When you stand opposite your opponent and put a spear in the ground you are declaring that this is your territory and if they plan on taking it, they are going to have a fight on their hands. We can accomplish this by doing absolutely nothing on the infrastructure bond deadline tomorrow.
Yes, I want the Republican Assembly caucus to do nothing.
Let’s recap, shall we? Republicans are depressed. Really depressed. The President is the second biggest spender in American history behind LBJ. In a post 911 world we allow porous borders and are paralyzed on immigration even armed with the knowledge of over 155,000 border crossings last year by non latino "immigrants". Ports are being handed over to the cousins of terrorists. Despite controlling both houses of Congress, we don’t have the votes to make the tax rate cuts permanent or get rid of the death tax.
In California, our Governor is wounded. His poll numbers have rebounded in the absence of $25 million a week on TV with nurses, teachers, firefighters, cops and prison guards telling us how bad he is, so the rebound is a false hope. While he fixed Workers Comp and refinanced the State’s debt, he has signed budgets only marginally more austere than the Gray Davis budgets. So what are we to do?
It’s time to put a spear in the ground – now. We have 32 members of the State Assembly that need to stand up and do nothing.
The infrastructure plan must die this week. We need it, but we can’t afford it. There should not be one GOP vote for this plan in either Legislative chamber because we do not have the money to implement it. This spring, the GOP needs to tell the Governor that there will not be a bigger budget next year than this year, and if they cannot get this commitment, they need to shut down the State Government and let the courts keep it open if need be. "Not with our votes" should be our rallying cry.
Our election hopes are grim this fall both nationally and statewide. If we put a spear in the ground on the issue of finance and stand up to this Governor, maybe, just maybe, we can find some energy in our base. If not, turn out the lights. It’s really over.