Posted on 07/03/2009 11:02:11 AM PDT by SmithL
Remember the Arnold Schwarzenegger who, exactly five years ago, denounced state legislators as "girlie men" beholden to unions because they failed to pass a state budget? He's back, sensing that time is running out on his 2003 campaign promise to stop "crazy deficit spending."
"I was sent to Sacramento to fix the broken system," Schwarzenegger said Thursday, demanding that the Legislature close a budget deficit without new taxes.
The Republican governor accused lawmakers – implicitly the Legislature's dominant Democrats – of ignoring "waste, fraud and abuse," adding a phrase reminiscent of his famous "girlie man" epithet: "They're just beholden to the unions and the special interests."
Schwarzenegger's renewed campaign shifted into high gear this week after the Legislature once again stalemated over how to bridge the yawning budget gap.
"The legislators' failure to act on those proposals sent a message to the California voters and to the taxpayers that says we want you to make the sacrifices but we in Sacramento don't want to make any sacrifices whatsoever," Schwarzenegger said Wednesday as a new fiscal year began. "Protecting the special interests who benefit from our dysfunctional system was more important to the Legislature than protecting the taxpayers and dealing with the entire $24 billion deficit."
The governor and his advisers have evidently concluded that the huge deficit – now pegged at $26.3 billion – and the issuance of state IOUs to some creditors may provide impetus for deep-seated budget changes not only to close the current shortfall but also to mitigate future deficits.
It's classic wedge politics, attacking a Legislature whose public esteem stands at a historic low level and drawing a contrast between the economic hardships afflicting ordinary Californians and public employees whose unions are closely allied with Democratic lawmakers.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Every time the voters say “no new taxes”, the legislature says “they didn’t really mean it”. CA is controlled by crooked politicians, special interests and unions. Time to starve the beast. Give them no money period. Let them spend IOU’s until people learn they are worthless and stop accepting them.
Jaaa. Blame Blame Blame!
Plenty to go around ..
including to pundits ..
Motto of the California Legislature: “Spend like it’s 1999!”
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