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January 06, 2004

A FANTASTIC SPEECH FROM GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER.

I just want to quote the whole thing. It was inspiring, meaningful, and well-considered.

He’s done a lot already. He repealed the tripling of the car tax; repealed SB 60, the law that gave drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens; and passed a balanced budget amendment.

Together, we in this chamber repealed SB 60, which endangered the very integrity of the California driver’s license.

Rescinding that law was the right thing to do. And I thank you for your bipartisan support.

Together, we put measures on the March ballot that, if passed by the people, will save our state from a June bankruptcy.

June is the month when billions of dollars in past loans come due and the financial house of cards built over the last half decade is set to collapse.

When individuals overspend themselves into trouble, financial counselors often tell them to consolidate their credit card balances so they can work their way out of trouble _ and also tear up their credit cards.

That is what our California Recovery Plan is all about. We took the debt we inherited from the previous administration, the debt that threatens us with bankruptcy, and we rolled it into a $15 billion recovery bond.

Then we tore up the credit card.

We passed a balanced budget amendment.

And we created a rainy day fund for future hard times and emergencies.

Never again will government be allowed to spend money it doesn’t have.

Never again will the state be allowed to borrow money to pay for its operating expenses.

And you in this room have done that for the people of California.

Notice how he’s sharing credit with the legislature. That’s leadership.

The fact of the matter is that we do not have a tax crisis; we do not have a budget crisis; we have a spending crisis. We cannot tax our way out of this problem. More taxes will destroy what we are trying to save which is jobs and revenue.

That’s why I supported and voted for him—I felt he would take positions like these.

There’s a lot more. He talks about cutting spending and unnecessary government programs:

Every governor proposes moving boxes around to reorganize government.

I don’t want to move the boxes around; I want to blow them up.

The executive branch of this government is a mastodon frozen in time and about as responsive.

This is not the fault of our public servants but of the system.

We have multiple departments with overlapping responsibilities.

I say consolidate them.

We have boards and commissions that serve no pressing public need. I say abolish them.

We have a state purchasing program that is archaic and expensive. I say modernize it.

I plan a total review of government _ its performance, its practices, its cost.

Some of the recommended actions, I will make by executive order. Some will require legislation. And some will need constitutional change.

Read the whole thing.