"And I compromised–yes! So that all these years I could
stay in that Senate–and serve the people in a thousand honest ways! You’ve got
to face facts, Jeff. I’ve served our State well, haven’t I? We have the lowest unemployment and the
highest Federal grants. But, well, I’ve had to compromise, had to play
ball. You can’t count on people voting, half the time they don’t vote, anyway.
That’s how states and empires have been built since time began."-Sen. Joseph Paine, the corrupt but successful logroller
played by Claude Rains, explaining the facts of Senate life to the idealistic
new Sen. Jefferson C. Smith (Jimmy Stewart) in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
California has one of the highest unemployment rates and
among the lowest rates of federal grants.
So it’s time, way past time for Senators Feinstein and Boxer
to play ball.
Hardball.
In the week since Gov. Schwarzenegger made a demand for more
federal funds a centerpiece of his state of the state speech and his budget
proposal, he has received little more than ridicule. California’s Congressional
representatives have explained that a better balance of payments between the
feds and the state government 1) can’t be done, 2) won’t be done and 3)
shouldn’t be done.
These claims have been amplified by state officials and a
press that almost seems to be rooting against California. This state has not
been punished enough, we’re told by the masochists in the press and public
office. And, they add, isn’t it nasty and impolite for Schwarzenegger to
criticize our DC representatives?
Now, I must admit it’s always fun to poke this governor of
California in the ribs. And an unpopular lame duck isn’t the best messenger for
this demand.
But the governor isn’t wrong.
And after covering years of Schwarzenegger’s polite and
ineffective appeals for more federal money, I for one am glad to see him get
tough. Watching the way his calls for funds have been casually dismissed, even
as the budget crisis deepens, has been maddening.
The worst moment came last week when Sen. Boxer convened
reporters to declare that the federal government is doing very well by
California when the stimulus package is considered. Hello, Sen. Boxer? Even if
you think such a thing, why, as an advocate for this state, would you say it
out loud?
The reaction of her colleagues, Democrats and Republicans,
has been nearly as shameful. Earth to the California Congressional delegation:
Your state is stuck in a never-ending budget emergency. We can talk about who
is to blame – it says here that the governor, the legislature, the 2/3
supermajority requirements on budgets and taxes, and especially the voters
themselves are all to blame – but your job isn’t to parcel out blame. It’s to
represent your state. That goes double in time of emergency. Without aid, there
will be yet another round of big cuts to an array of programs people rely upon,
and perhaps more taxes and fee increases at a time of deep economic distress.
It’s the kind of situation that calls not for defensive
blasts at the governor, but for desperate action in Washington. Schwarzenegger
is asking a good question: why hasn’t this emergency moved any of California’s
Congressional reps to action?
Each of our senators, Boxer and Feinstein, has tremendous
leverage in a Senate that needs 60 votes to pass anything. All it would take is
for one of these senators to take an important bill hostage – health care is
the obvious choice – and refuse to budge until California gets the billions it
needs and deserves from the feds. If you want to know how this game is played,
you can check in with State Senator Abel Maldonado, California’s expert at
extracting a heavy price for his vote.
This sort of hostage taking may be ugly. And it can create
tension with colleagues in the senate. But this is how other senators – most
notably Nebraska’s Ben Nelson — deliver for their states. And a California
senator should be less bashful than others about using hardball tactics, since
the Senate is an anti-democratic institution that works against the interests
of a big state such as California. All Schwarzenegger is asking from the two
senators is to recognize the depths of the crisis back home and use the
leverage each has in the Senate to pull off a rescue. Neither Feinstein nor
Boxer has offered a good reason why they haven’t played this kind of hardball.
Each of our senators are principled politicians. But right
now, California needs representation that is more Joe Paine than Jeff Smith.