Mirror, Mirror On the Wall, Are We the Most Dysfunctional of All?

Joe Mathews's picture
Journalist and Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He is co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010).

Here’s a quiz.

Name the state that has a legislature and governor contemplating making draconian cuts to education programs and eliminating some health and human services programs.

Name the state that is planning to pull back money from county and municipal governments and sell state assets (including three prisons) to deal with a record budget deficit.

Name the state where a moderate Republican governor is stuck on the idea of securitizing state lottery revenues to paper over the deficit.

Where the governor is fighting with legislative Republicans are fighting over the governor’s plan to raise taxes, including a one-cent sales tax. Where Republicans are calling that a betrayal of conservative values.

Where Democrats are mad at the governor for using the crisis to try to promote a spending limit.

Where the governor is getting nowhere with any of these proposals, and is sinking fast in popularity.

Where key parts of any budget deal will have to go to voters, and approval is unlikely.

Where attempts to cut the budget are hamstrung by a series of voter approved initiatives, including a powerful proposition that prevents the legislature from repurposing moneys dedicated to health and education.

Where Democrats are complaining that the two-thirds super-majority vote for taxes, enacted by the voters at the ballot, is allowing minority Republicans to, in the words of one blogger, “hold the state legislature hostage to the anti-tax zealotry of their ‘no new taxes’ pledge to K-Street lobbyist Grover Norquist.”

Surely, this is California you’re talking about. Which is why it makes perfect sense for businesses and taxpayers to get the heck out of the state, and move someplace that’s got its act together. Like, say, Arizona.

Except, of course, the state I’ve just described is Arizona.

Thanks for the heads up.

Whew!! I feel better already. Thank goodness I'm in California where the budget deficit isn't nearly as bad as Arizona's.........oops

Well, at least our taxes aren't as high as in Arizona.......oops.

Okay, okay, at least California's unemployment is lower than Arizona's.....oops

Oh, I'm just teasing a bit. I still would rather live in California. And as for the popularity of the Governor falling, in the case of Arnold, how much more could it really fall?

will miss California

It is a shame, I will miss California. California will not hear the calls for it to get itself right. California is tax addicted, and its people are addicted to Government Services. Like all addicts, they do not see they have a problem. California's tax addiction has been ignored for too long. Now California is about to OD. When California OD's, its Government Service addicted people will cry to the Feds for a new source for its addiction. I will miss California. Too bad that no one was willing to force it into rehab.

Brewer and Arnold, Yuck!

Ya guys still don't get it. This is a nation of laws. This is a nation where the vote counts. This is a nation where the will of the people exists. The will of the people governs whether existentially right or wrong, it is the will of the people. You liberals can't understand this concept. You have a pre-described outcome and try to reverse engineer the will of the people. Win elections and then let the outcomes play out. No you guys didn't win special election, now you guys want some commandeered democracy where the people's will won't count. Win over the electorate to change policy. Do you liberals loathe the voice of the people? It seems that is all I hear after the May 19th loss. As much as legislators are bashing direct democracy these days you would think they have high approval ratings? Last time I checked it was hovering barely above 10%.



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