As we all know, California has recently been cutting back on education funding. Over 3 billion dollars was proposed to be cut statewide by Schwarzenegger last March. But education isn't the only area suffering from low funding. Prison guards have recently been upset by Schwarzenegger's proposal to cut their pay back to $6.55 an hour. The state deficit is now at an incredible 15 billion dollars, and understandably Schwarzenegger is trying to cut back. However, I don't think that he is doing a very good job of spinning these cuts in the right direction. Schwarzenegger was interviewed tonight on the CBS Evening News about the budget cuts, and he had THIS to say.
Just past 1:20 in the video Schwarzenegger mentions a "rainy day fund" that he wishes we had to dip into at times like this. Well, he has been in office for 5 years, and HE didn't make one, so who exactly is he blaming? Grey Davis? Davis put into effect many bills (mentioned in the "Prison" article above) that raised pay and the budget state-wide, so I guess he is partially to blame. However, Davis' actions don't give Schwarzenegger the right to escape all of the bad press. He isn't being very responsible by dodging questions and blaming past Governors and the State Legislator (time-stamp 1:07).
The prison guard union is trying to recall Schwarzenegger, and I think they have the right idea. I know it's an idealistic notion, but political officials should take responsibility for their shortcomings! I think it's time we got a new head of our state.
8 comments:
Do you really want the governor recalled? Gov. Schwarzenegger has not been the best governor that California has had, but he is certainly not worthy of recall. While the governor has not been as strong as he might be in trying to get the budget passed, he inherited a very large deficit which he has helped to lessen. He is largely pro-environment and has been known to be bipartisan and stand up against Republicans (as he has on the budget) and the president on several issues. A recall would cost the state millions of dollars that it does not have to get a governor who, realistically, will not be able to do any more than Schwarzenegger is doing already on the budget. It would distract us from the real issues being debated now. And, if it landed on the November ballot, a recall attempt could draw backlash against the Democrats if they supported it, potentially harming Barack Obama's chances against John McCain in this state, which are already harmed by Prop. 8. In short, a recall attempt is a bad idea.
I guess I should have clarified my last line a little bit more. I'm not so much in favor of an immediate recall election, but I think that Schwarzenegger deserves to take a little bit of heat during the next governor election. I'm not sure when that is, though. I know he has some good environmental policies and all, but his budget management is totally out of control.
Maybe now isn't the time to worry about California's government when the nation's is up for grabs, but it needs to be remembered in the future.
Don't forget that Schwarzenegger got into office when Gray Davis was recalled and that recall was based on Davis' mishandling of energy issues (it turned out that the corrupt Enron Corporation unethically gamed the system) and because he had the gall to *raise taxes* to meet a budget shortfall.
As enjoyable as schadenfruede could be in this instance, I'm not for recalls unless there is actual corruption.
The prison-industrial complex is a subject for another day. It is hard for me to get bent out of shape about the power of public employee unions without getting hypocritical. Nonetheless, better them than us.
I remember this article in today's Daily Journal under the title "Total Recall sequel?" and I was shocked to read that: "The five-year contract signed by Davis cost the state $2 billion. Besides a hefty raise, it gave the union big increase in overtime, sick leave,fitness pay and pension benefits". While I believe that prison guards deserve just compensation for their work, this contract was passed after Davis had received $2.6 million dollars in campaign contributions from the unions between 1998 to 2002! I doubt that the state of California can continue to afford such contracts when our budget plan needs to lower the federal minimum wage. This recall seems to be an attempt to get back the corrupt contract they got under Davis.
Interestingly, the article next to the one above was: "Senate rejecting GOP budget plan". To me, it seems that Governor Schwarzenegger is adamant in passing a budget plan, but the state legislature is unwilling to budge. Who to blame? You tell me.
I am two for two in not liking the idea of recalling governors based on short term job performance. I believe that the founding fathers had a good reason when they set up a republic in which the executive branch operates above the immediate whims of the population. Recalls and impeachment should be strictly limited to criminal acts. We have an entire state legislature to check the governor’s actions. Lobby your state legislature, lobby the governor, and throw the bum out at the next election if you don't like the way he is acting. If every governor is looking over his shoulder in fear of being recalled, how are we ever going to have a politician who makes a tough, and perhaps unpopular in the short term, decision?
Whats the point in having the Governor recalled? Some of the problems don't just come from the state but from the federal government as well. It is not the governors fault that the money California is getting is not sufficient, it has to do with the economy and it has to do with how the federal government appropriates money to the states. I don't the the governor should get recalled just yet, we should give him more of a chance and let the presidential election take place, and the state budget plan intact before we make any real moves against the governor.
California has long had a tradition of having more of a direct democracy than the federal government has. That's where we get the ability hold recall elections to remove elected officials from office, the ability to file ballot initiatives to be voted on by referendum instead of the state legislature, etc.
However, just because these democratic rights are more accessible to the average voters in California than they are at the national level shouldn't mean that these powers should be taken less seriously. There's a good reason why it is so difficult to impeach elected officials on the national level--it's so that the impeachment process cannot be used recklessly. Thanks to that fact, both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were able to avoid being removed from office for reasons that history now judges as nontrivial and not constituting high crimes or misdemeanors.
The statewide recall election, on the other hand, makes it much easier for elected officers to be removed from office for political reasons. That could be why only eighteen states permit recall elections--of those, seven of them require some specific grounds for the recall to be specified by the petitioner based on some form of malfeasance or misconduct while in office. (California is one of the eleven that does not require specific grounds.) And even then, only twice in U.S. History has a sitting governor been successfully recalled from office.
Regardless of your opinion of Gray Davis' recall, he was not removed from office for committing high crimes or misdemeanors. While the reasons prompting his recall were complex, for all intensive purposes, he was removed from office due to public frustration with the energy crisis and the state budget. Now we're looking at Governor Schwarzenegger whose political points are being hurt by yet another state budget issue. Therefore, it really seems hypocritical to be in favor of recalling Governor Schwarzenegger when you opposed the recall of Gray Davis, or vice-versa. I didn't think that Gray Davis' recall was justified, and I don't think a recall of Schwarzenegger at the present time would be justified either, because it would set a very bad precedent for what would happen whenever governors became politically unpopular.
I did read the article about the prison guard union's attempts to recall Schwarzenegger. While I'm certainly all in favor of union activity, I can't help but think that the rationale behind it sounds really selfish. Sure, those prison guards may not have a contract, but they do make $80,000/year according to that article. Good luck finding a public school teacher who makes that much--my parents are both public teachers, and between those jobs and a few smaller odd jobs they have on the side, our combined family income is only around $85,000/year. So I don't really feel that sympathetic to the prison guards, and I feel that their attempt to get him recalled is the wrong solution to their problem.
Unlike our United States president, who has committed impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors (see Dennis Kucinich's 35 articles of impeachment if you don't believe me, but I won't get into that now), Governor Schwarzenegger and our state legislature haven't broken laws with this budget issue, other than that part of our California Constitution implementing a June 30th deadline for the budget. What has happened, however, is that we have hit a major state deficit that is going to require compromises from all sides, but no one is finding it in them to compromise. No, we should not cut public education and other public services into oblivion, but yes, we're going to have to reasonably expect some modest cuts. No, we don't want to see taxes shoot sky high, but we're going to need to do some tax raising to obtain some additional revenue, and getting rid of a number of large corporate tax loopholes is a good place to start. The Assembly-Senate Conference Committee has proposed a budget that takes a much more balanced approach to solving the budget issue that does involve modest tax raises and the closing of tax loopholes, but factions of our legislature have been too stubborn to consider passing the Conference Committee Budget, which makes life very difficult when it takes a 2/3 vote to get a budget approved. (Learn more about the Conference Committee Budget: http://tinyurl.com/6qkb6s)
Recall is not the solution to this budget crisis. We need to diligently remind our assemblymembers and senator that a budget needs to be passed as soon as possible, but that it is critical that they pass a fair and balanced budget that distributes the burden of the state deficit equally among all of the interests of the state of California.
FYI "webmacster87" is Douglas Bell. I'm trying but I can't get Blogger to actually display my real name. Man, I hate Blogger so much. :/
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