Nov 28 2008
California Republicans Voted Down A “Budget Solution”
The big news headline the other day was that the Republicans in the CA Legislature blocked passage of budget cuts and new revenues that would have helped close the gap in the budget that California is facing this year. Of course, the Democratic leadership put this proposal up to a vote, knowing that the Republican’s wouldn’t vote for it. Otherwise there would have been no way this proposal would’ve been put to a vote.
For all the posturing last week, and over the past months, the Democrats knew they couldn’t cut education. The proposal that went to the floor for a vote had education cuts in it - $4 billion’s worth. This is how you know it wasn’ta serious proposal from the Democrats. They were simply putting somthing up for a vote so they can blame the Republicans for the budget crisis now. But in negotiations, the Democrats knew what the package had to have for the Republicans to vote yes - it needed a spending cap amendment placed on the ballot for the next possible election.
There was no secret that this was the way the Republicans would vote for a budget plan. I suspect that if this budget plan had the spending cap, the Republicans would’ve voted for it - even with the new taxes (or revenue enhancements as some call them). But there was no way the Democrats were going to put a spending cap on anything. It isn’t in the Democratic vocabulary to say spending cap. So there was no spending cap, and the Republicans prevented the budget solution from passing - and they all went home for Thanksgiving.
Now, the Republican idea of a spending cap isn’t one that says no new spending. It says - the budget can only grow in direct relation to the population growth in CA, and to meet inflation. That’s it. It doesn’t say you have to cut any programs. It doesn’t say that no new programs can be started. It simply says - the budget growth is capped. What is wrong with that idea? If you want a new program, then a department would have to find a way to make it work under the budget cap. CA already provides the most services of any state - so let’s stop providing more and more services and cap growth. Nothing wrong with this concept. I think it should be on the ballot - let the voters decide.
Never in CA history have there been cuts to programs like we are going to have to make. Instead, programs and departments have simply grown. So let’s stop this cycle from happening every year, and instead work to solve the underlying problem.
