Republican Feud Belies The Reality of the Severity of the Current Economic Crisis

"Bullying the legislature to adopt tax hikes won't make the ticking clock the governor unveiled today go away. In fact it will only make our budget problems worse. Raising taxes doesn't solve the underlying problem of California's budget, which is the state spends more than it takes in."

Villines did as well:

"But let's be clear - Republicans have always entered budget negotiations with Democrats and the Governor fully prepared and fully engaged. For more than a year, we have offered countless proposals both publicly and privately - including specific budget reforms to help us live within our means, specific economic reforms to promote job creation and specific government reforms to ensure our tax dollars are spent more efficiently."

As Brian Leubitz of Calitics wrote yesterday:

"In actuality the problem here isn't that Arnold is being too tough now, it's that he's not being tough enough. We need the Governor to play hardball with these Republicans. The real problem is that he already missed his chance to really break the logjam a few months ago."

For my money, I agree with Speaker Bass's comment from Monday's press conference:

“I think that some of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are in denial, frankly. And feel that this problem is not as big as $11 billion right now or $28 billion over the next few months, or feel that we can solve this through cuts alone or that we can solve this through revenue alone. The goal of today is to make sure that there is no excuse for the denial of moving forward. I'm saying that on both sides of the aisle, in both houses, and I'm also saying that for the new members especially who come here with wonderful ideals that they need to hear the reality. For returning members, they need to know how much more serious this crisis has gotten.”

It is plainly obvious to me that we need both tax increases and spending cuts. Both will be painful in their own way. But I have a different perspective as well, I cover local politics and this week, three of the local bodies that I cover most regularly--school district, city, and county--are all facing huge and mounting deficits which means a cutback in vital services that the county provides, a cutback to city staff and city services, and probably the loss of teachers and educational programs.

As we all know cities, counties, and schools were not in such great shape financially to begin with. So forgive me if I get a little tired of these territorial contests between the Governor and his supposed GOP allies, it is time to do as Speaker Bass suggests and get serious.

As Speaker Bass said yesterday, everyone has to give on something they want to stave off something far worse:

"They said that they came up here because of what they believed in and they believed that there should never be a tax increase. All of us came up here for what we believed in. I came up here to make sure that I would protect programs that now I have to recognize have to be cut. We all have to do things that we never thought we would do because California is in a catastrophic situation."

I just wonder how long it will be before the Republicans figure this out.