The Governator needs to listen (and live up) to his own promises
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in California | Economy | Fiscal Discipline | Government-run health care | Health care — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
We should all applaud Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stark honesty about the disastrous condition of California’s finances in his State of the State address Tuesday. The budget deficit currently being run by the state is $14 billion and, with the recent revelation that another $118 billion will have to be found over the next 30 years to cover guaranteed health benefits for retirees, this number is only poised to increase for the foreseeable future. The Governator is expected to declare the state to be in a state of Fiscal Emergency later this week, and has already proposed dealing with the economic disaster by releasing tens of thousands of prisoners early.
In his State of the State address, Schwarzenegger commendably spoke of responsibly reacting to the budget crisis by committing “to permanently rein in spending” and “not to raise taxes."
Unfortunately, his continued pursuit of the poorly-titled "Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act" gives the lie to those promises.
Read on.
In pushing this legislative attempt to give government more control over the state’s health care apparatus, Schwarzenegger is still advocating billions of dollars in tax increases. These tax increases on hospitals, business payrolls, and tobacco will impose even greater financial hardship on working Californians, and will not result in appreciable improvement in the health care and health insurance markets.
Schwarzenegger should follow his own promises not to raise taxes, and should seek courses of action that can effectively combat California’s fiscal and health care crises. Fighting wasteful government spending and opening up the health care market to more competition and less regulation would be a good start.
Disclosure: Jeff Emanuel is Research Fellow for Health Care policy at The Heartland Institute and is managing editor of Health Care News.
of what happens to anyplace when the percentage of economically literate ( or just plan conservative people) falls to a powerless minority status.
Mark my words, nothing will get better unless and until there is a total economic free fall in the state. Unfortunately that will probably drag down the rest of the country.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
California is also a tale of what can become the Republican national party if all you focus on is social conservative issues.
For the past 10-15 years the CA Republican party have been dominated by the social conservative wing of the party, all social issues all the time. Fiscal along with law and order issues are second or third tier issues for the party. As a consequence, Republicans are distinct minority in the assembly, with very few state wide office holders being R's. California is actually not all that liberal, outside of the coastal strips, but if the choice comes down to a hard core social conservative Republican or a Democrat, Democrats win.
I'd call California a cautionary tale of what can happen when Republicans go hard core social conservative all the time...sounds like the Pastor Huckabee tune to me, we loose "Big Time" to Democrats.
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Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
I think we'd all appreciate if you'd start to sing a new (and more honest) tune...
P.S. In fact CA is very liberal in more than just the coastal areas these days. I haven't met a real conservative in CA for some time in the various parts of the state I've been in.
IJB
Somehow I doubt it, and somehow I'd guess you're part of the Republican kamikaze squad supporting Mullah Huckaboob.
Unelectable in a general election, prepared to destroy the Republican party...new Huckabee moto.
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Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
...(i.e., the Governor) has never been a SoCon; in fact, that was one of the biggest knocks against him in his first election.
Jeff
Arnie was not I repeat NOT embraced by the CA Republican party in the recall, and as a matter of fact he could never win in anything other than a special election. It was amazing that he won on his own.
Our last two Senatorial candidates where total lightweights, but were "Right" on abortion and gay rights according to the power brokers.
Even Orange county has gone D with the Sanchez sisters, in no small part because the purity tests on social issues demanded by those controlling the R party out here.
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Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
A lot of the changes, particularly in OC, have more to do with the influx of immigrants to the county than social conservatives flexing undo muscle in the party.
I have grandparents from both sides of my family who were GOP County Chairpersons during the Reagan-era, and I can tell you that neither of them could even recognize what OC has become if they were alive today to see it.
Michael Huffington wasn't a social conservative, and he got beat by Feinstein in a Republican Wave year. It's not that our candidates have been too socially conservative, it's that they've either been terrible politicians or empty suits.
The fact is, we demand our candidates be good on fiscal AND social issues. That's balance, that's not a bias toward one side.
When our Governator put his weight behind 3 big state ballot initiatives that would have de-fanged some of the liberal powerbase of this state (redistricting laws, public employee unions, etc.) and then they lost, Arnold has been trying to recast himself as a moderate/liberal to keep his poll numbers up.
He bootstomped that idiot the Dems put up in 2006, but apparently all the adulation and crossover appeal to I's and D's went to his head because he now seems addicted to it.
This state has become so liberal in recent years it almost feels like living in a foreign country sometimes. I think Arnold is doing what a lot of blue state Republican governors do, and that's selling us out to curry favor from a bunch of liberals that will be more than happy to stab him in the back someday when the opportunity presents itself the same way he is doing to us with taxes and going back on his promises on prisoner-release.
It's too bad. I had high hopes in 2003 that he would use his force of personality to move this state more to the Right the way Reagan did. Either it's a hopeless cause and Arnold realizes it, or he simply got addicted to being popular with independents and liberals. Both are a letdown.
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Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
I don't think Arnie is interested in being a legislator in DC.
He might be interested in preserving a political career in the future, or maybe even getting on the ticket as Rudy's VP, but I can't see him running for Senate.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
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to pay Paul, you can always count on Paul's support.
I had a discussion with an acquaintance (a samll business owner) yesterday (in Confiscafornia) who maintains that healthcare should be *free*. Might as well have been talking to the wall in trying to explain that there is no such thing as free, only shifting the burden of paying to someone else. The notion that healthcare could be provided by the government for free if only Republicans weren't so corrupt and mean and evil is so deeply ingrained in his mind as to defy any attempt at logical discussion.
Suffice to say, I am not optimistic that Ahnuld will be successful.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
Alexander Tyler
I am a Christian Constitutional Conservative . I DO NOT support any candidate with an R next to his name who: ! Expands Gov't outside constitutional contraints - that is social issues, "global warming","health care," etc etc.
Identity politics does not cut it.
Secure the borders, defeat the Islamists, defeat the Left, shrink the F'ing Govt - Feds, State and local to a point that is sustainable.
Taxes at all levels are TOO HIGH and we as a nation can not compete globally while carrying the burden of these idiot social programs.
Eliminate the govt school monopoly and generally get the govt out of people's way and things will improve.
Socialism is dead . Arnold is - like many- about 40 years behind the curve.
Huck is not my man. A RINO version of Jimmy Carter.
The left's already buzzing about property tax hikes (repealing prop 13 in the process), sales taxes, income taxes, you name it.