What comes before, ..."but liars can figure." Budget out the DOOFUS!
Posted on 05/16/2002 10:58:59 AM PDT by Gophack
Deficit: The Davis dodge is wearing thin.
Gov. Gray Davis can no longer use smoke and mirrors to dodge his way out of the state's budget hole, as it has now sunk to an unavoidable $23.6 billion. But he's still doing what he does best.
That, of course, is avoiding as much political risk as possible, regardless of what's in the best interests of Californians.
Davis is clearly in a tough spot, and a good part of it is his own doing. He refused to cut back spending after the dot-com boom, a time in which he committed money to ongoing programs, when most financial experts advised cautious, one-time purchases.
Like so many free-spending dot-comers, Davis behaved as if the good times would last forever. State spending grew by 36 percent under his watch, and billions of dollars in debt were added (the bonds that will cover money borrowed for energy purchases).
The "May revise" budget released this week is classic Davis style, largely protecting powerful contributors, letting the ax fall hard on groups that don't vote, and delaying the proposed tax increases until after the November elections.
(Those were the tax increases, if you recall, that Davis said he wouldn't "advocate." He may still not "advocate" tax increases, but that will matter little to the motorists and smokers who will largely contribute to the $1.8 billion in new taxes.)
There are deep cuts in health care for the poor (which will further fray the safety-net system), welfare recipients and local governments. Meanwhile the prison system (which always does well in Sacramento thanks to hefty contributions from the prison guards union) suffered a comparative scratch, despite the fact that the prison population is falling.
And there are still all the accounting tricks that characterized the first budget draft borrowing money against future revenues, delaying projects and postponing some spending responsibilities, like the delayed contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System. All of which tends to shift problems into the future, which seems to be fine with Davis.
We can't predict at this point exactly what effect this gray budget will have on the state of California. But knowing what we know about Davis that he much prefers shortsighted gambles and political strategy to real leadership it doesn't look good.
Wow! That's almost a direct quote of Simon! I think I'm gonna pass out....
It's going to be an interesting five-and-a-half months.
The press chooses to ignore him because they want to think he's irrelevant. We need to keep the word out.
It doesn't hurt Simon to be low profile right now ... let Davis continue to bury himself. Like he did with Riordan, he can come out as the reasonable alternative.
Well it's time that he quits getting to pick the campaign issue. We all knew these tax hikes were coming even though he kept denying it. But you can only lie about taxes if you are a republican. If you are a democRAT you just pretend you never said it, or say it was taken out of context.
Folks, it is time that we make over spending, fiscal mismanagement and rising taxes the issues in this campaign.
Dan
I have heard plenty about Oracle, fundraising, budgets, taxes and cuts to the poor.
Of course he needs to get out and start fighting. But right now, Davis is doing our work for us.
The John and Ken show (KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles, 3-7pm Pacific) has been absolutely savaging Davis for weeks. They've called him every name in the book, ridiculed him, ridiculed the legislature (which they've accused of having been taken over by 'hippies'), and generally been dumping on the Democrats. In the past, they've been more equivocal about political issues. It's nice to see people wake up to the nutballs we have running California.
That's OK, because the Press-Telegram is liberal. They also support termed-out mayor Beyerly O'neil (the idiot who, along with Fienswine, Boxer, and Jane Harmon tried to sell Long Beach Naval Base to the Communist Chinese) as a write-in for another term. More liberals in this area will listen to them when they blast Grayout, then will listen to Simon.
"...but of course I'm going to vote for him."
Dan
Aside from the PT's endorsement of O'Neill, the entire local GOP establishment has endorsed her as well...including such luminaries as George Deukmejian, County Supervisor Don Knabe and all three GOP Long Beach city councilmen. It is really pathetic that local elected Republicans and leaders of the local GOP organizations prefer the status quo, termed-out mayor over fiscal conservative Republican, Norm Ryan. Ryan is a municipal bonds expert who promises to open up the city's books to expose all the financial malfeasance. At least the CRP stepped up to the plate and sent out 2 mailers on behalf of Norm. BTW, the city has filed a frivolous lawsuit against CRP over these mailers. The Republican city attorney, most likely as a shameless political favor for O'Neill, is responsible for this dirty work.
Davis took from Peter to pay Paul, and that sure balances out a budget. What will he do when this does not work? Ask for more taspayer dollars?
Although Davis went to Stanford, he was a History major...LOL dat guy knows nuttin' 'bout dat history..less youse be talkin bout Enron.
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