Earlier this afternoon, the fifteen members of the Senate Republican Caucus went down to 
Governor Schwarzenegger’s office to discuss the state budget. (Only in the State Capitol would fifteen people go downstairs instead of one man coming upstairs. Then again, he is the Governator. Besides, maybe they smoked cigars, and he does have the only smoking tent in the immediate vicinity…).
Apparently the name of the game is still, "Do ANYTHING to get Senate Republicans to vote for the already-passed budget out of the Assembly — we don’t want to crack-open budget negotiations again!"
So, we can assume that Governor’s "pitch" to Senate Republicans was made with a big blue pencil in his hand, making the case for how the Governor would trim the state budget over the ears a bit in order to satisfy concerns of GOP Senators.
Unfortunately, one has to acknowledge that the blue-pencil (line item veto) approach has its limitations. Yes, the Governor could promise hundreds of millions of cuts, and indeed make them.
But what CAN’T he do with is blue pencil? He cannot overhaul the CalWORKS program, a major priority all along for Republican Senators. He cannot eliminate the thousands of vacant positions in the state bureaucracy, also a major priority. Remember, a lot of these reforms are designed to address issues now that are creating even more imbalance for the ’08-’09 budget and so on… The list goes on, and so the question becomes one of logistics — which are made particularly cumbersome by the complete absence of the State Assembly. (Remember, Fabian Nunez is on vacation in Europe.)
If the Assembly were in session, then you could have the appropriate dialogue about necessary movement of trailer bills to ensure that these important priorities for Senate Republicans could be addresses BEFORE they vote out the budget.
This is important because we literally have just seen what happens if you get an agreement in one house without the cooperation of the other house — it’s the tax-cuts negotiated by Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines that passed out of the Assembly and were declared "dead on arrival" by Don Perata.
The good news is this for Senate Republicans — they hold all of the cards. There is no budget without them, and it is totally reasonable for them to insist that a deal is fully negotiated (fully = sign off from Senate AND Assembly Democrats and Republicans, as well as the Governor), and that either the Senate sends over a new budget and trailer bills that meet the reasonable demands of Senate Republicans, or the Assembly convenes and sends over some additional trailer bills on these important budget-related issues.
A sobering thought for our noble and heroic Senate Republicans — once you vote out the budget, you can immediately assume a return to "irrelevant status" unless you are willing to participate in this boondoggle where access to health care in California suddenly becomes better because the government gets involved. Right. Oh, there is always the global warming bandwagon — but then, they passed out AB 32, the "Global Warming Solutions Act," without one vote from any of you… (Good for you all, for not voting for that terrible bill.)
Hang in there team, what you are doing IS important and will MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
[Publisher’s Note: Sorry this was so late, but I was out and about with Senator Fred Thompson today — more on that tomorrow morning… – Flash]
July 31st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Jon, I feel someone should contribute to your street cred by commenting on your site. :)
July 31st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Incidentally, any comment on YOUR part on your CRP board colleague’s criticism of you, shared in a letter to you that I republished on New West Notes?
July 31st, 2007 at 12:00 am
I no longer visit your site. You are welcome to institute the same policy.
Jon
July 31st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Incidentally, Jon, I have logs showing the contrary.
Don’t try that again. Really, I’m telling you this as a friend.
I know you don’t have a lot of experience, but your statement above that governors go upstairs rather than legislators come downstairs is wholly inaccurate.
And, of course, you failed again to answer a simple question.
What is your comment on the letter sent to you by your California Republican Party E-Board colleague?
July 31st, 2007 at 12:00 am
COMMENT DELETED BY AUTHOR.
July 31st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Oh, poor Jon.
Not only have I NEVER WORKED FOR WILLIE BROWN, WE DON’T EVEN GET ALONG PARTICULARLY WELL, USUALLY NODDING AT ONE ANOTHER AT MANY EVENTS AND PARTIES.
The last of which was a private affair the weekend before this past one in San Francisco.
Actually, my history is one of a critic of Willie Brown, as any very knowledgeable person about California politics is well aware.
You really don’t know what you are talking about, Jon.
I’ve offered to give you some pointers, yet here you go again.
To borrow a phrase from a certain someone.,
Whose bust sits in my office, and at which I am looking right now.
As you know, Jon, I won your site’s “Golden Pen Award” for my column on Ronald Reagan’s birthday.
Let me give you some very good advice.
Learn what you are talking about before you opine again.
Have a nice evening.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Whoops. Sorry to set you off, Bill. My mistake. I was posting a response to Bill CAVALA for a different post below, but stuck it here by mistake. (Cavala, of course, did work for Willie.) I deleted my erroneously placed post above, and hope I didn’t cause you too much angst.
Flash
August 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Jon,
I’m not sure you need street cred. Perhaps attacking another blog site personally to try and draw attention and hopefully traffic is the way to get it…but I’d stand on content (ie actually being able to read a survey) over commenting on other peoples posts to do it instead….but that’s just me.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Oh, Jon, I have no “angst” about your utterly erroneous attack on me. You deleted it from your site, but of course I have it in my files.
Now, Joe, I’m sure you understand, once you clear the cobwebs of rhetoric from your eyes, that I am not here to generate activity for New West Notes — which has more participation in a day than Flash Report has in a month — but to attempt to get Jon to answer a question about the criticism of his various statements by a fellow CRP board member.
Of course, he has not answered here.
Nor did he answer my e-mail.
Nor did he answer when I phoned him and spoke to him yesterday.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Anyone can see my mis-placed criticism of Bill Cavala as I put it where it belonged, several posts below this one.
As for Doug’s note, I responded to him directly.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
“clear the cobwebs of rhetoric from your eyes”…wow. and you think people take that type of stuff seriously or adds to someone’s street cred?
August 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
And you think you’ve just made a point, Joe? :)
Your clients must be very complacent
Thanks for the usual non-answer there, Jon.
And now I’ve just extended the most active thread in the history of the Flash Report.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
BTTT.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Bill –
You may have more comments on your site simply because you permit anonymous replies. The FlashReport requires attribution to comment on blog posts. I’m not disparaging your website’s rules, but there’s a clear difference.
Also, FR readers tend to be of the sort who have a seat at the table, the sort whose comments might have professional ramifications. Combined with the FR’s attribution requirement, it’s natural that blog posts here will have fewer comments.
As to the Golden Pen Award, you’re well aware that I was probably the editor on the day(s) you received it. You have cleverly chosen to omit the nature and topic of the award-winning column(s). I imagine if you were to post the web address(es) of the FR main page(s) in which you were awarded the Golden Pen, our readers would have a clearer picture of your assertion.
Thank you for continuing to visit the site.
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am
While I generally applaud the Senate Republican’s push for fiscal responsibility, when a Republican governor offers to cut an additional $700 million in spending to practically eliminate the deficit, and that is still not good enough, then in my view the Republican caucus has moved well beyond principle into the realm of political grandstanding.”
With the Governor’s offer to veto $700 million from the budget with his line-item authority, the budget on the Senate floor last night was a reasonable budget that would have returned California to working order. And yet Senate Republicans still seem content to edge the state closer to a Pennsylvania style lock-down. (As you may recall, last month the Pennsylvania Governor shut down over 50% of state government due to an overdue budget.)
I think recent history speaks for itself – passing a budget is the most responsible thing the Legislature can do right now.