There's a great diary up on the rec list at Daily Kos about the devastating impact of the Illinois budget crisis. Here in California, where we seem to have invented the budget crisis, we're facing a similar catastrophe. Because Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Republican cronies blocked a solution to the state's looming cash crisis late last night, California is going to lose $7 to $8 billion in savings. And as a result of that, California's government is going to have to pay IOUs to those it owes for the first time in 17 years.   Read More »

Lt. Dan Choi, from Orange County, California, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an Iraq War veteran. On Tuesday, he will face a panel of colonels who will decide whether or not to fire him -- to discharge him from the military for "moral and professional dereliction" under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

An amazing 140,000 people signed Lt. Choi's letter to President Obama a few weeks ago. Now he needs your help again. Please join over 44,003 people and sign the letter of support and add your own (optional) personal message.

When we told Dan earlier today about the amazing response he got choked up. It's important that Dan walks into the courtroom holding as many signatures of support as possible for his fight to continue serving his country, no matter who he loves.

Will you add your name?

Flip it for the email Dan sent to Courage members earlier today.   Read More »

The gracious and disarmingly honest mentor to aspiring fashion designers on the hit TV show "Project Runway, Tim Gunn was kind enough to record this special message for Courage Campaign members.

As Tim likes to say to his designers, it's time to "Make it Work!"

If you're ready to get to work and have some fun, watch this video and then RSVP for a special "Make it Work!" Equality Team event near you.

More than 20 “Make it Work!” events are scheduled between June 18-28. Find one near you and join the fun.



Flip it for the full message from the fabulous Tim Gunn and Make it Work!   Read More »

How will budget cuts help promote economic growth?

It's a question that I rarely ever see asked, and one that is *never* answered, certainly not in a state where the conventional wisdom is that revenue increases are impossible, even though we've never tried to make them happen. Instead the supposed "political reality" of no new taxes is trumping the economic reality that taxes are preferable to spending cuts in a recession. The result is that spending cuts are treated as inevitable even though they are a sure path to Depression.

Yesterday's LA Times had a remarkable editorial calling for no delay or hesitation in making the cuts. But the only time they made mention of the economic impact of the cuts was when they argued against permanent revenue solutions:

Be smart about new taxes. Reject, for the current year, broad-based sales and income tax increases as damaging to the recession economy and as politically infeasible, but move forward on carefully targeted temporary taxes, specifically on tobacco, alcohol and snack foods, to prevent cuts in particular health and human services (but not necessarily agencies).

And yet this ignores the evidence gathered by Peter Orszag and Joseph Stiglitz which showed that income tax increases were actually *better* for the economy than spending cuts.

Had the opinion page editors read George Skelton's column that ran in the same edition, they might have understood how that abstract point works out in practice:

Faced with what he calculates to be a potential $24-billion budget deficit in the fiscal year starting July 1, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting state supplemental payments for the elderly and disabled down to the minimum allowed by federal law. It would be their third cut this year.

The Legislature already has approved a $20 monthly cut beginning July 1, lowering the grant for single people to $850. That's it: No food stamps, and that includes any Social Security.

This was the cut Jean had read about. But the governor also is seeking another $20 trim starting in September, reducing the benefit to $830.

The rent for her one-bedroom condo is $850.

What Jean's story shows is the ripple effect of safety net spending. I've heard it said that Cal-WORKS, for example, is de facto one of the most important rent subsidy programs in the state. When the state cuts aid to the needy, whether it's a poor family or an AIDS patient or a college student, they have to make up the difference out of their own pocket. That means they have to cut back on other spending, which means more foreclosures, more rental vacancies, less consumer spending, less tax revenue, fewer jobs, and more business failures.

Nobody in Sacramento has explained to the people how these cuts will help produce economic recovery. They ought to, and we should demand that we get such an explanation before any legislator votes for a single cut. I want an answer to the $24 billion question. Who in Sacramento will give it?

As Arnold's horrific budget cuts get wider exposure, Californians are beginning to fight back. Over the next few days there will be several rallies around the state to stop these cuts.

Tonight at 5pm in Los Angeles there is a rally to Stop the HIV cuts - cuts that include slashing funding for helping AIDS patients get the medication they need to live. The rally is at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and will take place rain or shine. Another rally will happen on Wednesday at the State Capitol in Sacramento - more information can be found here.

Also in Los Angeles UCLA students will be rallying Wednesday evening at Bruin Plaza at 6:30 to protest the proposed elimination of Cal Grants - find more at the Facebook event page.

The above events are also listed on our events page. If you have an event you want Courage Campaign members to know about, post it there - and direct others to the page as well!

Of the numerous disturbing and troubling aspects of Arnold Schwarzenegger's insane "let's destroy the safety net!" proposal is how the need to cut has become conventional wisdom in Sacramento. So says Darrell Steinberg:

Democrats realize they will have to agree to "painful" cuts and have vowed to comb through programs to find waste and inefficiencies, said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

"But we must continue to find a way to invest in health care for children, invest in college opportunities and scholarships for young people, to continue to invest in helping people from assistance to work," Steinberg said. "So, we need to be surgical in the way we go about in cutting, *and cut we will.*" [emphasis mine]

Actually, Senator Steinberg, what you *will* be doing is ensuring California suffers a prolonged and deep Depression.

Cutting the safety net is an act of economic suicide. Given the reasons for the current downturn, cutting away the safety net will merely reinforce the recession and ensure that California experiences no near-term economic recovery. California's 121 Herbert Hoovers will drive the state into Depression the way Hoover himself did in 1930-31 by insisting on massive cuts to government spending.

Here's how it works. As Edward Harrison explained at Naked Capitalism yesterday the US economy likely faces a "balance sheet recession" caused by a massive increase in saving as people seek to purge debt:

Richard Koo goes further in his book “The Holy Grail of Macro Economics.” Here, he argues that the unwind of great bubbles suffers from what he labels a ‘balance sheet recession.’ In essence, companies go from maximizing profits, as they had done in normal times, to a post-bubble concern of reducing debt. Regardless of how much priming of the pump monetary authorities do, the psychology of debt reduction will limit the effectiveness of monetary policy as a policy tool.

In my view, the catalyst for this change of psychology is the ‘debt revulsion’ that ushers in the panic phase of an asset bubble collapse.... the household sector has gotten religion about debt reduction as the savings rate has increased dramatically since Lehman. In fact, I would argue that companies learned their lesson about debt from the aftermath of the tech bubble. It is the household sector in the U.S. (and the U.K.) which is heavily indebted. Therefore, if the psychology of a balance sheet recession does take form, it will be the household sector leading the charge.

In sum, the psychology after a major bubble is very different than the psychology before its collapse. The post-bubble emphasis becomes debt reduction and savings, making monetary policy ineffective, not because financial institutions are unwilling lenders but because companies and individuals are unwilling borrowers. These are forces to be reckoned with for some to come.

And sure enough, the saving rate is still on the increase as Americans, and Californians in particular, stop spending and use their incomes to pay down debt and put money in the bank for a rainy day.

It's that phenomenon which is acting like a scythe across the economic landscape. Nobody spends, so companies aren't making money. Unless consumers feel capable of spending again, there will be no economic recovery.

What Harrison doesn't examine is the importance of the safety net. If people feel confident that their basic needs - housing, food, health care - can be met if they lose their job, then the mania to save, save, save would be eased. However, if they do *not* feel confident that the safety net is there, they will save every penny they can, reasoning that they'll need it to live.

I know that's true for me. I use one of my two monthly paychecks to pay bills, and the other goes straight into the savings account. I'd be a fool not to. As California is poised to eliminate its safety net, it would be irrational and reckless to not hoard every dollar that came in.

That's why Arnold's budget cuts are so economically stupid. They will reinforce the trend toward saving and ensure that we do not have an economic recovery.

There is one other pernicious aspect of Arnold's cuts. In some ways we can see the health care cuts in particular as a bailout of the private insurers. By ending state aid for children's health care - even though Arnold gives up 3 times as much federal money as CA would save - and ending other key health care services, Arnold will force families that need treatments to send money out of their own pocket to private corporations. That will help enrich a few wealthy executives, but it will do absolutely nothing to improve the balance sheets of already strapped households, and will merely reinforce the "save at any cost" attitude.

Other aspects of Arnold's budget are economically ruinous - the negative impact of park closures on tourist-dependent towns, the negative impact of mass state worker layoffs to the entire Sacramento region, the negative impact of mass teacher layoffs, etc.

If Arnold and the Democrats wanted to ensure California experienced a prolonged Depression, they could do no better than to follow the policies they have so far supported. Just as Keynes identified the future Great Depression in the flawed and punitive Treaty of Versailles, so to can we identify unending misery in the flawed and punitive 2009-10 budget.

Check the flip for the email Charlize Theron just sent to our members asking everyone, no matter their sexual orientation, to come to Fresno for Meet in the Middle for Equality.

The whole Courage staff will be there this weekend. Are you coming? Are you bringing a carload of your best friends and favorite family members?

Please join us for this historic event. 1 pm this Saturday at the Fresno City Hall. RSVP now.

There is a great line-up of speakers and there will be a bunch of tents, including a blogger tent for the netroots' finest. So come one, come all to Fresno!   Read More »

I don't know about you, but I can't find anything in the outcome of the May 19 election that justifies, say, ending welfare entirely, or denying AIDS patients life-saving medicines, or throwing a million kids off of health care, or closing the state park system, or eliminating affordable access to higher education. Can you?

In fact, even though polls show voters emphatically *reject* that kind of budgeting Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone ahead and proposed it anyway. In his best effort to play the role of a modern-day Herbert Hoover he has decided to interpret the election as a mandate to push through the radical attack on government he has always wanted to lead.

In recent hearings in the Legislature - which in themselves prove the value of an open budget process - the scope of the cuts has become clear, and even legislators who were just last week speaking of the need for cuts are starting to have second thoughts, as Anthony Wright reported:

Some members, like Senator Denise Ducheny, asked whether some of these cuts would not create more costs, as people end up in emergency rooms or elsewhere, even within the budget year. "What makes you think this doesn't create a cost shift?... Will people just die and we won't have to take care of them?" she asked.

Senator Mark Leno talked about how the AIDS Drug Assistance Program "literally keeps people alive," and asked for information about the increased cost of ermegency room visits as a result of the cut. Senator Alan Lowenthal asked if there was a "longitudinal" analysis, and asked for the "long-range implications" of these cuts.

Assemblywoman Noreen Evans was alarmed when she noted that dialysis would be cut for some patients, exclaiming that her father was going through such treatment, and was not optional. She also noted that some cuts, like the elimination of HIV Testing, would have public health impacts. Assemblyman Kevin DeLeon pointed out the cuts to community clinics, arguing that for many Californians, "this is the only safety-net they have."

As the Sac Bee reports, even some Republicans acknowledge that there is such a thing as a successful government program:

Assemblyman Danny Gilmore, R-Hanford, wrote an opinion piece this month for the Bakersfield Californian telling constituents how to apply to Healthy Families and touting it as a program that works "especially well."

Of course, the Zombie Death Cult still has its adherents, like Chuck DeVore:

But Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, said the state must scale back because it cannot afford the benefits it provides. DeVore asserted that overregulation and high taxes have stifled businesses and led to layoffs, while California has compounded the problem with too much public aid.

"When you have an unemployment rate as high as it is in this state, it should be a signal to people to look for jobs in other states with more jobs and a lower cost of living," DeVore said. "We have had policies subsidizing poverty in this state for years, and we can't keep doing that."

And this guy wants to be in the US Senate! The irony is that even his own constituents disagree with him. Orange County residents don't want their parents to lose dialysis treatment. They don't want their kids to lose Cal Grants. They don't want to be barred from going to the nearby beach.

As we have been explaining for months now, these kinds of cuts are suicidal. They will make the budget picture worse by costing more money than the cuts would save. They will certainly make the economic crisis FAR worse by forcing consumers to pull back even further on spending in order to replace the lost state aid. Arnold Schwarzenegger is demanding a Depression.

Unfortunately the legislative leadership has woefully unprepared themselves to respond. Instead of spending the months leading up to the May 19 election talking about protecting Californians against horrific cuts, the Democratic leadership instead went along with Arnold's scare tactics and made a cuts-only budget sound inevitable - and then doubled down the day after the election.

It's time for legislators to "just say no" to these cuts. And not say it in order to accept lesser but similarly damaging cuts, but say "no" in order to walk through the wide open door that leads out of the Jarvis nightmare scenario. We have a golden opportunity to bury 30 years of anti-tax nonsense - Californians understand that taxes are necessary to prevent people from dying and to provide economic recovery. There is widespread support for raising taxes on the wealthy, closing the loopholes, and ending a failed prisons policy that costs us billions.

It's time for legislators to move beyond outrage and to start showing real leadership against this madness. If they want to restore their reputations with voters, the best way to do so is to show that the Legislature still understands common sense and can give the people what they want - a fair tax system that will stop these cuts in their entirety.

As we recover from the unjust decision handed down by the California Supreme Court yesterday, we are reminded of our determination, forged in the angry days after the passage of Prop 8 in November, to restore marriage equality at the first available opportunity.

Now that the California state courts have closed themselves to the cause of equal rights, it's time we dedicate ourselves to organizing to win. We will win in 2010. And if we don't, we'll win in 2012. And if we don't, we'll win in 2014.

Courage Campaign Managing Director Eden James explained this to the crowd in an inspirational rallying cry of a speech at the rally in San Francisco last night:



We reinforced this message in the following email to our members yesterday:   Read More »

With the truly odious decision upholding Proposition 8, three things are now very clear:

1. California no longer recognizes equal rights.

2. California's constitution is totally broken.

3. It is time for ALL of us to fight back.

The Courage Campaign, where I work as Public Policy Director, exists to respond to all three of those things.

We are going to work with our partners in the marriage equality movement in the effort to repeal Proposition 8 at the ballot box. We are going to restore equal rights to *all* Californians. And we're going to fix our broken constitutional system to ensure this kind of thing *never* happens again. Below I explain what you can do to help.   Read More »

We finally have a day for the Prop 8 decision from the Supreme Court. They just announced that they will rule on Tuesday.

Here are a couple of important links as we all get prepared for D-Day and beyond.

1) Day of Decision rallies will be held in dozens of cities across California and beyond. Go here to find one near you.

2) Meet in the Middle for Equality will be held in Fresno on May 30th, at 1 pm in front of the city hall. Go here to find out more and RSVP.

3) Do you know anyone who wants to get an alert the moment the Supreme Court rules? Tell them to sign-up to get an email, as soon as the court issues their decision.

For more info flip it to see the email we sent out to Courage members earlier today.   Read More »

With the predictable failure of the five budget propositions, it's time for progressives to step up and lead the fight to not only fix our budget, but replant the seeds of economic growth, and rebuild confidence in our government.

There are two broad elements of a May 20 strategy - policy and attitude. As President Obama has demonstrated, they must be intricately linked to be effective.

Voters rejected a campaign of fear. They showed they won't respond to scare tactics. Either they'll vote no, or stay home. Progressive organizations, like the Courage Campaign, instinctively understand that. We organize to empower and offer solutions.

Despite what some like to claim, progressives have always had an alternative to the May 19 initiatives in mind. The Courage Campaign has proposed a three-step process to fix the state:

1. Majority vote for budget and taxes. The Courage Campaign has been advocating for an end to the 2/3 rule for a long time. Today we're partnering with CREDO Mobile and the League of Young Voters to offer a Declaration of Democracy for a Majority Vote Budget. It's time that we brought democracy back to the legislature. We all know that the 2/3 rule prevents us from passing good budgets. But it also undermines public confidence in the legislature, since nobody can be held accountable and since the 2/3 rule produces unworkable compromises that voters immediately see right through.

Some may claim voters are not yet ready to support this change. Some recent polls suggested there are majorities or near-majorities in favor of restoring democracy. More fundamentally, it's time to build a movement to fix the mess. Courage Campaign doesn't expect this to happen overnight. That's why we're recommitting ourselves to a long-term organizing effort to get this done.

2. Restore responsible taxation of the wealthy and corporations. Some may argue that the public doesn't support repeal of the 2/3 rule for taxes and budgets. What better way to build public support than show the consequences of the conservative veto than by making a *strong* push to demand the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share? Besides, one of the key reasons our budget is in crisis is because we have been cutting taxes on those with the greatest ability to pay. This makes state revenues heavily dependent on consumer spending from working- and middle-class people, spending that is volatile to short-term economic dislocation.

California needs to follow the tax policies of President Barack Obama and reverse three decades of giving tax breaks to the wealthy and to large corporations.

Under Republican governors Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson, the highest income earners in this state paid taxes at a higher marginal rate than they do today. Now, an individual making $900,000 pays the same tax rate as someone making $50,000. Oil companies pay the same property tax rate as an elderly homeowner -- and unlike Alaska and Texas, oil companies pay no tax on the oil they extract in California. This is absurd and it must change.

Republican legislators will scream and cry, but will they actually vote no on these popular taxes? If they do, we set up victories in 2010. If they vote yes, we help ease the existing budget mess.

3. Convene a Constitutional Convention. The state needs a broad range of changes to the way its government operates. But more fundamentally, it needs a constructive process to produce those fixes. We've gone about as far as the gimmicky special election approach can take us. A Constitutional Convention allows the entire state, whether they're delegates or not, to engage in a debate about the core issues of how our government should react to a 21st century crisis.

We don't believe a Convention should tackle social issues or human rights, but if it's focused on fixing our budget and government, on providing more democracy and participation in the public sector, then we can finally get this state moving in the right direction. Of course, the delegates need to represent the state's diversity, and voters will rightly have the final say. But it's better than the status quo, and will help provide a better state.

Finally, *attitudes matter*. It's time we got aggressive. Democrats should NOT accept cuts as inevitable. They should NOT assume Republicans are inflexible. The Zombie Death Cult is living on borrowed time. President Obama has shown that Republicans are unpopular and vulnerable. We would be fools to not take advantage of that unpopularity here in California. Remember that Republicans have been in steady decline in both registrations and election outcomes since 1996. We can beat the conservative attack on California - if we realize we've had the tools to do so all along.

Below is the email we sent our members yesterday morning.   Read More »

California's media likes to play up Tom Campbell as some sort of "moderate" or "sensible" Republican. As compared to Attila the Hun this might be plausible. But even a cursory glance at his alternative budget solutions shows that he is a typically conservative politician. Sure, his conservatism seems to be of the Ronald Reagan sort as opposed to the Grover Norquist sort. But there never was much difference between the two, except in tone, which is apparently all that matters to the media.

Campbell's proposed budget claims to want to solve a "systemic" crisis in a way that doesn't hurt our ability to recover from the economic crisis. Yet his budget merely offers a different method to achieve the same downward spiral that has afflicted the state - particularly Campbell's total ignorance of the revenue drop and the negative impact of spending cuts on consumer spending.

Tom Campbell believes the budget can be balanced by hammering social services, even though there is unprecedented need for these services. An example of his proposals:

•15% salary reduction for state workers OR 15% layoffs of state workforce

• $156.7 million savings in Cal Works by implementing Federal work participation requirements.

• $248.5 million savings by reverting to federal minimums on Supplemental Security Income and the State Supplementary Payment.

• $114.1 million savings by reducing compensation to in-home supportive service workers to the state minimum wage.

• $882 million savings in Medi-Cal, provided California receives a federal waiver from terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In other words, he's offering a mixture of attacks on the poor and attacks on Obama's stimulus. His rationale:

1. California must, in large part, return to national standards on welfare and health care; we cannot afford to provide more than the national average in areas where we have long exceeded those levels;

2. California must ask those capable of taking care of themselves to do so;

3. California must not undercut its ability to bounce back when the national recession ends. This means being careful about cutting education, especially Community Colleges where much workforce retraining takes place.

This is complete nonsense. First, the national standards on welfare and health care are woefully insufficient. Campbell acts as if there is no national health care problem, as if there is no issue with the working-class finding and holding jobs. Campbell is a typical Republican - identifying with the wealthy and totally ignorant of how everyone else experiences life in California.

Second, how the heck are people supposed to "take care of themselves" in a recession like this?! Campbell is the sort of guy who drives through a poor community in his Jaguar (or whatever he drives) and shakes his head saying "why don't they just get a job?" That statement alone is proof that Campbell is intellectually unfit for office by virtue of his unwillingness to understand the challenges facing most Californians.

Campbell also proves he has no clue about modern economics - otherwise he wouldn't so blithely ignore the work of Nobel Laureates who point out that if you cut social service spending, folks have to replace that lost money by curtailing consumer spending, hammering jobs and tax revenues.

Third, Campbell's whole budget blueprint is designed specifically to *prevent* California from enjoying economic recovery. How are people who have no health care benefits supposed to find work? How are people supposed to find work period if you're scaling back Cal-WORKS? How are small businesses supposed to open when the state is laying off workers or cutting their salaries?

Campbell's also internally inconsistent. He states he wants to be "careful about cutting education" and then proposes:

$150 million unallocated cut to UC and CSU (I realize this would require further increases in student fees, or improved fund-raising).

Tom Campbell isn't some kind of new Republican. He's no moderate. Instead, he is the *same exact kind of Republican* that the party has offered dating back to Herbert Hoover. He is a man of the upper class, determined to protect the wealth and privileges of the upper class at the expense of everyone else.

Campbell's economic policies are no different than Reagan's, or Bush's (either one, 41 or 43). Campbell offers the vast majority of this state only reduced services and less money in their wallets. His Hooverite policies would merely make the recession worse, and ensure that when economic recovery does come, only Campbell's rich friends see any of its benefits, while everyone else is left behind. Which will apparently be just fine with Campbell, since everyone else should just take care of themselves anyway.

We've all seen this movie before. We know how it ends - we're living through it right now. Californians will reject Campbell's Hooverism. But will the media report on exactly what Campbell offers? Or will they continue to lie to their readers and claim he's some kind of "moderate"? I'm not exactly holding my breath.

I had just started high school in 1993 when President Bill Clinton backed off his pledge to allow LGBT Americans to openly serve in the military. Little did I know that decision would profoundly impact the life of one of my classmates.

Dan Choi graduated from Tustin High School shortly after I did. He got a prestigious appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point, while another of our classmates got an appointment to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis that same year.

Our mutual friend is still serving in the armed forces. Dan Choi, after a distinguished career in the Army that included a tour in Iraq, is not. The only difference between them is that our friend in the Navy is straight - and Dan is gay.

I hadn't kept in touch with Dan after high school, until one evening in March when I was watching Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show and saw him on the show speaking out against the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Dan spoke three words that he knew violated Army policy - "I am gay." Sure enough, as a result of that interview, Dan was served with a letter discharging him from the Army.

I stand with Dan Choi not just because we were classmates, but because we are both human beings who deserve fully equal rights. If I could serve in the military (if I chose to) as an openly straight man, Dan should be able to continue serving in the military as an openly gay man. There is no reason whatsoever to draw a distinction between the two - particularly at a time when the armed forces can use all the Arabic-trained, combat veterans who command the respect and loyalty of their fellow soldiers.

President Obama has promised to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, but appears to be waiting for the right political moment. The right political moment is NOW. Soldiers like Lt. Dan Choi, 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao, and any other LGBT soldier cannot wait for the president to find the right moment. That's why the Courage Campaign and CREDO Mobile have launched a petition to President Obama asking him to reinstate Lt. Dan Choi and repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

President Obama should suspend all discharges under the DADT policy, and immediately ask Congress to send him a bill repealing the policy from our laws.

Below is the email the Courage Campaign and CREDO Mobile sent to our members today.   Read More »

We are all waiting on pins and needles for the California Supreme Court to rule on Prop 8. There are only 4 possible dates left: May 18, 21, 28 or June 1.

As marriage equality builds across the state we are still fighting the good fight here.

Two major TV stations in the past two days have aired interviews with Rick Jacobs among others. Take a look.

Here is KNBC (Los Angeles NBC affiliate) interviewing Rick and a major highlight of Meet in the Middle.



And KPIX (San Francisco CBS affiliate) featuring Dustin Lance Black, Cleve Jones and Rick.

Watch 'em, rate 'em and pass 'em along.

We'd need a whole pod of whales to illustrate the FAIL that is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger:

The Republican governor's Department of Finance has projected a budget gap of $15.4 billion if the May 19 special election ballot measures pass and $21.3 billion if they fail. The state would gain nearly $6 billion in solutions if Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E pass, including $5 billion in 1C's borrowing against the California Lottery.

Arnold took office promising to succeed where Gray Davis supposedly failed. Now Arnold has produced deficits FAR worse than anything Davis faced. Arnold is plowing ahead with his apparently illegal "May Revise" to scare voters. But as the SacBee article notes, Arnold can't actually propose that much in cuts without risking the stimulus:

The governor did not disclose his proposed solutions Monday. But he warned groups last week that he will consider borrowing $2 billion from cities and counties, releasing low-level offenders in state prisons and reducing school funding by $3.6 billion. The state also could eliminate its planned $2 billion reserve.

California faces limitations in how much it can cut without jeopardizing federal stimulus funding. For instance, the state cannot cut too much in higher education, K-14 schools or Medi-Cal eligibility without running afoul of federal stimulus guidelines.

Cities and counties will revolt before being pushed into bankruptcy by a raid on their already bare cupboards. Arnold is either going to have to declare default, or embrace some truly progressive solutions like majority vote budgets and taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

Instead of providing leadership, Arnold is merely trying to scare voters into giving him one last chance to ruin our state. Voters are rejecting his tactics, his propositions, and ultimately, Arnold himself.

Worst. Governor. Ever.

Now this is a federal intervention I can believe in:

The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.

Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials....

The SEIU said in a statement that it had asked the Obama administration for the ruling.

Combined with the CFT lawsuit this action shows a new aggressiveness coming from progressive unions, and is *precisely* the right strategy to take against those who would demand or accede to the economically insane policy of wage cuts for these workers. The failure of the May 19 election proves the failure of an accommodationist strategy - Republican demands for government destruction can only be countered through strong pushback.

This is also a welcome step from the federal government, which did not have to make this ruling. It would be nice if DC would get even more aggressive about oversight of the stimulus money. The education stimulus, for example, ought to have been conditioned on states refusing to layoff teachers or cut education budgets.

By demanding this federal ruling, and by suing over the Prop 98 funds, SEIU and CFT have done far more to help prevent crippling budget cuts than the millions spent by CTA and other progressive organizations trying in vain to convince Californians to accept a bad deal that will make the budget situation worse, not better.

We just put out this memo to the press and all interested parties from Courage Campaign Founder and Chair, Rick Jacobs.

Feel free to quote liberally or re-post the memo in its entirety.   Read More »

Academy Award-winning actor Charlize Theron asked us to share an important message with the Courage Campaign community and the progressive movement in California.

Her message has been quoted all over the place from E! Online to the LA Times.

Here it is in its entirety. Please help us spread the word about Meet in the Middle for Equality by forwarding on the link to everyone you know.   Read More »

Academy Award-winning actor Charlize Theron asked us to share an important message with the Courage Campaign community and the progressive movement in California.

Her message has been quoted all over the place from E! Online to the LA Times.

Here it is in its entirety. Please help us spread the word about Meet in the Middle for Equality by forwarding on the link to everyone you know.
   Read More »