Conan vs. California

"Crom count the dead!"

It makes for a good description of Arnold Scharzenegger's ballot measures after yesterday's special election in California.

I knew Schwarzenegger was toast right after his election in 2003. He promised California voters that he could provide the same level of public services while rolling back a vehicle license fee by finding efficiencies, waste, blah, blah, blah, in the state government. “Something for nothing!” the people yelled. They liked that.

Of course, you can’t deliver the same for less so Arnie’s fortunes inevitably failed. Given the size of the gap between what comes in and what goes out, taxes would have to be raised and services reduced to produce a real balanced budget. But that requires pain on both sides of the ledger, from liberals who want more services and conservatives who won’t raise taxes. Arnie needed to fight both ends from the middle to produce real results. But he didn’t. He chose to blame a Democratic majority legislature in a Democratic majority state. This is tantamount to fighting the Russian army in downtown Moscow.

The pundits are on and on about the “dysfunctional” nature of state policymaking. Really, there’s nothing dysfunctional about it at all. It’s the classic divide between what we want as a society and what we’re willing to pay for.

Fyi, the California state deficit is a byproduct of the Dot Com boom. The Democratic governor and legislature overtaxed the rich kids who came out of that and reduced taxes on everyone else, and increased services. When the Dot Com well dried up, the deficit came and ballooned out of reason.

Arnie didn’t use his prior stature to get people to see the either/or involved. Taking the easy way out, he promised gain with no pain. He wasn’t the first. Reagan did it with his “supply side economics”, providing more revenue by –lower- taxes. Reagan made “WIFRA” his mantra, “[W]aste, [Fr]aud and [A]buse!” Get the welfare mommas off their duffs and we’d be in like pigs in clover. Anyone with an eighth grade math education knew that tossing even a few thousand $750 a month welfare queens out won’t make a decent in a multi-trillion dollar budget. But it’s a siren song which can be counted on to cause enough folks to put the math book aside before voting.

But Arnie’s not running the federal government. His budget, though sizeable, still isn’t the US government’s. He can’t print money and he’s under a specific constitutional demand for a balanced budget, although nothing says he can’t borrow money to balance the books. He’s also got a state constitutional requirement that calls for two-thirds of the legislature to approve the annual budget and any tax increases. This gives the minority, in this case the GOP, power all out of proportion to their political standing to hold down revenue increases, locking in the shortfall against a majority which reflects the voters’ level of desire for public services.

Arnie could use his standing with the GOP to argue tax hikes out of them in return for service cuts from the legislature. He could have governed truly from the middle. But he didn’t and now he’s dealing with a legislature which sees him cut down to quite mortal size.

I have no love for Arnie. He shouldn’t be governor. The GOP mounted the recall attempt right after losing the 2002 governor’s race. It was a case of “let’s keep voting until we win.” Gray Davis wasn’t a great governor but he was fairly re-elected. Recalls should be used for malfeasance and similar activities, not by sore losers.

I also can't stand the ridiculous idea that a guy who kills special effects-produced monsters on stage somehow carries that same talent over into the real world. Pro sports players and coaches enjoy the same assumptions when they run for office. But I suppose there's no use fretting about that. Americans have had an unreasonable thing for “heroes” dating back to Andrew Jackson. That ain’t gonna change. Still, it’s good to see it shot down every now and then.

I love California. It's a fantastic place to live, work and play. I want my son to live here and be happy too. I’d like to live in a state with some fiscal sanity. But it ain’t gonna happen under Arnie after last Tuesday. The work now is to elect a Democratic governor who can convince the voters to get rid of the ridiculous budget and taxes supermajority so we can tie wants with needs and the governing majority can really govern.