From The While Rome Burns Dept.

Oddly, the majority Dems sent the Gov a budget full of the deep cuts he insisted upon, even though they will hurt the most vulnerable AND risk contracting the economy further during this very nasty recession...but the Gov would not sign it! Now he's on tv insisting on more pandering to the extreme right wing which is holding the budget negotiations hostage. The change in districting, to get rid of "safe" seats and make it harder for extremists to win elections, can't come soon enough...just hope it works.

And that 2/3 requirement to raise any taxes, even to repeal recent tax cuts in an time of fiscal emergency, as well as to pass a budget, has got to go. No other large states have this requirement. In fact, only two other states share this requirement at all. How much does CA have in common with Arkansas and Rhode Island?

While the "tea parties" (I didn't see any free tea to be scored at the local one here so don't bother going just for that) are playing on... another downgrade in CA bonds hit, yes that is CA bonds which were once holding the very highest rating. I'm old enough to remember, are you? Only one of many real COSTS to the recurring budget delays. Geniuses at work.

The tea parties are not exactly historically correct, anyway. The protesters throwing tea into Boston Harbor were opposing taxation without representation. If anyone is over-represented right now, it is the radical right, as they proudly refuse to allow a budget to go forward and cost us all a lot of money when we are trying to cope with a massive budget deficit. Our heroes.

Although I make a distinction between the radicals and moderate Republicans. I gave up bashing the GOP for the New Year. After all, I used to BE a Republican. And I'm still in trouble with a lot of liberals, believe it or not my Republican friends, for things like wanting to see the pension system for state workers revamped for future employees (since I don't see how the state can stand up under the projected future costs) and wanting to see some unions asked to make concessions in this fiscal emergency, such as the prison worker lobby. But I see a huge difference between an "I liked IKE" Republican and one of the Zombies For Voodoo Economics Redux. All someone like Limbaugh has to do is call on them and out they trot to do...stupid things. Well let's charitably say possibly uninformed things.

Clue: if an economy looks to be circling the drain, is more contraction the very best thing to do?

Yeah, you could say I've gotten a bit tired of Milton Friedman. I had him thrown at me a lot in school and suffered from overexposure a long time ago, anyway.

"Trickle down" economics. Guess what DID trickle down...ok way TMI. But predictable. If I predicted it, and I did, truly anyone could have who wasn't bewitched by Reagan, who was unfortunately sold on the theory, and was an excellent speechwriter and speechmaker. But at least when Reagan fell for it, it hadn't recently been tried and spectacularly failed. I'm amazed at the policymakers who can't remember as far back as the crash of...September/October. Of 2008! What ARE they smoking?

Ok Californians you have some serious work to do right NOW:

Dear Governor, Please sign the damn thing. Thank You, Average Citizen

Write or call him! I think the office is tired of hearing from me...

And please find out who your state legislators ARE (you have one for the state Senate and one for the state Assembly) and either support them for passing a compromise budget or tell them that holding it up is NOT making them look good.

Btw this whole IOU thing is still so whacked that it seems like aliens on an LSD trip took hold of our state government by stealth and steered it right over a cliff, just because they thought it was fun to do.

Pass. The. Budget. Now. It's your frigging job description, guys. The rest of us would have compromised on both sides, passed it on time, and be out enjoying the summer weather. Just sayin'.

P.S. And another friend just told me of their job loss. I have LOST COUNT of the folks I know who lost their jobs. Yep, it's the economy again, stupids...most of the electorate clusters around the moderate center and we are being eaten alive while some of you smoke stogies and others of you are still the highest-paid legislators in the country. The voters aren't just angry about taxes, for God's sake. But some of you have defined that narrowly as the problem and are using your definition for political gain, instead of passing a budget and stopping the fiscal bleeding, and frankly that pisses me off.