Last night I attended my monthly continuing education meeting. Lynn Freer, the head of Spidell, believes that sooner or later the bad budget bill being debated in Sacramento will be approved. I’m hopeful that they’ll throw it in the trash can, because what we need to do is very clear: real spending cuts.
Take a look at this chart from the Tax Foundation:
This is yet another case where a picture tells everything you need to know.
Revenues have been increasing, yet spending has zoomed higher and higher and higher. Spending cuts—deep, real spending cuts—must be made. The budget under consideration contains more borrowing and more bad assumptions. What happens when taxes go up? Tax revenues go down. If this budget is passed come June there will be more debates about the budget because California will be looking at another $6 – $10 billion deficit.
Hopefully the Republicans will stand firm and vote down this bad budget. In what I think is a hopeful sign, Senate Minority Leader Dave Codgill (R-Modesto) has been voted out and replaced by Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta).
The Sacramento Bee has an online calculator to show you how much the budget will cost (if approved). For a typical family earning $100,000, with two cars worth a total of $20,000, commuting 35 miles a day (total), and with two children, this budget would cost $1,197. That’s about $100 a month—far more than the benefits from the porkulus stimulus that was signed into law yesterday.
Do our legislative leaders in Sacramento have the guts to actually look only at budget cuts? No. Might they be forced down this road? Only time will tell.