{"id":9467,"date":"2009-07-23T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-07-23T08:19:08","modified_gmt":"2009-07-23T08:19:08","slug":"a-failure-of-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2009\/07\/23\/a-failure-of-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"A Failure Of Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who thinks this budget is the best that Sacramento could have produced, that it is remotely acceptable, has likely been around Sacramento too long and lost their perspective on reality. That seems to be what’s happened to George Skelton, who wrote a a remarkable column<\/a> in today’s LA Times defending the indefensible deal:<\/p>\n

Just as when Sacramento seizes money from cities and counties, it is not “living within its means,” as Schwarzenegger pledged the state would.<\/p>\n

But that’s OK. Right now, the most important thing is to slap on a tourniquet and stop the bleeding that is flowing mainly from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Get the cash flowing. Revive the credit ratings.<\/p>\n

There’s a classic quote from the German politician Otto von Bismarck: “Politics is the art of the possible.” Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders finally boned up on Bismarck.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suppose it’s appropriate that Skelton holds up the man of blood and iron<\/a>, who unified Germany at the point of a gun and disdained democracy, as a political model for California. Skelton has always been one of the more credulous members of the Sacramento press corps, and spends this column repeating the claims of longtime insiders  like Rick Simpson or failed politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger without offering a critical or skeptical eye.<\/p>\n

From the notion that the budget deal is a tourniquet – it ensures billions in deficits in future years as no provision whatsoever has been made to fund the promised repayments to schools and local governments – to the idea that our state’s credit rating will be repaired by this (the credit rating agencies are engaged in questionable practices<\/a> and the bond markets still eagerly anticipate our issuances), Skelton would do well to question and challenge his sources instead of merely repeat their spin.<\/p>\n

Particularly on the notion that the May 19 election is responsible for this:<\/p>\n

The negotiated solution to the state’s projected $26-billion budget deficit — roughly $15 billion in spending cuts, and the rest mostly in raids on local government, problematic revenue and accounting tricks — was preordained by the May 19 special election.<\/p>\n

The electorate soundly rejected the plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to create a modest spending cap, raise nearly $6 billion in general fund revenue immediately and generate $16 billion in future tax hikes. Liberal groups adamantly opposed the spending cap. Conservatives hated the taxes. And the $6 billion in immediate revenue went down with the rest of it.<\/p>\n

After that, any new tax increase was politically impossible. To think otherwise was fantasy, especially since taxes already had been hiked by a hefty $12.5 billion in February.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yet the budget proposal does NOT reflect the will of the people. As the David Binder poll<\/A> made clear, Californians are willing to support higher taxes to fund core services. What they rejected on May 19, and what they are rejecting now, are budget “solutions” that hurt working people who depend on public services, “solutions” full of gimmicks that solve nothing and cause worse problems in the future.<\/p>\n

We all know that the structure of our government must be changed as the first, necessary step to get our state out of crisis. But it doesn’t help matters to pretend that there aren’t innovative, sensible solutions out there that the Legislature could and should have embraced. The refusal to close the irresponsible $2 billion corporate tax loophole from the February budget deal, the unwillingness to levy the same oil tax every other state, including right-wing states like Texas and Alaska, levies shows a legislature that has essentially given up on the task of government and has already decided to let Arnold Schwarzenegger set the agenda within the boundaries Howard Jarvis, Grover Norquist and Milton Friedman laid down.<\/p>\n

When legislators like Mark DeSaulnier stand up and call bullshit<\/a> it shows that there is still some spark of life left in the Capitol. Instead of defending failure, folks with an LA Times column would do better to encourage people like DeSaulnier to reject the status quo and imagine better ways out of the mess.<\/p>\n

For example, several commentators have pointed out that California should follow North Dakota’s lead<\/a> and charter its own bank to lend to itself and start to escape the downward financial spiral. The Legislature could also start caring about economic recovery and reject Hooverite solutions<\/a> that would merely worsen our economic and budgetary plight.<\/p>\n

That’s what’s ultimately so pernicious and troubling about Skelton’s column – the notion that we should accept, even welcome legislative failure. It follows on his lower your horizons and suffer<\/a> mentality of dealing with crisis – and therefore it suggests that if we are to ever escape this morass and rebuild California, its economy, and its government, we should vigorously reject this budget deal and demand our legislators get serious about repairing our government, our budget, and our economy.<\/p>\n

Because as anyone who has ever taught a classroom knows, if you expect failure, then your students will fail. If you expect success, then they will work hard to try and achieve it. And even if they don’t all get A’s, they’ll be doing themselves and their community a service by achieving something better than failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who thinks this budget is the best that Sacramento could have produced, that it is remotely acceptable, has likely been around Sacramento too long and lost their perspective on reality. That seems to be what’s happened to George Skelton, who wrote a a remarkable column<\/a> in today’s LA Times defending the indefensible deal:<\/p>\n

Just as when Sacramento seizes money from cities and counties, it is not “living within its means,” as Schwarzenegger pledged the state would.<\/p>\n

But that’s OK. Right now, the most important thing is to slap on a tourniquet and stop the bleeding that is flowing mainly from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Get the cash flowing. Revive the credit ratings.<\/p>\n

There’s a classic quote from the German politician Otto von Bismarck: “Politics is the art of the possible.” Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders finally boned up on Bismarck.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suppose it’s appropriate that Skelton holds up the man of blood and iron<\/a>, who unified Germany at the point of a gun and disdained democracy, as a political model for California. Skelton has always been one of the more credulous members of the Sacramento press corps, and spends this column repeating the claims of longtime insiders  like Rick Simpson or failed politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger without offering a critical or skeptical eye.<\/p>\n

From the notion that the budget deal is a tourniquet – it ensures billions in deficits in future years as no provision whatsoever has been made to fund the promised repayments to schools and local governments – to the idea that our state’s credit rating will be repaired by this (the credit rating agencies are engaged in questionable practices<\/a> and the bond markets still eagerly anticipate our issuances), Skelton would do well to question and challenge his sources instead of merely repeat their spin.<\/p>\n

Particularly on the notion that the May 19 election is responsible for this:<\/p>\n

The negotiated solution to the state’s projected $26-billion budget deficit — roughly $15 billion in spending cuts, and the rest mostly in raids on local government, problematic revenue and accounting tricks — was preordained by the May 19 special election.<\/p>\n

The electorate soundly rejected the plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to create a modest spending cap, raise nearly $6 billion in general fund revenue immediately and generate $16 billion in future tax hikes. Liberal groups adamantly opposed the spending cap. Conservatives hated the taxes. And the $6 billion in immediate revenue went down with the rest of it.<\/p>\n

After that, any new tax increase was politically impossible. To think otherwise was fantasy, especially since taxes already had been hiked by a hefty $12.5 billion in February.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yet the budget proposal does NOT reflect the will of the people. As the David Binder poll<\/A> made clear, Californians are willing to support higher taxes to fund core services. What they rejected on May 19, and what they are rejecting now, are budget “solutions” that hurt working people who depend on public services, “solutions” full of gimmicks that solve nothing and cause worse problems in the future.<\/p>\n

We all know that the structure of our government must be changed as the first, necessary step to get our state out of crisis. But it doesn’t help matters to pretend that there aren’t innovative, sensible solutions out there that the Legislature could and should have embraced. The refusal to close the irresponsible $2 billion corporate tax loophole from the February budget deal, the unwillingness to levy the same oil tax every other state, including right-wing states like Texas and Alaska, levies shows a legislature that has essentially given up on the task of government and has already decided to let Arnold Schwarzenegger set the agenda within the boundaries Howard Jarvis, Grover Norquist and Milton Friedman laid down.<\/p>\n

When legislators like Mark DeSaulnier stand up and call bullshit<\/a> it shows that there is still some spark of life left in the Capitol. Instead of defending failure, folks with an LA Times column would do better to encourage people like DeSaulnier to reject the status quo and imagine better ways out of the mess.<\/p>\n

For example, several commentators have pointed out that California should follow North Dakota’s lead<\/a> and charter its own bank to lend to itself and start to escape the downward financial spiral. The Legislature could also start caring about economic recovery and reject Hooverite solutions<\/a> that would merely worsen our economic and budgetary plight.<\/p>\n

That’s what’s ultimately so pernicious and troubling about Skelton’s column – the notion that we should accept, even welcome legislative failure. It follows on his lower your horizons and suffer<\/a> mentality of dealing with crisis – and therefore it suggests that if we are to ever escape this morass and rebuild California, its economy, and its government, we should vigorously reject this budget deal and demand our legislators get serious about repairing our government, our budget, and our economy.<\/p>\n

Because as anyone who has ever taught a classroom knows, if you expect failure, then your students will fail. If you expect success, then they will work hard to try and achieve it. And even if they don’t all get A’s, they’ll be doing themselves and their community a service by achieving something better than failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-117"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2sH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}