The year was 1987. Ronald Reagan was President, Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man were tops at the video arcade, Michael Jackson was only slightly odd and NASA launched the Buck Rogers on the last of America’s deep space probes (well maybe not that last one).
However one other thing that happened that year was the California legislature failed to pass a budget on time and they have repeated that failure every single year since. For the last 22 years they have missed the deadline and in a matter of hours they will do so for the 23rd year.
This year of course the problem is even deeper because of the massive deficit which may amount to as much as 25% of the overall budget. That kind of debt is going to be very difficult to clear without lots of bad decisions, ranging from tax hikes to spending cuts. One thing we do not need is politics, but that looks ot be what we are going to get (again).
On the left, sites like Daily Kos and Left Coaster are, as usual, calling for little or no spending cuts, instead urging that the debt be cleared by ‘taxing the rich’. Given the current level of debt that would probably require raising the tax rate on some to as close to 100% as possible. They also urge getting rid of Proposition 13, which limits property taxes, though given the collapse in real estate prices I seriously doubt how much extra income they would get from such a deal.
On the right, sites like Red State and Polipundit are, as usual, calling for ‘spending cuts’ and ‘getting rid of the illegals who caused the debt’. Again, the level of debt is such that solving the problem entirely through spending cuts would require pretty much eliminating everything except schools and jails. Most analysts suggest that illegal immigrants cost perhaps $ 5 billion in extra spending. Even if you double that to $ 10 billion its still going to leave a pretty big chunk of the current $ 25-40 billion debt (depending on whose numbers you accept).
Oddly enough while both sides are overboard in wanting only their solution to be adopted, both sides have a point when it comes to what needs to be done. We need BOTH spending cuts and tax increases if we are going to get out of this mess.
Certainly working to resolve the issue of illegals is something that has to be done, and it would be nice if the demagogues on both sides could tone things down a little bit. Probably it will involve some mix of amnesty and deportations, and it certainly won’t solve everything but it will help.
We also need to make sensible tax hikes. I don’t like the prospect of increased taxes any more than the rest of you do, but reality is reality. Obviously here we need to try and minimize the negative impact of tax hikes (IE driving people and businesses out of the state) but something needs to be done.
Similarly we will need to make some hard choices on the spending side. Some areas, including the normally untouchable education budget, will have to take cuts that will hurt. But our first goal should be to try and make cuts where waste is still present. Union employees will have to accept that salary and benefits may need to be cut in order to spread the pain around.
Needless to say all of the above is easier said than done and it is reasonable to say that most politicans have the backbone of a jellyfish, so I don’t know that they will even try. The only thing I do know is if we aren’t to the point of no return yet, we’re getting pretty darn close.