California Nightmare Passed

This is the budget the CA legislature finally passed that Governorahnold called "perfect" as described in the lede of the New York Times: After five days of intense, nearly nonstop negotiations over how to close a $41 billion gap, California state senators agreed early Thursday morning on a budget that raises taxes, cuts deeply into services and borrows far into the future, leaving nearly every person in the state scathed in some way.'

The Times quotes the governator: “Some special interests may not like this budget — but like I always say, what’s good for the people is not always good for special interests." So Ahnold still does comedy. The budget process for the last several months was nothing but bribing enough Republicans to pass it with special interest provisions, including the open primary that the last R wanted, and hefty corporate tax breaks for multinationals, in a budget that raises taxes for ordinary people and reduces services. To be fair, some Dems had to be bribed too. Politics is rarely uglier than at the level of state legislatures.

But yes, California lives to stew in its contradictions another day.