If We Want Budget By Algorithm, Call the Experts
I wish government were smaller and more efficient. But I’m
not a spending limit kind of guy. I’m old-fashioned and prefer to be governed
by human beings. Spending limits are formulas, and I can’t call up a spending
limit, ask a spending limit a question, write a letter to a spending limit, or
give money to a spending limit’s opponents.
But
Republicans want a spending limit. No matter how much Gov. Jerry Brown and the
Democrats whine, Republicans have power in California’s governing system to
make demands at budget time. So if there’s a deal between GOP legislators and
the governor, there may be a spending limit in it. And if there’s not, some on
the right are readying a spending limit initiative for the ballot.
One Does Not Buy An Ox From an Ox’: Why It’s Time to Cut Out the Budget Middlemen
Gov. Merriam "remarked
rather proudly to your correspondent that in all his years in various offices
nobody ever had made an attempt to bribe him and he took this as a mark of
deference to his high honor. It did not occur to him that when anyone wished to
buy him that person would not go to him but to those whom George Creel
described as his medieval owners. One does not buy an ox from an ox."
-The journalist Westbrook Pegler,
describing Gov. Frank Merriam in 1934
I found the above quote while re-reading The Campaign of the
Century, Greg Mitchell’s spectacular book about the 1934 California
gubernatorial campaign. It reminded me of today’s budget negotiations,
particularly the fact that our elected officials are not the most powerful or
consequential people in making decisions. In some ways, they are Merriamite
oxen.
Mr. Fox’s Misreading
It’s hard to respond when someone misreads you as thoroughly
as Joel
Fox did in attacking a piece
my California Crackup co-author Mark Paul and I wrote for the Sacramento
Bee. You’re forced to restate all your points one-by-one. So you might be
better off saying – read my piece. Or better yet, read my book.
So I’ll say those things. But I’ll also say this: Fox’s
attack proved our overarching point: that everyone in California – across the
political spectrum – has become myopic and obsessed with defending their little
piece of the governing system, even though the governing system works against
the things they say they care most about.
Let’s look at some of the biggest howlers in Fox’s piece:
-Fox says our piece
described "Proposition 13 as the cause for all the ills that befall
California."
GOP’s Mail Pre-Primary Is Good for Voters
California has the worst of both worlds politically: All the drawbacks of a highly partisan electorate and political elite, without the advantages that come with strong parties.
That California combination – strong partisanship, weak parties – is part of what makes civic engagement, and thus governing, such a challenge in this state. Everyone is angry and partisan, but parties – which offer ways for people to come together and advance an agenda – are too weak to do much of anything.
In this context, the news out of this weekend’s GOP convention is good. Republicans, faced with a new form of open primary designed to further weaken the parties, decided to launch their own pre-primary of sorts, conducted by mail, to judge the party favorites in races.
This move has been criticized by moderates and others outside the party as an attempt by conservatives to keep power and impose rule. That may well be the thinking of those who pushed it, but it’s a good idea nonetheless.
Why? Two reasons.
Have We Achieved Budget ‘Singularity’?
Heard of singularity? In technology, it’s a hypothesis about the future. At some point, artificial intelligence will become so advanced that humans will lose control of their own destiny. In the darker visions, the machines we create will become more intelligent than us, and become our masters. They might even kill us.
I wonder if Californians have already achieved something like this when it comes to the budget.
The budget system has so many pieces and so many parts that it has become a machine, unaccountable to voters and unmanageable by elected officials. The machine is so complicated that it may be smarter than us. Admittedly, Californians know so little about how the budget works that surpassing us in budget intelligence isn’t that hard.
But seriously, who is managing that thing? The governor? No, he sounds exasperated that no one in the legislature will step forward to help him manage it. The Democrats? They can pass a budget on majority vote, but need some Republicans for taxes. Republicans? They complain that spending is beyond anyone’s control; a new program…er… spending limit is necessary.
Meanwhile, the budget machine with a mind of its own demands tribute – spending cuts, maybe new revenues – that hurt its citizens. If technological singularity is anything like California budget singularity, the Terminator movies may prove to be prophecy rather than art. Who knows if we can survive the machines?
Grover, Show Us Your Budget
I have a deep, dark confession to make: I like Grover
Norquist.
My good feeling is personal and
professional. As a reporter, I’ve talked to him several times over the years
about California politics. He always returned my phone calls promptly and
answered my questions in interesting, quotable ways. Last year, he agreed to
speak at an event on initiative and referendum that I helped organize in San
Francisco, holding up the right flank of a gathering that included people across
the political spectrum, from a host of libertarians to Tom Hayden, Mike Gravel
and some real, live European socialists. In that role, he was the perfect guest
– he showed up on time, spoke for his allotted time, said interesting and
provocative things, and made no demands of the overtaxed organizers.
Now that
said, let me be clear: I don’t agree with Grover politically. I’m quite sure he
votes for different people than I do most of the time. And I’m not a fan of how
he practices politics. I’m also not sure he’s doing anyone any favors,
including himself, by inserting himself into California’s ongoing fiscal and
governance nightmare.
Is Brown Losing the Future?
Gov. Jerry Brown has played the politics of this particular
budget about as well as possible – getting buy in from public employee unions,
bringing business groups to the table, putting Republicans in the difficult
position of denying voters a chance to weigh in on his plan.
But Brown, because of California’s
bizarre governing system, still hasn’t gotten his plan passed. And it may be
that the GOP blockade remains in tact. Or that any concessions he makes to
Republicans cost him critical support from unions and Democrats.
And in the process, he may be doing
serious damage to his future ability to move the state forward.
The core of
Brown’s political problem is this: he is being defined as a status quo
politician in a state with an unsustainable status quo.
Could California Be First In Constitutional Dysfunction?
California’s long and complicated constitution – and the
governing dysfunction it promotes – is bad. But Californians who care about
such things have been able to take comfort in the idea that ours is not the
most broken constitution in the country.
Thank God
for Alabama.
But there’s
news there.
Democrats
in the Alabama legislature are pushing for a referendum asking voters whether
they want to tear up that state’s 1901 constitution – a document longer than
California’s massive constitution – and write a new one.
It’s a bad
sign when Alabama political elites are more willing to confront their
constitutional problems than those in California. Powers-that-be have dismissed
the notion of top-to-bottom constitutional reform as a pipe dream.
Which means California may soon be
the country’s undisputed leader in constitutional failure.
Isn’t It Wonderful How Many Choices The Politicians Want to Give Us?
It warms my heart that so many politicians in California
want to give me a choice.
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to give me a choice of extending some
particular temporary tax increases for five years. He chose the temporary
taxes, but it’s so cool that it’s my choice.
And if I vote down those tax extensions, well, then, he’s
not going to give me different taxes but $25 billion in cuts. Of course, he
will choose those cuts for me. Which is awfully nice of him, since I hate cuts.
The Republicans don’t want to go along with this yet,
because – isn’t this great? – they don’t think one choice is enough. They will
only put Gov. Brown’s choice on a special election ballot if there’s another
measure on the same ballot – one that gives me the choice to cut taxes by the
same amount the tax extensions would keep them raised. How did they decide that
would be the tax cut?
Ten Symbolic Budget Savings Measures
Cutting the budget for real is too hard. But making symbolic cuts that produce tiny savings but garner big press coverage is easy – and can be fun.
Now that the Brown administration has gone after employee cell phones and the cars and swag, the low-hanging symbolic fruit is hard. And with deadlines for getting a June special election upon, the Brown administration may have to accelerate symbolic cuts. A glimpse of what the future could be.
March 3 – An executive order requires all state departments must do all of their shopping at Costco. "If you can’t buy it at Costco or make it from something you buy at Costco, you shouldn’t be doing it," the governor said.