California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is having a infantile temper tantrum, threatening to veto 700 unrelated bills unless his bill for new dams passes. Inquiring minds want to know why his particular interest in this bill and who benefits if it passes.
The San Francisco Chronicle put it best: “Governor, you’re making yourself look petty, petulant, even irrelevant.”
I’ve been blogging about populism lately. Here’s an opportunity for a genuine populist uprising. How about 500,000 people flood the State Capital area, block the streets, and make it impossible for Schwarzenegger and the legislators to leave until they act like adults and pass needed legislation. This could be a real hands across the waters bi-partisan event, bringing left and right together too. We could also march on the governor’s office and present him with baby’s rattle and high chair for him to bang it on.
California chief justice says state government is ‘dysfunctional’
California Chief Justice Ronald M. George says the current proposition system which allows new laws to easily be passed has “rendered our state government dysfunctional.”
In particular, one recent proposition mandated that budget matters pass by a 2/3’s majority. which is a direct cause of the ongoing budget train wrecks in California, because a small minority can block the will of the many. It’s not uncommon to have 10 such propositions on a ballot. They can be put there be a well-funded special interest group and can be weasel-worded and deliberately hard to understand.