Dan Walters Apoplectic Over Schwarzenegger’s Budget Gimcracks….But the Best is Yet to Come!

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

Dan Walters has been crusading, as usual, against the political “mess” in Sacramento. Walter’s focus of late has been the state’s budget deficit and what to do about it.

Like all journalists who never have to depend upon voters to retain their job, Walters can speak with disdain about those who do. He believes union-driven Democratic spending on the one hand, and tax-cutting Republicans on the other got us into this mess.
His solution would visit punishment on politicians of both parties: Force painful spending cuts from the Democrats, and end the charade of Republicans trying to identify themselves as the ‘no tax’ party by forcing them to agree to a take hike.

Governor Schwarzenegger, as always, is trying to please everyone. He has spending cuts that Democrats oppose and tax hikes (on a contingency basis) that drive Republicans crazy - so one would expect Walters and the Capitol press ‘pack’ to praise him.

But the press hates this budget. You see, the on-going deficit isn’t resolved by some combination of spending cuts and tax increases. Instead, the Governor proposes borrowing against future lottery revenues to alleviate the need for cuts he abhors and to avoid (probably) the tax hikes opposed by his party. The lottery loan would be repaid when the good times roll.

To Walters and his colleagues, this is another ‘get out of town budget’ that papers over the problem without facing it.

Oh, if our political leaders were only chosen by editorial writers instead of voters.

Voters, you see, oppose deep spending cuts and don’t want higher taxes. After decades of journalistic coverage of government that focuses on waste, corruption and inefficiency, voters have come to accept that picture as an accurate depiction of the whole. Upwards of 80% of the voters – a majority of both party registrants – believe “over half their tax dollars are wasted”.

Believing this, voters naturally don’t want taxes raised or cuts in public education or services for the poor, aged, blind and disabled. We can fix the problem by cutting the wasteful spending!

So here is the poor Governor. Faced with an electorate that opposes new taxes and his own party’s lawmakers who oppose new taxes, he is castigated by the press corps for not forcing a tax increase on epublicans (somehow). And faced with an electorate that opposes his ‘across the board’ spending cuts and with Democratic lawmakers who won’t support those cuts he is castigated by the press corps for backing away from such cuts.