"It contains significant and difficult cuts -- more than $7 billion," Assembly Budget Committee chairwoman Jenny Oropeza said. But all of those cuts were from the assumption of automatically higher spending, not from 2001-02 spending. The new budget is, in fact, a few million dollars higher.
I guess, just like school lunches, etc., democrats believe that just spending what you spent last year or even a little more is a "cut" in spending. Ah, politics!
Perhaps more significantly is the comparison to WorldCom and Enron and the statement that the budget numbers are a fraud by the State. If this article is picked up by the financial press or a similar theme is repeated, that could spell real trouble for the state of California's credit rating.
In fact the good news out of WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, could be that government financial reforms may become necesary to restore investor confidence in government bonds. It could be real interesting if some business leaders challenged Bush when he next talks about the lack of business ethics, to have government live up the same standards that Bush and the Democrats want business to live to. This whole thing could be win-win, if we get lucky!