Governor Jerry Brown may have angered his own party by vetoing their flawed budget last week, but it was clear from the start that his true target was Republicans, whom the Governor is rapidly losing patience with.
Last week, despite the veto, he called the efforts of the Democrats in the Legislature “valiant,” suggesting that the $11 billion in painful cuts was a noteworthy accomplishment. “I commend them for their tremendous efforts to balance the budget in the absence of Republican cooperation,” the Governor said
He added, “They should also join Democrats in supporting job creation and ending tax breaks for out-of-state companies. If they continue to obstruct a vote, we will be forced to pursue deeper and more destructive cuts to schools and public safety– a tragedy for which Republicans will bear full responsibility.”
I can hear the conservative contingent of my readership going, here we go again, blame the Republicans. I wonder whom else they expect to blame when you have 60% of the legislature and the governor Democratic, and somehow the Republicans feel that they should get equal footing.
The new plan now is for the Governor to make the Republicans irrelevant. If he succeeds, they will have overplayed their hand. If he fails, well, we are back to square one.
The plan starts with passing a budget that only has Democratic support, putting the tax questions before the voters using initiatives.
“I may be in initiative circulation … in the next few months,” he said last week.
“I’m going to solve the problem. I’d like to solve it in a week or two, but if I can’t … I can take actions of many kinds, including going to the people themselves through the direct initiative process.”
In the meantime, the Governor would have to play hardball, making deeper cuts to schools and other programs that would induce voters to support the tax initiatives that recent polls show people support, but that their support is waning as the process drags on.
“It’s more time consuming, more devastating to our schools and more expensive, but I am going to stop at nothing to get this budget done in a sustainable, balanced way,” he said.
But there is more to this plan – much more. The Governor is then talking about working to create an even larger majority of legislative Democrats. All they need is two in each house of the legislature to get a supermajority.
Reports the LA Times, “Democrats believe they have a chance in 2012 to reach the two-thirds supermajorities that are needed in both legislative houses to raise taxes and fees. The supermajority is no longer necessary for budgets to pass.”
The irony is that the Democrats can do this, thanks to the redistricting plan that is moving its way through the state. The Republicans are the ones that planned it and it might prove to be their death knell.
“I can’t overcome that in two weeks,” he said, “but I can overcome it in two years.”
So, there you have the new plan. Unfortunately, in a lot of ways it is the same as the old plan. We will see huge cuts to education and social service and then pray that the Democrats can convince voters to extend the tax increase after the increase has already expired.
I said before the election, if Jerry Brown couldn’t make the system work, no one could. Now I’m leaning toward the latter.
One thing that may help Jerry Brown in this fight is his veto, which according to columnist George Skelton, gives him “a reputation for consistency.”
“Conviction and commitment. Says what he means, means what he says,” writes George Skelton. “That’s an invaluable asset for a political leader. It tends to make him believable, credible, respected. It also can be a drag on leadership. It may render him inflexible, immobile, even stubborn.”
I would argue it is more than just that, however. Jerry Brown is standing up for a real budget that is balanced in reality.
Mr. Skelton goes on to write about the reaction of Democratic leaders John Perez and Darrell Steinberg.
Writes Mr. Skelton, “It sounds like Steinberg and Pérez are a little confused. But that may be understandable. They — like all but a couple of legislators because of term limits — have never experienced a consistent governor whose words could be banked.”
As Mr. Skelton points out, “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to “tear up the credit card and throw it away,” but went on a borrowing binge. He adamantly opposed raising taxes, until he raised them. Gov. Gray Davis had feet of clay and was shoved around by liberals.”
The Republicans are putting themselves perilously on the brink of irrelevance in a state where, due to quirks in demographics, most are widely out of step with the majority of voters in the first place.
Mr. Skelton offers some advice to the Republicans when he writes, “Republicans should accept the immediate tax extensions and allow voters to weigh in later, in exchange for also offering them spending and pension reforms. Then declare victory.”
He adds, “Brown should be a little less consistent and tolerate a few relatively innocuous gimmicks — while rejecting the smelliest — in order to gain an on-time budget. And he needs to press Democrats and unions on spending and pensions. Bend a little and head out on a victory tour.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
You left out docking their pay if they don’t get to work. For years the Repugs have held the state hostage to their budget demands until we took away the 2/3 requirement for a budget making themselves less relevant. Now Brown is holding them hostage and docking their pay using his new powers to bend their will as he should. The only power they have left is to provide the votes needed to increase revenue but it is going to cost them to remain intransigent. In the end they may be totally irrelevant made so by their rigid adherence to ideology exemplified by their demands for tax cuts to approve a budget already cracking under the weight of a structural deficit created by their previous demand for tax cuts. I have said for a decade that we need to get rid of the 2/3 rule not just for passing a budget but for passing taxes too. We can see the improvement in the process created by majority budgeting but we need to finish the job. California’s budget problems are large by the numbers but not so by percent of state GDP. The problem is political more than economic.
1) Sigh, just another “bash the Republicans” article.
2) Brown consistently blames the Republicans for his own inability to provide the necessary leadership that would lead us out of the economic mess we are in, e.g. his early stance on no pension reform while talking about the budget.
3) Brown has alienated members of his own party – the Democrats.
4) Brown is inflexible, immobile, stubborn – not the qualities of a good leader.
[quote]We can see the improvement in the process created by majority budgeting but we need to finish the job. California’s budget problems are large by the numbers but not so by percent of state GDP. The problem is political more than economic.[/quote]
Do you honestly think the answer is runaway increases in taxes, which is what would happen if you allowed increases via majority vote? Be careful what you wish for. Already businesses are exiting this state because of the lousy business climate…
ERM: [i]Brown consistently blames the Republicans for his own inability to provide the necessary leadership that would lead us out of the economic mess we are in, e.g. his early stance on no pension reform while talking about the budget.[/i]
Compared to Schwarzenegger, I think we’re making progress. It would be better to make those judgements further along. Schwarzenegger would likely have signed that original budget, declared victory and gone home. That’s a big context that Brown is working in.
Say what he wants, the question is, can Brown produce a better budget? I think he probably can, without Republican support. Let the Republicans make their political calculation (get involved in the process or not), and let’s see what happens.
Brown did not [i] angered his own party by vetoing their flawed budget last week[/i].
I doubt it.
It is more likely that the Democrat legislature and Brown’s people colluded to try and make political lemonade out of a budget proposal they all knew was a lemon and was going to be vetoed. The Dems would get to keep their salaries and Brown would get to leverage a “see how fiscally tough I am, but those “Repugs” are preventing me from doing the right things for CA” media blitz for his veto.
I don’t hold out hope for this budget or this state for that matter. It is filled full of a bunch of ineffective political leaders and ignorant voters. What is being demonstrated over and over again is individual and group selfishness combined with the lack of a long-term view. We cannot tax ourselves out of this mess.
The problem is simple: WE ARE SPENDING TOO MUCH!
I cannot find a similar graph for the state, but I am sure the slope is similar or steeper.
[img]http://www.cscdc.org/miscjeff/spendingpergdp.jpg[/img]
We are increasing the government redistribution of our GDP at an alarming rate. The real “blocking” going on today is the Democrat’s refusal to revise our structural budget problems… while they look for more media opportunities to deflect blame on the GOP while they wait for a miracle upturn in the economy so California voters can return to their ignorant sun-baked happiness of spending with regard for the future.
The political system was deliberately designed to make it hard for politicians to increase taxes and spending. And for good reason. Perhaps nobody anticipated how poor our current crop of politicians would be. And I am referring primarily to the Democrats, though republicans share some blame. Having spent some time in Sacramento where I encountered legislators, I was shocked by their low intelligence in many cases.
For those who think that Democrats getting 2/3 of the legislature will fix California’s problems, I think you’re living in a fantasy. Even with today’s tax and regulation system California is not competitive.
Just released is a study showing
“Companies Leaving California In Record Numbers”
http://www.dailymarkets.com/economy/2011/06/17/companies-leaving-california-in-record-numbers-2/
Moreover the companies leaving are the ones we want, and creating thousands of jobs.
Calisolar Inc
WindStream Technologies, Inc
Sharp — Solar Energy Solutions Group
Fallbrook Technologies Inc
“‘Green’ companies dumping the Golden State”
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/fundmastery/2011/06/18/green-companies-dumping-the-golden-state
We can either look at what is ruining the California economy or we can go partisan, cheer on our party the way we cheer a baseball team, and watch our society continue to deteriorate. For examples, see remarks blaming Republicans for everything, or “Repugs” for an example of a childish form of argument.
[i]”spending with regard for the future.”[/i]
meant to write “spending without regard for the future.”
Related to my quip about nongeneder parenting day. In my house, Mothers Day and Fathers Day has always been a big pile of stress. My wife an I came to the conclusion years ago that we need to lower our expectatioms so we could meet the expectations of our parents and grandparents while they were still lucid enough to have expectations. I was just thinking about the extra confusion for families with gay parents in the mix. What a can-o-worms that would be. How many cards and gifts would I need to purchase… and for which day?
Re: [i]Repugs[/i]
Please don’t use this or other derogatory terms to describe either party or any group of people. Stick to the issues and argument, please.
fuck you
How about Fucking Republicans who have turned the economy of this region into one of the worst in the country. Please I guess only asshole reactionary right wing pricks is who you want on this blog.
Re: the word nanny.
I am not bothered by Repugs. It’s a bit colorful. The putdown which gets my goat, despite my registration as a Republican, is when GOP partisans refer to the Democratic Party as the Democrat Party. It seems to me that Republicans, who are on average far better educated and far happier than Democrats ([url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/07/AR2008020701904.html[/url]), should never confuse an adjective with a noun.
Rich: I know the use of “Democrat” instead of “Democratic” gets the goat of some people, but frankly I think it is a better word. You are a Republican and a member of the Republican Party. You are a Democrat and a member of a democratic party? “Democratic” in this case could be either an adjective or part of the proper noun but miss-punctuated. However, using the proper noun “Democrat Party” there is no confusion. I get you point, but this is my pet peeve with the word.
Also, I am not keen on continuing to associate Democrats with being democratic when their trend is more toward socialism.
I am being asked to accept gay marriage, but the Dems cannot even handle a slight change to the way their Party’s name is labeled. Who is the progressive here?
If you don’t mind “Repug”, then how do you feel about the word “Demoncrat”? I think that is colorful too.
[i]member of a democratic party[/i]
I meant to write “member of the democratic party” for comparison.
The topic of this thread is the governor and the budget, folks.
Don: The article title said Brown will make the Republicans irrelevant. I think that should give license to discuss some of the party differences.
My opinion.
No problem, Jeff; I just would prefer there be no derogatory name-calling of individuals or groups.
[i]If you don’t mind “Repug”, then how do you feel about the word “Demoncrat”?[/i]
Never heard that before. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But I suppoose if the shoe fits: [img]http://scrapetv.com/News/News Pages/Entertainment/images-8/michael-moore-fat.jpg[/img]
Sadly what could have been a lively discussion about the politics of the budget was killed by an overzealous moderator.
“Sadly what could have been a lively discussion about the politics of the budget was killed by an overzealous moderator.”
The moderator of these discussions is doing an excellent job in keeping the discussion at a reasonably high level.
The problem in the discussion came from a participant who injected an unnecessary pejorative, not from the moderator.
A quote I saw recently that seems fitting here:
[quote]Teach every child you meet the importance of forgiveness. It’s our only hope of surviving their wrath once they realize just how badly we’ve screwed things up for them.[/quote]