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 Governor Laser BeamPosted on Feb 2, 2011By Ruth Marcus Jerry Brown for president? Maybe not, but it’s striking how much more responsible and specific the California governor was in his State of the State address Monday than President Obama was in his State of the Union speech the week before. The man once known as Governor Moonbeam sounded more like Governor Laser Beam when it came to addressing the state’s fiscal crisis. Obama waited until minute 35 to mention the nation’s “mountain of debt.” He then proposed almost nothing concrete to dig out from under it—certainly nothing politically risky. Brown began with the subject of the state’s dire fiscal situation and stuck to it. Advertisement “Kicking the can down the road ... is simply out of the question. If you are a Democrat who doesn’t want to make budget reductions in programs you fought for and deeply believe in, I understand that. If you are a Republican who has taken a stand against taxes, I understand where you are coming from. “But things are different this time. In fact, the people are telling us—in their own way—that they sense that something is profoundly wrong. They see that their leaders are divided when they should be decisive and acting with clear purpose.” That was the kind of rise-above-partisan-politics message I was hoping to hear from the president. But the words above are Brown’s, and they were coupled with a specific proposal: a call for a special election to let voters decide whether to extend for five years a set of temporary tax increases. Yes, you read that right: increases. “From the time I first proposed what I believe to be a balanced approach to our budget deficit—both cuts and a temporary extension of current taxes—dozens of groups affected by one or another of the proposed cuts have said we should cut somewhere else instead,” Brown noted. “Still others say we should not extend the current taxes but let them go away. So far, however, these same people have failed to offer even one alternative solution.” Granted, Brown was forced into the position of cutting lemons from lemonade. He does not enjoy the presidential luxury of being able to run a giant deficit, and he faces a whopper of a gap: $25 billion over the next 18 months, that from a general fund that has already been trimmed from more than $100 billion to $87 billion. Brown’s budget would close about half the gap with tax increases and the other half with painful spending cuts—slashing assistance for children in low-income families, poor seniors and the disabled; health care for the poor; and education. Without the extra tax revenue, he warned, the cuts would have to go even deeper into education, prisons and health programs. Although Democrats have a majority in the Legislature, putting the tax extension on the ballot requires a two-thirds vote, meaning that Brown must woo a handful of Republicans. That may be achievable: A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California showed two-thirds of the state’s residents in favor of putting the tax extension on the ballot and a solid majority (58 percent) “generally satisfied” with Brown’s hybrid budget approach. I’m not suggesting that Obama endorse immediate cuts on a Californian scale. Those are not necessary and could hurt the still faltering recovery. But Obama—and the country—would benefit from a dose of Brown’s precision and candor. And the president might reflect on the lessons learned by Brown’s Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who told The Los Angeles Times last month that he erred by not forcing Californians to confront the severity of the state’s fiscal situation at the start of his tenure. Instead, he finessed the problem by backing a ballot initiative to borrow $15 billion. “It was a mistake,” Schwarzenegger said. “I should’ve gone the other direction to early on solve the budget problem and use the political muscle I had in that first year in office.” Does Obama have enough muscle remaining? It’s hard to know, since he shows so little inclination to use it. Ruth Marcus’ e-mail address is marcusr(at symbol)washpost.com. © 2011, Washington Post Writers Group  TAGS:
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Copyright © 2012 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
By dailyplanet, February 4, 2011 at 3:27 pm Link to this comment
Bear in the woods’ comment has the correct analysis of Brown’s “tactics.” Raising taxes only hurts those least able to take the body blows this kind of political misguidance will target. Democrat, Republican, no matter what label is assigned, always stick it to the citizenry least able to either defend themselves or rise in communal counter-protest.
Politicians are too entrenched in the corporate totalitarianism of our so-called democratic system to go for the gullet of those luxuriating in tax shelters. The working-person has no place to hideout. Every penny that comes in a paycheck is recorded and subject to some kind of “seizure” through any policy the government chooses to be the fad-ideology of the moment.
I’m really dumbfounded that that the writer of this piece, Ruth Marcus, seems to feel there is any merit in Brown’s proposal! Doesn’t she realize that shafting the working-poor, and those in desperate poverty (whose life-line of government assistance/services is under continuous assault), is NOT the road to a healthy state or by extension nation?
Only by forcing the hand of the elites into paying their fair share, and shafting their entrenched entitlements can this country have a chance to become the democracy the spin-masters would like us to believe it is.
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, February 3, 2011 at 7:34 am Link to this comment
1) They let voters opt-in for all the things they want
2) They let voters approve all the spending for the things they want
3) And then they allow the voters to nix funding for all the things they thought they wanted (needed?) in #1.
4) Then the voters get ugly when asked to either “pay the fiddler,” cut programs or go without their particular pet projects.
***************
MRFreeze:
Report thisyou said it better than I did!
By Maani, February 3, 2011 at 12:22 am Link to this comment
ITW:
PERFECTLY stated. Bravo!
Peace.
Report thisBy bear in woods, February 2, 2011 at 7:40 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Gov. Moonbeam’s proposal sounds like something from a Conservative Republican’s think tank. His tax increases will affect the middle and working class, and poor the most. Cuts to education, social programs, etc. will again affect the the middle and working class and poor.
Report thisGov Moonbeam should instead raise taxes on the incomes and investments of the state’s wealthy, of which California has plenty of. Time for the rich to share in the pain.
By mrfreeze, February 2, 2011 at 6:51 pm Link to this comment
Here in Washington State we have a huge deficit and, much like CA, we have a “liberal” slant to our politics (even though most of the sparsely populated Eastern WA is staunchly Republican/Libertarian). We also share that ridiculous “initiative process” which is at the heart of many problems in the state.
Here’s what initiatives do:
1) They let voters opt-in for all the things they want
2) They let voters approve all the spending for the things they want
3) And then they allow the voters to nix funding for all the things they thought they wanted (needed?) in #1.
4) Then the voters get ugly when asked to either “pay the fiddler,” cut programs or go without their particular pet projects.
Any state that has initiatives simply short-circuits the representative form of government we have in this country.
I’d like to mention this: Here in WA state we have over 30 County Seats. Much of WA State (indeed CA is similar) is rural/farmland and really doesn’t need the administration of all those county governments. A lot of money and administrative layers could be removed relatively easily by simply combining these counties. (An historical note here: when WA first became a state county seats were established by how far a horse could go in 1 day. That’s how they created the boundaries for counties…...I think we can come up with something better in the 21st Century).
Report thisBy ardee, February 2, 2011 at 5:20 pm Link to this comment
prisnersdilema, February 2 at 5:37 pm
Are you always this cheery and upbeat?
Inherit The Wind, February 2 at 2:56 pm
“The kicker is, as a Republican, (since there was no way a Dem would get elected back then) Schwarzeneggar was going to be as good as they were going to get. Unusually honest and practical for a Republican, but still ineffective.”
The honesty you claim for Ahnold reminded me that during his first campaign he noted that he would never ask for special interest monies. Upon being elected he flew to NYC and raised more special interest cash in a day than anyone in history had done before.
Some display of honesty….
http://www.arnoldwatch.org/special_interests/index.html
Report thisBy prisnersdilema, February 2, 2011 at 11:37 am Link to this comment
California is toast. Nothing Brown can do will change anything in the long run. In a few years time that 25 billion dollar short fall will ballon to more than 80 billion dollars. Led by commercial Real Estate falling off a cliff. In time the state in its desperation, will become more creative, and try anything to dig themselves out of the hole they created. None of it will work.
Its funny that the Federal government is lowering taxes, to stimulate the economy, while the state is raising them.
But in California raising taxes, will further erode the tax base, as anyone who can will leave the state. It’s no secret that California has been losing middle income workers to others states for decades. Tax increases will further accelerate this process. Fleeing California, will become a cliche.
The political system in California is a failure, neither party understands what the underlying problems are, it is beyond their comprehension.
And so California will begin defaulting on municipal bonds and declare bankrupcy on some of it’s largest pension funds.
In 10 years time, living in California will resemble, a country like Somalia.
World unrest is increasing, there will be national conflicts in Europe and around the Globe.
War is coming. Not Wars like Afghanistan, and Iraq, but full on superpower war. And it will burn this country to it’s roots.
The opening shots have already been fired in FTZ’s, planned for hundreds of sites in this country.
Report thisBy NoodlyJames, February 2, 2011 at 11:34 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Well, duh.
We need to spend less and/or take in more. Pity that this isn’t obvious to all
politicians/corporations/rich people/everyone clamoring about what they need
and want.
I’m not giving any solutions either. But it shouldn’t require stating the above.
Report thisUnfortunately…... it does.
By BobZ, February 2, 2011 at 9:31 am Link to this comment
Brown basically told his colleagues, Democrats and Republican’s, it is time to either
Report this“sh—or get off the pot. California can’t print money so it needs to cut services,
increases revenues or some combination. Their is no magical elixir and Arnold
tried smoke and mirrors already. Brown is not only the most frugal public
executive, he is the most practical at this stage of his career. Californians like
myself need to face up to the hard realities and get the austerity and pain over
with as soon as possible. California will reemerge as a great state again both in
the public and private realm. We just need to start facing some hard facts. Brown
has the right approach.
By drbhelthi, February 2, 2011 at 9:01 am Link to this comment
“ Dear Truthdig: - - - . Stay outside the Beltway; we need you there.” (winsome1)
- and inside the Beltway ?
Report this- or, is this area beyond help ?
By Inherit The Wind, February 2, 2011 at 8:56 am Link to this comment
California has the idea that democracy (as opposed to republicanism) can work in a nation of 33 million people. They can have ballot initiatives for EVERYTHING that override common sense and the state legislature. This allows them to indulge a basic human flaw—demanding services, but the right not to pay for them. So Californians have ruined their progressive tax system, created an unfair and unbalanced property tax system…and whined when their infrastructure imploded.
The kicker is, as a Republican, (since there was no way a Dem would get elected back then) Schwarzeneggar was going to be as good as they were going to get. Unusually honest and practical for a Republican, but still ineffective.
Now Brown comes in, 30 years later, 30 years smarter (a rarity for any politician) and is telling California it’s time to pay the piper. The money has to come from somewhere and there’s only two places: Cutting costs and raising taxes.
The selfish narrow-minded twits will all scream “NOT IN MY BACKYARD! MAKE SOMEBODY ELSE PAY!” but that can’t work.
Brown, the schoolmaster, has just said: recess is over. Time for bitter medicine.
Report thisBy winsome1, February 2, 2011 at 7:50 am Link to this comment
Lame! What a lame piece. It’s all about image, not substance. Jerry Brown’s words
are a disaster for working people and the poor. (If I hear any more talk about
“painful” cuts from people who wouldn’t know financial pain if it mugged them in
a dark alley, I may scream).
Dear Truthdig: no more Ruth Marcus, please. Stay outside the Beltway; we need
Report thisyou there.
By C.Curtis.Dillon, February 2, 2011 at 7:10 am Link to this comment
Let’s state the obvious and then go on ... politicians are morons or crooks or both. We haven’t had a competent political leader in this country in a very long time. And, quite frankly, that’s been the intention for a very long time. We’re offered charlatans or idiots (Reagan comes to mind) who blow happy smoke up our asses while they do whatever their political bosses tell them to do. Heaven forbid we should actually collect taxes that pay for what we want. I can just see them sitting around their smoke filled rooms and someone gets a brain fart ... “Hey guys, let’s cut taxes and tell everyone it’ll eliminate the debt. Let’s tell them they have to sacrifice for the country’s benefit by giving up their Social Security and Medicare but we have to keep giving obscene amounts of money to our friends over at Defense because they treat us soooo good. Yeah ... that’ll work because they’re so stupid. And call Glenn Beck and Limbaugh ... they know how to build a really good bullshit story that will get them foaming at the mouth. Damn, I love it when a plan comes together!”
Did any of you guys in California realize that the Arnold came from the body building community? Can you say HGH and steroids? Did you really think the terminator could come into Sacramento and fix things? I doubt even governor moonbeam (or laser beam) will fix anything as long as money runs the state. He’ll propose all these wonderful fixes and then the crooks in Sacramento will just do whatever they want. In the end, the common people of the state will get screwed while the real money people keep sucking every drop of juice from what’s left of the state. How different it must be from when I was in Palo Alto in the ‘70s.
Report thisBy drbhelthi, February 2, 2011 at 5:21 am Link to this comment
The biggest mistake was made by Californians.
Unless the voting machines had the program of Florida
governor Jeb Bush loaded into them, in order to
install an acquaintance of the GHWBushSr family into
office in California.
Electing a macho movie star, from Austria, was simply
an enactment of fantasy. We all see what resulted.
And what will be done with the millions of aliens and
children that Arnold Schwarzeneger so graciously
allowed into California, at the expense of
Californians, in violation of U.S. immigration laws?
Plus, he now admits an error, “- - by not forcing
Report thisCalifornians to confront - -“.
Right.
Blame the electorate for a situation that he did not
comprehend at the time.
By Robespierre115, February 2, 2011 at 5:17 am Link to this comment
“I’m not suggesting that Obama endorse immediate cuts on a Californian scale. Those are not necessary and could hurt the still faltering recovery. But Obama—and the country—would benefit from a dose of Brown’s precision and candor.”
Is Marcus f—king INSANE? It is very easy for some well-paid liberal commentator to make these sorts of suggestions, but come over to the Central Valley in California where for years the infrastructure has been in complete decay and now schools are being deeply slashed apart, even the public library system is being left without decent or half-decent funding. Even the police system squeezes the common man to death here with fees on every tiny little aspect of driving a working vehicle. In areas near Fresno the police enjoy stopping Mexicans for no reason, when they turn out to be illegal they impound their vehicle and make them pay $300 if they want it back. The situation is no better for a legal citizen. Meanwhile the fatcats who own this state are living like aristocrats in 1789 France.
The people need to take back control of their economy. Egypt is showing the world how the citizens of a country will eventually have to deal with the parasites feeding off societies.
Report this