Freedom Line Blog

From California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s press conference unveiling his budget proposal amidst a $19.1 billion deficit:

“California no longer has low-hanging fruits – we don’t have any medium-hanging fruits, and we also don’t have any high-hanging fruits,” Schwarzenegger said, explaining the cuts Friday at a news conference in Sacramento. “We have to take the ladder from the tree and shake the whole tree.”

And no, he wasn’t making a Steve Miller Band reference.  (At least, I hope not.)

Though Sacramento’s spending commitments must be addressed, it’s interesting that the governor targeted eliminating the welfare-to-work program known as CALWorks, along with certain child care funding.  For their part, Democrats are wailing for a delay in scheduled corporate tax breaks.  As if further depleting business capital is the answer to balancing the state’s budget.

There are no easy, “comprehensive” answers for reforming California’s budget crisis.  But there is a better place to start the discussion: suspend AB 32, Schwarzenegger’s signature global warming bill.

In fact, that’s the name of a group making the case that since California is responsible for – at most – 1.4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, AB 32’s severe, self-imposed restrictions amount to a jobs killer.  The group estimates that when fully implemented, AB 32 will cost the state 1.1 million jobs, the average family $3,857, and each small business $49,691.

The net result?  “Devastated budgets of California social services agencies through massive losses in tax revenue.”

Granted, suspending AB 32 would be largely symbolic, but if Schwarzenegger took the ax to his prized “green” bill, he could chalk it up to serious times calling for serious budgets.  When times are good, economies can afford to absorb major public investments on microscopic returns.  These are not those times.  Californians have needs and wants; it’s past time the state’s nutty politicians understood the difference.

The Golden State may now be the world’s largest banana republic.  After being approved by the state Senate, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pick to be Lieutenant Governor didn’t receive enough votes in the state Assembly to secure approval or rejection.  The result spawned name calling, threats of constitutional litigation, and the possibility that Schwarzenegger would seat his nominee personally and dare legislators to oppose him.  He has since backed down and will re-nominate his candidate, thus restarting the process.

At this point, why not pistols at dawn?  Anyone killed or unable to work thereafter wouldn’t be replaced, thus thinning the cancerous governmental herd feasting on tax dollars.

It wasn’t long ago when the Obama White House was singing the praises of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  After all, Schwarzenegger was one of very few Republicans in the country to throw his support behind ObamaCare.  

Now, however, the Governator isn’t mincing words in withdrawing that support. 

In his State of the State Address before a joint session of the California Legislature earlier today, Schwarzenegger accurately called the health care bill “a trough of bribes, deals and loopholes.”  Below are some highlights from the speech:

Congress is about to pile billions more onto California with the new health care bill.

“While I enthusiastically support health care reform, it is not reform to push more costs onto states that are already struggling while other states get sweetheart deals.

“Health care reform, which started as noble and needed legislation, has become a trough of bribes, deals and loopholes.

“You’ve heard of the bridge to nowhere.  This is health care to nowhere.

“California’s congressional delegation should either vote against this bill that is a disaster for California or get in there and fight for the same sweetheart deal Senator Nelson of Nebraska got for the Cornhusker State. He got the corn; we got the husk.”

Is Governor Schwarzenegger’s about face on health care reform a prelude to what’s to come in the final stretch of this debate. For the sake of the nation, we can only hope.