9 thoughts on “Speaker Bass on the Budget”

  1. …..talk is cheap. Stop the GOP assault on our society’s needful or…

    ….just get out.

    We do not need more bloviating we need implacable action against those who would destroy our state.

    We need public indictments of these people on every radio station in every newspaper calling out these home-grown terrorists by name, by district.

    We need legislative and parliamentary action to derail the GOP and it’s fellow travelers in the ‘Democrat’ Party and we need all these things and more…

    …done

    Not talked about.

  2. For those of us who can’t hear, is there a transcript somewhere?  I already checked and it’s not captioned.

  3. sorry for the mess, but I’m posting this from my mobile. Here’s the transcript:

    Hello, this is Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

    As Californians face uncertain economic times, the legislature is

    working hard to close the budget deficit by June 30 to avoid a cash

    crisis that can cause further economic hardship and damage the state’s

    fiscal future.

    But as we work quickly to address the budget, Assembly Democrats will

    not let the deficit be used as an excuse to eliminate the safety net

    in California and eviscerate our public education system.

    Californians want their legislators to make sensible decisions, not

    ideological ones.

    For hundreds of Californians who came to Sacramento to testify before

    the Budget Conference Committee in recent weeks…and thousands more

    they represent, our decisions can literally be a matter of life or

    death.

    We heard from a 24 year old woman born HIV positive who told us the

    Governor’s proposal will cut her off from the anti-viral drugs that

    will keep her alive.

    A working mother described her family’s fear of what would happen if

    their health coverage was eliminated.

    A man celebrating his 3 month anniversary of being clean and sober

    said he owed it to state-supported drug treatment counseling.

    Even in these tough times there is money available that can be used to

    avoid eliminating California’s safety net-primarily from making

    smarter reductions, cutting the bureaucracy, cutting corporate

    welfare, and ending tax breaks for people making a half a million per

    year.

    In the final weeks of June, Assembly Democrats will continue working

    on a fiscal package that makes sensible choices.

    In addition to protecting our safety net, we have already identified

    more than half a billion dollars in extra education cuts the Governor

    wants that we will reject, and we know there is federal stimulus money

    available to backfill some of the other cuts.

    This recession is not permanent but an all cuts budget would be for California.

    Until our economy rebounds Democrats will be committed to making the

    balanced choices that will protect our state.

    This has been Assembly Speaker Karen Bass

    Thank you.

  4. …and folks would do well to understand that their opinion is not the only viable one.

  5. Willie Brown has (I think) a year of eligibility left in the Assembly, and a full eight years in the Senate.  Let’s put a real leader back in the Lege!

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