Budget Crisis & Service Cuts – Schwarzenegger’s California more like Ireland than you’d think
August 6th, 2009 | 
Author: Here Joe Higgins discusses the situation in California & the US, where he is currently visiting, in particular the brutal cut backs and right wing policies being implemented Schwarzenegger.
Anybody visiting San Francisco from Ireland last week would feel right at home, not so much because of the striking courtesy and friendliness of the residents of this beautiful city, but rather by reading the newspaper headlines.
“Californian Fiscal crisis – Governor Slashes Budget” ran the lead story in the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday, July 29. “Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday ended the months-long saga over California’s enormous budget deficit, but not before slashing nearly half a billion dollars more from services to the poor, sick and elderly.
Schwarzenegger signed a package of legislation to wipe out a $24billion deficit, cutting health and human services, higher education, prisons and other state services. But unsatisfied with [this] the Republican Governor used his veto authority to make $489million in additional cuts.”
California has a population of 36 million, occupies an area roughly five times the size of Ireland, and, if it were a country in its own right, would rank ninth in the world by the size of its economy. Notwithstanding this ,the extent of the new budget cuts are shocking in their scale and every bit as savage as the proposals that have emerged for Ireland. The details make chilling reading for the citizens of California.
Funding to hire social workers for child welfare is being cut by $80million. Health insurance for children in low income families is being cut by $178million leading to a half a million children losing health cover. $50million is being cut from a programme that assists families who have babies with developmental disabilities.
Two programmes that help elderly and disabled people stay in their own homes are being cut by $6million while a savage $90 million cut is being implemented in Home Support Services that serve elderly, blind and disabled people.
Before becoming involved in Republican politics, Schwarzenegger was internationally known from acting in movies such as The Terminator. Unfortunately for the ordinary residents of California he can be as destructive in real life as in movie fiction. Unbelievably when he was discussing the savage cuts he was about to impose on a television programme he was playing with a knife and when tackled about this crude gimmick said people need to have a sense of humour. Naturally the millions of victims of his cuts failed to see the humour.
Sharing the same front page of The Chronicle as the budget cuts were a number of other articles which, unwittingly, threw an interesting light on the reasons for the economic crisis hitting California and the United States in general. One was about an interview with Bernard Madof now serving life in jail for a $65billion ‘Ponzi’ fraud – essentially a giant pyramid scheme which he conducted on the world’s financial markets with cash given to him by investors lured by his reputation as a man who could turn anything he touched into gold.
The kind of reckless gambling which Madoff was able to carry on for years was allowed by the same free for all policies that allowed giant financial institutions gamble in the housing market with millions of subprime mortgages. The inevitable collapse of these bubbles was the trigger for the catastrophic crisis in the biggest financial institutions in the United States, leading to the economic crash, leading to California’s budget cuts.
A second article dealt with extraordinary amounts of money raised from big business by Governor Schwarzenegger and former Democrat Governor and current California State Attorney General, Jerry Brown, for their ‘favourite charities.’ Since 2006 the Governor has solicited $7.4million while Brown raised $9.65million. Gambling interests contributed up to half a million dollars to Brown’s causes with substantial contributions also from private Health Care companies, land developers and giants such as Walmart, Dow Chemical and Pepsi. Brown’s political post is highly influential and he is thought to be preparing to run for Governor in next year’s election when Schwarzenegger has to step down. Naturally that gives a big incentives to big business corporations to support his causes.
The obvious link between these major corporate donations to charities at the behest of powerful politicians and the budget cuts wasn’t referred to in the San Francisco Chronicle but is not difficult to divine. Schwarzenegger said he became a Republican when he heard former President Richard Nixon extolling ‘free enterprise, getting the government off your back and lowering taxes.’ This meant especially slashing tax on the hugely profitable big corporations. The Democrats’ policies have been largely identical.
The corollary of this is that at the first hint of economic downturn, public services are starved of funding and some are dependent on the mercies of the corporations whose contributions – a fraction of what they should be paying in tax on profits – fund ‘causes’ like the two inner city schools in Oakland favoured by Attorney General Brown.
Originally published in the Irish Dail Mail, where Joe has a column every WednesdayDO YOU AGREE? SUPPORT JOE & THE SOCIALIST PARTY?
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