I agree with your take on the idea of running any kid of a deficit. As I stated in one of the earlier posts, both parties have participated in it, the media has given them cover, and I don't really like it. None the less, we find ourselves at this place in time with no one bringing legal action against the perpetrators of this illegality. That being the case, the current governor has chosen to open himself up to ridicule based on our perception. I do however observe that it's a little tough to damn Schwarzenegger for doing something state officials have basically approved of by omission, for several years.
It seems to me that McClintock and other public officials could have brought suit against Davis in the past, and Schwarzenegger presently on this subject. I believe Davis was taken to task on some of his bonds, deemed non-viable since voters didn't approve of them. Too bad he was not also taken to task on running budget deficits. If someone wanted to challenge Schwarzenegger on that point, I think he would be fair game.
I knew someone might bring up the subject of the printing press. The federal government finances it's additional spending by selling treasury bonds. In recent years it has opted to reduce the term of those bonds. Most treasury bond sales these days are short term. As long as the fed can still unload those suckers, they've got a license to spend indefinitely. Frankly, I don't like that either. I am not a deficit spending protagonist by any sense of the imagination.
IMO Davis' cardinal mistake as far as the courts were concerned, was his avoidance of seeking the will of the people on those bonds. Schwarzenegger did place the bonds before the people and they approved them. You can make the case that deficits are unconstitutional, and I'd agree, but that being said, I'm not at all convinced the courts would strike down those bonds because they violate the deficit spending aspects of the constitution.
The situation we find ourselves in, legitimizes the need for the bonds, even if they are unconstitutional. The invalidation of those bonds would not only throw California into an untenable financial situation, it would invalidate the fifteen billion dollars in bonds. That would cause a ripple effect through the financial markets. Everyone who bought those bonds would be thrown into financial chaos. We would be unable to pay those bonds off now. We would default on them, we would default across the board. It would simply be impossible to eliminate 50% of California's spending for the next year to pay off all it's debts. Half of everything California does would have to cease.
Half of the schools, half of the Highway Patrol, half of the prisons, half of the healthcare payments, half of everything would have to cease. I cannot imagine a judge making a decision that would force this upon California and the financial markets that sold it's bonds. On top of all this, it is almost certain that massive tax increases would be mandated in the short term.
This might get us to where we want to be, but it's not the detour I would recommend. Who would get the lion's share of the blame for this default? Davis and company drove us here, now the republicans, read that 'conservatives' would take the absolute brunt of the dissatisfaction over the default. Davis would get a complete pass. Now I know you'll rebel at my use of the word conservative in the last sentence, but if you don't think the press would run with that explanation, you're not thinking on all six cylinders. Much would be made of the fact that republicans rule no better than the democrats.
In a number of ways, you and I would agree with this. In the real world we have to accept that this is not true for the most part. I think it goes without saying that we would rather have Bush elected this year than Kerry. In other years, the same scenario plays itself out. We cannot simply abandon the Republican party for the simply reason that it is the only thing that stands between us and a complete switchover to a socialist model that would make a Russian blush.
For better or worse, we are stuck with certain realities. I don't really like it any better than you do.
That was truly a sincere, extremely thoughtful and appreciated reply, D1 and I read and absorbed every word of it!!! These are "trying times" for many of us and sometimes we try each other's patience just a wee bit too much. You are a gentleman and a scholastic!!! As Tennessee Ernie Ford used to say... "And may the Good Lord take a liken to ya!"