Tone Deaf Governor

Arnold says the people spoke at the polls. They did, but he wasn't listening. Of course, English isn't his first language; celebrity is.

We didn't say our rich, healthy, girly-man dissing, celebrity governor should terminate welfare. Unlike some, we don't hate the poor.

We didn't say turn California into Mississippi.

We didn't say throw the poor under the bus and dump their kids on the street.

We said go back to Sacramento and do your damned job!

We said go to the legislature and create a budget; don't hand the problem to us.

We said we want our elected leaders to lead. Leading means having the guts to deal with the tough problems. Ignore your handlers for a minute and do something for the people.

You want to cut costs? Cut the $135,000,000.00 you waste every year on a death penalty Chief Justice George says is "dysfunctional." You haven't been able to kill anyone for three years because a federal judge said your killing system is unconstitutional. So stop it.

You want to cut costs? Cut the $400,000,000.00 you plan to spend on a new death row.

You want to cut costs? Grant parole to the guys locked up in Tracy, California, stuck away with indeterminate sentences because no politician has the guts to notice that their records are clean and they deserve a life.

How about releasing the thousands locked up in your bulging prisons for non-violent drug crimes instead of stripping away their future,

Leadership, Governor, means doing the right thing: serving people, not victimizing them.

It means raising taxes on those with plenty, not taking food out of poor kid's mouths.

It means fixing the system so a simple majority can pass a budget rather than letting an anti-tax minority strangle the process.

Those who can will pay the taxes; we don't mind. What we mind is those who crave the title but won't do the job.

Mike Farrell, president of Death Penalty Focus, is the author of "Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist," and "Of Mule and Man."

Comments

[kart125]

Yes, we need a governemtn that serves the people and stops victimizing the taxpayers. Government should be a means to an end, not an end in itself. The problem is that Democrats want big government and more government. Democrats never met a tax, or a government or social program they didn't like. Democrats' motto seems to be "build it and we'll make a tax to pay for it." Democrats want government to run peoples' lives and businesses rather than a governemnt that fascilitates people living their lives and businesses making a fair market profit on providing goods and services. And that costs a lot of taxpayers money and Democrats don't seem to realize that taxpayers pockets are not bottomless. When people have to live within their fiscal limitations, shouldn't government be held to the same standard?

[LeftRight]

First of all, EVERYTHING that you said can be equally applied to Republicans, EXCEPT the tax portion. That sounds nice, but as Heinlein said decades ago, TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). I'm sorry, but I'd rather pay taxes NOW, rather than pay MORE taxes 50 years from now!!

Second, the Republicans are the party that seems to want government out of our lives, but the only "out of" that they actually want is for the government to stop regulating business. If it's intrusive into your personal life, they are ALL OVER IT!!

And Third, The Democrats, according to you, are all about big government. I submit to you that they are about USEFUL government! I'm not a welfare kinda guy, but there've been several times in my life where a hand up would have been REALLY useful, except that your Republicans never saw a social program that they didn't want to cut!

[demockracy]

"The common denominator of most attacks on government investment is that they’re disingenuous. Critics say that government spending is “out of control,” citing figures that conveniently omit any adjustment for inflation or population growth. Taking those into account, spending has changed insignificantly in the past decades, while taxes have been declining. According to the California Budget Project’s 1996 study, 'total California state and local taxes per $1,000 of personal income declined 26.5% between 1976-77 and 1991-92. The national average declined 9.7% during the same period. In other words, California’s state and local tax burden has dropped two and a half times more than the national average.'"

From http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/05/23/budget-baloney/

...yet, strangely enough, what Arnold heard was that, above all, we should not tax any more. Whew!

[HesDanTheMan]

MIKE FARRELL for GOVERNOR of CALIFORNIA!

[ga4ry]

Good post Mike:
I manage a senior, disabled, low income apartment building here in Ca. The residents here are the ones now targeted by the governors cuts. I want to ask the supporters of his plan, just what are these people supposed to do when their rents go from one, two and three hundred a month to eleven hundred? What do they do when the home health workers who clean and go to the store and cook for these people leave because their department is closed. How do they pay for the PG&E when the HEAP program is ended?
These are your parents and sisters. Your brothers and grandparents. Will you really allow them to live in abject poverty and squalor because you wont pay more taxes?
By the way, why have I not heard the churches screaming from their pews about this nightmare, why haven't the Mormons sent there political machine here to sway the voters? I suppose its more important to ensure hate legislation than human dignity.

[HesDanTheMan]

BRAVO!
I work with an HIV/AIDS healthcare facility in Southern California and the cuts are going to be horrific. He's cutting Dental & Vision to Medi-Cal recipients. Are you freakin' kidding me? Not to mention he's cutting 12.5 million of ADAP the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. This means some life saving drugs will not be covered for the sickest and lowest income people.
If he cut a the programs that Mike Farrell listed, then these healthcare opportunities wouldn't have to be cut at all.
We need to RECALL this Governor immediately. We need to send HIM a clear message that he will hear and understand.

[Bozzgirl]

I just found out last night that the Medi-Cal patients can no longer be seen by an Optometrist, however they CAN be seen by an Opthamologist for regular eye care. A visit which would cost at least double what a visit to an optometrist would cost. Explain to me how this make sense?

He is a terrible Governor who has made some extremely poor decisions.

[bannorhill]

You want to cut expenses. End appeals for death row inmates that drag out 20 years.

You want to cut expenses. Carry out death row sentences and reduce the death row population.

You want to cut expenses charge lawyers who endlessly sue, just to stop justice from being carried out, for the state cost of those frivolous appeals.

[LeftRight]

What about those on death row who are innocent? Shouldn't we be trying to ensure that they are guilty before we kill them?? It's a lot easier to let an innocent man go BEFORE you kill him!!

[bannorhill]

After 20 years of appeals and repeated reviews by the Supreme Court nothing new comes up. If you really have doubts the CA Supreme Court in the original appeal should automatically reduce the sentence to life without parole and end the death row appeals. However when you have an inmate murder on video tape it should not take 20 years and 3 CA Supreme Court Appeals to carry out the just sentence. THAT is a waste of taxpayer money.

[BetsyNZ]

Great blog

[thenorthshore]

Eventually, socialists run out of other peoples money to spend

[LeftRight]

Of course, if the economy is working well, that will never happen, but you can't be bothered to look at other countries with socialist democratic tendencies....

[RepugsOut08]

Thanks for reminding us of what a success capitalism has been ... for the top two percent!
Eventually capitalists screw the "people" so badly, that a revolution usually takes place. Trust me, capitalists, you really don't want it to go that far.

[kart125]

The reason people revolt is because they are outraged that they don't have what that 2% has rather than thinking about what they will lose under socialism. That 2% has what it has because they create affordable goods and services and in the process jobs and personal wealth for others. What people realize _after_ their revolution is that in eliminating that 2% they have eliminated affordable goods and services and jobs and personal wealth. Yes, that 2% is obscenley wealthy, but I would rather that than sacrifice what _I_ have on the altar of socializm. I would rather that some have an "unfair" opportunity at wealth and the rest of us benefit from that than eliminate all possibility of any wealth and consign us all to "equality" in poverty.

[medici]

Are you saying that Arnold's a socialist.

[aramos]

Mike, its not the governors fault California is in the state it is in, its the fact the so little pay for so many. Your welfare state is imploding under the weight of its own liabilities. Simply put, the most productive are leaving for greener pastures, why the fools that stay, keep footing the bill for more wasted government mandated social programs!

[LeftRight]

The most productive cannot AFFORD to leave!! The only people that are leaving California are those who are so broke that it doesn't matter HOW they leave!!

[brantl]

You aren't even remotely right.

[steamboat]

aramos, I visited Northern California last year. Home of the progressives (LOL) ! The champions of the American working-man and unions.....aramos, these progressives were all driving Nissans, VW's, Mercedes, Audi's, Toyota's, Volvo's, you name it.....I have NEVER been to an area which had as many FOREIGN cars as that region......Whats that old saying, "Do As I Say, Not As I Do".

[silverball]

...the majority of those vehicles MADE in the usa....when american automobile manufactures start building quality cars (the leadership, NOT the union laborers) that's when their fortunes will turnaround....ford (as shown by being the ONLY auto manufacturer to NOT take bailout funds) began their transition to manufacture better and more efficient cars about 10 years ago....gm is featuriong a new "muscle" car next year...makes sense eh??? and don't get me started on the hummer....

[Burkelbile]

California is the posterboy for the whitebread Republican voodoo philosophy of "Don't you dare tread on me and raise my taxes." And now, here they are.

But Arnold will have no problem going hat in hand to Obama asking that we (the other 49 states) be good Americans and bail him out with OUR tax money.

Jesse Ventura put it best: "at least Democrats tax you to pay for all their spending. Republicans (with tax cuts) CHARGE it."

Dear California:
You have more than enough folks well off enough to pay a little more in taxes so you can take care of your bills and still build all the prisons you love so much.

Please get over your Ronald Reagan man-crush and give Prop 13 (from '78) the heave-ho.
Pay some taxes for a change instead of closing your schools.

[JScott]

And your local reps in the legislature show wome guts and leadership for once.....let the eletcorate know the connection between the taxes paid and the services received. I think most of the electorate doesn't really have an interest or clue......sadly. This 'just do your job' isn't enough.

[TJCole]

That it Mike; The purpose of government is to serve the people...and what serves them best, not what serves the Banks or Insurance companies or Oil companies...

Serving the people is key for us, it's crucial at this time...in California as well as Washington...

[steamboat]

TJ, did you tell the President? ......His sponsor who got him into politics and mentor and financial-backer is Chicago multi-millionaire Penny Pritzker. She owns 2 AIG Financial Companies and sits on Board of Directors of Bank of America. Lo and behold, who got huge bailouts paid by we taxpayers: AIG and Bank of America.

[MerRed]

The AIG connection here is completely false as she NEVER served on their board, as well Penny Pritzker NEVER sat on the board of Bank of America. She sat on the board of LaSalle Bank which was bought by Band of America. It's never too late to start doing your homework, kids!

[demfriend]

At the time we elected arnold I believed nothignworse than davis would happen as a result. We skated along until the economy went belly up but underneath it all California has been in trouble for a while and it has come to be that arnold wants to take away so much of what we here in the state take such pride in. Our state parks, our childrens health and education and eldercare all the top of what we care about while he has turned into who he said he would never be. I believe he held onto the better part of our government with people who were loyal enough to work with him and now he has turned on them too so we have nothing to believe will be done in our favor for those we love. Hatchet man is his new name and we should have known his time would be llike in movies when he stayed too long and the movie lost it's storyline and appeal before the term ended. Arnold call Uncle Ted and let the Kennedy family help us.

[Bobzmcishl]

Good post Mike,

We pay our legislators to do their jobs and they don't do it and then expect us to vote on more dumb propositions and other convoluted measures that are written in such a half a-- fashion that no one can even understand them. We have way too many people incarcerated for minor offenses, most drugs, that should be let go. It is ridiculous that we spend more money on prisons than on education. We need to get rid of measures that let a 1/3 minority of the legislature hold the other 2/3 hostage - that isn't democracy. Arnold's idea of closing the state parks in really ludicrous - he wants to take away from Californians one of the few bargain ways to spend a vacation and it really doesn't even save that much money. We voters are fed up with the governor and the legislature for failing to do the jobs we elected them too. It's time for them to start governing and get a budget passed without turning California into Mississippi.

[000Jade000]

Mr. Farrell,

Check out New York State . . . we've got a little single payer action here!

Our state senate has become the 2nd in the country to pass a resolution urging Congress to enact HR 676. And it sounds like Chuck Schumer has agreed to ask the Congressional Budget Office to include a single payer system in any future cost-benefit analysis for universal health reform.

http://singlepayernewyork.org/news/senate.php

We're still working on getting more co-sponsors for the legislation here. Some of our local congressional reps. have supported single payer in the past and are now stone-walling.

[TRYKER]

Good luck Mike.
It does seem strange that you have so many great progressives in CA, but you elect the weirdest Govs. It looks like the right wing has entrenched themselves so heavily throughout your govt that you can't make any headway against their sludge.
If CA doesn't start emptying their prisons and saving those Billion$ and getting REAL, you might have to do some sit-ins or something that will get some attention. It does seem like you "stars" could draw the media in to a lot of causes if you organized. We aren't seeing much on Nat'l TV.

[GardenerNorCal]

Actually I reelected Gray Davis. The Washington Republican machine got Arnold elected. He was going to save us all. Funny how that worked out.

[toxicbrainpoison]

exactly california's prison is a big part of their economic problem... i wonder if private prisons are to blame? we all know no ones getting a $50,000 a year stay.

[LeftRight]

Sure they are, it's just that the private prisons are taking $45,000 of it for "administrative" costs!!