Posted on 11/23/2005 5:33:09 PM PST by FairOpinion
Legislative leaders and Schwarzenegger truly need to compromise or state is on the road to bankruptcy.
Immediately following the Nov. 8 special election, several editorials and opinion columns said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the big loser because all four propositions he supported were soundly defeated. Wrong! The big losers were all the people of California.
Why, given all the political mistakes Schwarzenegger allegedly made, including calling for the special election in the first place? Well, we elected a non-politician to be governor, didn't we? Weren't we fed up with career politicians who made most decisions to retain their offices rather than for the benefit of the people? Then, like the maverick, unpredictable, gullible voters we are, we failed to give the governor the tools he needed to do our work.
So aren't the majority who voted for the dysfunctional status quo, and thus all of us, the big losers?
The dishonor roll of defeat
Californians voted down a measure designed to improve the quality of teachers and thus the effectiveness of public education simply by providing more time to adjudge new teachers before granting tenure, and making it easier to remove those who are no longer effective.
They voted down a proposition intended to rein in the government employee unions that in exchange for pay and benefit increases elect socialist Democrat legislators bent on spending more and taxing more.
They voted down a measure to give the governor greater ability to limit expenditures to revenues, and control the structural spending when revenues are lacking. This leads to a sizable deficit each year.
They voted to retain the gerrymandering for redistricting for state and national elected offices wherein the elected officials are able to define safe districts, choosing their voters rather than the voters choosing their representatives.
The big losers include:
• Income-tax payers and especially high earners who pay most of the taxes.
• Those who buy things subject to sales tax.
• Property owners who pay property taxes and all the fees attached to circumvent Proposition 13.
• Renters whose rents will increase due to property tax increases.
• Business owners, who will see a rise in their taxes and the minimum wage.
• Workers whose potential pay increases will be subsumed by business tax increases in the future.
• Union members whose dues were used for political purposes without their permission.
• Union members who also pay taxes, although they act as though they were exempt.
• Public schoolchildren whose education will not improve because it will remain difficult to find them better teachers.
• All levels of government -- city, county and state -- whose worker-pension and health-benefit costs will continue to increase beyond what's affordable.
• Owners and operators of motor vehicles whose fuel prices will stay high due to the reinforcing of the coalition of liberal socialist Democrat legislators and environmental extremists. It is they who prevent oil drilling and the construction of refineries and energy facilities.
• All who heat their homes and businesses with natural gas or fuel oil due to the above coalition, which prevents recovery of natural gas and building of liquefied natural gas import terminals.
This is really stretching it, you say. There were no propositions dealing with energy, housing, minimum wage, workers' pay, pensions and health benefits, sales and income taxes or business taxes.
True, but consider what voting for the status quo tells the controlling coalition. It tells them to keep on doing what they have been doing.
To see what they have been doing, examine the budget with its built-in deficits and the thousand bills the Legislature cranks out each year on all kinds of socialist spending and regulations, about half of which are rightfully vetoed.
The inability to solve major state issues is supposed to be the governor's fault because he did not negotiate compromise with the Democrats. Really? After they refused to consider his five proposals, the governor tried on three separate occasions to reach compromises with the Democrats, who not only refused to seriously negotiate but introduced measures for more spending and tax increases.
The only course left for the governor was the proposition route. After the governor's threat, citizens groups began petition drives as insurance against further failed negotiations, resulting in the government employee unions embarking on their $150 million-plus television, radio and mailer campaign of lies, distortions, obfuscation and personal attacks on Schwarzenegger, which killed the propositions.
Don't capitulate to Democrats
Where do we go from here? The governor said he recently had a very good meeting with the legislative leaders, who said they sought to solve the state's problems in concert with the governor because they thought that was what the people wanted. (They didn't want this earlier in the year?)
Let's fervently hope so, but compromise with the Democrats heretofore has meant "do it our way," and their way means bankruptcy or higher taxes, already among the highest in the nation, or huge bond issues, which are higher taxes in disguise, paying $2 for every $1 spent.
No, the governor wasn't the big loser, and the unions weren't the big winner. All the people of California were the big losers, and the election likely was only the beginning of their losses.
Stan Katten is a former RAND Corp. analyst and a San Pedro resident.
Say,...ah, can I have some of that juice you're drinking, Bob?
For the Republican loyalists: Schwarzenegger screwed up big time. He picked the wrong arguments at the wrong time and let his gigantic ego get in the way of his political aspiration.
Why in the hell the CAGOP would front an Austrian national for a position of US political leadership is beyond me but the results aren't.
Somebody from the Central Committee needs to sit down with this foreign amateur and convince him to bow out before he destroys California and the reputation of the CAGOP.
Gets things right??? What the heck is THIS supposed to mean??? Sounds like this dude wants in even more of a compromising position, like BOHICA!!! Phhhhhht!!!
See #17.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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