Governor Makes Deep Cuts to
the Safety Net
On Thursday, January 5,
Governor Jerry Brown released his proposed 2012-13 spending plan, addressing a
$9.2 billion projected shortfall for the remainder of 2011-12 and the upcoming
2012-13 fiscal years. The Governor proposes $10.3 billion in “solutions” to
close the identified gap and provide a $1.1 billion budget reserve. The gap
stems from a $4.1 billion shortfall in 2011-12 and a $5.1 billion projected
shortfall in 2012-13.
The Governor
continues his poorly informed, misguided austerity program which proposes to reduce the budgets through cut backs
in services, 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. Do we really want to follow the lead of Michigan, Wisconsin, or 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. Budget cuts
and lay offs lead only to more budget cuts and lay offs.
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. Finance capital produced a $ 2 trillion bailout.
