With the latest CA budget, his governnorship of CA can only be considered a failure. He’s blown the one big thing that the People elected him for: fixing the budget without new taxes.

So. Cons are much more likely to look out for the taxpayers.

True, DeMint is teh awesome!!!1! And Palin up in Alaska. As counter-examples, though, look at the simply awful work of Mike Huckabee, or George Bush (on domestic policy / economics), or Rick Warren’s public dance with the philosophies of Chairman O. Social conservatives are as capable as anyone of being fiscal liberals, or Big Government crypto-socialists. I’ll just concentrate on looking for the country’s real fiscal conservatives, who may be social liberals or social conservatives.

But you can’t get out of a recession if a state the size of California goes bankrupt either.

I disagree. If the State of CA went bankrupt – and therefore, put itself on a severe crash diet – it would be a very good thing for most of the people, businesses, tax rates and jobs of CA.

I mean, come on. We’re a state with a 9% income tax rate AND (now) a 9% sales tax. Why are we so much more expensive than other states? Don’t tell me it’s real estate or cost of living, because I’m saying that the tax rates themselves are higher. A 5% sales tax in a cheap State yields a lesser amount, appropriate to that State. A 5% sales tax in a more expensive State yields, by definition, a greater amoun, appropriate to that State. Yet our rate is now 9%. Why??? What could be so special about us? Or so great about the services we’re getting?

ILC, you probably don’t live in California.

I do. As a resident, I’m too familiar with the gerrymandering.

the Republicans did as well as can be hoped

Fact of life: You can’t tax your way out of a recession. Except in the minimal amounts needed to pay for police, courts and military, taxes always make things worse.

Good news is that this budget re-establishes spending caps

That’s something, I guess.

Good news is that this budget re-establishes spending caps, which will limit future spending by the idiot party that got us into this mess. It’s something the Democrats were fighting vigorously to prevent. I would love to have balanced this budget without tax increases of any kind, solely by cutting government expenses. But with a deficit of $42 billion dollars, federal and state restrictions on what could be cut where, and the fact that the Democrats in change don’t give a dam about fiscal responsibility, the Republicans did as well as can be hoped. Republicans who are whining and moaning about those who signed on to the budget live in some strange fantasy world, where the majority party in California would cut all aid to illegals and ship them all back to Mexico. Sure, that would help balance the budget, but, sorry, that will NEVER happen, especially when the districts are gerrymandered to keep things in the status-quo. Instead, the hard-core Republicans would hold onto this delusion and have the California government go belly up, which means no police, firefighters and release of criminals from the jails. But that’s OK, because we didn’t raise taxes. And who do you think would get the blame? Who got the blame when the Federal government shut down in 95? California’s finances are in shambles, but having it become insolvent is much much much worse than tax increases. Plus, now that the citizens in this state will be forced to feel the results of their crappy political leadership where it counts, in their wallet. Maybe, just maybe, things will change. (OK. that’s being a bit too optimistic).

I applaud the Republicans who voted for this budget. They held out as long as they could. Reagan understood that sometimes you HAD to make these kind of compromises. Too bad those Republicans who supposedly revere Reagan don’t seem to know who he was at all, and are stuck worshiping a myth of the man instead of the real thing.

After Prop H8 I shed no tears for the Golden State. You reap what you sow.

When they recalled Gray Davis they should have thrown out the state legislature too.

I disagree that sonic’s post on the budget (that you linked) was worth reading. When I saw it just now, it was something not-too-interesting about gerrymandering, followed by a rant on Reagan’s tax record and the supposed sins of his followers. Yawn.

Are there any p-o-l-i-t-i-c-i-a-n-s out there who really are socially l-i-b-e-r-a-l and f-i-s-c-a-l-l-y c-o-n-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-v-e? I can’t think of any.

Are there any politicians out there who really are socially liberal and fiscally conservative? I can’t think of any.

he has definitely become Arnold Shriver.

Uhm, YES!!!

But that happened as soon as his four propositions were defeated in 2005.