shannon_a

He's just been governor of California for a month, but already his record of fiscal irresponsibility competes with Herr Bush's. Follow the footsteps if you can:

The Promises. During the campaign, Schwarzenegger promises to repeal the car tax. He also promises to preserve funds for local governments, balance the budget, and never cut educational spending or critical social services. How he plans to balance this reduction in revenues without decreasing spending is never clear because he refuses to give specifics.
The Revocation. Upon getting into office Schwarzenegger immediately repeals the car tax, increasing the state's deficit by $4 billion dollars and devastating local cities and counties which should have received those monies; no plan is offered to replace funding for them.
The Borrowing. Schwarzenegger reveals his budget masterpiece: he'll balance the budget and make up for those lost revenues by borrowing $15 billion dollars. With plans for these bonds to go on the March ballot, local governments might see funding in 4+ months... if the people of California decide to mortgage their children's future for Schwarzenegger's campaign promises (article).
The Social Services Betrayal. Schwarzenegger reveals $2 billion dollars in budget cuts--for health and human services, including MediCal cuts and cuts which deny health care to children (article).
The Educational Betrayal. News reports reveal that spending cap included as part of budget withholds $3.5 billion dollars from schools (article).
The Lawsuits. Mayors begin lining up to sue Schwarzenegger because his revocation of the car tax without replacing it with other funding sources violates not just his campaign promises, but also the law. (article).
The Unapproved Spending. Reacting to threats of lawsuit, Schwarzenegger declares a public safety emergency so that he can bypass the legislature and give $2.6 billion dollars (down from $4 billion dollar estimates) directly to the local cities without approval by legislators. There still is no source for these funds due to the rollback of the car tax (article).
The Unapproved Cuts. Also using his emergency powers, Schwarzenegger makes $150 million dollars in unapproved budget cuts, again bypassing our congressmen. These include educational cuts to the University of California and the Cal States, reductions in DMV services (which somehow sees appropos) and reduction in social services for migrant farmworkers (articles).
The Financial World's Reaction. Due to upcoming March bond measure pushed by Schwarzenegger, California's bond rating is cut to near-junk status (article).

Fiscal spiral of doom & lies, anyone?