| As the UCLA Anderson Forecast projects a "nasty recession" with "ugly" unemployment figures that won't turn around until 2010 at the soonest, California Republicans have decided to join their fellow partisans in the US Senate and place pathological hatred of unions and environmental laws ahead of our fiscal and economic survival.
The LA Times reports that Mike Villines was willing to support a VLF increase - but only if Democrats agreed to his insane and possibly illegal demands for cuts in government programs and regulations:
Sources said Villines raised the possibility of GOP support for a higher car fee in budget negotiations last month, saying he thought that he could bring rank-and-file Republicans along if Democrats agreed to steep cuts in government programs and a permanent cap on state spending.
The sources who were in the room said his suggestion came after Democrats offered spending cuts they would reluctantly agree to implement.
Villines denies it of course - he's got to keep up the anti-tax front - but this is typical and unsurprising. Republicans have a habit of promising to finally do what common sense has long dictated - provide a bridge loan to automakers, ensure that California doesn't go bankrupt - but only if Democrats agree to destroy a union, or a government program, or an environmental treasure. And if Democrats refuse to go along with such recklessness, Republicans walk away and let everything collapse.
I suppose I should see Villines' willingness to embrace a VLF increase as a victory, but what this really does is bring into clear view the fact that the Yacht Party has no intention whatsoever in trying to solve this crisis. They genuinely don't care what happens to schools, health care clinics, or the economy as a whole. They're out to break liberalism, whatever the cost.
We're not dealing with rational actors here. The focus of political work in California is no longer about trying to work out a budget deal. It's about defusing a full-blown hostage crisis where every one of us - our economic security - are being used as pawns in Villines' game.
Combined with Dave Cogdill's crybaby move at today's budget talks this suggests a clear strategy for moving forward - show Californians just how reckless and dangerous the Republican Party has become. And if any of these jokers want to have a shot at higher office in 2010 they're going to have to defend their decision to let this state collapse in their desire to settle old scores.
California will pull through this crisis, but the light at the end of the tunnel never seemed so far away. |
