{"id":8434,"date":"2011-04-13T14:56:39","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T21:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=8434"},"modified":"2011-04-13T14:56:39","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T21:56:39","slug":"democracy-as-a-means-to-restore-fiscal-sanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=8434","title":{"rendered":"Democracy as a Means to Restore Fiscal Sanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest editorial by Ernest A. Canning<\/em><\/p>\n

Californians are all too familiar with the disturbing image now playing out in DC. <\/p>\n

Radical-right ideologues demand extension of the Bush tax cuts, retention of corporate subsidies, deregulation, a squandering of public funds on privatization schemes and pouring what is left of the National Treasury down the economic black hole that is war and the military-industrial complex. Hypocritically, they not only point to the massive deficits they themselves have erected, but hold a gun to the head of government, threatening to shut it down absent drastic concessions designed to extract a pound of flesh from those who can least afford cuts in government services as they target the last vestiges of the New Deal safety net.<\/p>\n

In California, a small minority of fiscally irresponsible, radical right-wing ideologues has employed the “give-us-what-we-demand-or-we-shut-down-the-government” tactic for over a decade, with devastating results.<\/p>\n

The state’s new (again) Governor Jerry Brown (D) would have done well to have read Paul Krugman’s The Great Unraveling<\/em><\/a> before<\/em> he re-entered office last January.<\/p>\n

Krugman aptly described the radical right that, in 2000, seized the reigns of the federal government as a “revolutionary power” which does not accept the legitimacy of our democratic system and which cannot be expected to negotiate in good faith.<\/p>\n

Three months into fruitless negotiations, Brown recently came to realize<\/a> that even though the state faces a catastrophic $26 billion deficit, CA Republicans would never<\/em> allow the state’s voters to decide whether to extend the temporary taxes on income, sales and vehicles to help cover the short fall.<\/p>\n

After negotiations broke down last month, Brown said: “Each and every Republican legislator I’ve spoken to believes that voters should not have this right to vote unless I agree to an ever-changing list of collateral demands….Republicans demand that out-of-state corporations that keep jobs out of California be given a billion-dollar tax break that will come from our schoolchildren, public safety and our universities. This I am not willing to do.”<\/p>\n

While the Governor has openly considered<\/a> by-passing the Republicans in order to permit direct democracy in which Californians themselves would vote on a temporary tax extension, that approach, even if successful, falls well short of the fundamental problem — that the current 2\/3 vote required to pass revenue legislation in the state’s legislature permits an irresponsible minority of right wing ideologues to hold the state hostage as it carries out its democracy-destroying and economically unsustainable, privatization agenda…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Engineering California’s Economic Collapse, revisited<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I observed in a November 2009 article, “Engineering California’s Economic Collapse”<\/a>, the state’s “looming fiscal catastrophe did not arrive by accident. It is, according to a number of progressive policy experts, the intended product of a Republican-led privatization scheme” which succeeded, in large measure, because California was then “the only state where a 2\/3 majority approval is required on all revenue and budget legislation.”<\/p>\n

The radical-right agenda, dubbed “starve the beast<\/a>” by Grover Norquist, is intended<\/a> to create such a massive sea of red ink that the government “could be drowned in a bathtub.” As Bill Moyers observed in Moyers on America<\/em><\/a>, the radical right agenda is “systematically stripping government of its capacity…to do little more than reward the rich and wage war.”<\/p>\n

By coupling the crippling of government with union-busting, the right seeks<\/a> nothing less than “an atomized society of disengaged individuals who feel demoralized and socially powerless” in the face of unchecked corporate wealth and power.<\/p>\n

California’s Democratic mandate for change<\/strong> <\/p>\n

With the exception of the race for Attorney General where Kamala Harris (D) narrowly defeated<\/a> Steve Cooley (R) (46.1% to 45.3%), CA Democrats bucked the national trend and defeated Republicans by a wide margin for every<\/em> statewide office in 2010.<\/p>\n

The Democrat Brown trounced<\/a> his Republican billionaire opponent Meg Whitman (R) by a margin of 53% to 42%. That, despite Whitman’s having spent a record $142 million<\/a> on her campaign. Barbara Boxer (D) defeated former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (52% to 42.6%) in the U.S. Senate race. Gavin Newson (D) defeated<\/a> Abel Maldenado (R) for Lt. Governor (50.2% to 39%). State Treasurer Bill Lockyer (D) defeated<\/a> Mimi Waters (R) (56.5% to 36.2%). Secretary of State Deborah Bowen (D) defeated<\/a> Damon Dunn (R) (53.1% to 38.6%).<\/p>\n

Democrats also maintained significant majorities<\/a> in both houses of the California Legislature. The CA Senate Democrats outnumber Republicans 25 to 15. There are 52 Democrats in the Assembly as compared to only 27 Republicans.<\/p>\n

Yet, here we are, just over five months after Californians soundly rejected the radical-right agenda at the polls, and it is the Republicans who are still dictating policy. And we call that democracy?<\/p>\n

Democracy is the only real defense to the radical right agenda<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Nov. 2009, George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, proposed a solution<\/a> — the California Democracy Act; a ballot initiative which read: “All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.”<\/p>\n

That failed, but not because Californians are adverse to the idea. Lakoff’s cash-strapped, citizens-initiative failed<\/a> to garner enough signatures to place it on the November 2010 ballot. <\/p>\n

California citizens were given the opportunity to vote for a half-a-loaf — Proposition 25, which permits state legislators to pass a budget by a simple majority instead of the two-thirds majority requirement. It was approved<\/a> by a comfortable margin (55.1% to 44.9%).<\/p>\n

But that measure only allows for budget items, in other words, spending matters, not revenue<\/i> (tax items) to be decided by a majority. Increasing revenue in any way still requires a two-third majority, hand-cuffing the governor and crippling the state legislature’s ability to do so, as Republicans stand firm against any form of responsible taxation to help close the fiscal gap.<\/p>\n

It would indeed be appropriate for Governor Brown and California Democrats to by-pass the minority and take their case directly to the voters, but that case should not be a stop-gap, temporary solution of tax extensions. The core of the problem is the undemocratic 2\/3 rule. Democratic governance can be achieved only when a simple majority of the people’s representatives are able to pass revenue legislation.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest editorial by Ernest A. Canning Californians are all too familiar with the disturbing image now playing out in DC. Radical-right ideologues demand extension of the Bush tax cuts, retention of corporate subsidies, deregulation, a squandering of public funds on privatization schemes and pouring what is left of the National Treasury down the economic black […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,21,299,420,300],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-california","category-democrats","category-election-2010","category-republicans"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8434"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=8434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}