Even news last week that the state collected $2 billion more in revenue than had been projected — a windfall that was at least part due to the tax and fee hikes — did not convince the Republican minority in Sacramento to reconsider its position.
If the raised rates are allowed to stand, they could contribute as much as $12 billion toward closing the deficit. They are set to expire on July 1.
Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic majority in the Legislature have cut $11 billion from the budget, much of it from safety net programs that provide health-care and other services to children, the elderly and low-income residents.
If the extensions expire — as the GOP minority in Sacramento insists — billions more in cuts will be required to resolve the shortfall.
A poll released in March found that 58 percent of California voters supported extended the tax hikes. A more recent poll found just 33 percent of California voters support the GOP plan to resolve the deficit with an additional $14 billion in program cuts. (Interestingly, about the same ratio of California voters — about 30 percent — are registered Republicans.)
This prompts a question: If it is only California Republicans who want budget cuts alone to resolve the deficit, why then should the majority of Californians who oppose the cuts be forced to share the sacrifice?
It’s this question of fairness that is the impetus of a proposal by state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, to structure the cuts that the GOP demands so that the brunt of the pain and suffering will affect Republican assembly and state senate districts first:
State lawmakers who want an all-cuts budget because less government is better should get their wish starting with their own districts, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer said this morning.
Lockyer … said that when these lawmakers — many of whom already serve the state’s most recession-stricken areas — start hearing from their constituents about even deeper cutbacks in police and fire services, public schools and universities, social services and the like, they’ll soon think the better of stonewalling a public vote on Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to extend current tax rates for five more years.
It’s a put-your-money — or lack thereof — where-your-mouth-is tactic.
Short of even more painful cuts atop those already signed into law, Lockyer sees no end to the current deadlock, he said.
Refuting the common “it’s a spending problem, not a revenue problem” meme, Lockyer noted that under Gov. Ronald Reagan, general fund spending amounted to about $5.02 for every $100 of wealth in the state. If Brown’s tax extensions are enacted, the rate would be about $5.05 per $100 — basically flat since 40 years ago.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, also a Democrat, has said the proposal is worth considering, but only if it applies to voting-age adults — not children:
“When it comes to kids or the vulnerable, I wouldn’t want to make distinctions between who lives in a Democratic district and who lives in a Republican district, but when it comes to sort of basic services, convenience services that affect adults… I have an open mind,” Steinberg told reporters after speaking at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon.
The Sacramento Democrat said he thinks a targeted-cuts scenario like the one state Treasurer Bill Lockyer laid out… comes down to “basic fairness.”
“You don’t want to pay for government, well then, you get less of it,” he said.
It didn’t take long for Republicans to start whining, and the editors at CalBuzz are having none of it:
If there’s one thing we can’t stand in politics, it’s a display of fake umbrage.
As far as Calbuzz is concerned, pretending to take grievous offense at the not-very-grievous words or actions of a political foe — and doing so with an affected or exaggerated tone of earnestness — ranks right up there with a World Cup competitor grabbing his crotch and screaming in false agony after incidental contact, or an NBA player sprawling on the floor after a little elbow love tap inside the paint.
Therefore, we were seriously underwhelmed when anti-government extremist Jon Coupal, who long ago mastered the low art of faux umbrage fundraising, put on a frightful show of phony moaning and groaning over at Flashreport. In response to Democratic discussions of axing state spending in Republican districts, to get even for the GOP’s hold-our-breath-’til-we-turn-blue stance on the budget, the late Howard Jarvis’s favorite towel boy filed a post called “Capone Would Be Proud.”
Today, two Sacramento politicians have come up with a new approach to the old extortion game. In the updated version of the protection racket, those being extorted aren’t just shopkeepers, but everyday working people and their families, and those selling protection, Senate Pro Tem Darrell “The Enforcer” Steinberg and state Treasurer Bill “Leg Breaker” Lockyer may not be wearing fedoras, but they are nearly as menacing as the old gangsters. The threat? If you don’t make a payoff by agreeing to higher taxes, you will be targeted with the loss of state services.
Puh-leeze.
Coupal’s fainting couch collapse in reaction to the Steinyer (Lockberg?) here’s-your-no-taxes-budget-right-here-pal plan would be hugely laughable if it wasn’t so intellectually dishonest. At a time when he and other right-wing mucky-mucks keep hurling vile threats at Republican lawmakers who show any sign of independence (not to mention rational thought) on the budget, hearing him squeal and wilt like a blushing Victorian virgin at the sight of a little hardball is insufferable.
The Los Angeles Times editorialized against Lockyer’s plan, and it is admittedly unlikely that the Democrats in Sacramento will go for it or that Gov. Brown, who, like Pres. Obama, is a relentless seeker of bipartisan consensus, would approve.
Still, something must be done. The Republican Party in Washington, Sacramento and state capitols across the country is deliberately obstructing the recovery from the Great Recession — an economic downturn that, not ironically, is a direct result of their own lax or malfeasant economic policies from the 12 years they controlled Congress and especially the six years under Bush when they controlled both the legislature and the White House.
The only plausible explanation for their economic obstructionism is that they want the economy to fail — that they see a political advantage in the coming elections if the economy continues to founder. While this is judgment is considered too harsh among Beltway types and the “liberal” media, it is an indisputable fact that the GOP’s best chance of taking back the White House and the Senate next year depends on keeping deficits, debt and jobless rates as high as possible.
Worse still, it is working. Not only has the GOP avoided negative consequences for its deliberate hobbling of the economy, swing voters rewarded their obstructionism by giving them control of the U.S. House last November.
As was noted here earlier, it is time for rank and file Democrats to get angry about Republicans’ treasonous politicking on the economy — and it is passed time for Democratic leaders to start playing hard ball with the right wing.
Forcing their constituents to suffer the preponderance of budget cuts would be a good place to start.
