Linkmeister

Goodbye California

Only this time it's a financial earthquake, not a physical one.

I do not understand how a state which is only two votes short of a two-thirds Democratic majority in its legislature can come up with a budget deal as bad as this one:

Their agreement, which could go before the full Legislature within days, does not include any broad-based tax increases, relying instead on deep cuts in government services, borrowing and accounting maneuvers to wipe out the deficit.

[snip]

Tens of thousands of seniors and children would lose access to healthcare, local governments would sacrifice several billion dollars in state assistance this year and thousands of convicted criminals could serve less time in state prison. Welfare checks would go to fewer residents, state workers would be forced to continue to take unpaid days off and new drilling for oil would be permitted off the Santa Barbara coast.

And dday says at Calitics:

Just to state the obvious, only the Republican leaders have agreed to this. We still aren't through the process where individual Yacht Party members have to be bribed for their votes.

Of course, we aren't through the process where progressives just say "no we're not voting for that, try again," but I've never seen that process come into play.

Amazing. Schwarzenegger and his right-wing maniacs in the State Legislature in California have managed to bully their way into further destroying the safety nets in that state, and apparently the Democrats there can't figure out how to block it.

It makes me sick. When I was growing up in the Golden State, it was a highly-regarded state. Now it's a laughingstock. Worse, its citizens (at least the ones who can't move) are watching public services be eviscerated to the benefit of the wealthy who don't need them.

Posted by Linkmeister at July 21, 2009 12:01 AM | TrackBack