Posted on 03/24/2011 10:09:02 PM PDT by Nachum
Sacramento - Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law billions of dollars in budget cuts Thursday that will mean fewer government services, particularly for the old, the poor and the sick. The governor signed the new laws to tackle $11.2 billion of the state's estimated $26-billion deficit (Snip) Assistance for the elderly and disabled, in their homes and at senior centers, will also be reduced. State-subsidized child care for 11- and 12-year-olds will be eliminated. Brown sought to use the "painful" cuts he signed to make his case that Republicans should support the plan to ask voters to pay more taxes
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Some of the comments at the end of the article are downright hilarious.
Please, just let us tax you a little more.
Well, okay. Maybe just this once.
Tax. Hey, now that there is a little more money in the coffers, wouldn’t it be nice to build a great, big, new _________ and put this wonderful, compassionate program into place? Yea! Oh. We came in above budget somehow. We need more taxes. The heartless Republicans don’t let us save our wonderful program with more taxes. Please, just let us tax you a little more. REPEAT!
I really don’t mind higher taxes if spending is cut, and if Brown actually does cut spending, more power to him, he’s done more than 99.9% of all of the other politicians.
Don’t fall for it.
Cuts will be temporary and the taxes forever.
California is headed for economic cardiac arrest.
Nobody will go after the 600lb gorillas in the room.
Poor stupid Democrat voters...
It’s far EASIER for Brown to cut services for the poor, disabled, and the elderly, than it is to go up against the Public Employee Unions that fund Democrat campaigns.
What???
You thought a Democrat was going to do THE RIGHT THING?
AHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Oh believe me, I’m skeptical. But I’ve always thought that Moonbeam was different than most politicians, I may disagree with him, but I’ve always felt there was a sincerity to the man that most politicians lack.
Like the $40 billion high speed rail program?
Yes, he’s a sincere leftist:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/858gbeyz.asp
omg, state subsidize child care for 11-12 years old? Gez, I remember I used to take care of myself at home while I was at least 8 years old while my parent were at work.
“I really don’t mind higher taxes if spending is cut, and if Brown actually does cut spending, more power to him, he’s done more than 99.9% of all of the other politicians.”
With Brown and his dems in the majority, this is somewhat like Nixon opening up channels with China—something it took a Republican to do.
I do not believe the voters in California will support higher taxes, but I expect the dems will go all out to craft some trickery to get them.
They have killed the Golden Goose here in Calif, and there are fewer and fewer golden eggs.
Northrup Gruman will soon leave the state, and Fluor Corp. and Fidelity National Title Group already have done so.
IOW these three have joined other industry giants, taking their corporate Hq. to more business friendly locales.
Brown should be taking steps to stem this exodus. (Corporate taxation is one of the major issues, but not the only one. High taxation on employees’ incomes, high cost of living, deteriorated public schools, etc.)
This is a joke, right? Moonbeam will implement $11.2 billion in cuts is like him screwing Linda Ronstadt for virginity.
As long as the liberals keep giving billions of California tax dollars to illegals every year, the State of California has plenty of money.
The fact is that a liberal would sell her own mother and see her own children starving before cutting off the gravy train for illegals.
In a city close to where I live, most of the residents are illegals and most are on some form of public assistance.
The schools provide free breakfast and lunch ALL YEAR ROUND(advertised in the newspaper as such) and the local doctors and dentists visit each school to give free health care at the public’s expense.
And every time I go to the grocery store, there is usually a 300 lb. Mexican lady who can’t speak a lick of English with a litter of equally obese kids whipping at the food stamp card and WIC coupons.
We have socialism for illegals and the Californian/American is picking up the tab.
Trust me, California ain’t broke, the liberals are just transferring its wealth to foreign criminals.
That said, Brown said before he needed $14 billion in cuts and $14 billion in taxes.
Oh, this is amusing in so many ways. First, the Pavlovian response of the LAT that Brown is killing off the "old, the poor and the sick." Are they sure he isn't one of those evil Republicans? This has to be a parody.
Democrat cuts budget... slashes aid to elderly, sick, children... salaries to outrageously highly paid union workers left untouched.
Jerry Brown sang the praises of one of history’s greatest mass murderers simply because that crazed killer supported the notion of an armed, Communist revolution to violently overthrow the United States of America, and replace it with a totalitarian, Soviet state. So until Jerry Brown acknowledges being not just a socialist, but a Stalinist genocidal revolutionary, anyone who calls him sincere is either another Stalinist genocidal revolutionary lying for him, or a damned fool.
Exactly. If he cut the unions’ benefits or restrained pay raises, or tackled tenure, he’d make political enemies among the Leftards, but the cuts would remain. Instead, he proposed cuts that will be restored before he is even out of office.
Pain my a$$! Moonbeam Brown is the worst kind of pandering and corrupt politician! Brown is in Sacramento to represent state workers, and himself, and has no interest in taxpayers or truly indigent citizens, except to the extent the indigent can advance his personal agenda, and that of the workers he represents. The fact is, some of the handout programs should be eliminated as already mentioned. But, as Names Ash Housewares mentioned, he’s overlooking the 600 pound gorilla in the room. To deal with the gorilla, as he should, he would feel real pain, and he doesn’t have the moral fortitude, nor is he man enough, to do it.
The gorilla that’s breaking the state budget is the state employee’s salaries, benefits, and retirement. While I won’t attempt to address the merits of the various programs being reduced, Brown reduces welfare grants by 8%, and parents get kicked off the roles in 4 years, instead of 5, a 20% reduction.
A close cousin of the gorilla is the cost to sustain illegal aliens in prisons, for schools, and for medical services. It will be a cold day in hell before he addresses that problem. Better to kick the butts of older and indigent citizens.
Instead of acting like a true executive, he uses the politically ploy of rolling out the symbolic wheelchairs, to swing the bleeding hearts to support his desired tax increases. The fact is, if you read between the lines, Brown told us during his campaign that he intended to use tax increases to balance the budget when he said there would be no tax increases without the approval of the voters. He was counting on enough public workers, and people on the dole, but I repeat myself, to carry a vote for tax increases.
Getting back to the gorilla, there’s not one suggestion of getting the cost of state salaries and benefits under control. He points out services for the poor and the sick will be reduced, but being the wimp that he is, there’s not one mention of any pain by state workers. I submit that the budget for every state department and agency could be reduced by 20% without any reduction in services, and I include school in that assertion. In fact, Brown should put the burden on the respective agencies to find the savings, without reducing services, and he should make it clear that any agency head that can’t do it will be replaced with someone who can. Obviously some pay or employee reductions would be needed to achieve the objective.
Any tax increase will not even come close to closing the budget gap without getting the spending and expenses under control.
Well said, exactly the gorillas I was talking about.
I might also add, that instead of confiscating more wealth from the productive members of California, that we have liquid money sitting offshore that remains untouchable.
Though I know we will never see that happen in this state.
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.