Greetings From The Failed State

Open Left's Paul Rosenberg summarized Calitics over the past week by musing that California is a failed state. It's hard to argue with that. We have a political system governed in exactly the opposite direction of the will of the people. Despite 63% majorities in the Assembly and the Senate, in Sacramento the Yacht Party rules.

California is bleeding Republican red as the state's minority party tries to squeeze a spending cap and pro-business policies from fiscal chaos.

Badly outnumbered and often ignored by the Democratic-dominated Legislature, the GOP is not getting sand kicked in its face these days.

California is hurtling toward a financial abyss, projecting a $40 billion shortfall by July 2010, and no deal can be struck without at least three Republican votes in both the Assembly and Senate.

GOP officials clutch that trump card with relish as the state braces to pull the plug on $5 billion in public works projects and warns it won't be able to pay all its bills by February or March.

Kind of amusing that the Treasurer thought he was making a threat to Yacht Party regulars when he vowed to shut down infrastructure projects without a budget deal. To the GOP, that's a GOAL. All the posturing and tut-tutting at the lack of compromise, along with the horror stories spun out as a consequence of doing nothing, simply bolster the Yacht Party argument. If you haven't been paying attention, they want to do nothing. They want to end government. In a way they are the ultimate anarchists.

There's supposed to be some kind of "cuts only" package released by Republican leaders today, by the way:

The GOP is scheduled to unveil its own proposal Monday, with no tax hike. The plan is expected to identify about $11 billion in budget cuts and, among other things, propose asking voters to redirect money designated for mental health programs and preschool programs and services.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, characterized the high-stakes showdown between legislative Democrats and Republicans as political "chicken," with each party expecting the other to blink.

"I think they're going to run off a cliff," Lockyer said.

Incidentally, Bass and Steinberg are willing to come together on good government reforms, which we shouldn't oppose in a knee-jerk fashion. Liberals support reforming government and making it effective because they believe in it. Republicans, under the guise of "reform," mean to destroy government. I don't think there's anything wrong with a performance review that looks at duplication or ineffective programs and seeks to mend them. That's what oversight is all about, and it's a core function of the legislature. What I do take issue with is the idea that reform is a "magic bullet" that will end all budgetary worries without anyone having to feel the pain. That's irrational and ridiculous, especially in this moment of crisis.