Restoring the Republic
California’s golden budget surplus...
[by Shawn Black] 1/12/06

We all know and understand that budget management and leadership requires flexibility, common sense and cooperation. Representing common principles and conviction, Republicans and Democrats were elected to positions of trust and have sworn to serve their constituents.

Somehow, many in Sacramento have forgotten their pledges, or ignored them altogether.

I am speaking about our state budget fiasco, irresponsibility and double talk we have sadly grown accustomed to. We all remember the golden “surplus years” in California. California Republican Governors have historically; overcome huge and impossible budget deficits. They proceeded to prepare for the future and to protect a golden surplus for Californians in time of need. We all remember the Loma Preita and Northridge earthquakes. How about the fires that ravaged southern California and countless other situations in which we all will certainly face again. Moreover, I have not even begun to think of the funds needed to help Californians in the event of a terrorist attack like the one on New York. In the near future, we will need that surplus to protect and to help rebuild California.

Do we all acknowledge the painful truth of the situation? The Recent State of the State address given by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hardly scratched the surface.

Let us start with the truth that we are spending more than we are taking in. Plain and simple.

Let us acknowledge that we must still repay the accumulated outstanding debt that we continue to incur on a daily basis.

The mounting debt of billions of dollars, and costly labor laws, serves as an anchor around the neck of California. Moreover, we wonder why so many companies are packing up and leaving California for good. Let us accept the fact that we must curtail drastically, politically motivated pork barrel projects and “Improvement” programs that are wasteful vacuums of the State finances.

The estimated 70 billion dollar bond measures as suggested by the Governor, fails to address the realties of the motivations and fiscal responsibility. The new bond measures inevitably will add billions more to our state principal and interest payments and will eventually be passed down to you and me in the way of new “tolls or water fees.” This is not fiscal responsibility. This is politics at the expense of the people!

And let’s accept the truth that until we really “Cut spending and reject the deceptive accounting shell game of “hide the debt”, that we will begin the reality of restoring the Golden State.

We all should have one goal in mind: eliminating the deficit. When we accept the truth and come to the realization that we as Californians need to roll up our sleeves and go to work, we can begin to do the job. We have done it before, and we can do it again. Moreover, that work begins with cutting the Government waste in Sacramento.

The solutions have always been there. Let us began by cutting state spending and paying off our existing debt. Plain and simple. Sacramento must be committed to this task. A “Cut” means a cut, not clever schemes that result in pay increases, and ever-expanding government.

Let us begin to work by slashing our excessive spending in our California Prison system on the care of our convicted Illegal Immigrant populations. With the exception of the violent and condemned, let us send them back home where they belong. Their vacation in California is over.

Let us work by streamlining government and eliminating mismanagement by contracting out cumbersome and repetitive administrative services. In addition, let us reexamine our State Lottery distributions and payment expenditures.

Those serving in Sacramento should reexamine their motives, and come to the agreement that we must restructure our ineffective welfare and Medicaid system. Waste, accounting issues and fraud, continue to take a toll across the state. In addition, we must put new and expensive projects on hold until we have eliminated our debt, not hidden it.

Perhaps we should look back at our purest beginnings, our example of devotion among this nation’s first founding fathers and leaders. We all recall that it was John Jay, the President of the Continental Congress, who argued so eloquently and in passion, concerning the virtues and principles regarding the ratification of the New Federal Constitution. It was John Jay who stated in the Federalist #2,

“In the mild season of peace, with minds in cool, uninterrupted, and daily consultation; and finally, without having been awed by power, or influenced by any passions except for love of their Country, they presented and recommended to the people the plan produced by their joint and very unanimous councils”

It appears that the people of this great California Republic are ready, able and willing to “roll up our sleeves” and work in repairing our state budget disaster. We also expect those in Sacramento to do their part, in fervent passion, and principled in devotion. CRO

copyright 2006 by Shawn Black

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