One of the real wonders of the superminority system that the Republicans are thrilled with is the ability to pretend like you have no control, but then actually exert an effective veto. For years, the Republicans have traded their votes (but don’t call them trades) for whatever sort of crazy legislation that they are looking for.
But, following up on Sen. Berryhill’s statement that the budget wasn’t his job, Sen. Bob Huff has equaled that level of ridiculousness:
But Republicans said they have for years put out ideas for changing the state that have been summarily rejected by the majority Democratic Legislature, and they have no reason to expect something different. The challenge from Brown is a red herring, they said, and an attempt to knock Republicans off their message.
“The governor is the one who is supposed to prepare a balanced budget,” said state Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County), who is the top Republican on the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee. “The governor put out his own budget with an $11-to-$12 billion hole in it. That’s not our responsibility, that’s his responsibility.”
He added later, “We’re the minority party here, we don’t have a lot of say.”(SF Chronicle)
Of course the thing here is that the Governor has presented a balanced budget. He gave all of the details of exactly what he would like to do with the budget. But so far, the GOP caucus has flat-out rejected his plan. And they are all too happy to let Brown negotiate with himself.
In other words, they are attempting to play the old move the football game again. They’ll just wait on something coming out, so they can bash it. They know that Californians will reject their proposals, which would by sheer mathematics have to include massive cuts to K12 and higher education, along with the possibility of eliminating the social safety net.
The Republicans are playing the long game, but as it is they are hurting California. They are slowing us down from working to build our economy for the 21st Century. It’s just crazy.
Yes, they’re crazy. They’re getting crazier. As long as they’re the minority and can play these games, there’s little penalty for acting crazy. Because most people just don’t pay attention. And, frankly, I’m pretty sure that’s part of the plan.
Call me paranoid, but people who are desperate for a job or just scratching out a living don’t spend a lot of time learning about or following all this stuff. They feel too threatened to join unions or insist on being treated fairly in other ways. They’re willing to join the military to get the income or education they can’t get any other way. So we’re turning our populace into cannon fodder and serfs in the service of multinational corporations. You don’t need to educate cannon fodder and serfs much. They’re afraid to protest much if you endanger their health and poison their children. You can pass laws to limit their legal access. And the corporations are very happy.
The GOP is very glad too because their corporate masters are happy. That means they’ll give them more money. And they’ll get to continue pleasing their masters.
Unfortunately, eventually the people have so little to lose that you see scenes like the ones in Egypt Tunesia. People get so desperate that they revolt. Of course, that’s not going to happen in this quarter or the next. So the corporations won’t pay much attention to it. Yet.
is that budget doesn’t require any republican votes, just tax increases and of course the ballot measure. So Brown could get really creative and find ways to cut the budget so it really hurt most in Republican districts, then barter for their votes by offering to reinstate that funding.