While the all-cuts deal seems destined to pass in the near-future, leaders of every stripe are spinning. But, as Progressives, we should be watching what our own leaders have to say most intently. I don’t mean to pick <\/p>\n
“The cuts to education have been devastating to my city and to other cities,” said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles. “Teachers have been laid off, class sizes have grown. What’s happened to education has been terrible. The reason it’s happened is because we’ve been in the worst recession since the Depression.<\/b> We haven’t exactly sealed the deal yet, but it seems as though we are reaching conclusion on how to make sure the schools are repaid.” (SacBee 7\/20\/09<\/a>, emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Certainly the recession is a cause of the cuts to education. But THE reason? I think not. Bass knows from trying that the cuts to education were not the only option. Does anybody think that if we had a system of government that worked that we would be in this situation? If we had majority rule? If the Legislature had the authority to actually control spending priorities on the entirety of the budget? It is excruciatingly clear that our system is to blame for much of this mess.<\/p>\n
And what if we didn’t have the crazy recall system that brought us Schwarzenegger? What would the world look like right now with a Governor Phil Angelides, Westly, or umm…Bustamante? Sans Arnold and all of his flip-flopping negotiation strategies<\/a>, do we build a way out of this without the IOUs? Heck, if Blakeslee can do it, it should have happened.<\/p>\n
But, Democratic leaders cannot escape blame on their end either. Even in this broken system, they must take a share of the responsibility on their own backs. They have now agreed to what Democrats, almost universally, consider shocking, an all-cuts budget revision. They have agreed to steal $4 Billion from the local governments. Yes, they saved Cal-WORKS, of a fashion, but no Democrat should be proud of what will happen this week. <\/p>\n
Being a Legislator these days is really crappy job. You get a series of impossible decisions and any legislation outside the budget gets ridiculed. There are some times when you just can’t win, no matter how you vote. But being able to look yourself in a mirror, and still call yourself progressive after voting for this deal? Well, that will be a very tough job indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While the all-cuts deal seems destined to pass in the near-future, leaders of every stripe are spinning. But, as Progressives, we should be watching what our own leaders have to say most intently. I don’t mean to pick <\/p>\n
“The cuts to education have been devastating to my city and to other cities,” said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles. “Teachers have been laid off, class sizes have grown. What’s happened to education has been terrible. The reason it’s happened is because we’ve been in the worst recession since the Depression.<\/b> We haven’t exactly sealed the deal yet, but it seems as though we are reaching conclusion on how to make sure the schools are repaid.” (SacBee 7\/20\/09<\/a>, emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Certainly the recession is a cause of the cuts to education. But THE reason? I think not. Bass knows from trying that the cuts to education were not the only option. Does anybody think that if we had a system of government that worked that we would be in this situation? If we had majority rule? If the Legislature had the authority to actually control spending priorities on the entirety of the budget? It is excruciatingly clear that our system is to blame for much of this mess.<\/p>\n