Sometimes, you just have to ask yourself, “What are they thinking?”
Last week, Assembly and Senate Republicans held a joint press conference to introduce their proposals to solve California’s $20 billion state budget deficit. Give legislative Republicans credit for pro-actively tackling the state’s fiscal crisis. (Sacramento Bee columnist Steve Weigand praised the effort here.) Loyal FR readers will recall that I have written about the need for Republican lawmakers to stake clear ground in the budget debate.
Then, I read the first bullet point:
Combat Waste, Fraud and Abuse in State Government – This proposal would strengthen the California Whistleblower Protection Act to encourage more state employees to come forward with information about improper or inefficient government operations without fear of retaliation. It would also encourage members of the public to notify state government officials about waste, fraud and abuse by creating a new Clearinghouse for Government Innovation and Improvement.
That’s right; Assembly Republicans want to create a new government agency to eliminate wasteful state agencies. The Republican Communications staff even came up with a great Orwellian-sounding name, “Clearinghouse for Government Innovation and Improvement.” Let me recommend a slogan for this new agency in classic Newspeak euphemistic fashion, “Spend money to end waste.”
This rhetorically incongruent talking point is merely a symptom of the larger PR problem for legislative Republicans. Their message is old, tired and stale. The past decade’s Republican budget talking points have been built around one theme: the “elimination of waste, fraud and abuse.” Republican budget press releases simply recycle this message year in and year out.
A brief sampling of Republican budget talking points:
From 2003 State Budget: Asm. Tony StricklandI disagree with the governor. Public safety and education should not be first on the chopping block during a budget crisis. We must first look to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse.From 2004 State Budget: Asm. Russ Bogh“Politicians have spent beyond the state’s means for the last five years. It is time that the majority party put aside the “politics-as-usual” attitude and join the Governor and Assembly Republicans to secure a common sense solution that restores accountability and employs economic prosperity and opportunity for Californian’s, while eliminating rampant waste, fraud, and abuse.”From 2005 State Budget: Asm. Greg AghazarianUnder his fiscal reforms, an across-the-board spending cut will be triggered if needed to keep the state from living beyond its means, and stricter review will eliminate waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers’ money.”From 2006 State Budget: Asm. Dennis MountjoyWe must eliminate waste, fraud, over regulation and duplication in government in order to meet our state’s financial obligations without raising taxes on hard working Californians."From 2007 State Budget: Senator Dave Cogdill“We need to continue to focus on completely eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in our system so we can put taxpayer dollars to better use. Only then can the state’s budget truly serve Californians now and in the future.”
Time to come up with some new material. Even if it’s the same content, the Assembly Republican Communications shop needs to at least repackage the material… without the newspeak.
May 12th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Mr. Probalsky clearly has not read the details of the waste, fraud and abuse bill. Just to clarify, AB 2852 (Villines), does not create a new state agency. It establishes the Clearinghouse for Government Innovation and Improvement without imposing new costs on the state and will be implemented solely using existing resources. Currently, there is no avenue for citizens to report instances of government waste, fraud and abuse.
Fighting government waste is not new; it is something that Republicans have consistently stood for. And it is not surprising that many Republicans have introduced similar legislation in the past. If Republicans don’t work to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in government, who will? It is especially important given our current budget crisis that every taxpayer dollar be used as effectively and efficiently as possible.
May 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Either I don’t understand the actual point of Adam Probolsky’s article or he doesn’t understand the State bureaucracy. Could the deficit be eliminated just by dealing with waste and inefficiency in State Government? I’ll bet it could save enough to avoid making cuts in education and other basic and necessary services. For example, instead of spending $6.5 in bond funds for 40,000 prison beds to deal with the actual 16,000 prison bed shortage, the State could simply issue Requests for Proposals to cities, counties and private correctional firms for correctional beds. This would offend the prison staff unions but would avoid spending any of the $6.5 billion in bond funds and reduce prison operating costs by about $60 million to $120 million annually.