A Dose of Reality for Schwarzenegger (MClintock opposes California bond measure)

LA TImes ^ | Nov. 20, 2003 | Gregg Jones and Evan Halper

[FairOpinion]

"... the governor faced concerns from fellow Republicans over his plan to deal with California's fiscal difficulties without a tax increase.

Brulte said he expected the borrowing proposal to pass the Senate eventually. But Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) said he would vote against it, and other Republicans interviewed Wednesday echoed concerns already raised by Burton and other Democrats.

"I think it's fiscally irresponsible to use long-term, general obligation bonds to meet state expenses," McClintock said after the Senate session. "That is why, for over 100 years, the state Constitution has prohibited that practice — to prevent a prodigal generation from running up a huge debt while it parties, then passing the bill on to his children."

He added, "A deficit bond will not have my vote."

Brulte said the key to Schwarzenegger's fiscal recovery plan was a cap on state spending, a central Republican demand. "If the price I have to pay for a spending cap is a willingness to support a deficit bond, I'm willing to look at that," Brulte said. "But our prime objective is the spending cap."

[FairOpinion]

I think McClintock would serve the interests of California and those of Republican better, if he would come up with a list of suggested spending caps and cuts, instead of criticizing the bond measure, which is the ONLY solution, short of actually raising taxes, to tackle the budget problem.

Cutting $40B from the budget overnight is not even close to realistic.

McClintock reminds me of the anti-war people who have the "War is not the answer" bumper stickers, but they don't have a clue what IS the answer, if war isn't.

What is McClintock's solution? He is against raising taxes, is against the bond measure, does he think the Legislature or even the people would stand still for a $40B spending cut? It would end up as another "tax the rich" "solution", instead.

I personally think it would be very nice if someone did defeat McClintock in the primary. He is getting to be very tiresome -- again, as during the election, he is only helping the Dems.

[FairOpinion]

PING

McClintock is working on undermining Scharzenegger.

[The Old Hoosier]

I think McClintock would serve the interests of California and those of Republican better, if he would come up with a list of suggested spending caps and cuts

Done.

Need anything else?

[Consort]

How far is he into his 15 minutes?

[Walkin Man]

Scharzenkennedy: We gonna party like its 1999!!!!! Yippee!!

[CWOJackson]

Sour grapes.

[SteveH]

who woulda thunk...

[Pikamax]

"Adopt a 5% across-the-board salary rollback."

that alone shows the man is delusional.

[BibChr]

Breaking News: Tom McClintock Is All About Tom McClintock!

Big surprise.

Dan

[FairOpinion]

That was in 1995.

Where is his list of 2003?

[CheneyChick]

It's just the LA Times trying to stir the poo-poo again. Yawn. I'm glad Arnold is the Governor. Very glad. Tom just misses all the attention.

[onedoug]

The measure is going to have to be accompanied by specific spending cuts. Otherwise, I, at least, will not vote for greater indebtedness.

[onyx]

LASlimes article. Are other 'real' newspapers echoing same?

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Who would have thought that I would have needed to drag this out again?

[GOP_1900AD]

The straightforward, politically incorrect plan to fix the mess: 1) Immediately arrange an emergency meeting with Homeland Security to set up a special program to ID, round up and deport illegal aliens. 2) Work with the business community (both major corps and small businesses) to determine the 5 most important things hindering business and craft emergency legislation to deal with them. Set up a website geared particularly toward the small business community which summarizes all anti business positions being taken by specific legislators, naming names. The site would automatically email these summaries out to small businesspeople who subscribe. Business people would be encouraged to apply pressure to the Communists and to innundate them with mail and phone calls. 3) Disband the Coastal Commision. 4) Disband all agencies which are redundant with the Federal and Local levels - examples: Cal-OSHA (federally redundant), State Board of Education (locally redundant). 5) Defund all abortions. 6) Defund all non profit orgs. If a non profit is claiming tax exempt status then they should receive no tax revenue. 7) Tax all funds wired to Mexico by anyone who is not a Citizen or Green Card holder; anyone wiring funds to Mexico must show either a US Passport or Greencard at the wiring service in order to avoid the tax. State Board of Equalization to perform unannounced audits at wiring services with special focus on ones in Spanish speaking business communities. 8) Sell off state owned lands which are not currently used for watershed, active parks, or otherwise accessible to the public. Terminate all currently in process acquisitions of land by the state unless they are for building roads, airports and sea ports. 9) Vastly curtail the authority of the state PUC. Truly deregulate utilities. Make utility costs tax deductable / creditable for anyone with a demonstrated income below the poverty line. However, make energy saving improvements even more favorable deductions / credits for people under that same income line. 10) Make English the official language and stop all multilingual publishing of state forms, and documents. If you can't read English, too bad. It will create incentive for assimilation. Get over it.

[Poohbah]

The bond issue will not pass.

Schwarzenegger knows this, as does McClintock.

Even the Democrats oppose it, which is why they want to engage in more illegal financial shenanigans.

Methinks Schwarzenegger and McClintock are playing the Dems like a Stradivarius.

[FairOpinion]

Actually I saw McClintock on FoxNews expressing his opposition talking about the "grandchildren being saddled with our debts". He really came across very poorly, with his "holier than thou" attitude. You should have seen him.

Not even a qualified opposition, as other Republicans, who at least realize that Arnoold is trying to solve a difficult problem, and the solutions are limited:

"Sen. Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno) also expressed misgivings but said Schwarzenegger had "inherited a massive problem."

"There's no one who's enthusiastic about borrowing," Poochigian said. "The question is, what can we do to solve our problems? I have not yet made a decision on what I'm going to do. A vote on the proposal would be very difficult."


Seeing McC was what prompted me to do a search in Google News to see if there is anything in print or on the net about it, and found the LA Times article. They are quoting McC verbatim.

Arnold reached out to McC, but apparently McC doesn't want to get on board, he wants Arnold to fail, and who cares what that does to CA.

[familyofman]

Does this mark the official end of the honeymoon? Barely enough time to soil the sheets.

[FairOpinion]

Arnold already said he wants spending caps.

And why do you think Arduin was hired, except to find places to cut, which is what she did in other states?

Arnold IS approaching the massive problem he inherited exactly the right way.

[FairOpinion]

Excellent list.

Now, which of these is actually doable?

Arnold was elected governor, NOT "dictator" or "king".