America’s voters delivered an unequivocal message in last week’s election, both at the federal and state levels, that they demand fiscal responsibility, including less spending, lower taxes and a more limited role for government.
For some reason, California didn’t get the memo. Californians decided to cling to one-party rule, giving Democrats the clear advantage in statewide offices.
We don’t plan to second-guess Golden Staters; they may have seen shortcomings in the Republican challengers. But at least those Republicans, especially gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, would have been able to provide a check on the state legislature’s proclivity to tax, spend and regulate itself into oblivion.
We’re less sure that anyone formally nicknamed “Governor Moonbeam” can or will provide an effective counterbalance to the legislature’s—and let us not forget the unions’—outlandish demands.
California faced a budget gap of $45.5 billion in the 2009-2010 legislative session, while unfunded pension obligations are estimated to be in the $500 billion range. And that gap will likely worsen this time around.
But the previous budget crunch didn’t stop the legislature from passing stupid legislation, like the state Senate’s single-payer health care reform bill a couple of years ago. The bill was estimated to cost a fortune, about $20 billion, which the government didn’t have. But, hey, what’s $20 billion when you care more about convincing the public you’re trying to do the right thing than convincing creditors you’re trying to make ends meet?
Most Californians apparently aren’t embarrassed by their fiscal train wreck, even to the point of handing out IOUs instead of money. If that’s the way they want to be governed, let them.
BUT, the concern is that when things get bad enough, Governor Jerry Brown will come tiptoeing to Washington looking for a state bailout. Congress should reply to a California bailout request the way it should have responded to all of those bank requests: You are not too big to fail!
A Democratic White House and Congress would not have come to that conclusion, but a Republican House of Representatives should. And given the message the voters sent last Tuesday, it better.