While England Slept, written by Winston Churchill in 1938, focused on Britain's lack of preparation in the face of Nazi Germany's military expansion across Europe. Churchill was critical of the Munich Agreement, negotiated by several European heads of state, including Britain's Neville Chamberlain.
The Munich Agreement opened the door to Nazi expansion into Czechoslovakia.
After decades of false balanced budgets, legislating through the initiative process, the inability to get a budget on time, the California recall of Gov. Gray Davis, the looming $42 billion deficit along with the associated catastrophes, it might not be a bad idea for someone, inspired by Churchill, to write, While California Slept chronicling the decades of mismanagement that has brought the Golden State to its present place.
Does anyone remember the rationale for the 2003 recall? I remember being on the UC Berkeley campus the day of the recall election, a student told me they planned to vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger because "it would be cool to have the Terminator sign my diploma."
There is clearly nothing cool about California's current economic state. But whom should we blame for the current quagmire? Is it the fault of irresponsible tax and spend Democrats or rigid dogmatic Republicans?
Not even the threat of the marathon sessions or possibly laying off as many as 20,000 state employees proved to be a successful motivator as the Legislature, as of this writing, was searching for that lone Republican vote to get a budget passed that includes a tax increase.
In our wayward cause and effect philosophy, blaming one of these two groups would certainly feed our self-justifying apathetic impulses. It would make things easy -- too easy I suspect.
That's not to say that the Legislature does not bear some responsibility. It is a bipartisan lot of elected officials with Über safe seats, many of whom may actually pay more of a political price for compromising than not making a deal.
But as it is the case with most public policy dilemmas the news-making item, which in this case is the failure get a budget deal with looming calamitous consequences on the horizon, is merely the residue of a more complex problem.
For decades, the California electorate has been buying the overvalued fools gold of direct democracy. We actually believed, based on our votes, we could make better-informed decisions via the initiative process than the individuals we sent to represent us in Sacramento.
Californians passed the most draconian term limits initiative in the country. It robbed legislators of institutional memory, placed disincentives for members of the opposite party to crossover and make a deal, and its insidious underlying purpose was to get rid of a single individual -- former California Speaker Willie Brown.
The passing of Proposition 13, while still popular, carries that little 2/3-vote requirement to raise revenues, hence the tyranny of the minority. Proposition 98, though perhaps on paper a worthy cause, ties the Legislature's hands in term of what resources are actually available in the budget.
However, getting that one Republican to vote for the budget may address the immediate concerns, it does nothing for what is truly ailing the state. Whatever the outcome on the particular budget crisis, little is being done to address California's ongoing structural problems.
The national economic woes means that California, like every other state, will have a huge revenue decrease. The problem for California it has long had an imbalance between what it brings in, and what it spends in state government. This has never been addressed.
As a result it has been decades since California was able to put away resources in a "rainy day" fund. In those 22 years of failing get a budget complete by constitutionally mandated date, California has been kicking the can down the road with accounting gimmicks.
As much as I would like to blame the dysfunctional Legislature, we the voter have aided and abetted its creation. While California slept, we supported the catnap with a series of initiatives. As the comic strip Pogo so famously opined years ago, "I've seen the enemy and it is us."
Never mind that a lot of the initiatives are constitutionally invalid or that most of them are initiated by special interests who pay for people to gather signatures.
I say cap the number of initiatives that can go on a ballot, ban paid signature gathering, let the legislature overturn them with a unanimous decision, severely limit initiatives that modify the budget (like ear-marking for programs) and require all measures to have a constitutional review by the state supreme court.
A good write.
Unfortunately we all like things if someone else pays for it.
We would certainly have a balanced budget if the 2/3 vote was changed, but I fear we would simply have a far larger government with far more corruption. All we have to do is look at the groups converging on Sacramento and Washington....because that is where the money is. Lobbying is the new growth industry.
A limit on spending to the growth of inflation plus population would work, but as you point out someone will come along with a proposition to build something, or pay for something and people will vote for it.
We are indeed the enemy.
All the Pot smoke from San Francisco has made you all Californians dumb and useless.
First you screw up the energy policy in the 2000
Then welcome illegals from Mexico and spend billions
Now you are totally bankrupt
You deserve this.
Go to the Hollywood people and see if those rich morons spare you some change
:-)
In a way legislators don't want to make the electorate aware of the relation between taxes paid and services delivered, you can bet most of the electorate has not a clue.
I still haven't understood why we cannot simply cut more. It's time to look at some of the retiree benefits, for example. We're not immune to the same problems as everyone else. We need solutions.
If the 70 billion actually got us out of the problem and on the right road, sure thing. But it doesn't. It merely will hold the place and our bond ratings will still be in the tank in another year.
The bigger problem will be the 100,000 jobs plus that will be lost in the private sector as the public works projects grind to a halt...
I hope you compost, because i am cure the dominos will crash many local governments in cali too...
it is just insanity not to back this compromise bill...of course the radical leaders of the modern republican movement are seeking to destroy american governance, if you back that I guess you should be happy...
AFter 30 years of cutting taxes, 20 of which I have beena working adult, i have never worked anywhere in the public or private sector that was not downsizing continuously, all the while tax cuts were the order of the of]day...
there are a couple of sectors that buck this trend but ask yourself, if lower taxes lead to more jobs why is downsizing the norm? How is the state with the highest tazes our leading economy and not only that our leading innovator...
Explain to me why *I* should subsidize the oil companies or the toys of the überwealthy?
I wanted an increased gas tax to go for developing and implementing green technology. Not be wasted simply balancing a budget that is still going to strip children of an education and the infirm of decent healthcare.
Helluva job, Awnold.
"we could make better-informed decisions via the initiative process than the individuals we sent to represent us in Sacramento."
But guess what? There's nothing that's happening with this stunningly appalling example of Repugnican obstructionism that changes my mind about that.
In fact, it's never been more clear that it's true.
But here's the thing. When we Californians vote for an initiative, we see spelled out very clearly how much that's supposed to cost. So when we vote for it, we're essentially saying we're willing to pay that cost.
Pretty simple, really.
So it then becomes the job of our representatives to make sure those things are funded. We've given them their marching orders. We're the boss here - that's how it works with government.
And that's, of course, why Repugnicans just love to destroy government. It's not simply treason. It's because they can't stand not being the boss. Voters? Can't listen to them if you're on the big R trainwreck.
But Byron, you're smart enough to know that the voters are not the problem here. Voters can't be expected to have known that the New Newties would play their shut-down-government game all over again.
No, we're the solution. We the votes can create new initiatives to deal with the problem of the tyranny of the minority.
We sure can't expect Sacramento to do this for us. That much is clear.
Best,
Byron Williams
When Gray Davis was fighting the recall, the State of California had a pending lawsuit of around $42 billion -- around the same amount as the budget deficit -- against those energy companies outside the state who had been gaming the electricity system in California. They had been shutting down power plants in order to gouge the people of California. Remember all of our blackouts?
The GOP rushed the recall and, against pleas from the opposition to wait until enough polling places could be made available so that everyone who wanted to vote could vote (namely, people in poorer areas -- read Democrats,) they went ahead with the election. Once the Gropenfuhrer was in as governor, the lawsuit was quietly dropped.
So, Republicans, you own mess, too.
And then they wonder why we are in trouble, we have laid down our pensions, healthcare, sickleave, it will be vacations and our childrens future next...There is NO LIMIT TO GREED....
TRICKLE DOWN DIDN'T WORK...and they will never let up on wanting another tax cut... The 400 richest people in this country are earning 1 MILLION EVERY WORKING DAY and paying 17% and they still want their taxes cut.....Buffett is a front man who still owes deferred taxes of over 600 million...wich I could do that.....with no interest (like him)....
The Dems did as much as the Reeps to get us in this mess.
The difference is the Reeps WANT US IN THIS MESS.
They are taking the economic crisis as the opportunity, in fact they enacted the policies that created this crisis to achieve this stated goal.
I am glad Byron posted this, I was shocked to find so little discourse on this topic today. This is not a one day story, it is a clear indication of the goal of the republicans in this economic crisis, they want to destroy our governing institutions to achieve their ideological aims...