Jerry Brown richly deserved his "Governor Moonbeam" moniker in his first incarnation as Governor (in the 1970’s). He emphasized his Zen ways, talked about the "era of limits" (before Reagan blew the top off of those limits in the 1980’s), and, with his unusual style, and odd public pronouncements, left the impression that he had more than his fair share of that "wacky tabacky" the use of which seemed to be on the rise in those days.
Before Jerry Brown was Governor, California had the best school system in the country. California had a freeway system that was envied throughout the world. 80% of Californians could afford a median price home. Gasoline was 22 cents a gallon, and water was prevalent, and cheap. Farmers didn’t worry about Delta smelts or fairy shrimp. We weren’t a welfare magnet, and bruceros crossed the border to work legally in the fields, and then went home. The state budget was $8.6 billion general fund. Things weren’t idyllic, but they weren’t bad.
After he left office, the state’s general fund spending had nearly tripled. Only 17 percent of the people could afford a median price home. Gas prices had quintupled. We simply stopped building freeways, and they were quickly becoming overcrowded, and the school system collapsed. Government employee unions, nonexistent when Brown started as Governor, became major political players, and the collapse of the state budget began, as these unions could never find enough tax dollars to satisfy their voracious appetites. California became a welfare magnet, with 10% of the country’s population, yet 30% of the welfare recipients. Illegal immigration went from being a minor irritant to a major problem, as the state moved to curb migrant worker programs at the behest of the union thugs that demanded that farm workers pay their hard-earned salary as tribute to the union, forcing many of these workers into the underground economy and exploitation.
So there is a little karmic justice in Brown’s reincarnation as Governor. You know karma, the belief that life is paying you back in this life for your sins in a previous life. Governor Brown’s previous sins, selling our economy to the enviro-nuts and union thugs, our court system to the trial lawyers, and our government to the government union bosses, are coming back to punish him. He is now trying to figure out to fix the system he screwed up, and he is being punished for it by the very people to whom he gave the reins of government. The recent collapse of the budget negotiations, and the ugly choices Brown now has to make, was caused by the refusal of his union masters to curb their lust for the money in your pocketbook. Brown must now face these gluttonous monsters alone, and suffer their wrath when he takes the steps he knows he must take to bring the state’s budget into balance.
Now, I think karma is a bunch of hooey, but it is fun to watch it visit its retribution on Brown in this lifetime. Perhaps, should Brown learn the lessons life is trying to teach him, he will correct the problems that he created. The budget mess, the pension mess, the economic mess, and many of the other messes this state now faces can be laid directly at the doorstep of the policies he implemented while he was Governor. He will either correct those policies to fix the messes, or fail miserably as Governor.
Now that’s karma.