Word: arnolds
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Schwarzenegger has made his job more difficult by making three popular pledges: he?ll repeal the recent increase of the car tax, he won?t raise taxes and he won?t cut education spending. The car tax repeal alone will widen the budget gap by $4 billion. But Arnold shrewdly avoided revealing any other details of his plan to fix the budget, arguing he first needs to audit the entire government. While that wasn?t fair to voters - and in exit polls two-thirds griped that he hadn?t given them enough information - they voted for him anyway...
...Democrats have a solid majority in both chambers of roughly 60%, and a two-thirds majority is needed to pass any budget. Schwarzenegger claims he can solve the deficit by cutting wasteful spending - but in reality, one politician?s wasteful spending is another?s valuable service to the people. Arnold is going to have to make some deals, keeping Republicans solidly behind him while luring half the Democrats over to a budget they can get behind. If he does this well, he can probably pass some version of the remainder of his priorities: renegotiating state employee contracts, workers? compensation reforms...
...Burton told reporters later, the senator told Schwarzenegger he can?t repeal the car tax without the legislature?s approval. At his press conference later in the day, Schwarzenegger replied, ?We have a difference of opinion.? It will probably be the first of many with the legislature. Some Arnold will have to make compromises on, but sometimes he?ll have to draw the line. He is the Governor after all, and he can use the status of his office and his line item veto to get things done his way. The results of the recall help...
...Arnold can?t throw his weight around too much. After all, in 1999 another moderate governor took office in California and got into trouble that way. Many people forget now, but Gray Davis was a moderate Democrat when he took office. He got a lot done his first two years by sticking to the center and making both Democrats and Republicans work for him. In late 2000 he remarked of Democratic legislators, ?Their job is to implement my vision.? But Davis got into trouble when times turned tough - first during the 2001 energy crisis and then during the budget mess...
...rally was part of the national Lights on Afterschool Day, which was led for the third straight year by California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger...