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.
So why not cut them out of the negotiations all together?
Legislative Democrats, and to some extent the governor, can’t make much of a
deal without the approval of public employee unions. Legislative Republicans
are mostly extensions of anti-tax activists like Jon Coupal and Grover
Norquist. Since negotiating a budget is so difficult, why are we bothering with
elected officials anyway? Shouldn’t the people with the real power to sign off
on a deal be the ones in the room?
So let’s do it. The California Teachers Assn and SEIU and
the other unions should sit down directly with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers and
the various Republican string-pullers from DC. Hash out a budget. And let us
know.