Budget Not Even Close.

So said Senate President Pro Temp Darrel Steinberg at any rate, and he ought to know. Failure to successfully enact at least a temporary stop-gap measure means the state lost the opportunity to stall a $3.3 billion payment to the schools. The Governor, however, stood firm in his demand for an all-or-nothing fix. The Republicans in the senate supported him, at least more or less. One member refused to vote on the matter, which for practical purposes is a NO vote. With the current balance two or more Republican senators need to join all the Democrats to move a budget bill.

As much as it pains me to admit it I am kind of on Arnie's side on this one, though admittedly for different reasons. I do believe that the legislature will collectively continue to diddle, shuffle, obfuscate and duck in order to avoid the hard decisions unless they are FORCED to do what they are being paid to do. Not that I believe that is the Governor's true motivation here, but whatever his motivation is, the effect is the same. The legislature is, so far at least, being forced to actually deal with the problem.

Recent history has indicated that, when the heat is turned up, the Democrats will find a couple of Republicans they can pressure into "compromise" (selling out) and run a deal through, replete with smoke, mirrors and more taxes. So far this year the car tax has increased astronomically. Anybody remember Arnie's first days in office? He fired the head of DMV because he said that DMV could not process the roll-back of the car tax promptly. We are back to where we were, plus the sales tax has gone up in the mean time.

I would like a new Dodge Viper. I can't afford it, and couldn't afford to insure it if I had one. The legislature needs to learn the same lesson. There are a lot of programs out there that at least some people would like to have. We can't have them all because we can't afford them all. Often it isn't the up-front cost but the on-going cost that makes a program prohibitively expensive. It's hard to kill a government program once it starts. It's even hard to cut back government programs. We live in a society where a decrease in the increase is called a "cut" by many, including the media, and decried as being mean to children, or the homeless, or stray cats, or illegal aliens, or whoever benefits from the program. What do you do when you can't afford the Viper? What do you do when you can't afford a used Plymouth? What do you do when you can't afford to buy food for the stray cats in the neighborhood? What do you do when you can't afford to buy macaroni and cheese for your own family? I am not sure where along that continuum we actually are, but I know if I can't afford a new Viper for me I sure as hell can't afford to buy one for somebody else.