No money. Just Beer. Unfortunately, it's Austrian. ;-)
Posted on 01/17/2007 10:05:19 AM PST by ElkGroveDan
A lame-duck governor morphs into a Bill Clinton-Phil Angelides composite on policy and rhetoric.
“That depends what the definition of ‘is’ is.”
— Soon-to-be-disbarred William Clinton, speaking to the Lewinsky grand jury and showing that weasels know well how to use weasel words.
Of the many indignities Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has inflicted of late on common sense and fundamental Republican principals, his support for the long-held socialist dream of state-run health insurance is perhaps the worst. As if his support for this deformed monster of public policy weren’t enough, he adds the insult of hiding behind weasel words as shamelessly, and ham-handedly, as Bill Clinton, insisting that what clearly are taxes are not.
His insistance that a levy based on a percent of income — applied to doctors and hospitals in his proposed health policy plan — is not a tax (who knew that every April 15 we paid an “income fee”?) presumes that most California Republicans are idiots or English-as-a-second-language students or that they don’t pay attention to what’s going on in Sacramento.
As George Skelton pointed out in the Los Angeles Times, you don’t have to use the Wayback Machine to visit the mists of ancient history to discover when the governor believed exactly the opposite of what he is now saying. In fact you only have to go back a few months to his re-election campaign.
Phil Angelides, the corpse that masqueraded as Democrat nominee for governor, had proposed a mandatory, state-run health insurance plan that in many important respects is identical to what Schwarzenegger is trying to force upon Californians. Way back when, back in the day when the governor needed Republican votes, he had no trouble calling what was plainly a tax increase a tax increase. In fact he was positively alarmed at the prospect.
These taxes, he said, “would drive California’s economy backward.” But apparently only Angelides mandatory health insurance tax increases would do that. According to the governor, his mandatory health insurance tax increases are vital to moving the state forward — toward a post-partisan nirvana.
But wait — there’s more! Speaking to the Republican state convention last September he specifically attacked the Angelides health insurance proposal as part of an overall Angelides message of “more taxes.” He followed that up with this rhetorical red meat: “We say no to more taxes. No to more government spending. No to more government control.”
One wonders whom he meant by “we,” a group clearly no longer including himself. His first two speeches of 2007 — his inaugural and state of the state — became an orgy of calls for more taxes, more government spending, more government control.
Regarding taxes, the governor has two reasons to do his version of spinning the meaning of “is.” One: his “no new taxes” pledge is about the last tether he has to any even vaguely Republican idea or philosophical point. Another is that legislation involving taxes requires two-thirds support in the Legislature. That means it won’t pass without GOP votes, giving Republicans some bargaining power.
On point one, he’s apparently been feeling heat from his recent abandonment of GOP ideas and philosophy and doesn’t want to inflame that wound at the moment. (His gratuitous state of the state slap at President Bush on global warming raised Republican hackles. A sure sign Schwarzenegger thought fence mending was in order was his subsequent transparently self-serving declaration that he supported President Bush’s “troop surge” in Iraq.)
Gee swell governor. That and $1.50 will get us a small coffee at Starbucks. I await release to the media of the transcripts of the calls to your pals Sen.s Feinstein and Boxer urging them to vote for the additional troops. Fact is your comment cost you nothing and will have no effect. But your “post-partisan” march in lockstep with Democrats toward more state control in every aspect of our lives will sap our freedoms for years to come. Somehow that just doesn’t seem like a fair trade.
On the second point, empowering legislative Republicans would appear to be precisely what this governor wants not to do. Having Republican ideas as a serious part of discussions puts the kibosh on deals he can make with Democrats. Having tasted Schwarzenegger “bipartisanship” last year (a freeze-out of Republicans and their ideas), Democrats have no intention of giving back ground they rightfully consider conceded to them already.
The governor can insist that the sun rises in the west. It does not. He can insist that levies based on a percentage of income are not taxes. They are. Baloney is baloney, no matter what the meaning of “is” is.
Got 'um all beat, it seems. Visiting the Birderberg group with Warren Buffett to get vetted did it for me. The despoiling the Tonight Show to announce was the night cap. ;-)
ROFL!
Nah... I just have a good memory. You were the first one I remember reacting to Bonnie Reiss. Others launched on Tamminen and McPeak. SW and farmfriend were the first yellin' about the SNC. Hedgetrimmer pointed out a few more in the process. Lots of people were outraged by the borrowing--Amerigomag and heleny come to mind. I'm sure there were many others. It went downhill from there with action after action of liberal moves.
Nope. T minus 55.
9/23/2003 An Analysis of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Environmental Policy
I was pretty PO'd when he first took off to hustle Wall Street money, but it was the Environmental Policy that really did it.
Got a date for that Bilderberg/Buffet encounter? That was before Arnold laid out RFK jr's environmental plan, wasn't it?
Someone will probably say the Schwarzenegger/Enron/Milken meeting did it for them. That may beat them all.
T minus 55.
9/23/2003 An Analysis of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Environmental Policy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/987955/posts
--
I guess my memory isn't that great after all. Sorry about that.
Summer of '03, before he jumped in officially, I posted a thread,, still have the pic if you like. It's been posted here a few times in the past.
He made a trip to visit with Enron Ken 'RIP' Lay shortly thereafter.;-)
You're probably quite right if you're counting from when I began "speaking out" against him on this site. I'm not nearly so sure about that...
Okay... you win!!! lol
is there prize money? :-]
YOU'RE KIDDING!!! (Gasp!) I do NOT remember THAT at all!!! OMG!!! I sure do remember Carrie_Okie's posting that environmental policy offa Arnold's website, however!!!
I also remember being outraged when Warren Butthead advised Arnold to forget about Prop 13!!! (after several hours Arnold finally got around to dissing that idea)
I only picked out a few pearls. There were just so many signs. Like why the heck were statements by Leon Panetta, touting bipartisanship and lauding leadership, being issued from the governor's office?
http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/3305/
12/12/03 Statement by Leon E. Panetta on the Budget Agreement
Nope! All you git is a DING! DING! DING!!! (snort!)
How quickly folks forget (or in some instances, didn't know). lol
aRnie is so tied into the power elite of the globe, it's scary, as is evidenced by the fruits of his first term.
I think your memorized timeline is great. And I agree with ElkGroveDan! I want you on MY side at ALL times!!!
However, I guess you forgot how I wailed a warning like a civil defense siren when he and Marie and the kids took that definitive whitewater rafting trip down the south fork of the American river right after his election so Friends Of The River, Inc. and the rest of the EnvironMental Communutty were able to lay the ground work for stuff like the SNC.
No money. Just Beer. Unfortunately, it's Austrian. ;-)
Vast wealth and notariety just sweeps too many people offa their danged feet even if the powerful individual they swoon over is a raving lunatic!!!
Hey Carry_Okie. Didn't you have some facts on that meters on wells issue they're kickin around on the CA board? Again, the calcowgirl is knockin everybody's socks off with her research skills on CA laws passed in the past!!! (are ya still on my side ccgirl?)
Dang! More proof my memory is fading! You are absolutely right!
Always! :-)
Whew!!! (wipes beads of sweat from brow and whips those beads across the room)
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