| Today's SacBee is reporting that Republicans are planning to demand gutting of business and environmental regulation as a price of their support for any budget. Among their list of demands is an end to mandatory overtime pay (because you want workers to be paid less as we enter a recession), a one-year delay in the implementation of the AB 32 goals, state assessment of the effects of regulation on business, and a yacht and safe passage to Costa Rica. (Hmm, not sure about that last one.)
Speaker Fabian Núñez provided the proper response:
"It's unfortunate Senate Republicans are once again trying to use their budget leverage to push unrelated proposals that would dirty our air and hurt working families," Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said in a statement. "They tried unsuccessfully to do that last year, and their efforts will fail again this year."
Whereas Don Perata provided the wrong response:
"We are in such dire trouble fiscally, I am glad for anybody who wants to get into the game," Perata said. "We have not yet come to grips with how difficult this year will be. Everything must be on the table."
Don, the Republican proposals have absolutely nothing to do with the state's fiscal situation and would in fact make it much worse by destroying our economy and thereby lowering collection of taxes.
In any case Democrats may have been given a gift with this. They can go to Californians and say "we have a balanced plan to balance the budget, a plan that balances public services and public taxes. The Republicans prefer to hold the state hostage so they can implement a far-right agenda." Show voters who is really interested in solving our budget problems and who just wants to use it to ram more disaster capitalism down our throats.
Of course this all just shows the need to get rid of the 2/3 rule. Too bad nobody thought to spend some money on that one this year... |
