Not content with having driven the state into the ground, Arnold felt the need to show the world that he just doesn't care about how much suffering his billions in budget cuts will cause:
Someone else might walk out of here every day depressed, but I don't walk out of here depressed. I will sit down in my jacuzzi tonight. I'm going to lay back with a stogie. (NYT, 7/5/09)
It was Arnold's Marie Antoinette moment - though to be fair, Marie Antoinette was never directly responsible for the suffering of the Parisian people. By insisting on massive cuts to health care, education, state parks, even the poison control center, Arnold will instigate widespread suffering across the state.
And now Californians are fighting back.
(Image by Daily Kos user Malacandra)
Today has turned into a day of action across California against Arnold Schwarzenegger and his continued insistence on insane budget cuts. The legislature's leadership and the governor continue to negotiate; we hear there is a possibility a deal may be reached soon.
Arnold has taken a hard line in these talks. He refuses to embrace new taxes at all, despite talk of shared sacrifice - what kind of shared sacrifice is it when the rich and the large corporations aren't asked to give anything? When their loopholes and favorable tax laws are left alone? While everyone else sees their health care cut back, or their kids put into classes of 35-40 kids, or their college dreams denied because the cost of attending a UC or a CSU has risen beyond anyone outside the upper class's ability to pay?
The combination of the governor's reckless proposals with the tightening of the negotiations makes activism all that more important. To help ensure Democrats do not cave to Arnold's demands, including his new proposal to suspend Proposition 98 and thus cut many billions more from education (see my post at Calitics for more on that subject), Californians need to rally against the governor's proposals.
The Courage Campaign, where I work as Public Policy Director, is rallying our members to take action. We commissioned Eugene Hedlund at Truth and Hope, which has done some great video work in recent years, to produce this online video as a call to action:
We're asking people to call Arnold Schwarzenegger and demand that he stop trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. His main number is 916-445-2841 - click here for other office numbers and to report the results of your call.
Some talking points:
• The governor should call for truly shared sacrifice and support closing corporate tax loopholes, asking the wealthy to pay a fairer share, and restoring the vehicle license fee to 1998 levels.
• He must reject cuts to health care and other public services that the poor and working families depend on to survive.
• Arnold needs to put economic recovery at the forefront of his budget plans, and ensure that all Californians will still have the opportunity to get a good education. Tell him to drop his plans to suspend Proposition 98, which voters approved to ensure education would be given a minimum level of funding.
California's financial crisis has several causes - the economic downturn, the stupid rule requiring a 2/3rds vote of the legislature to pass a budget or raise a tax, Prop 13, and any number of other issues. California progressives are already working on each of these issues, but we can't fix those overnight. Meanwhile Arnold Schwarzenegger is using his bully pulpit to demand cuts and to refuse to support new taxes, even though if he did embrace new revenues (such as closing the tax loopholes) he could help break Republican resistance, something he has never seriously attempted to do.
If these budget cuts go through and Arnold succeeds in imposing a shock doctrine on California, it will not just be us, but the nation as a whole, that suffers. Virtually every state is going to need federal assistance at some point, California especially. But let's first do our part to clean up our house by showing Arnold Schwarzenegger we do not accept his efforts to let California collapse.
Take action now and stop Arnold.