Political Hay
Jerry Brown’s Phony Budget, Broken Promises
A lesson in how an aging pol soils his image for good.
Following the back-and-forth of California’s calamitous politics in Sacramento is like shopping at the grocery store: Everything costs more these days and most things have an expiration date.
Take Gov. Jerry Brown’s most decisive pledge from last year’s campaign. It’s even worth quoting directly from one of his most prominent campaign ads that featured Brown, close-up and in darkened background, soberly addressing the viewer:
I’m not going to give you any phony plans or snappy slogans that don’t go anywhere. We have to make some tough decisions. We have to live within our means, we’ve got to take the power from the State Capitol and move it down to the local level closer to the people, and no new taxes without voter approval. We’ve got to pull together, not as Republicans, or as Democrats, but as Californians first. At this stage in my life, I’m prepared to do exactly that.
This was a smart and solid ad, and it connected with voters. But it apparently came with an expiration date of June 27, 2011. That was the day Brown decided he’d sign on to a sham of a budget deal negotiated solely with Democrats and agreed to their tax increase demands — campaign pledges be damned.
Brown claims that after half-a-year of seeking Republican support for new (even temporary) taxes, he’s thrown up his hands four days before the new fiscal year and concluded a bipartisan deal is impossible. “I thought we were getting close, but as I look back on it, there is an almost religious reluctance to ever deal with the state budget in a way that requires new revenues.”
So much for pulling together as Californians first.
The one-time seminary student may have a feel for faith, but his intended insult to Republican resolve shows he maybe should have listened to his teachers more intently. The GOP is not gripped by the zeal of the converted, but by a common-sense conviction that government is too big, taxes are too high and that California’s not merely struggling — it’s in serious trouble.
Brown, on the other hand, is falling for the seductive nature of the modern government budget process — a heady experience tailor-made for liberals who believe government spending is first among equals of every public policy choice.
The specifics of the “handshake budget” between Brown and his Democrat allies are clearly not the stuff that responsible governance is made:
• $4 billion in higher projected revenues in
2011-12
• $150 million cut to University of California
and California State University
• $150 million cut to state courts
• $200 million in Amazon.com online tax
enforcement
• $2.8 billion in deferrals to K-12 schools and community
colleges
• $300 million from $12 increase per vehicle registration fee
• $50 million fire fee for rural homeowners
Higher projected revenue. Online tax enforcement. Increased auto fees. Deferrals to schools and community colleges. Levies on rural homeowners.
This isn’t a budget. It’s a bridge loan from the government to itself. And every Californian is paying for it.
Where are the incentives for new hiring? Where are the regulatory reliefs for a private sector fleeing piece by piece to friendlier business climates? Where are the reforms of a runaway pension system that threatens to bankrupt the state? Nowhere.
Jerry Brown has a gift for campaigning and a feel for public opinion. Without these attributes, he could never have gone this far — and certainly not staged his epic comeback to the Governor’s Office 36 years after first arriving there.
This time, however, he’s critically misjudged both the politics and the politicians and surrendering to a course of action he ran against to get elected. Worse, no one (not even he) even pretends that this corrupt deal will address any of California’s structural problems.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (65) | Leave a comment
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.1.11 @ 6:24AM
Most politicians lie. Some more than others.
Our federal government is also full of pathological liars and con artists.
Put the blame on a public who exist with their hands out and really feel they deserve something from the government simply for having existed.
One day the crash is coming and even then there will be many who will claim we can tax and spend our way out of it. It will be too late of course, but the tax and spenders will still insist that everything will be all right.
lydia | 7.1.11 @ 8:31AM
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Are the liberals deliberately trying to bankrupt every governmental unit that they govern? It's hard to believe that they're that deliberately stupid.
Barney Frank| 7.1.11 @ 10:55AM
Lydia: If you are mature, you know it is wrong
and illegal to promote your prostitution business on the internet....Stick to practicing medicine if
you really are a Dr.,which I doubt.
oldfart| 7.1.11 @ 6:33AM
Governor Moonbeam has not changed at all. MOTS - more of the same.
Perhaps more eco-freek regulations that destroy what is left of California industry is necessary.
Perhaps declare money is not necessary - that everything is free - no need for money - no budget - no problem.
Appleby| 7.1.11 @ 5:47PM
When he was last governor, his big promise was to put music in the parks and spray Malathion on gypsy moths. The leopard cannot change his spots.
Timothy L. Pennell| 7.1.11 @ 7:26AM
I don't understand the story. Jerry Brown is a LIAR? Jerry Brown is NOT doing what he said he would do? A DEMOCRAT is a LIAR? A DEMOCRAT is NOT doing what he said he would do?
What's next? Bill Clinton is an Impeached RAPIST? John Kerry is a Rich Widow chasing IGNORAMOUS? Charlie Rangel is a TAX CHEAT who would be in a FEDERAL PENITENTARY, if he wasn't a BLACK DEMOCRAT? Barney Frank's a fat old QUEER, who lets his lover run a GAY WHOREHOUSE out of his D.C. Apartment?
I know: Obama is PURPOSEFULLY destroying this Country from the inside?
Duh.
Do you have anything we DON'T know?
Kilgore Trout| 7.1.11 @ 10:50AM
Ya know, Tim, sometimes ya gotta let it out and say what ya mean, so go ahead and DON'T HOLD BACK THIS TIME! :)
Drunken Sailor| 7.1.11 @ 12:40PM
Tim,
Love your post, but enough of the caps already. Your making my ears hurt.
Timothy L. Pennell| 7.2.11 @ 7:16AM
You're just DRUNK.
Frekki| 7.1.11 @ 8:13AM
What did you expect? That left socialist California suddenly would live in the real world? I left California for Indiana 25 years ago and am still amazed at the self deluded fantasies of my home state.
But, since they absolutely cannot face reality, I am wondering how they are going to blame this on us.
Vote Loud| 7.3.11 @ 8:43AM
Like spoiled brats, they know daddy (FedGov) will bail them out when necessary... just to do it all over again.
Sell California to Mexico.
The producers will leave and contribute and the moochers will learn what poverty means.
We get the revenue of the sale and cut our loses in the future...
Hmmmm how about NY, Chicago...
Had enough of those clowns!
Bill S| 7.1.11 @ 8:25AM
Are the liberals deliberately trying to bankrupt every governmental unit that they govern? It's hard to believe that they're that deliberately stupid.
Kilgore Trout| 7.1.11 @ 10:52AM
NO. IT'S NOT...HARD TO BELIEVE.
Patrick| 7.1.11 @ 12:38PM
It's their religion. Their "faith" to left liberalism will not be shaken. They will get their revenge upon "the rich", even if they have to kill everyone else to do so.
Mike Rogers| 7.4.11 @ 2:49PM
Most interesting - I was just reading the P.I.G. to Socialism by Kevin Williamson - as he shows over and over, when the PLAN fails, it is because the people have failed the PLAN, not because the PLAN is wrong, so - more of the same is required until poverty and starvation are spread evenly amongst the populace.
Bill S| 7.1.11 @ 8:29AM
Liberals obviously have a disconnect between their policies and reality. They definitely have less economic intelligence than conservatives. They always fall for the lie that if we double tax rates we will double tax revenues.
Chalkdust| 7.1.11 @ 8:37AM
Well I do declare, Jerry Brown is a liberal demoncrat and he has tapped into Obamisky's winning strategy which is...lie like hell and get in bed with the local and national news media to get elected.
Is the average califorication voter, who kicked to the curb a great woman candidate who was spending her own money to get elected, any wiser? The short answer is a resounding NO! Stay tuned to the next chapter of "Idiots Band Together".
RCV| 7.1.11 @ 7:03PM
Meg Whitman was a dreadful candidate. She was spending her own money because even the Republicans in the state -- and there are plenty of wealthy ones here, which is why all the GOP Presidential contenders hold so many fundraisers in California -- wouldn't waste significant funds on her doomed campaign.
Ground Control| 7.2.11 @ 12:47PM
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!!!! There is no more dreadful a candidate than Jerry Brown! He was a terrible governor the first time around. He is worse now! Brown is an over-educated dolt who doesn't understand basic economics and is in politics because he can't do anything else. You can harp on Whitman all you want, but it is utterly meaningless. Brown won because he is a Democrat (this is, after all California, the land of illegal alien voters, the land of corporate subsidies, the land of kooks) and Brown is and will continue to be a terrible governor. He will drive this State right over the edge. Will Rogers was right: when the Okies of the Dust Bowl days migrated from Oklahoma to California, it raised the average IQ in both States!
RCV| 7.2.11 @ 8:08PM
Yes, it's a testament to how bad Whitman was that she couldn't beat Brown. Had the GOP been smart enough to nominate Tom Campbell, he would have won handily.
Nick| 7.2.11 @ 11:17PM
RCV,
Since Campbell is a bigger liberal than Arnold, he would've been worse than the Governator, and, only slightly better than Governor Moonbeam.
RCV| 7.3.11 @ 11:22AM
He's a economist who trained under Milton Friedman at Chicago and a true fiscal conservative. His social views are more libertarian. He's no mindless idiot like Schwarzenegger.
Ground Control| 7.3.11 @ 1:05PM
Just for the record, I did not vote for Guvvanor Ahhnoldt. I voted for Tom McClintock. And by any objective measure, Meg Whitman would have done better than Brown, since it was Brown's cowtowing to government unions that created California's budget mess in the first place. Voting for Brown is like voting for Mrs. O'Leary's cow for Fire Chief.
JEB| 7.4.11 @ 11:59AM
Gee Ground Control, it's nice to meet the other Californian who had the good sense to vote for Tom McClintock.
No person in CA knew more about CA's financial situation then McClintock. This was at a time when the state could still be saved from the impending financial disaster we are facing today.
But CA voters, in their infinite wisdom, elected a celebrity who continued the ruination of California.
California is doomed. We will be but the 1st of the socialist states to go the way of Greece.
Nick| 7.3.11 @ 5:17PM
RCV,
Okay, it would be a close call as to which one would be worse. I'll give you that.
But, history shows that those who claim to be "fiscally conservative" and "socially liberal" tend to usually vote for tax increases and usually don't cut spending. That's why we call them RINOs.
RCV| 7.3.11 @ 6:49PM
There are some of those to be sure. Tom Campbell isn't one of them. He's about as straight a shooter you'd ever meet. I got to know him briefly when he taught at Stanford Law School. He's now dean of a small conservative law school in Orange County.
Nick| 7.3.11 @ 11:20PM
RCV,
Yeah, Hugh Hewitt had Campbell on his show this week. But, I just remembered the real reason I don't like him. On top of him being pro-abortion, that is.
He hemmed and hawed about voting for the impeachment of Bubba 'the pervert' Clinton, in '98, and in the end only voted for 2 of the 4 articles of impeachment.
Unforgivable in ConservativeLand.
RCV| 7.4.11 @ 1:37PM
Tom is a thoughtful independent scrupulous constitutional lawyer. He only voted for articles of impeachment that he believed sustainable. I admire him for his integrity. We could have had no finer governor.
Reprobate Charlatan Vomitus| 7.5.11 @ 3:25PM
I don't bother with silly thoughtfulness, scruples, constitutionality, admiration, and integrity of the tea partiers I abhor for sanctimonious conservatism, for wholly lacking in intelligence, for lacking a shred of real Christian love, for lacking a shred of compassion, and for espousing policies damaging to our country, on also at least belonging to the party that cares about human beings AFTER they're born, and other thoughtfulness, scruples, constitutionality, admiration, and integrity matters.
RCV| 7.6.11 @ 7:13PM
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Reprobate Charlatan Vomitus| 7.8.11 @ 4:25AM
I don't bother with silly confusion whether 'zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz' qualifies as thoughtful, scrupulous, or admirable as a post of no finer integrity on posts in a thread on californian phoniness matters.
Junius| 7.1.11 @ 9:00AM
During this budget farce not one word, not a single word was uttered by either the Commiecrats or the Republicans about illegal aliens costing this state a conservatory estimated $13 Billion a year in benefits. This state is wholly owned and run by a band of Marxist environmentalists, unions, communists, and illegal aliens. Jerry Brown is a charter member of this club and to those of us who are conservative, nothing he has done as governor so far comes as a surprise.
Ammo Guy| 7.1.11 @ 9:54AM
I guess there is no need to ask the last citizen leaving California to turn off the lights since they will have already gone out long before - just make sure you have a flashlight.
Publius| 7.1.11 @ 11:07AM
You are correct, but you can ask the last real American leaving to please grab the flag.
Colin | 7.1.11 @ 11:09AM
"This was a smart and solid ad and it connected with the voters ..."
With all due respect to Mr. Foy, the only voters Jerry Moonbeam's phony ad connected with were the brain-dead drones who were going to vote "blue" come hell or higher taxes and the undecided, uninformed who, on the whole, have the political i.q. of Cheese Whiz.
Billions in debt, government unions and illegal aliens swarming the state like rats through a sewer and who do they vote to put back in office?
Like I said -- Cheese Whiz.
JP| 7.1.11 @ 11:09AM
Like Illinois, Amazon is pulling its business from California.
Dustoff| 7.1.11 @ 11:24AM
Jezzzzz I remember both Gov Moonbeem and his father, who had no problem spending the state to the point it is now.
I left in the 1990's and never looked back.
Folks, keep voting for fools like these lib's. Expect to be broke for a long time.
Martin Owens| 7.1.11 @ 11:46AM
California is beyond saving. The reason the various interest groups pretend it still works is so they can position themselves to get their chunk of the carcass, and get away clean (as they think). But since they're all doing it, there still won't be enough to go around when the merry-go-round breaks down.
Those Who Know Best can see perfectly well what's about to happen. What they're counting on is their connections will see them through, and the catastrophe will happen to somebody else.
What the hell, the spectacle will be good for a sour laugh or two when it all goes splat.
MarkR| 7.1.11 @ 12:31PM
"At this stage in his life, Brown would be wise to re-watch last year's campaign commercials and remember what he promised.
The voters surely do. "----Do you live in California? And I guess you do by your credentials at the end of the article- impressive. What are you smoking? The voters of this state would vote in Hugo Chavez with cancer! The rats have been leaving this sinking ship for the last decade and a half. The voters here love government and look at the state assembly if you dont believe that. I wish I could be as optimistic as you that the voters are ready to make a change- but I cant say I do. Sure they want no new taxes- but they want their government programs as well- and the latter is much more important.
Redstateboy| 7.1.11 @ 1:35PM
where are the committed Leftists who come to TAS ? where's Purpleguy, RCV, Alan Brooks.. where are the Liber-uls who can explain the value of their political philosophy when anyone with half a brain can SEE the destructivness of Liberalism. No Republican/Conservative/GWB to blame here.. YOU Liber-uls Own California. You and Liber-ulism alone are destroying the "Golden State."
Bob Grant| 7.1.11 @ 6:16PM
But Aaaaarrrnullld did it!
RCV| 7.1.11 @ 7:00PM
Here I am! The budget finally passed makes tough cuts -- the cuts to the courts, for example, will result in closing around 70 courtrooms in Los Angeles county alone. Nor are the projected revenues unrealistic -- revenues in the first quarter of this year were $3 billion higher than projected. The fact is that the budget passed by the Democratic legislature is the first on-time balanced budget in many years, and it was done without any significant tax increases. Just worry about your own sorry states - California will take care of itself.
JEB| 7.4.11 @ 12:04PM
RCV, you are delusional!
Redstateboy| 7.1.11 @ 2:01PM
Seems Californians appreciate Greece since they're head-long for it.
wolflen| 7.1.11 @ 2:08PM
its simple math..you cant support CA & mexico ...unless you do what sacramento has been doing for the last 30 yrs...if CA got serious...mexico would protest..and call us racist..
thus higher taxes etc..someone has to pay for the illegals
AllenTexas5| 7.1.11 @ 5:31PM
Would a nuke blast on the San Andreas solve anything?
Nunya| 7.1.11 @ 6:26PM
Nah.... The state won't slide into the ocean no matter what, so it would just be a waste of a good bomb. That is, unless you could convince the leftists that by sitting on it they could solve the world's problems AND global warming. ;-)
Bob46| 7.1.11 @ 6:38PM
I'm with AllenTexas5. It's waaaayy past time.
Dan| 7.1.11 @ 8:03PM
Californians deserve Jerry Brown, they voted him into office so let them suffer with him.
CalMark| 7.1.11 @ 10:25PM
I overheard two state employees discussing candidates in early 2010. One was a McCain "Republican" the other was a 60-year-old hippie. Both agreed that Jerry Brown would be best for state employees.
...who happen to be one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) CA voting bloc. Any guesses how those two self-absorbed, morally oblivious characters, and their brethren (including lots of "Republicans"), voted?
Joe R| 7.2.11 @ 12:25AM
Gray Davis dug the grave. Arnold provided the coffin. Now Moonbeam has shoveled the final speck of dirt on the paradise that was once California. RIP to the Golden State.
Ventura Capitalist| 7.2.11 @ 1:00AM
So who's running the 8th largest economy in the world??
The president of the California senate is the former political director of the SEIU. The speaker of the assembly is the former political director of the UFCW (food and commercial workers union). The CCPOA (prison guard's union) put $2 million into Jerry's election campaign. He gave them a $600 million contract. The CTA (teacher's union) has pledged $60 million in propaganda funding for a tax increase election.
The public employee union death grip on California is absolute. They have ruled the state for decades. It has the worst credit rating in the country and the highest paid public employees, and some of the highest taxes. There are more employees working in government than in manufacturing. California has 12% of US population but 33% of US welfare cases.
John Perez, speaker of the assembly and former union political director: "It's absolutely clear the only permanent solution for California's problems is to elect a two-thirds majority of Democrats in each house of the Legislature." They will then be able to raise taxes at will.
This means just 2 state senate seats and 2 assembly seats have to flip to democrat. The unions have put all the pieces are in place to make that happen: They have packed the new redistricting commission with democrat and union operatives; the "jungle primary" system they have put in place will result in two democrats facing off in general elections in many districts; the SEIU has announced a plan to buy the election of "moderates" in Republican districts; they will continue to pump hundreds of $Millions into the election campaigns of democrats who operate for them and into primary challenges to those who do not.
California is doomed.
Scott| 7.2.11 @ 1:48AM
Brown has a "straight shooter" image? Who knew?
Johnny| 7.2.11 @ 7:12AM
I just hope and pray that the old saying, that I despise, as goes California so goes the nation, will never come true in this case. If we in the other states are stupid enough to follow this as an example then we are surely all doomed to slavery to the government!
Jocon307 | 7.2.11 @ 10:05AM
Jerry Brown, committed liberal, can't stand up to the legislature. Arnold Schwarzenegger, RINO par excellence, couldn't stand up to the legislature.
Do we see a pattern here?
The voters could stand up to the legislature, thrown the bums out, and get some good changes made.
But, there really isn't any reason to think that they will.
California will probably become just like a Latin country, a totally rich upper class and a totally poor lower class, with only the courtiers of the public employee unions constituting a middle class.
How did that work for France?
SeniorD| 7.2.11 @ 11:19AM
There's no hope for California. Here is a state in which Socialism is rampant, the Legislature is out of control and doesn't even consider the unwashed masses to be of any significance. Sure, the state voters do have the ability to foist Propositions on the Government, but voter's desires are easily circumvented by the Leftist Judiciary.
To my knowledge, the only certifiable sanity zones are found around military bases. The people there are getting screwed by the Socialist Government. The idea of certain counties seceding from California has merit.
POST American| 7.3.11 @ 1:07AM
"--We are using MASSIVE third world
immigation to destroy British culture
once and for all ----FOREVER."
-TONY BLAIR
Fmr PM/Globalist/Cultural EUGENIST
(Daily Mail interview)
As the Rockefeller/Ford Foundations
MASSIVELY fund, advise and direct the
Mexican 'Reconquista' and 'La Raza' movements
(ON RECORD)
---the 'agenda' holds here and worldwide.
Mexico is GONE. California is going.
America and Canada are following.
Globalist front RED China is COMING.
ANY QUESTIONS?
chuck| 7.3.11 @ 9:56AM
Damn, you really are Dee See!
JB| 7.3.11 @ 1:54AM
speaking as a person who grew up and still lives in California, I have my bets covered and will do okay despite the idiocracy that populates this state.The light at the end of the tunnel appears to show how a beautiful and abundant place to live can turn into a third world cesspool when run by the liberal establishment,union interests, and illegal immigration lobby.This state is like an experiment gone bad and serves as an example to the rest of the country the path that presidente Obama will take us down, if given another opportunity.
Gary| 7.3.11 @ 1:23PM
There is no more money. There really is no more money. Yet, they debate over how to spend that which they do not have. It's Kabuki theater at its finest.
Liberalism really is a mental disorder.
Stan Redmond| 7.4.11 @ 9:37AM
there's no more money for YOU. There's plenty for them because they'll just take it from you.
DANSHANTEAL| 7.3.11 @ 2:15PM
Over the years my wife kept saying we had to leave California ( she was born in SF and me in Oakland). So in 2003 at age 63 we left for Medford, Oregon. We highly recomend it.
weddingdress | 7.5.11 @ 4:14AM
There's no hope for California. Here is a state in which Socialism is rampant, the Legislature is out of control and doesn't even consider the unwashed masses to be of any significance. Sure, the state voters do have the ability to foist Propositions on the Government, but voter's desires are easily circumvented by the Leftist Judiciary.
To my knowledge, the only certifiable sanity zones are found around military bases. The people there are getting screwed by the Socialist Government. The idea of certain counties seceding from California has merit.
POST American| 7.5.11 @ 10:58PM
----As we said, after 4 decades of deliberate,
systematic, U.S. taxpayer funded, Globalist-RED
China set up, sellout and TREASON, we are
indeed living in POST America.
THAT'S RIGHT
Now go back to Murdoch's Globalist FAKE op
FOX News and listen to the 'on board' Bill O'Reilly and co. serve up another round of that stale, stale, stale, watered down, yesterday's beer.
And tell yourself that everything's just ---DANDY!
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