Rick Jacobs: Schwarzenegger and McCain Lead the Way to a New America

by Rick Jacobs [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an ardent backer of John McCain's presidential bid, showed us his real vision of a "post-partisan" future, only it looks very much like the Bush/Rove past. California, like the nation, faces enormous fiscal challenges. But California is one of only three states that require a two-thirds majority to pass a budget. This lunacy gives the Republican minority, led by the governor, veto power over the budget. It's like having the equivalent of Mitch McConnell, David Dreier and John Boehner's Gucci-clad feet on the throat of the seventh largest economy in the world.

Governor Schwarzenegger, true to form, figured out a great Republican solution. He announced that he would sign an executive order to reduce the pay of some 200,000 state workers to the Federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. That's $13,000 or so a year or about $1,083 a month. That's below even this government's poverty line for a family of two. Try living in Los Angeles on $1,000 a month. Just try.

Yes, the governor says that he'll provide back pay to the workers once the budget is passed, but how much will that mean to people who barely make due on their salaries as is? In a time of record foreclosures, bank failures and gas prices, how precisely does Governor Schwarzenegger think these folks, on whose lives many in this state depend, will make it?

In the meantime, John McCain is due in San Francisco on Monday to enjoy a $100,000 per person fundraiser for his peoples' campaign. I'm betting a lot of state workers will be at that one.

The Courage Campaign launched a petition today demanding that the governor stop trying to wring cash flow out of workers who just don't have the cash to flow. This follows our two videos that brand the Republican Party as the Yacht Party for its consistent support of a loophole in the tax law that allows yacht and private jet owners to avoid paying sales taxes. It's only about $26 million a year -probably about Arnold's annual income-- but it makes a clear point. Schwarzenegger and McCain and Dreier and the whole crew would rather subsidize the rich than lead.

Post-partisan Arnold is total recall of a highly partisan Bush/McCain administration. The workers and people of California cannot afford four more years of Bush any more than can the nation. McCain-Schwarzenegger: More subsidies for the rich. No leadership. No clue.