Jerry Brown's Phony Budget, Broken Promises

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Following the back-and-forth of California's calamitous politics in Sacramento is like shopping at the grocery store: Everything costs more these days and most things have an expiration date.

Take Gov. Jerry Brown's most decisive pledge from last year's campaign. It's even worth quoting directly from one of his most prominent campaign ads that featured Brown, close-up and in darkened background, soberly addressing the viewer:

I'm not going to give you any phony plans or snappy slogans that don't go anywhere. We have to make some tough decisions. We have to live within our means, we've got to take the power from the State Capitol and move it down to the local level closer to the people, and no new taxes without voter approval. We've got to pull together, not as Republicans, or as Democrats, but as Californians first. At this stage in my life, I'm prepared to do exactly that.

This was a smart and solid ad, and it connected with voters. But it apparently came with an expiration date of June 27, 2011. That was the day Brown decided he'd sign on to a sham of a budget deal negotiated solely with Democrats and agreed to their tax increase demands -- campaign pledges be damned.

Brown claims that after half-a-year of seeking Republican support for new (even temporary) taxes, he's thrown up his hands four days before the new fiscal year and concluded a bipartisan deal is impossible. "I thought we were getting close, but as I look back on it, there is an almost religious reluctance to ever deal with the state budget in a way that requires new revenues."

So much for pulling together as Californians first.