CALIFORNIA IS GENERALLY THOUGHT to be a step ahead of the curve, but at the moment it seems that we're a step behind the country as a whole.
Our current problem is the same one the federal government is just getting over: a Republican administration coupled with the lack of a two-thirds majority for Democrats in the legislature.
The governor is looking more like George W. every day. He inherited a surplus, he gave it back as a tax cut, and he's tried to extend the power of his office at every turn.
His attitude toward the rest of the government and the people of the state betrays his basic view of himself as "the decider".
Notice the authoritarian subtext in these quotes from this morning's LA Times (emphasis mine):
"A loan would only 'give them another reason why we don't have to do it now," the governor said. "What we need to do is just to basically cut off all the funding and just let them have a taste of what it is like when the state comes to a shutdown -- grinding halt.'"
"Schwarzenegger reiterated his support for a constitutional convention to overhaul state government, calling it 'the only hope that I have' for substantive reform."
"If I want to . . . create a vision for California, you can't have a team around that's trying to derail you," the governor said.
In other words, teamwork means doing what Arnold says.
This is more of the same Republican "shock and awe" tactics—first creating, and then using, financial crises to forward their agendas: the dismantling of public education, health services, and government in general, and the reduction of taxes on the wealthy.
Unfortunately, they only need a minority of votes to execute their plans.
In California, the need for a two-thirds majority to pass a budget allows Republicans to hold the state hostage even when they're in the minority.
Back in August of 2008, the Democrats advanced a plan which would have solved our current problems without cutting services. They proposed reinstating the former level of income taxes on the wealthy and removing some loopholes for corporations.
The old tax rates they would re-instate were only slightly higher than the present ones, and were cut in 1998 under—you guessed it—a Republican administration.
This Democratic plan was a good deal, not only for the state and citizens in general, but also for the wealthy and the corporations. The quality of government services affects everyone. And the increases were so small that people with that level of income wouldn't have their lives noticeably changed.
But the Republican minority in the legislature voted as a block, defeated the plan, and created the mess we're in now. Ask the people who benefit the most from our state economy to foot a little bit more of the bill just to keep us from going bankrupt? Unthinkable.
They, and the governor, want to blame it on everyone else—the Democrats, the unions, government workers, and the voters of California who saw through this nonsense. They want us to believe they're heroes for shutting the state down in the middle of an economic crisis.
Sounds like George Bush and the Republicans in Congress the last eight years, doesn't it?
We can only hope that California finds away to get ahead of the curve again sooner than the next election.
At least, that's what I think today.
