Postpartisanship: Rest In Peace
Obituary
Postpartisanship (Born, November 4, 2008 — Died, February 9, 2009)
Postpartisanship, which was born only a few short months ago and was destined to usher in a new era of American politics and government died yesterday in a traumatic accident in the White House East Room where President Barack Obama was holding his first news conference as President.
President Obama, while denying any responsibility for the incident, nonetheless could be seen and heard at the scene attacking Republicans and downplaying the need for their input in his stimulus package as he blamed all the country’s problems on the eight years of the Bush Administration.
When postpartisanship, who was seated in the minds of the assembled reporters and pundits, heard those comments early in the press conference, it had a violent seizure and collapsed in those same reporter’s and pundits minds. Efforts to revive it were unsuccessful.
Budget Deal Leaks
The leaks on the budget deal are flowing out of the Capitol, but without a view of the whole package it’s impossible to make intelligent comment on any trade-offs that make up the deal. Numbers were attached to the tax side of the proposal, but without knowing about spending cuts, economic stimulus, or spending restraints we are looking at only one side of the painting.
According to reports, the tax increases are temporary, although there may be one–a 12-cent increase per gallon of gasoline–that could be permanent. Other tax increases reported: The sales tax will increase one-cent, the vehicle license fee will jump from .65% to 1.15%, not back to the 2% level where it stood when Governor Schwarzenegger cut it in 2003, and a surcharge will be placed on income taxes. It is unclear if that increase applies only on taxable income over one-million dollars or to other income taxpayers as well.
None of this is acceptable without counterbalancing methods to restrict spending and juice the economy so we’ll have to see what the whole package looks like. Even without knowing the spending side measures, it is safe to say these tax increases will put a strain on California’s economic activity and attempts to recover.
Deal or No Deal, Californians Have a Right to Know
In the past few years, more lawmaking seems to have been pushed behind closed doors, with less public debate and transparency. Our state’s budget process has been reduced to five people charged with the task of making California’s books balance, while 116 legislators remain in the dark until it’s time to vote. If the majority of lawmakers have no idea what is going on behind the closed doors of the "Big Five," surely the public knows even less.
Yet Americans, and Californians in particular, pride themselves on having a democratic system of government that is accountable, transparent and open to public participation. This pride is evident in California’s initiative process. Voters demanded their right to vote on taxes with Proposition 13 and Proposition 218, and they rejected lavish legislative spending and entrenched political power with Proposition 140. Even the Legislature supported accountability with the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, a measure that generally ensures that legislative business takes place in the open.
A Pox on Both Their Houses
Call me cranky, but, there is nothing wrong with American or Californian government that having three or four political parties, instead of just the same old two, wouldn’t fix. I have followed for too many hours the incessant wrangling in California’s legislature over the ever-elusive, balanced budget and the more recent Katzenjammer Kids-style slapstick battles over whether Obama’s bill is really ‘stimulus,’ whatever that actually means, or just plain old pork, the other white meat. We could stop this inefficient, and no longer amusing, bickering in the face of a tidal wave of trouble if we just had a third, and even a fourth, viable political party to balance off the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum nonsense we constantly slide back into, regardless of whether we vote for change or more of the same. It’s the too long missing element in American politics.