This is May Revise week. For those of you who don’t spend your time being a budget wonk, the May revise is the part of the budget process where the bureaucrats finally put together the numbers from the revenues from last year’s tax returns (remember when you filed those returns last month, and sent money to that major taxasaurus, yeah, that thing that devours your money and gives back what you would usually expect from an animal that eats constantly). This week is when the bureaucrats and budget staff have to face the realities of the budget, and then try to lie to the legislators to get them to pass a budget out of balance. Of course, when a budget is out of balance, it is never because the government is taking in more money than it is spending. It is always because the tax consumers consume more than than the taxpayers pay.
This is also an election year, and there are a lot of Republicans running for office all over this state that voted for budgets in the past, created this current budget mess, and are now trying to hide their responsibility for the current budget crisis. This crisis was not created in the 2010-11 budget (this year’s budget), or the 2009-10 budget, or even the 2008-09 budget. Those budgets were when the current budget crisis became obvious. The crisis was created in the years of denial. Go on line to the Governor’s budget, take a look at Schedule 6 of the Governor’s budget, it shows the spending patterns over the past 60 years. The key years for the current budget are the 06-07 and the 07-08 budgets.
I have already addressed 06-07. As critical to the current crisis, however, is the 07-08 budget. A legislator, or former legislator that voted for 07-08 budget, and who is now running for office, who claims to be a fiscal conservative, is deceiving Republican voters. It takes an act of courage to stand up against the big spenders in Sacramento when times are good. It is easy to vote for a budget when money is plenty, and budget dogs are howling at the legislator’s door, begging for their money. But those are the years that create budget crises in bad years. When there is plenty of money, Governors cave and try to end the budget negotiations by giving the spending lobbies everything they want. Republican Legislators with courage are needed to stop that "pragmatism" so that the next time the economy slows down, the budget doesn’t collapse.
Our budget system is not broken. It is filled with spineless Republicans who collapse in the negotiations when times are good, and whine when times are bad. Follow the elections. Find the legislators who stood up to the government unions and big Sacramento spenders in the 07-08 budget. Those are the Republicans of courage, Republicans you can trust in the next budget cycle, and the one after that. Those who know that limiting government spending has to be done in the easy times, so that the pressure to raise taxes in the hard times will be nonexistent.
Who do I vote for? Those who have courage when it is unpopular. It is easy to stand up to the spending lobby when money is short, that is when everyone is looking. Courage is doing the right thing when everyone is criticizing you for "being intransigent," or being hard headed, or being just too "unreasonable." Pick the unreasonable Republican, that will be the Republican you can trust, all the time.
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:00 am
Ray your the sage of California…you know the RINOS all too well….they will roll over faster than a Tootsie Roll into a wrapper at the factory!!!!