Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

WILLIE BROWN: State should have seen budget mess coming
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 7/19/9 | Willie Brown

Posted on 07/19/2009 8:40:16 AM PDT by SmithL

The budget mess in Sacramento was inevitable: Term limits, gerrymandered safe districts and officials' willingness to expand programs or cut taxes with no regard for the consequences have all played a role in the $26.3 billion deficit.

But perhaps the biggest problem is the willingness of our elected leaders, from the governor on down, to cook the books to get their way.

Whether it's education, prisons or tax cuts, you need to start being honest about the numbers. The problem is, no one wants to say what this program increase is really going to cost, or how much money this tax cut will cost today, tomorrow and years down the line.

Democrats tend to undercount the costs associated with their programs and overcount how much money will come in to pay for them. They also tend to spend all the money on workers, even before they build the building where they are going to work.

Republicans, on the other hand, refuse to accept responsibility for the cuts to vital programs that spring from their tax reductions. And they push for things like more prisons without ever accepting the responsibility for having to run them.

On top of that, you have a governor who got the whole mess going by chopping the vehicle license fee the day he took office.

Tell me, how do you stop collecting billions of dollars in license fees if you don't simultaneously reduce the cost of government?

Could you do that with your checkbook?

And that's another problem. Thanks to term limits, by the time the check is due, whoever wrote it is long gone, leaving someone else to try to cover it.

It's as if every team in the NFL based its spending on the assumption it was going to win the Super Bowl.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: budget; goldenstate; willieworld; yourtaxdollarsatwork
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last
But perhaps the biggest problem is the willingness of our elected leaders, from the governor on down, to cook the books to get their way.
Even when Republicans hold the line on tax increases, they are still willing to use smoke & mirrors to make it appear that the budget is in balance.
1 posted on 07/19/2009 8:40:16 AM PDT by SmithL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SmithL
Well, Duh.

Let's see, you spend more than you make for forty years. OK, that's bad.

2 posted on 07/19/2009 8:42:08 AM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government -- Thomas Payne)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

Willie Brown is the coolest liberal of all time.


3 posted on 07/19/2009 8:43:17 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist ("President Obama, your agenda is not new, it's not change, and it's not hope" - Rush Limbaugh 02/28)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

It’s extortion by government to make citizens pay in the face of chaos they create by overspending. Notice they never offer to stop these wasteful programs or cut spending.


4 posted on 07/19/2009 8:43:19 AM PDT by Rapscallion (Obama - The wolf in the suit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

Republicans fight for tax cuts and strong defense.
Democrats fight for new welfare programs and increased spending.
The universe is in harmony.

At least until it all melts down.


5 posted on 07/19/2009 8:43:34 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

The state should have seen Willie coming!


6 posted on 07/19/2009 8:43:43 AM PDT by IbJensen (If Catholics voted based upon the teachings of the church, there would be no abortion and no Obomba.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

Right Willie. Term limits and tax cuts...they sure are deadly! At least they are deadly to leftists like you and those who run Kalifornia.


7 posted on 07/19/2009 8:47:14 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Willie’s RAT buddies created the disaster that is CA.


8 posted on 07/19/2009 8:48:12 AM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

“Tell me, how do you stop collecting billions of dollars in license fees if you don’t simultaneously reduce the cost of government?”

Is this guy kidding me? How are Republicans going to cut the cost of government in California? Short of armed insurrection, the Dem libs have the state locked up.


9 posted on 07/19/2009 8:48:20 AM PDT by wgflyer (Liberalism is to society what HIV is to the immune system.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

They saw it coming, they just ignored it.


10 posted on 07/19/2009 8:50:29 AM PDT by cranked
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
Thanks Willie -- You are today's winner;
11 posted on 07/19/2009 8:50:58 AM PDT by areukiddingme1 (areukiddingme1 is a synonym for a Retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer and tired of liberal BS.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

“how much money this tax cut will cost today, tomorrow and years down the line.”

Herein lies the problem. The politicos consider aii monies as theirs and any they alow you to keep an expense.


12 posted on 07/19/2009 8:54:15 AM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
Willie Brown

Are you kiddin' me?

13 posted on 07/19/2009 8:56:54 AM PDT by John123 (Turn on your teleprompter Obama and read your lips... "No New Taxes!!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
How long have you been in government, Willie? Name one thing you ever did that helped to avert the budget mess.
14 posted on 07/19/2009 9:02:49 AM PDT by Cheburashka (There is an unlimited supply of stupid, although Joe Biden is trying to use it all up.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Yeah, “tell ‘em Willie Boy is here!”


15 posted on 07/19/2009 9:08:43 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

Wasn’t Willie Brown Speaker of the California State Assembly for many, many years while all this was brewing? Isn’t he responsible for a great deal of the problem?


16 posted on 07/19/2009 9:10:08 AM PDT by La Lydia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

As Archie Bunker once said “Boy, that’s black calling the kettle pot.”


17 posted on 07/19/2009 9:24:29 AM PDT by Terry Mross ( I hate all politicians. Including republicans.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
Too rich. Willie Brown was part of the problem for years. Now he pretends to take the high-road by calling out the California politicians on their spending.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle Black.

18 posted on 07/19/2009 9:33:40 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (ABC-AP-MSNBC-All Obama, All the time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

Actually, Willie, the state DID see the buget mess coming . . . . . they just didn’t care. It was too important to buy more votes than demonstrate any public responsibility.

California, like ALL of the liberal-driven states that are in a similar finacial mess, is the poster child for irresponsible liberal policies. In the long run, folks, elections have consequences. Our children and grandchildren will never be able to have the kinds of opportunities that previous generations have enjoyed in this country, because too much of their earnings will be confiscated by the government to pay for unsustainable liberal policies!!


19 posted on 07/19/2009 9:51:32 AM PDT by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
Anticipating a flood of cash-strapped California recipients, Payday Loan companies began advertising instant redemptions of state-issued IOU's. Liquidity will come at a stiff price, with exchange rates discounted at 40% off face value. "Given the high probability of Cali's default and the inevitable public vilification of anyone who makes a profit, we feel this discount rate is appropriate," explained a Payday Loan officer who would only give his name as ‘Vito.'

THE COLLECTOR---Vito's first cousin (flying in from South Jersey).

"Lessee, where'd I put dem cement overshoes."

========================================

"Ach der lieber, mama mia. Dat sobanagun Veetoe's gonna collect
Kaleefirneeah's IOU's? Duz he knowh hez puttin a Kennedee in dainjah?
Ai getda nasheenul sumpatty ven anudder Kennedee goz kaputz, ifh Mariah
vallz offh dah skee lifvt at hour Zun Falley esthate."

" Chonny and Wooty, ai gotda vunny veeling dah Reepublucan Potty tinks
RINOS ass pure crapola. Ai hear RINOS kin getz jops ass Val-Mart greetahs,
Home Depoht paihnt mixahs, McD's ketchop pumpahs, undt vaitahs at Ved Lopstah."

20 posted on 07/19/2009 10:03:34 AM PDT by Liz (When people fear govt, we have tyranny; when govt fears the people, we have freedom.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson