Our
View: Quick fix for our budget woes
We've
found our miracle cure for California's
deficit, or apparently Schwarzenegger has.
To think it was right in front of us this
whole time and we never even saw it.
The
solution to our recently inflated deficit
is not to raise taxes, or implement fundraising
bills but to borrow more money! Of course,
we were morons not to have seen it before.
But
really, we're no economists here, and maybe
even the political scientists could set
us straight. But how in the world does borrowing
money get you out of the hole? It must be
some sort of GOP magic trick. Kazaam, we
will magically make this budget deficit
disappear with no new income and a brand
new loan. Neat trick.
Although
Schwarzenegger has not yet taken the throne,
his brilliant accounting skills have apparently
already turned minuses into pluses and the
red into black. This would be great if it
wasn't based on borrowing money to cover
it.
Admittedly,
Schwarzenegger has done California right
by taking his photogenic self to Washington
where he, of all politicians, could not
be ignored. Seeking money from the federal
government is like robbing a homeless guy.
The federal government is already running
on borrowed time and money, running a huge
deficit and still doling out the greenbacks
for Iraq and the war on terrorism.
What
we have here then is a seriously new situation.
Arnie has guaranteed a few things to the
voters of California. No car tax, he says.
No cuts to education, he says. Now with
the fires and the vetoed moneymakers, instead
of the expected $8 billion deficit left
over for next year, California will once
again be facing a $25 billion budget shortfall.
This
is like déjà vu; didn't we
just do this? Of course the Southland wildfires
were out of everyone's hands; California
did the best they could with almost every
resource they had for those. But this kind
of disaster may mean that Schwarzenegger
has to fudge on a few campaign promises,
and maybe he should before he borrows more
money on his four years of borrowed time.
After he's gone, we'll still be left with
his big fat loan.
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