What A Tremendous A-Hole

When the Legislature dares not to act as his puppet, the Governor gets mad. Guv, smash!

"Now even though I was criticized by Sen. Perata, who said, 'Boy, he should not mind our business. We know exactly what we are doing.' Well, obviously they don't know exactly what they are doing because otherwise we wouldn't have a $14 billion deficit.

...based on budgets that I signed...

If everyone knows exactly what they are doing, we wouldn't have the budget mess in 2003 which created the recall election.

...which elected me so I could lead the state into exactly the same budget mess...

"Sometimes you see schools protesting out there or sending me letters," Schwarzenegger said. "I'm with them. I wish I could stand there protesting, too.

...but I'm too busy cutting their afterschool programs and music classes and firing their teachers, it takes up most of my day...

Because we have to protest the budget system. Not this year's budget. The budget system is the failure. That is what has to be corrected as quickly as possible."

I'm going to have to cut the snark and address this. In Schwarzenegger's little "rally the crew for the budget" tour, this above all is his message: in the midst of continuing budget crises, what you have to do is give me more power. Even though I've put the state under mountains of debt that won't clear up until you're great-grandchildren retire and stubbornly rejected any changes to an obviously woeful revenue structure, and even though my first act as governor stripped the state of billions in revenue and put us in the hole we find ourselves in, you should definitely invest all power to change budgets on a whim to me since I exhibited such good judgment.

The Governor is absolutely going shock doctrine and trying to use this crisis as a pretext to expand executive power in exactly the same way that was defeated by the voters in 2005. And nobody should be surprised, since during the 2006 campaign he very explicitly stated that those discredited and unpopular proposals were "good ideas" that were merely implemented the wrong way. First the redistricting proposal was resurrected and now this.

Schwarzenegger gave a briefing to about 40 local business and city leaders during a stop at Anaheim City Hall, part of a statewide tour meant to garner support for his proposal to institute a constitutional amendment to more closely regulate state spending. The state faces a $14 billion deficit over the next two years.

"It's not the fault of the people we're short on money. It's the fault of the Legislature and governor," Schwarzenegger said at the City Hall stop before continuing on to Santa Ana for a meeting with Orange County Register editorial and news writers. "I think we have screwed up a little bit."

The amendment, which would require voter approval, would put a ceiling on state spending and grant the governor power to make midyear budget cuts. Surpluses in good years would be put in a "rainy-day fund" to cover expenses in weak economic years.

Listen to this logic. It's the fault of the legislature and the governor that we have a serious budget deficit, and "I think we have screwed up a little bit," but the solution is to give the guy who screwed up singular power to screw up some more. That way lies madness.

It's time to pay attention to this. We've been looking at this budget fight along a linear revenues vs. cuts standard, but Schwarzenegger has his own agenda. He was to empower the executive with almost unilateral control over the budget. This is a Bush-style power play. And it needs to be universally rejected.