ARNOLD is a Republican: Spend and Borrow

John Laird reports:

Next year’s state budget, with no changes to current programs or revenues, will be $10 billion in the red, and similar shortfalls are projected for the following years. Some elected officials responded to this news earlier this month with time-worn bromides. Others painted themselves into a political corner by taking hard-line positions on certain cuts or new taxes a full eight months before next year’s budget votes.

Some politicians? Does he mean our governor who brags about being an FDR Democrat on spending and being a Reagan Republican on taxes. While some pundits praise Governor Schwarzenegger for being both, I want to tell you how much this ticks me off. But Kevin Drum has done that for me already:

Democrats deserve blame for mismanaging California’s budget in the early 00s, but it’s hard to overstate just how irresponsible and infantile Schwarzenegger and California Republicans have been since then. In 2003, in the middle of an existing budget crisis, Schwarzenegger ran a demagogic and pandering campaign based on cutting California taxes by $4 billion. Then, to fix the shortfall this caused, he supported the 2004 bond measure. The net cost to the state of this GOP flight to fantasy now adds up to $7 billion per year. If it weren’t for Schwarzenegger and his fellow GOP tax fanatics, next year’s projected shortfall would be $3 billion – or possibly even less. That would have been manageable. Instead we careen from crisis to crisis thanks to the government-by-temper-tantrum practiced by modern California Republicans. Thanks a lot, guys.

Tell me again why we recalled Gray Davis and put ARNOLD in office? Tell me again why we gave this cowardly phony another full term?