Schwarzenegger's Budget Battle II: Another Bad Sequel

Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the test of our nation was "not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger might be married to a Kennedy but his governing philosophy is pure George W. Bush -- give away the store to the corporations and to the richest people in the state, turn a nice profit for the millionaire backers who put you in office, and starve "the Beast" (the government) of the revenues needed to sustain itself. It's really shameful what Schwarzenegger and his Republican minions are doing to the state of California. With the sequel to last February's budget battle ready for release it's only a matter of days before "those who have too little" get a beating once again from the richest ruling interests in the state.

Schwarzenegger's Director of Finance, Michael Genest, said a few weeks ago: "If you look at what government does, the government doesn't provide services to rich people. . . . You have to cut where the money is. . . . CalWORKS, Healthy Families -- those are all very targeted at low-income groups. And when we have no money, when we have to stop spending . . . obviously those are the places." Genest's "let them eat cake" attitude begs the question: Shouldn't the patriotic, California-loving rich people and corporations in the state be willing to pay a little more so the poor might get by in this time of severe economic recession?

"We have to trim the bureaucratic fat," chimes in Senator Abel Maldonado (R-San Luis Obispo), in an op-ed for the San Jose Mercury News. Maldonado, who the California Republican Party cut off from party coffers after he voted to pass the budget last February, apparently believes that gutting social programs, crippling higher education, closing parks, throwing children and disabled people into the streets, and imposing unpaid furloughs and pay cuts on state workers following years of cuts totaling about $49 billion -- all of it -- is just so much "fat." It's a perfect encapsulation of the extremist California Republican mentality (and he's considered to be one of the "moderates").

Regarding the state's education system the Schwarzenegger administration has been an unmitigated disaster. All of the Republicans' attacks on education, all of the demands for standardized tests while gutting the resources needed for teachers to do their jobs, all the draconian budget cuts, all the fee raises and tuition increases that hurt students and their families, the enlarging of class sizes, the over reliance on temps and part-timers, all of these assaults have undermined the quality of education in California. But do Schwarzenegger and his Republican allies care about this fact? The answer is a definitive "No."

To try to stop the bleeding, California Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) has proposed AB 656, which would impose a tax "for the privilege of severing oil or gas from the earth or water in the state." The revenues collected would not disappear into the black hole of California's "general fund" but go directly to supporting higher education. The estimated $1 billion raised might save California's cash-strapped community colleges, and the California State University and the University of California systems. The representatives of the California Faculty Association, students, and sympathetic labor unionists who filled a hearing room yesterday in the state Capitol heard every absurd and self-serving "argument" imaginable against taxing Big Oil. At the hearing one slick lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association, who looks like Senator John Ensign with his gelled gray hair and $6,000 suit, argued oil conglomerates in California, the same firms that brought us $5 a gallon gas not long ago, will "suffer" if forced to pay the measly 9.9 percent severance tax. They'll have to lay off workers! They'll have to pollute our ports! The lobbyist rang every liberal-sounding bell he could think of in the name of squashing a small tax that might rescue California's ailing higher education system. I thought he might even bring up the tax's effect on gay marriage and animal rights.

But the obvious question the guy from Big Oil should have been forced to answer is: What's wrong with asking the biggest oil conglomerates in the world to pay a little extra in California to help maintain an educated workforce that they can exploit later on?

Right now the California Legislature is sliding into its familiar gridlock over raising new revenues to address the budget deficit. Six Republicans (two Senators and four Assemblymembers) will again hold the state hostage until their maximal goals are reached. They will not "blink" -- they never do. Arnold has promised, once again, to veto any budget that doesn't conform totally to his and his Republican colleagues' demands for all cuts and no new taxes. The Democrats have already capitulated on the vast majority of his cuts. But that's still not enough for the Terminator. California's current budget battle is like a bad sequel to a mediocre movie -- a phenomenon Arnold understands all too well.

Comments

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

If the Republicans' free-market prescriptions for creating a prosperous and efficient society work so perfectly -- then why, after three decades of setting the agenda for our nation's economics, do we find ourselves in this predicament?

Maybe someone should ask Alan Greenspan or Grover Norquist or Arthur Laffer or Stephen Moore or Larry Kudlow or John Taylor or . . .

Or maybe we could summon the ghosts of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman and ask: "Annie, Uncle Miltie, you both said that individual greed would translate into collective prosperity. We tried the greed part. What gives?"

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for the comments -- the Republican minority is the problem, the 2/3 rule means the Republicans control the state -- how can that be? And California Republicans are the most extreme in the universe -- they want to destroy the public sector because they live in gated communities and they hate the Latinos so much.

[Lori Bowles]

I'm a California native that escaped long enough to find out how the world really works. Moved around a lot and now I'm moving back and I have to say I'm really scared! California politics makes no sense to me, its borderline Texas as far as thought process goes.
What are people thinking? Waiting for Arnold to blink pepper spray him that will do the job!
President Obama did state something about wanting to tax rich people right, start their, get vocal, Maybe I was a greener to long, damn liberal college in WA state!
Go gooey ducks!

[senorlou]

Arnold lost California anywhere between $30-80 billion from the 2001 energy scam (nobody is totally sure how much was stolen) and another $30 billion by dropping the car tax back in 2003. He has lost this state in totally anywhere from $60-110 billion plus interest. You can't pin this entirely on Arnold, but if we didn't foolishly boot out Davis for raising the car tax, we would have had most of that money back by now. Arnold also dropped all the lawsuits against the energy companies that stole our money back in the day. Well, bill's due. Anyone reading this who voted for Arnold should give themselves a nice kick in the tush.

[Winning09]

Good Lord, this is even more errant nonsense than the original Palermo post!

TOTALLY FALSE.

California needs to be straightened out, but not with pie-in-the-sky nonsense and complete falsehoods.

>>>> Arnold lost California anywhere between $30-80 billion from the 2001 energy scam (nobody is totally sure how much was stolen)

[senorlou]

This is what I get for not posting a source. Here's a source:

http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=270

You'd like to think it was a lie, but it's all legit. Look up anything I posted. If you add up the money lost and never recovered from the energy scam, we lost anywhere from $60-110 billion because "we" voted for Arnold. I did hear we are getting $7 billion, FINALLY, but I believe that's all we're getting back for now.

[senorlou]

Try looking up the stats before you disparage them next time.

[philistine]

I know this is preaching to the choir, but I'll say it anyway: the citizens of California have to repeal Proposition 13 and restore budget approval by majority or plurality vote. Then, California needs to repeal the law that allows propositions. Sadly, propositions are too easy to game by monied interests.

[johnie2xs]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; California will be THE cautionary tale as to what is in store for the country in general. Central to both the country and California, which infuriates me the most, is the absolute fecklessness of the Democratic Party in being able to control the Rethuglicans, a party out of favor, whom the Democrats outnumber. How b*ll-less is that?

[Chernynkaya]

Thanks for this article, Mr. Palermo. As a lifelong Californian, I am disgusted. The voter apathy in this state is a disgrace and it's even worse at the city level. That's one reason I am so glad to see this story on the Huffington Post, as the LA Times is worthless- a Sam Zell owned rag.

We love our initiative process wherein we are asked if we want nifty stuff for our state (and various necessities too), but in the voter pamphlet we are seldom told it would require higher taxes. Because of that dishonesty, politicians assume no one wants higher taxes, but sometimes we do - for health care and education, e.g. That gives the Republicans an edge in claiming they are doing the will of the people by keeping taxes down. In actuality there are many more Progressives in this state who are willing to pay more to get more.

Another factor in the higher taxes debate is that Californians hate our state government- not government in general. We hate our school boards too. So we childishly vote against our own self-interests to "punish" the bastards." Better to do what is bad for you than what is good for me" is our state motto. That's what is behind the anti-immigration voting as well. "If we vote for more services, those damned Mexicans might get some." That's the thinking of the knuckle-draggers.

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

Yawn, ho-hum, the nation's most populated state that gave us the 21st C technology is going down the drain.

[Winning09]

And you have no idea why...