Total Recall
I think I'm obligated under some obscure California
law to blog on the subject of the upcoming recall election. First off, I am of
two minds on the whole concept. On the one hand, I basically agree that the
recall is a bad idea, theoretically speaking. I think that the stability of
regularly scheduled elections makes more sense than parliamentary systems where
elections get called at odd intervals. We just had a chance to "recall" Davis
and replace him with the perfectly respectable Bill Simon, but didn't. Now
we're just playing by playground rules and calling a do over. And it is a
stupid do over. It is obvious when the recall was instated that the major
parties assumed it would never be used, or they wouldn't have designed an
election which minimizes the control of the parties. Any fool $3500 and a few
hundred signatures on a petition can run for governor, so we have 130 candidates
most of them who aren't just any fools, but the creme de la creme of fools.
On the other hand, Gray Davis is about as loathsome a politician as they come. Think Bill Clinton with all the corruption and none of the charm. Davis has proven to be little more than a prostitute, selling his vote and support to the highest bidder. Stories abound of him informing constituencies of the exact price in campaign contributions that will be needed to get him to support some piece of legislation. The result: a government spending binge of mind boggling proportions and a major financial crisi--barely papered over for the time being with illegal bond sales and a tripling of the vehicle registration tax. Without cuts, tens of billions of dollars in new taxes each year will have to be collected. This in a state with a 10% income tax bracket that starts off at $38,000 dollars of taxable income! This is even worse than it sounds because incomes are higher in CA. Basically if you are middle class, you may well find yourself in the highest bracket.
Part of the whole problem goes back to Davis's gross mishandling of the power "crisis" of a few years back. Everyone knew that the cockamamie "deregulation" scheme where consumer prices were fixed but producer costs weren't, along with banning of all long term contracts, insured disaster. The consumer has to pay for the actual costs of what he is buying, and producers need to hedge with long term contracts and derivative to dampen short term fluctuations. Once problems arose, Davis managed to find the optimally worst solution: he signed long term contracts with energy producers (in Texes, ha!) when prices where at there peak! These costs weren't passed on to the consumer through higher rates which would at least promote conservation, but instead were eaten by the government to be paid by the taxpayer anyway. Genius. Needless to say, seeing Mr. Davis humiliated as the first recalled governor in California history and the first in the nation since something like 1918 will be a real pleasure.
So what about the other candidates. Sadly, the polls seem to suggest that Gary "Diff'rnt Strokes" Coleman isn't likely to win, nor will the porn star (the wife wouldn't even let me download her campaign literature). That leaves Ahnold and Tom McClintock. All indications are that Ahnold is soon going to be moving into the governors mansion, but only time will tell. What do I think of the terminator. Well, he's an improvement over Davis, that's for sure. Still, he claims to be a fiscal conservative and social liberal. For those of you not in the know, that means liberal. There's also the rule (sort of like Nixon going to China) that says it takes a Republican to raise taxes. I have a hard time seeing Ahnold go aggressively after all the stupid spending needed to balance the budget as constitutionally mandated in CA, which means my taxes are going up. Worse, they are going up with a Republican in office--they are supposed to be for lower taxes dammit!
That leaves McClintock. He's a dyed in the wool conservative with an actual plan to fix the states finances without raising taxes. If it were passed it would do great things for the economy which is languishing as anyone with money or jobs heads for the border. There's a reason why cities like Las Vegas are booming. Unfortunately, McClintock can't win. Actually, if Ahnold weren't in the race he probably could have (if the state party got behind him, which wouldn't have been a sure thing since it didn't support him in is run to be state treasurer). But Ahnold is in the race, he is the man, and this isn't a what if universe. I am going to vote for him because it is critical to defeat Davis and his former lackey (now turncoat) Cruz Bustamante (Bustamante? Is that some sort of Mexican Russ Meyer's film?). It would have been great to see a true conservative (the first since Reagan) to take a crack at running this state. I think such a man could be a tremendous success, but I'll settle for Ahnold, because he is better the option b and he might surprise me.
On the other hand, Gray Davis is about as loathsome a politician as they come. Think Bill Clinton with all the corruption and none of the charm. Davis has proven to be little more than a prostitute, selling his vote and support to the highest bidder. Stories abound of him informing constituencies of the exact price in campaign contributions that will be needed to get him to support some piece of legislation. The result: a government spending binge of mind boggling proportions and a major financial crisi--barely papered over for the time being with illegal bond sales and a tripling of the vehicle registration tax. Without cuts, tens of billions of dollars in new taxes each year will have to be collected. This in a state with a 10% income tax bracket that starts off at $38,000 dollars of taxable income! This is even worse than it sounds because incomes are higher in CA. Basically if you are middle class, you may well find yourself in the highest bracket.
Part of the whole problem goes back to Davis's gross mishandling of the power "crisis" of a few years back. Everyone knew that the cockamamie "deregulation" scheme where consumer prices were fixed but producer costs weren't, along with banning of all long term contracts, insured disaster. The consumer has to pay for the actual costs of what he is buying, and producers need to hedge with long term contracts and derivative to dampen short term fluctuations. Once problems arose, Davis managed to find the optimally worst solution: he signed long term contracts with energy producers (in Texes, ha!) when prices where at there peak! These costs weren't passed on to the consumer through higher rates which would at least promote conservation, but instead were eaten by the government to be paid by the taxpayer anyway. Genius. Needless to say, seeing Mr. Davis humiliated as the first recalled governor in California history and the first in the nation since something like 1918 will be a real pleasure.
So what about the other candidates. Sadly, the polls seem to suggest that Gary "Diff'rnt Strokes" Coleman isn't likely to win, nor will the porn star (the wife wouldn't even let me download her campaign literature). That leaves Ahnold and Tom McClintock. All indications are that Ahnold is soon going to be moving into the governors mansion, but only time will tell. What do I think of the terminator. Well, he's an improvement over Davis, that's for sure. Still, he claims to be a fiscal conservative and social liberal. For those of you not in the know, that means liberal. There's also the rule (sort of like Nixon going to China) that says it takes a Republican to raise taxes. I have a hard time seeing Ahnold go aggressively after all the stupid spending needed to balance the budget as constitutionally mandated in CA, which means my taxes are going up. Worse, they are going up with a Republican in office--they are supposed to be for lower taxes dammit!
That leaves McClintock. He's a dyed in the wool conservative with an actual plan to fix the states finances without raising taxes. If it were passed it would do great things for the economy which is languishing as anyone with money or jobs heads for the border. There's a reason why cities like Las Vegas are booming. Unfortunately, McClintock can't win. Actually, if Ahnold weren't in the race he probably could have (if the state party got behind him, which wouldn't have been a sure thing since it didn't support him in is run to be state treasurer). But Ahnold is in the race, he is the man, and this isn't a what if universe. I am going to vote for him because it is critical to defeat Davis and his former lackey (now turncoat) Cruz Bustamante (Bustamante? Is that some sort of Mexican Russ Meyer's film?). It would have been great to see a true conservative (the first since Reagan) to take a crack at running this state. I think such a man could be a tremendous success, but I'll settle for Ahnold, because he is better the option b and he might surprise me.
Posted: Tue - September 30, 2003 at 06:08 PM
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Published On: Oct 18, 2003 11:44 AM
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Published On: Oct 18, 2003 11:44 AM