There’s really nothing like taking Republican callers on a radio show: sure, the monumental stupidity burns something awful, but sometimes you can get real moments of clarity. One of those moments came today during my weekly radio show today on KVTA 1520, as caller after conservative caller applied the logic of household budgets to the disaster that is the state budget.
There’s this consistent talking point in right-wing circles about “responsibility” when it comes to the state budget. Specifically, people feel that if they can balance their own expenditures and income in a checkbook, that the CA Legislature should be able to do the same. It stands to reason, in their minds, that if they’re going into more and more debt every month, they have to cut back on expenses–and therefore, by analogy, the Legislature should be forced to do likewise.
The problem is that government isn’t a household we live in: it’s a product we pay for. We can collectively spend as much as we want on it. Unlike a household budget, the overall income isn’t fixed: it’s up to us as citizens to determine the price we are willing to pay.
Government exists to provide for the public safety, and to provide services that would be impossible or too expensive to pay for individually. As a people, we have a choice in the marketplace of government services: we can choose to drive a broken-down beater, or we can choose to drive a nice car that will reliably get us from point A to point B. When we as a people go to the ballot box, what we’re doing is going to the government store to, in essence, choose the government we want to buy.
Instead of looking at each party as a budget manager, it’s really more appropriate to look at them at car salespeople.
By electing 63% of the legislature to be Democrats, the people of California have spoken: we choose to have a quality product–and by and large, we choose to pay for it. But because of the 2/3 rule, a small minority of Republicans are denying us our economic choice and forcing us to buy a lemon: we’re going to drive a broken-down beater, they insist, and they’ll blow up the car if we say otherwise.
Of course, the only reason we’re in this position in the first place is the rank irresponsibility of Republicans for the last three decades, who have managed to convince just enough voters that we just strip out a few options and do the financing right, we can drive that dream car we’ve always wanted at bargain basement prices. Pretty soon the car breaks down or gets repossessed–but hey, we saved a few bucks in the meantime!
The issue at hand isn’t a question of responsible vs. irresponsible budget managers; it’s about honest brokers vs. charlatan scam artists on the marketplace of government services.