Republican dishonesty in budget matters

Assemblyman Jim Nielson, R. has a viewpoint in the Sunday Bee. http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/20/4065890/dems-made-choice-not-to-fully.html
This is a response.

             This viewpoint is simply dishonest.  Yes funds for  the needed Veteran’s Home were cut.  But, it is deceptive to pretend that these fund cuts happened independent of the economic crisis we all live in. Also cut were schools, police, fire protection, children’s protective services,  parks, libraries,  senior services, and more. They were all cut because the Republicans, including Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, blocked any tax increases to pay for needed state resources. When you force a cut of everything, that includes veteran’s homes.

The nation  including California is suffering a severe recession – the worst since the Great Depression.  Twenty Six million  are unemployed and under employed. This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ,ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America, AIG, and others.   Finance capital produced a $ 2 trillion bailout of the financial industry, the doubling of the U.S.  unemployment rate and the loss millions of  manufacturing jobs and the tax revenues produced by people at work.   

State and local governments provide the most basic services to our populace – public education, police and fire, transportation, parks, libraries and basic infrastructure, not to mention funding half the costs of unemployment insurance and Medicaid. Yet with state and local governments facing a recession-induced budget shortage of close to $200  billion ( out of annual expenditures of $1.7 trillion dollars), the standard conservative Republican solution is to slash essential services.- including veterans homes.  To pretend that the Republicans supported funding the Veteran’s Home is dishonest.

This fiscal crisis of the states did not fall from the sky; it resulted from the Great Recession brought on by unregulated financial speculation.  The crisis, along with the obstruction of government by the Republicans is what caused the defunding of the veteran’s home.

I support funding the veteran’s home, and funding police, fire, schools, children’s protective services, parks, and the other public services needed for a decent society.