Stop the Presses: Boxer-Feinstein Prop Summit Collapses
All those voters who were waiting for guidance on the May 19th budget propositions from Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein had their hopes and dreams smashed to smithereens today, when Boxer went rogue and announced her support for Props. 1A and 1B.
During the California Democratic Party state convention, Boxer had ducked taking a stand on the biggest issue facing California voters, saying she and Feinstein would be studying the props to formulate a joint position. But with DiFi apparently still mulling the fine print, Boxer went solo.
“California’s budget process is broken,” Boxer announced. “It’s time for California to join the vast majority of states and reform the two-thirds requirement for adopting the budget.
“However, until we make this crucial reform, I will be supporting Propositions 1A and 1B on the May 19 ballot. These two measures will help get California back on track, while protecting our investment in education.”
What happened to the great Boxer-DiFi Budget Prop Study and Announcement, we asked Boxer’s campaign guru Rose Kapolczynski. “In the end, she decided to deal with the propositions independently. And with time short before the election, Barbara decided to issue her statement today,” Rose said.
Translation: Feinstein is still locked in debate with herself.
As highly trained observers, Calbuzz noted that Boxer did not take a stand on the rest of the propositions. “These are the ones she thinks are most important. These are the ones she feels most strongly about,” Kapolczynski said.
Profiles in Courage Update:
Boxer plugs the CTA agenda on A&B but stiffs the rest of the package, even though the failure of the other initiatives will cause huge cuts to…here it comes…education.
DiFi senses the danger on both sides of the props and opts to protect her 89.999% approval rating by staying east of the Mississippi for three months.
All we need now is another Pete "Taxaholic" Wilson press statement saying that he can't support these props because "the situation just isn't as bad as the one he faced as Governor."
I like Sen. Boxer, but that’s incoherent. 1A and 1B have nothing to do with balancing this year’s budget: that’s 1C, 1D, and 1E. And the tax increases in 1A are not needed to tide the state over until it can eliminate the 2/3 rules: those increases are already in place for this year and next. 1A is about the two years after that.
Also, nothing like waiting until 7 days before the election to take a stand. I’d guess that 40% or more of the vote has already been cast, by people voting early by mail.
Has the snark shaker run low yet? 🙂 (See, it’s not that hard.)
Of course Boxer is for the two main props.
No mystery.
She just wanted uniform cheers at that convention.
Until we fix the 2/3 vote requirement, these poor CA state legislators can’t stick it to you like we just did big time with the great stimulus bill that I helped push.
(I do think that the 2/3 requirement should go, but so should Boxer.)
“Fix the 2/3”? Over taxpayers dead bodies.
AS ONE VOTER’S ACT OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR: Today I “unsubscribed” from her e-news.
“1A and 1B have nothing to do with balancing this year’s budget: that’s 1C, 1D, and 1E.”
Precisely right.
And removing the 2/3’s requirement for a budget would have not have done the trick. It’s the 2/3’s requirement for politicians to raise taxes that really matters and if that goes look out for your wallets. And note that there is no 2/3’s requirement for raising taxes if the voters do it, as in Prop 1A.
“Update” = Make those two “un-subscriptions” from both US Senators — for DiFi this scribe doth quoteth Dante’s “Inferno” [yeh, that part about hot spots in the netherworld] as reason for that action today. Forsooth and talley ho!
If Boxer is for it, I’m against it. I was anyway, but this cements my decision.