It's all laid out in black and white at the LA Times, and in pixels on the website: the Governator's plan to save* the state. He'll drive it to the brink of a statewide and possibly national depression to eliminate waste and fraud that even he concedes is "not rampant." Think of him as a Dark Ages surgeon, bleeding a patient to the point of exsanguination when the original complaint was a hangnail. Remember the halcyon days of 2005 when he declared that waste and fraud in the California budget doesn't exist? Neither does he.
* As he concedes, his plan won't even fix the budget. It'll save $2 billion this year, in the face of a $26 billion deficit. To put that into perspective, he's already squandered $3 billion by not agreeing to a budget deal on time last Tuesday, June 30. However, he's in love with the script he's written in his head in which he's the Last Action Hero.
Some specifics of Schwarzenegger's plan sound reasonable on their face. Eliminate waste and fraud -- well, no one volunteers to be for fraud! Require CalWorks (state welfare)recipients actually try to find work -- he claims that 78% of welfare recipients aren't even trying. Computerize Medi-Cal -- a great idea, except that people so desperately poor as to require Medi-Cal probably consider internet access a luxury.
The big proposal is to create a two-tier system of pension reform. New hires will be returned to their pre-1999 pensions (whatever that may be -- the Governator isn't good on detail). Or, as the LA Times editorialized this week:
It's a badly needed reform, but in trotting it out as a brand-new, never-before-proposed ultimatum in the waning hours of the fiscal year, the governor didn't simply thumb his nose at Democrats. He thumbed his nose at the entire notion of public lawmaking. It's the same process that makes a mockery of democracy at the end of each session, when bills are gutted and new laws, which were never heard in committee or discussed in public, slink their way onto the books.
(I'm not sure whether it's a badly needed reform. Generally, employees trade off higher pay in the private sector for better benefits in the public sector. When the economy is good, public employees gripe about lousy salaries, and when the economy is bad, they make convenient targets for private sector employees' populist anger.) He claims optimistically that this will save $2 billion/year. For comparison's sake, proponents of taxing marijuana claim that this move will bring in $1 billion/year, closing 80% of the state parks will save $143 million/year, the budget deficit is $26 billion, and the state is losing $25 million a day.
The proposals are, for the most part, silly. They're not going to solve the crisis. Schwarzenegger has demanded that the Democrats accede, and has stated that he'll veto anything else. In a simplistic, politics-as-narrative fashion, the Governator makes a lot of sense. He's the Last Action Hero, with nothing to lose. He's term-limited from running again, can't run for President, and has a fallback job that he actually likes. He can do what no one has been able to do since Prop 13 passed and reform state government. Watch him single handedly taking on Herculean labors! Slaying the Nurses' Nemean Lion! Capturing the Golden Hindquarters of the Integrated Waste Management Board for his friends! Slaying the Nine-Headed Hydra of the Prison System! Cleaning out the Muck of the Stable of State Employees! Drama! Plot! John Williams Themed Music!
Unfortunately for us, the Democrats have caved. They started off talking tough reasonable, demanding reasonable taxes on oil severance and on cigarette packs. They've caved. I went to law school with Darrell Steinberg. He's pleasant, he's intelligent, but he's not tough. When Schwarzenegger demanded wholesale pension system overhauls with hours to go before the June 30 deadline, he should have walked out.
We need Rahm Emanuel. We need a tough leader. We need a leader who will not just return the Rocky Mountain oysters, but shower Schwarzenegger with wrinkled, shriveled golden raisins (h/t Seneca Doane).
Inspired by DK Greenroots, I've created DK Kalifornians (and will gladly transfer ownership to the first person who asks). If you care about this state, if you don't want to see it fall into the Pacific Ocean, if you're not afraid to touch the third rail of state politics, meet me over there to discuss solutions.