SENATE GOP RESOLVE AND SOLIDARITY
The built-in deficit in the budget passed by the California Assembly is actually about $2.9 billion. This is significantly more than the numbers being thrown around by those advocating the passage of that document in the Senate. One of the problems is that with a budget that is so huge, there are so many areas that can be interpreted and analyzed in different ways. I can tell you that over the years, I have come to rely on the financial acumen of State Senator and FR friend Tom McClintock for some clarity and truth on fiscal matters. $2.9 billion is his number. He also reminds us that this year’s proposed budget represents a $21.7 BILLION dollar increase in state spending since the recall election that brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to Sacramento.
So with this as some very sobering context, we have to applaud what are being referred to as the "Magnificent 14" for their solidarity. Republicans sticking together in support of a more fiscally prudent and sound state government is a good thing, and is to be encouraged and applauded.
We need to let FlashReport readers in on a little secret — one that you might not realize if you were to only get your budget news from your local newspaper. The goals of Senate Republicans in this budget debate are extremely modest. Republicans are asking for a modest amount of cuts that, frankly, closes only 20% of the gap between income and spending in the currently proposed budget. And the programmatic changes that they have put on the table (the ones you cannot address with a line-item veto) such as CEQA reform (this is essential as looney Jerry Brown has been using his office as Attorney General to start suing developers for not being "green enough" in their plans), overhauling the CalWORKS program, and other issues such a equalization of school funding and permanently removing thousands of vacant positions from the state government.
Stepping back and looking at these GOP proposed changes as a whole, they are a tiny blip in terms of the real reforms that California needs, and would get with Republican majorities in the legislature.
Last night, Democrats voted as a block to refuse to consider the above mentioned GOP programs, thus demonstrating an unwillingness to even debate these issues. And in a demonstration of hubris, and in revealing their agenda of trying to use those who need vital services as a tool in the budget impasse, the Democrats refused to take up a GOP motion to fund vital services until a budget is passed.
So we would say to Senator Don Perata — look in the mirror when you need to see the reason why no budget has passed out of the Senate. You and your Democrat colleagues are completely incapable of checking your seemingly unending, voracious appetite to grow, grow, grow state government.
I am proud of our Senate Republicans!
ABEL MALDONADO
What do you say about a Senator who bails on the most significant effort by Republicans in years to place a slight speed bump on the Democratic train ride to bigger, fatter government? Talking about this Senator’s actions last night (he was the lone GOP vote with all of the Democrats for the currently proposed budget) should and will be the subject of future commentary, but right now I will simply say that his decision was extremely disappointing. My emotional ride concerning Maldonado kind of tracked in line with that movie, the Million Dollar Baby. My expectations were low for him, and then rose to an amazing high as I saw strength of resolve from the Central Coast Senator that was causing me to reevaluate previous assumptions about him. Then, crash and burn. I left the Clint Eastwood produced movie really depressed, and that’s how I feel about Maldonado.
**There is more – click the link**
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Concerning Abel Maldonado’s defection, it brings up thoughts of the “Dark Days of 1776” Thomas Paine, author of “Common Sense”, wrote “The American Crisis” with those immortal opening lines: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deseves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
Washington and his army went on to cross the Delaware, winning the first battle of Trenton, the second battle of Trenton and the battle of Princeton. The whole tide of the War for Independence turned.
What if Washington was a Abel Maldonado… quitting before the victory? Thank God Washington and his army were not “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots’, quitting before the victory.
We should be thankful we have 14 who will not quit before the victory!!
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Sen. Maldanado is doing his job. Ackerman and the rest of the anti-democracy Republicans are costing this state real money. We have to oay interest on loans that we take. We lose vendors because we don’t pay our bills. In other words, we waste money. So, let your wrath rain down, but it is the Republicans who are holding our state hostage by blocking this budget that has the support of the Assembly Republicans and the Republican Governor. Enough already, we will not leave the government to be drowned in any bathtub.
Oh, and there is no structural debt if we didn’t repeal the long-standing Vehicle License Fee.