It's a dark day in California
By John Amato Sunday Jul 26, 2009 5:00amI saw Arnold Schwarzenegger being interviewed by John Harwood and he told him on CNBC I believe that " we missed the iceberg." No we didn't. The budget is a disgrace and Californians are going to learn the hard way what has happened in our state. Jobs and services will be slashed at an incredible rate and we;ll all suffer for it. Even if Arnuld thinks we missed the iceberg, the state is going to sink to the bottom of the ocean.
So the Assembly is wrapping up their budget session, and it turns out that the Assembly came up $1.1 billion dollars short of the Senate's solutions. Oil drilling failed, and the local government raid on HUTA (gas taxes) failed as well.
So where does that leave us? These bills will go to the governor, and since there isn't concurrence, it will be roughly a $23 billion solution rather than $24 billion. But, the Governor has a line-item veto. He can make various cuts with his blue pencil. But $1.1 billion? Who knows. That seems like a tall order.
Considering what Schwarzenegger did the last time a partial solution was handed to him, I guess there's an outside shot that he'll just say no and open a new extraordinary session. But he'll probably just line-item some, and maybe make up the difference by eating into what is now a $900 million dollar budget reserve.
Is everybody ready to be back here in October?
...We'll have a couple days for final analyses, but let's remember that this is a terrible budget and a dark day for California.
...Let me clarify. The Governor can make line-item cuts but he doesn't necessarily have to, because this is a budget revision. He can also shift around the size of the reserve. In the end, he doesn't actually have to be in balance for a revision; that's a Constitutional need at the beginning of the process, as I understand it, not now. Clearly from the Governor's remarks, he's not going to veto the whole thing, so this is the "solution," for now. There also may be Constitutional problems with some of the stuff passed.
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No, no, no. You totally misunderstand. It is the rich folks and the Republicans who missed the iceberg by not raising any taxes on the wealthy. You peons can just drown, as is your proper lot.
when nothing would be left for the government to spend. when no money would be available to save the people from the ravages of the corporations and the wealthy. can't afford social services of any kind; can't afford to regulate the thieves.
Newsweek: The Recession Is Over
But Not For You, Yet
is saying the same thing. Recession is over. Corporations will all now make profits again. Workers? They'll find them quite willing to work for peanuts in Asia.
Anybody who thinks this happened by mistake is a fool, this was their plan all along. And Arnold was the only one who would go along with it so they ran him knowing the people of California (I'm one of them) are mostly morons (I'm not one I didn't vote for this jerk, I even voted against the recall) - The recall was only because Gray Davis wanted to tax the weathly and they didn't like it - so they got someone who would go along with their awful plan and screw all of California in the process.
As I said, just another Republican success.
At what point in time does someone begin the process for a recall election. After all, was't the fiscal situation in California the reason given for the removal of then Gov. Gray Davis? Didn't the new republican govenator promis to turn the fortunes of the state around? And why is all of this nenver mentioned when the media talks about the current affairs of the failing govenor?
When, if ever, will the remaining morons who vote republican, wake up and realize this is what the GOP planned for the rest of us long ago?
It took the trust funders and corporate welfare whores 30 years to implement all of THEIR policies - and now we can taste they're fruition.
They (GOPers) love this. In the privacy of their country clubs, they toast their success with $700 glasses of tax-free conac, while laughing in amusement at the $8 an hour teaparty morons who have taken up their latest cause.
In California, the baby has less than one gasp of air left in Grover's bathtub, while the smug republicans (oligarch's) stand in the way of any reform. Are you watching America? Because you're next!
... it can be rationalized or repealed by initiative. What better time?
Schwarzenegger's Republican conservative agenda of destroying government is working out quit well. Unfortunately for all Californians, life will be miserable for a long time.
These brain dead Wingnuts want to destroy government so they can privatize everything which is called Fascism. Some people fail to realize how much 'bang for your buck' you get from paying taxes. Education, Police, Military, Fire, Emergency, Retirement, some Health Care, Roads, etc. Do they even know how much they would cost if Private company's ran those beneficial services? $$$ Try tripling the cost for starters $$$ Not to mention the outsourcing of services so the CEO's can maintain their million dollar bonuses...
Some areas just won't get services.
I have explained this to untold numbers of GOP chumps over the years. Grover Norquist destroyed their lives, while at the same time convincing them that the source of that destruction was good for them.
TAX the RICH. Confiscate 25% of their wealth today!
Piker. At least 50% to pay for the damage that they have done over the last 30 years.
but lets keep on paying for the illegals and their anchor children. you want to fix everything? stop the illegals from stealing welfare, free health care, free schools, using fake ID's and stolen SS numbers.
at least 5 to 10 billion is stolen from tax payers by illegals.
and i am not a rightwing nut, but i see the damage the illegals have done to the southwest.
tax the top 1% a tax rate of 80%, the same rate that was under their god ,raygun.........
see you all on the streets soon, get ready for soylent green world.
The "illegals" didn't steal 25% of ALL U.S. wealth over the last 30 years. That was done by the richest 5%.
80% marginals is a good starting point however.
I would also point out that the available actual research on the topic indicates illegals are far less likely to use these programs tha citizens. Do not blame the other victims (via NAFTA) of the oligarchs for the actions of the latter.
Sources?
When the masses vote on spending bills, the most likely outcome is slashing budgets to no end.
I do not know California all that well, but, I do know that many times budgets by referendum happened there.
Be careful of direct democracy which referendums are. Raising taxes is necessary for the health and wealth of this country, as hard as that may seem.
Tax cuts have not helped overall in the United States. Tax shelters also have not helped America, either. Corrupt accounting practices have also led to these economic scandals and financial scams as well.
I can only say that it is up to the citizens of California to take the ball and solve the internal problems now faced there.
Where the baby of the family cries because it doesn't want to eat mashed potatoes. So the entire family has to wait until mom cooks an entire meal all over because the baby doesn't like one thing.
Why does the baby get to decide what food everyone else wants.
Because in this wonderful little family, the baby is a republican.
who tends to think of CA as "Hollywood" and earthquakes (oversimplification, yes) can someone explain to me, simply and in a few sentences exactly what historically happened to cause CA to be in this disaster it's in? Thanks.
NO RECALL ELECTION?!?!?!?!?
"theWalrus
who tends to think of CA as "Hollywood" and earthquakes (oversimplification, yes) can someone explain to me, simply and in a few sentences exactly what historically happened to cause CA to be in this disaster it's in? Thanks."
.
REPUBLICANISM!
.
No time to go into detail but just look around you right now to see the disaster of the global economy (and everything else) which is a direct result of 8 years of Bush's Republican failed agenda. Schwarzenegger is a loyal Republican, connect the dots. We need to shrink conservatism small enough to flush it down the toilet.
I know, I just thought there might be something more pacific [sic] to CA that's gotten it into this mess.
the republicanism is rabid and rampant.
California was the testing ground for the extremists' economic policies (which have been implemented nationally over the past 30 years). Started really by the same man in both cases, Ronald Reagan, the worst thing to ever happen to California and the country.
"conservatism....down the toilet!"
I like it. Where can we get bumper stickers?
Before the bubble popped.
for $32,000 and it's like worth 2.5 Million now!
(Was)
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a terrible Govenor….this disaster has happened under his watch…He is not a Govenor for the people of California…instead he’s a Govenor for Big Business and the Wealthy. He is following the Republican Agenda of cutting taxes, claiming a deficit then cutting social services. He is a DISGRACE!
welcome to the end.
... said he will not sign a budget that contains tax increases.
He apparently has not problem assessing 100% to some teachers by laying them off. He has no problem assessing an 8% tax to DMV employees with forced unpaid days off. He has no problem dumping 27,000 prisoners into the streets who will be instant unemployed. Cutting back on education forcing whatever is cut onto someone else, like maybe the parents or the remaining teachers.
I wonder if the governor will say anything about "economic girly men" again?
Debt leverage. Living beyond one's means. The day of reckoning always arrives.
When debt is cheap, people load up on it. A debt bubble caused an economic boom.
California and everyone else has played that game.
We are now in an economic depression.
Arnold is a terrible governor and we have a terrible legislature right along with him. California government expected the gravy train to last forever. It doesn't.
It is not about deficits, it is about spending. There is no free lunch. The government cannot be all things to all people.
The tax payers are not a cash cow, much as several those here might like to think so.
Economic depressions are the time when entitlement programs fall apart, as those who are paying the taxes, come under extreme strain to pay benefits to a rapidly increasing number of people.
Anybody who thinks this happened by mistake is a fool, this was their plan all along. And Arnold was the only one who would go along with it...
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That is an interesting fantasy. Arnold has angered conservative republicans.
What you don't want to understand is that the gravy train is over. it is an economic depression. Taxes are already high in California.
Schwarzenegger is a liar and a master of deceit. He pretends to side with the liberals on some small issue (that's one reason on how he got elected}all the while he implements failed Conservative policy.
He came into power thru the Republican money $$$ machine funded Recall fiasco, extorted by Rove and Cheney, to help control the Enron scandal.
http://www.truthout.org/article/jason-leopold...
Same as here in Minnesota with Timmy P. Interesting times.
Hi theWalrus,
i think this video will help answer some questions.
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2009/07/23
One of the reasons CA has difficulty responding in rational, timely fashion to difficult situations is that "propositions" have created a situation where a super-majority is required to make big money decisions.
There's a provision in the U.S. Senate to avoid that. But Democrats (unlike Republicans, when they have a majority) act as if they too need a super-majority to pass crucial legislation. Why? And why do the Big Media never foreground the question?
Democrats will fail to pass important legislation on global warming and health care. Republicans will trumpet in the next elections that even with 60 votes the Democrats are too weak and cowardly to make things happen. They'll be elected, and then they'll use 51 votes to shove their agenda down the Democrats' throats.
Pardon my ignorance but can't a state declare banruptcy, just like any other entity? It sounds as though they are functionally bankrupt already.
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