FLASHREPORT

Democrats want Republicans to further ruin their "brand name" because of their overspending, and that is ridiculous.  Democrats have, year after year, authored spending plans that California government could not afford.  Now the proverbial chickens have come home to roost, and all of the overspending has led to a crisis.

Virtually every legislative Republican has taken a "no new taxes" pledge.  Contrary to the rhetoric of the left, I have yet to find a single legislative Republican who took the pledge because of a cynical "you have to sign it to win a Republican primary" strategy.  On the contrary - every GOPer in the Capitol to whom I have spoken feels very honestly that state government is too big.  Many have expressed a sentiment that Californians are punitively overtaxed.  Certainly when you compare tax rates in California verses those in the other states, you have no choice but to draw the conclusion that "the pursuit of happiness" is a lot more costly, in terms of tax burden, here in the "Golden" state.

So now Republican are supposed to dump their brand name as the party of limited government, lower taxes and individual responsibility and sign off on tax increases (by whatever fancy term they want to call them in Sacramento-speak)? 

So let's figure out the messaging that Democrat and Republican legislators get to use when going back to their constituencies to talk about a hypothetical "deal" that includes cuts and tax increases.

Democrat legislator to liberal constituency:  "Great news!  All of the overspending we've done for years has paid off - we got Republican legislators to roll on tax increases!  That means that the money coming into state government, especially when the economy picks up, will be more than ever!  I know the short-term cuts aren't fun, but let's all remember - we've been able to increase spending over the last 4 years by over 40%, and our cuts are a roll back of less than half of that" 

Republican legislator to conservative constituency:  "Well, we compromised.  Yes we raised taxes, which I know we promised never to do, but in return we got substantial reductions in the increases in spending that took place over the last four years.  Yes, most of the spending increases are still there - but politics is more of a running game, than a passing game.  And sometimes you actually lose a few yards in pursuit of the next down."

Let's say that Democrats actually sign off on placing a REAL spending cap on the ballot, and that the deal includes no permanent tax increases, but temporary ones, and that they are tied to the passage of the spending cap (maybe the temporary taxes and the cap are placed on the ballot).

Under the BEST CASE scenario, Republicans are still caught trying to explain WHY they broke their promise not to raise taxes.  Capitol insiders may be very fluent in explaining about why the placement of a cap is "worth" a compromise on tax increases, even temporary ones.  But try to explain the intricacies of that while campaigning for office.  Not so easy.

I'm still waiting for Democrats to explain exactly why, since THEY largely created this mess, that we cannot do as FR state capitol correspondent, former Senator Ray Haynes suggests, and simply go back a couple of years and re-adopt a state budget that actually spends what we can afford, and doesn't look to punish taxpayers?

If Democrats really want to create an incentive for Republicans to violate the "Holy Grail" of campaign pledges, especially since they were taken in a heartfelt manner, perhaps they should offer up some equally painful reforms.  They could include an end to collective bargaining agreements for public employee unions -- or better yet, why don't we just ban public employee unions all together?  How about the state immediately end all defined benefit retirement programs, moving to a defined contribution program for all new state employees (that last idea would have incredibly beneficial long-term benefits to the state budget).

In the absense of Democrats putting forward real substative and equavalant policy concessions that mirror the sacrifice they are asking of Republicans, it seems like everyone thinks that Republican legislators are chumps.

If you need to look for someone to blame because of the crisis, and the potontial "shut down" the government -- well, look to the Democrat overspenders.  And also ask them why they haven't put the billions of dollars in spending cuts that everyone agrees upon up for a vote.