Lost in the drama of the California budget is one huge part of the story that is ignored by our hapless local press.

The Obama stimulus package will prevent the cuts to education, the tax increases and the unsustainable borrowing from being much, much worse.

According to the budget documents, if the state receives what it predicts from the federal stimulus package – more than $9 billion – there would be other benefits to the budget: borrowing would be reduced by roughly half, $950 million in cuts would be restored and the tax increases would be reduced.

And every Orange County Republican in Congress voted against the stimulus package, then self-righteously gloated over their unity. So they not only voted against the largest middle-class tax cut in the nation’s history, they also voted to fire teachers, increase California taxes, and borrow more against future revenues.

Against the backdrop of the steepest employment drop since the last depression, declining revenues, and and sharply falling demand that reinforces the downward spiral, these ideologues refused to act.

The other interesting fact about the California budget deal is that the federal stimulus package included “maintenance of effort” standards, so that if California had not worked to fix its structural deficit problem, our share of the stimulus package would have been denied, reduced, or waited for the processing of a waiver.

So we have one group of Republican asshats in our Congressional delegation who voted against the package that helped California craft a package to avert fiscal collapse, and state Republican asshats who refuse to admit that we needed to clean up the mess that Scwarzenegger created by restoring a little balance to our budget.

(Cross-posted from Orange County Progressive. )

(Thanks to Bill Hedrick for coming by to interact with us. As a candidate, per our informal rules, he goes to the front page. – promoted by David Dayen)

My name is Bill Hedrick.  I am a school board member and a teacher, and a candidate for Congress in California’s 44th district.  I want to go to Washington to represent you.  Help me bring Rep. Ken Calvert home to Corona…permanently. 

Ken’s record speaks for itself.  Ken opposed increasing the minimum wage (H.R. 2, 1-10-07) and he opposed allowing the government to negotiate for better prices for Medicare prescriptions (H.R. 4, 1-12-07).  He opposed equal pay for equal work (H.R. 2831, 7-31-07), and voted against affordable housing for Katrina victims (H.R. 254, 3-20-07).  He has opposed reasonable conservation measures and voted against the Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation Act (H.R. 6, 1-18-07).

Ken has supported George Bush’s war every step of the way-most recently supporting the deployment of additional tens of thousands of soldiers to Iraq (H. Cong. R. 63, 2-16-07).  Ironically, he has voted against a military pay raise (H.R. Call 554, 10-17-03).

Against this appalling record, I can say that my family supports the troops-including my son and daughter-in-law, both stop-lossed, and currently serving second deployments.  But I believe Americans cannot resolve the Iraqi civil war-Iraqis need to settle it themselves, and I believe this is the view of most residents of the 44th.  I support a timeline for withdrawal, and I will work hard to bring all our troops home.

Moreover, unlike Ken, I will support trade policies that safeguard the interests of working Americans.  The lax environmental and labor requirements for foreign-based manufacturers in current trade agreements have placed Americans at a tremendous disadvantage.  Speaking of labor, you will probably not be surprised that Ken also voted against easing Labor’s right to organize (H.R. 118, 3-1-07).

With this kind of record in Congress, what’s there not to like?  Plenty!

Please help us “Bring Ken Home!”  We need him in Corona so that he can stop hurting us in Washington!

Check us out at hedrickforcongress.com, at DFA Campaigns or MySpace, or help us out at ActBlue.com!