BY: Mary Mostert, Analyst
Yesterday California's politicians went into shock over the decision of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien's decision disallowing any spending of state funds until the Democrat Legislature and Republican Governor finalize the budget. The court ruling resulted from a lawsuit by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which had challenged the legality of state spending after the July 1 deadline. The State Constitution requires legislative approval for all expenditures.
In effect, the decision closes down California's government far more effectively than the impasse that occurred in December 1995 when Clinton vetoed H.R. 2491, the first balanced budget to be presented to a president in forty years.
Remember how the nation's media handled the situation? All the blame for "closing down the government" was scathingly heaped on the new Republican Congress – and Speaker Newt Gingrich in particular because he was determined to balance the budget – and "extremist" position, according to the president.
Democrat Congressman Lee Hamilton said on the floor of Congress: "This Reconciliation Bill is a war without bullets because--while there are no weapons nor bloodshed--it does the same kind of harm to the lives of millions of Americans. "This Reconciliation Bill is a war without Bullets because--while there are no war torn streets and bombs echoing in the air--it will, if it stands, leave a stinging scar on the hearts and in the minds of our citizens."
The "War" analogy is popular with the Clinton Administration on whatever comes up. Now he is at "War" with Kenneth Starr.
In his radio address after the veto of Reconciliation Bill, which was the first balanced budget in 40 years, the president said, "I did it because that budget violates our values and would have hurt our economy. I did it because in so doing I vetoed the most massive cuts in Medicare and Medicaid in history, a tax increase on working people, and deep, deep cuts in education and the environment.
"This effort to balance the budget through wrongheaded cuts and misplaced priorities is now over." He then talked about his "Seven year plan to balance the budget" which would have greatly increased the federal budget.
Well, the debate wasn't over. In the first place, there WERE no "cuts." What the Republicans had done was to slow the growth of the increase in the budget. This is what was dubbed "wrongheaded cuts and misplaced priorities" by the President.
What Gingrich and the Republican leadership did was to take the mammoth bill, which included much of the "Contract with America" goals, and start tucking bits and pieces of it into other legislation.
That didn't work either. Clinton vetoed the provisions a second time as they showed up on his desk, while blasting the Republicans for their extremism. Then Gingrich began working on the conservative Democrats in Congress. At this point, the Democrats were not paying much attention to the conservatives in the party and they began to see that their only way to get THEIR agenda considered was through the Speaker of the House.
Quietly, out of the spotlight, Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott have forged what has become the major governing force in Washington – a veto proof plurality in the Congress composed of moderates and conservatives. In a short period of time EVERY goal of the Contract with America had become the law of the land, and the President had signed it.
However, it was only signed because the president knew that he had lost. So, he signed all the provisions, one by one, which were in HR 2491 – and some of the provisions in the later bills were actually tougher than those in HR 2491.
Then he announced on the air that HE had balanced the budget. That so infuriated the conservatives that a lot of them got mad at Newt Gingrich.
And what happened? Did the economy suffer? No. It started booming. Did it a cause any "stinging scars on the hearts and in the minds of our citizens?" I doubt if one person in a hundred can even remember the name of the bill. Have seniors and the poor suffered and died, as was predicted, because of the most "massive cuts in Medicare and Medicaid in history?" No.
And now we have a replay of the December 1995-January 1996 Budget Play being reenacted in California – this time with a Republican Governor and a Democrat legislature. At issue is, believe it or not, a $4.4 BILLION surplus in the state treasury. GOP Governor Pete Wilson wants an across the board, permanent, substantial tax cut for Californians, who pay one of the highest tax rates in the country. The Democrats in the Legislature want to keep the money and give a temporary small, token tax cut – so they can finance more entitlement programs.
Guess who the media hints is to blame THIS time for the impasse? The Republican governor, of course. However, this time the Democrats trying to blame the Republicans for trying to destroy the State may not work – even in heavily Democrat San Francisco. The governor wants to use most of the $4.4 Billion to cut the State's steep car taxes by 75%.
That sounds pretty tempting even to strongly Democrat unionists. But Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, seeking to convince the public that really that actually DID want to continue paying those ridiculous car taxes, said: "There are also differences that separate us from the governor and our Republican colleagues,'' he said. ``At stake is the health and welfare of millions of Californians, the education or our children and the future funding of local governments.''
Now, where have we heard that before? Both sides are scurrying to figure out how they are going to restart the government – and it will takes a two-thirds majority. Real disaster could be ahead. The politicians discovered after the Federal Government closed down that instead of disaster resulting, that few people outside of government noticed any difference in their lives and some found their lives improved.
It's an absolutely scary thought that maybe Californians would be better off if the offices of the bureaucrats and regulators in the State capitol closed and STAYED closed.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com