Governor Brown continues austerity program and failure

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Brown- further commitment to austerity.

Jerry Brown gave his required State of the State address today and committed himself to continuing budget cuts and austerity as an economic policy. 

The first problem is- austerity programs do not work !

 The Governor continues his poorly informed, misguided austerity program which proposes  to reduce the budgets through cut backs in services, reductions in public education, cuts to public employment, and reduction in public pensions.

Budget cutting to balance the budget will not get us out of this hole.  Look at Ireland, Greece, or Spain or Michigan, Wisconsin, and  Mississippi (each of these economies is smaller than California)?   Budget cuts only start a downward spiral of pain. We can not simply cut our way out of the crisis, budget cuts and lay offs make the recession worse.  We have witnessed this for the last two years.

The current budget crisis was caused by the real estate crisis, the sub prime loan crisis, and the  national economic crisis.  This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ,ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America,  Washington Mutual,  Country Wide, AIG, and others.  

Brown says,  Again, I propose cuts and temporary taxes. Neither is popular but both must be done. In a world still reeling from the near collapse of the financial system, it makes no sense to spend more than we have. The financial downgrading of the United States, as well as of several governments in Europe, should be warning enough. It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and digging ourselves into a deep financial hole--to do good--is a bad idea. In this time of uncertainty, prudence and paying down debt is the best policy.- This is the definition of an austerity program.

Brown’s proposals are modest- too modest.  The High Speed Rail authority is a stimulus plan, but California needs an educational stimulus plan and the funds to pay for the needed investment.