Submitted by admin on Thu, 2005-11-17 09:00. ::
I strongly disagree with the notion that the $50 million or so spent on the special election was a "mistake" or that the $50 million was spent as a war on public employees.
In spite of known budget problems, Californians passed Proposition 71 (Stem Cell Research) and agreed to spend up to $3 billion over 10 years, with the total cost possibly running to $6 billion when the bond is finally paid off.
Not once that I know of did anyone voice disagreement with the expense. Do the math and see that $50 million for the special election is only 1.7 percent of $3 billion.
Gov. Schwarzenegger has essentially steered the course desired by the people when he was voted in. On a number of occasions he has compensated for some bad legislation: he vetoed the same-sex marriage bill and the illegal immigrant driver license bills.
Neither of these is supported by the majority in California. Had the Cedillo driver license bill not been vetoed, issuing and then having to revoke licenses due to federal legislation may have cost the state a substantial sum.
The governor tried to get the Legislature to move on financial reforms but failed. This led to the attempt to get needed legislation passed by going to the voters.
As suggested a few days ago in this newspaper, let's do the important propositions again (i.e., Propositions 75, 76 and 77) and wear down the opposition.
We need a way to get voters correctly informed well ahead of the vote so they have a basis with which to counter misinformation. For sure, the power of the state's unions is disproportionate to the state population. We need a state where the Legislature and our congressional representatives answer to the people.
It was High Noon on Nov. 9, and hoping for a miracle to reverse the trend for Propositions 73 through 77 would have been to anticipate holding the winning Lotto ticket.
What is it with Californians? Granted, the Democrats are in the majority in the Legislature and the unions outspent Schwarzenegger's campaign three to one.
The voter turnout was miserable, and we don't see the irony in our complacency to vote whereas we fight wars to provide voting power to people in other countries.
I tell you who probably did turn out en mass - union members, the special-interest "freeloaders," and the "born-again" liberals with tainted causes to save the world and save us from ourselves.
I thought that Proposition 76 to bring California back from fiscal disaster was one of, if not the most, significant initiatives on the ballot. It appears we don't take deficit spending by Sacramento seriously.
Perhaps we all have become too comfortable with living beyond our means and accumulating debt, and we don't see or simply turn a blind eye to the same behavior of our legislators charged with fiscal responsibility.
We elected Arnold in a landslide victory to replace the spendthrift and special-interest courting Gray Davis, and we knew Arnold would face an entrenched and stubborn-as-a-mule Legislature.
I believe it was the latter. Unions in their infancy championed the cause of legitimate labor grievances. Today, unions are the hidden political party straddling and manipulating both sides of the political fence to assure their self-centered agendas.
Legislators' and the state's woes are in the headlines. Arnold Schwarzenegger's only chance for another term is to resign and run in the GOP primary in June.
With the lowly regarded Legislature and Gov. Cruz Bustamante running the state, there is a good chance the Democrats will mess it up worse than Gray Davis did, giving Arnold a good chance of winning.
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