Will Democrats Shock Doctrine Us On the Budget?

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The "emergency cuts" discussed here yesterday are expected to pass both chambers of the legislature today and go to Arnold for an expected signature. Education, public transit, and health care face the bulk of the cuts, but most of the plan involves "creative accounting" to defer certain expenditures to the 2008-09 budget year, stabilizing the state's cash flow for the remainder of the 2007-08 year.

That leaves the big fight - the "big kahuna" as Fabian N??ez called it - for the 2008-09 budget. Unfortunately, N??ez is already trying to prepare Californians for acceptance of the Republican frame on the budget, that it must be closed through cuts. As quoted in the Bee article linked above:

"This is just the icing on the cake," said N??ez before the committee vote Thursday. "What's coming in the budget year are devastating cuts."

N??ez has spoken of a 50-50 split between new taxes and cuts to close the budget, but these are  not necessary. In fact, no cuts are necessary. The California Tax Reform Association has identified $17 billion in potential new revenues that would help ease our budget crisis, without firing a single teacher, denying health care to a single child, or closing a single state park. When I mentioned to Steve Maviglio that the yacht tax loophole closure wasn't a big deal he claimed that the 2/3 rule blocked more useful tax measures.

But what he hasn't considered is that 2/3 can still be achieved, even for tax hikes, even when you need Republican votes to get it. You have to force the Republicans to vote for it. Back them up against a wall, with a massive public campaign. Already teachers are mobilizing public campaigns to fight the cuts, and over the next few weeks, a coordinated campaign could push the Republicans into a corner where they either have to insist on unpopular cuts and thereby risk their seats in the November election, or go along with a mostly-taxes budget solution.

How do we know this would work? It's what Republicans do to Democrats all the time in Sacramento and DC.

When N??ez says instead we should prepare for "devastating cuts," he is kneecapping these efforts to provide public unity and to educate the public as to why our revenue shortfall has led California to economic crisis. No Democrat should EVER be telling the public we might need budget cuts, certainly not at the outset of what will be a long fight. What is needed most is unity and mobilization, and the only way you accomplish that, as Dave Johnson agrees, standing together and articulating progressive solutions - not parroting right-wing spin.

As I've argued before, Arnold is trying to "shock doctrine" us on the budget - create a crisis that is actually the vehicle for pushing through radical changes we would otherwise never accept. As Naomi Klein as well as the WGA have pointed out the only way to resist the shock doctrine is to stop speaking in a language of crisis, start speaking instead in a language of unity and determination to build a better future, and to actually remain united in the face of those trying to divide you.

It's time that Sacramento Democrats understood this. They have a golden opportunity to both reverse 30 years of decline and to benefit at the ballot box by doing so. But if they insist on accepting the Republican frame that spending cuts  must be the primary method to close the deficit, they'll accomplish neither.