One of the reasons California’s government is so dysfunctional is that it’s so partisan. Democrats vote for Democratic bills and against Republican bills, while Republicans vote for Republican bills and against Democratic bills. Because Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans, almost every Democratic bill passes, regardless of its faults, and almost every Republican bill fails, regardless of its merits.
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The notion that California’s governmental apparatus is endemically dysfunctional has evolved from a theory into an accepted fact over the last generation.
Governors and legislators cannot even balance the state budget, much less address crises in public education, transportation, water supply and other pithy issues that abound in a very large, very complex and very economically troubled state.
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The new congressional, legislative and Board of Equalization districts drawn by an independent commission made a long-evident political reality official: California, once a Republican bastion, is now solidly, even overwhelmingly, Democratic.
Democrats will control the Legislature — with two-thirds majorities in reach — and the congressional delegation. And while it may not be impossible for a Republican to win statewide office it’s at best unlikely.
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Hours before the Wednesday midnight deadline for passing a state budget, legislative Democrats rammed through a ridiculous, gimmick-laden, majority-vote spending plan that failed to reform anything and failed to impress Gov. Jerry Brown, who vetoed it less than a day later.
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Now isn’t this fun? The California Legislature’s Democrats push a chewing-gum-and-baling-wire budget through in near-record time, claiming that it’s balanced and meets the rarely observed June 15 constitutional deadline for action.
One day later, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown rejects it as unbalanced and unworkable — after hinting three days before that he might sign such a budget.
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By:
Josh Barro
02/23/11 10:11 PM
Like many national Democrats, President Barack Obama weighed in on behalf of government unions in Wisconsin last week.
“Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain, generally seems like more of an assault on unions,” he said.
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By:
Matt Patterson
02/23/11 10:07 PM
Wisconsin was the birthplace of American public-sector unionism, where in 1936 the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees first organized in Madison. How ironic then that Wisconsin also might be the place where in 2011 public-sector unions began to die.
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People increasingly want answers for how California can solve its fiscal problems, but I rarely have good news to offer. Last week, I wrote about three Assembly Republicans who attended a “no more cuts” rally sponsored by the Service Employees International Union — those always-agitated, purple-shirted, bullhorn-toting activists that are ubiquitous around Sacramento.
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