It's not a coincidence that our national fiscal situation went from surplus to deficit while the Republicans held the White House and the Congress. They are currently suffering (and have been for, oh, about 20 years now) from a mass delusion that cutting taxes is always, always, always the best policy, not matter what, while not having the guts to cut spending by an equal amount.
In California, the GOP holds the governor's seat and has enough support in the state legislature to make it impossible to raise taxes:
GOVERNMENT BY TEMPER TANTRUM....Pardon me for yet another rant about Arnold Schwarzenegger and the budget travails of my home state:
Next year's state budget, with no changes to current programs or revenues, will be $10 billion in the red, and similar shortfalls are projected for the following years.
So the pattern has been that Republicans agree to cuts proposed by Democrats but then leverage the requirement for a two-thirds vote on the budget to block any proposal that would increase revenue. And we end up with bad quick-fixes. The perfect example is the $15-billion bond issued in 2004 to cover the last major budget shortfall. Repayment on that debt now costs the budget $3 billion a year, a stark reminder of the price we pay for putting off the structural overhaul the budget system needs.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-laird28nov28,0,3556218.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail Democrats deserve blame for mismanaging California's budget in the early 00s, but it's hard to overstate just how irresponsible and infantile Schwarzenegger and California Republicans have been since then. In 2003, in the middle of an existing budget crisis, Schwarzenegger ran a demagogic and pandering campaign based on cutting California taxes by $4 billion. Then, to fix the shortfall this caused, he supported the 2004 bond measure. The net cost to the state of this GOP flight to fantasy now adds up to $7 billion per year.
If it weren't for Schwarzenegger and his fellow GOP tax fanatics, next year's projected shortfall would be $3 billion — or possibly even less. That would have been manageable. Instead we careen from crisis to crisis thanks to the government-by-temper-tantrum practiced by modern California Republicans. Thanks a lot, guys.
