It's Your Fault
It's your fault for the recall. Predictably, the newsies are all over the map on the cirus in Collyvornia, but an unsigned LA Times editorial pins the blame for the recall squarely on the voter:
The root of California's problems is not its governor. It is in large part the voters themselves.
Voter-approved initiatives over three decades have hamstrung government and assured gridlock. They include term limits that guarantee inexperienced legislative leadership; Proposition 13, which aside from cutting property taxes crushed local governments' ability to pay for services; Proposition 98, which dictated school spending. Schwarzenegger himself helped hobble the schools with an initiative requiring after-school programs. The approval of Indian casino gambling gave the state nothing in return.
Voter-approved initiatives over three decades have hamstrung government and assured gridlock. They include term limits that guarantee inexperienced legislative leadership; Proposition 13, which aside from cutting property taxes crushed local governments' ability to pay for services; Proposition 98, which dictated school spending. Schwarzenegger himself helped hobble the schools with an initiative requiring after-school programs. The approval of Indian casino gambling gave the state nothing in return.
The Times wants us to believe that, somehow, we are at fault for the Davis administration budgets that led to a $38 billion deficit. Apparently, the root of the problem lies in Collyvornians mandating how government will spend money; in some cases (as in Prop 13) even limiting the state's ability to take money from us.
Oh, I get it, if we had just shut up and not passed any propositions, we wouldn't be in this mess. Doesn't democracy work the other way around?
No comments:
Post a Comment