We Shall Know Them by Their Priorities

The score at this late point in the game of games in Sacramento so far:

99% of Californians (meaning, you and me, but maybe not the hundredth reader)------ $14.4 billion in tax increases of various kinds.

versus....

the wealthiest 1% and the top corporations in the state........ $1 billion in tax cuts.

We can guess who is winning this game so far.

And who is responsible for this score? Those plucky fighters for the average taxpayer: our Republican state senators and assemblypersons.

When the game began, every Republican legislator stood firmly behind a "no new taxes" pledge. And then, come the demand: "give us a tax cut targeted only for the richest percentile of California taxpayers!" And to back up the demand, play blackmail.

Blackmail pays off.
Drag the state into budget stalemate months after the constitutional deadline.
Bring on IOUs and furlough days at the DMV.
Plunge the state credit rating below that of a third-world banana republic.
And you get weak-knee'd Democrats to cave in and agree to a billion dollar tax cut for top Californian corporations.

Thereafter, with the tax-cut concession in hand, enough Republicans switch sides to vote *Yes" on $14.4 billion dollars in tax increases on everyone else to get the budget deal approved in the Assembly and almost though the Senate. Only one state senator is now holding up the final passage. So much for the "No New Taxes" pledge.

Is it unreasonable to guess that our lone hold-out wants $2 billion in tax cuts for the corporations as the price for his/her vote?

Yeap, the California GOP. Looking out for the average Joe Taxpayer.