The Conversation: Compromise is not a dirty word

Sacramento Bee ^ | 7/26/9 | Daniel Weintraub

[SmithL]

Don't look now, but post-partisanship is making a comeback. Nobody is celebrating, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers have just demonstrated again that it's possible to bridge the deep partisan divide that has frozen California's Legislature in a condition of near perpetual gridlock.

Last week, for the second time in five months, Schwarzenegger cobbled together a difficult budget plan and joined lawmakers from both parties to support the compromises necessary to pull the state back from the brink of insolvency.

In February, he got fellow Republicans to raise taxes temporarily. And now he has persuaded Democrats to make deep and permanent cuts in spending. Both budgets passed with bipartisan votes. They had to, thanks to California's much-maligned requirement that a two-thirds majority of legislators approve any spending bill. And both plans passed despite withering attacks from some of the most powerful interest groups in the state.

Most of the focus lately has been on what Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have not done, namely solve the state's fiscal problems once and for all. And that's a valid criticism. California's government will be struggling to make ends meet for years to come. But in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression and in the wake of the collapse of the state's once-booming housing industry, solving the entire problem now might be close to impossible.

What Schwarzenegger has done instead is to stabilize the state's finances and enact a handful of reforms that will reduce spending in the future. He has also set the stage for the final year of his two terms in office, when he will try to finish the job he was elected to do – bringing the budget back into balance – while enacting even more sweeping reforms that could change the very structure...

[SmithL]

Last year, they passed a "smoke & mirrors" budget, THREE times, and in each case, the budget failed immediately. But somehow, this smoke & mirrors budget will work, even though February's tax increases have caused tax revenues to continue to fall.

[ElPatriota]

..GENTLEMAN... we must recognize we have reached a critical point... Yes, it's about our ASS... honorable members of this "glorious" political body... we have to fool the those suckers (voters) somehow or else.

ROLF...

[Lauren BaRecall]

There are times when “compromise” is the dirtiest, most evil word ever invented by mankind.

[JimRed]

Compromise IS a dirty word when core principles are involved.