George Will is not a happy conservative. In this Washington Post article titled ‘A Conservative Travesty’ he reminds his fellow GOP’ers of who it is they’ve elected and what they can expect from Schwarzenegger.
He addresses the campaign promises to repeal the unpopular car tax which will cause the deficit to ‘grow’ by 50% while not cutting education programs, which Will writes, thanks to what the public did in a 1988 initiative — is roughly 50 percent of state spending.
He also admits Republicans are not opposed to tax increases so long as they’re initiated by their party referring to them as ‘revenue enhancements’ instead. And it’s a good thing, I suppose, since as Will also reminds his readers:
During the coming presidential campaign, California’s Republican governor will be busy proving the fatuity of his proposal to solve California’s budget crisis by cutting waste, fraud and abuse — things for which there is no constituency. In 2004 President Bush will not campaign in a California seething with resentment of spending cuts and attempted tax increases advocated by a hugely unpopular Democratic governor. Instead, Bush will campaign in a California in which the Republican governor will be illustrating the axiom that today only a Republican governor can substantially raise taxes.
This is so because the people, in their zeal for majority rule, have mandated, through the initiative process, a two-thirds supermajority requirement for raising taxes. Which means the Republicans’ legislative minority is large enough to block a Democratic governor’s request for tax increases but probably is not starchy enough to resist a Republican governor’s request for — Republicans believe in recycling, at least of squeamish rhetoric — “revenue enhancements.”
However Will may be worrying for naught. According to this NYT’s article:
Schwarzenegger Lays Foundation for a Transition to Power
By DEAN E. MURPHY
Arnold Schwarzenegger strongly suggested that he would call on President Bush to provide federal aid to California.
Californians must be breathing a sigh of relief. I suspect this is the reason so many voted for the cad taking a page from their Floridian counterparts.
So in this respect they have willfully engaged themselves as victims of Arnie and his leverage with the WH. That some people think they can find some comfort in this position suggests to me a further descent into a victims’ mentality syndrome.
I also think some writers need to hold their ink on the subject of Schwarzenegger and his ‘support’ of civil unions [never marriage] since many of us noticed his willingness to cave on the issue when it comes to garnering votes.
Schwarzenegger, however, “is trying to have it all,” says Karen Ocamb, a Los Angeles-based gay political journalist. Despite his moderate stance on many social issues, he hired Rob Stutzman, a Republican operative who once worked for Proposition 22, the antigay Protection of Marriage Initiative, to be his campaign spokesman. Although Schwarzenegger came out for civil unions, Stutzman later contended that his candidate was still studying the civil unions measure before committing to it.