out-of-whack state budget as “kindergartens” and summarily gave them a grade of “F” – gee, thanks, Gov.
Unfortunately, the Governor cast a wide net with his slam on the legislature, blasting legislative Republicans (one of his favorite penchants) in addition to the liberal Democrats who bear most (but not all) of the blame for profligate overspending of many years that has taken us to the brink of a state government financial melt-down.
For years and years (and years and years) the liberals who control the state legislature have pursued, with a voracious and unquenchable appetite, a drive make state government bigger and bigger. They have spent years and years coming up with “solutions” for any potential woe facing the state by going to the same jukebox and playing the same songs they always play. You know… Tunes like, “Let’s Create A New Agency,” or “Let’s create more regulations and increase more fees,” and my least favorite tune, “Let’s make the government responsible for that, instead of the stupid people.”
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November 28th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Jon: Very good commentary and good points with insights. Only if the Democrats would get the message.
Thank you for finding the English subtitles/closed captioning of “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” clip you posted there. It helps hearing impaired/deaf individuals like myself watching it. I enjoyed watching it.
November 28th, 2008 at 12:00 am
My goodness. Be careful what you wish for Jon. Putting “a repeal of any and all ballot-box budgeting initiatives” up for a vote includes Prop 1 (the 1933 initiative that requires a 2/3rd vote in both houses to pass a budget) and Prop 13 (the 1978 cap on property taxes among other changes). Maybe you need to rethink this and just go after Prop 98.
November 28th, 2008 at 12:00 am
The Governor’s characterization of the Legislature might be accurate, but could someone give me an example of a former box which had (by virtue of legislative or executive action) been blown up?
I supported Schwarzenegger for Governor because I had such high hopes that he could cash in his celebrity for some real change in Sacramento. It was stupid of me and I regret it.
With the exception of reapportionment initiatives and those that repeal other initiatives, I have and will oppose all initiatives. How many times do we need to learn the lesson that government by initiative is a loser. If we don’t get laws that we need, we get a new legislature. If we don’t get the legislature that we need, we get to work on our politics. There are no shortcuts.
Getting rid of all ballot box budgeting initiatives will give Democratic legislators the clear authority and responsibility to balance the budget. Right now, they really are not responsible because they have all kinds of constraints. Remove the contraints and politics changes forever in California.
We are at 31% registration right now and need a game changer. This might be it.