First, Jonathan Alter skewers McCain in Newsweek for being dishonest. Them Steven Greenhut blasts the GOP for lip service to freedom. Now SacBee columnist Dan Walters takes Republicans to task over their role in the budget mess (HT to Calitics on this one).
Dan writes:
Republicans posture as bulwarks against spending-crazy Democrats, but the hard facts prove otherwise. As a detailed chart published this week in The Sacramento Bee demonstrates, the two chief contributors to the state’s chronic budget deficit have been spending that Republicans, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, championed.
Dan is even more damning later in the column:
When, therefore, Republicans talk about runaway spending – Schwarzenegger this week referred to “an insatiable appetite to always grab all the money” – they should look in the mirror. But the GOP’s irresponsibility doesn’t stop there. Republicans also want to plunge the state even further into debt to cover the deficit, rather than owning up and being willing to tap taxpayers.
Schwarzenegger is at least semi-willing to face the music with his new tax proposal, even if it’s temporary. But privately and publicly, Republican leaders are demanding that either spending be cut – except the spending they advocate – or money be borrowed from local governments, transportation accounts or other programs to close the gap.
Is that fiscal responsibility? Not by any rational definition.
So fess up right wingers. This mess is your fault too. How about working with the Democrats on a solution that moves Californina forward?