Note to Sacramento GOP's "Taxpayer's Caucus": Let the Voters Decide

Last week's special election in my California state Senate district was SO under-the-radar, that as clued in as I like to believe I am, I didn't know it was happening until I finally listened to the robocalls on my voicemail - about an hour before the polls closed.

The place was pretty quiet. In fact, we were told that only 50 voters had showed up all day.

My candidate did not win - but that's politics. One would hope that whatever a legislator's party, he or she would do whatever possible to represent the needs of the District.

And all of California's districts are in a whole mess of pain right now. New Governor Jerry Brown has been visibly wrestling with our whopping $26 billion budget shortfall.

It's not an easy hole to fix; the Sacramento Bee lets you try it yourself here.

Brown has released a budget proposal with $12.5 billion in cuts that will affect all Californians: $1.7 billion less to Medi-Cal, $1.5 billion to California’s welfare-to-work program (CalWORKs), $500 million to the University of California, $500 million to California State University, and $308 million for a 10 percent reduction in take-home pay for state employees not currently covered under collective bargaining agreements. 

But he recognizes that a budget deficiency of this magnitude cannot be closed through spending cuts alone; that the people of our state actually need some infrastructure and basic services - like public education.

Brown's plan depends on an extension of a previous tax hike that was supposed to end this year. Unfortunately, thanks to Proposition 13 - the fourth rail of California politics, and the root of our fiscal problems today - this cannot be done without the approval of the voters. Brown wants to give us that choice in another special election - and surprisingly, most Californians support him.

Predictably, Republican members of the state Senate and Assembly have formed a "Taxpayer's Caucus," vowing to vote against the proposal.

Today, the Bee reported that Jerry Brown became the first sitting governor since the 1960's to speak before a state budget committee: 

"When you folks say, 'No, no vote, no plan, no,' that's not American," Brown said. "It's not acceptable. And it's not loyalty to California. I don't expect you to agree with me. But I expect you to honestly say, 'I want to cut this.'"

In the meantime, the school board here in Los Angeles is preparing for the worst case scenario. Year after year, they've cut funds for teachers and workers... and the budget they passed last week would completely dismantle the District's successful magnet program. 

Now we're talking pain that's really personal: My daughter is a ninth-grader at a high-performing magnet school. If this budget passes, it will pull the rug out from right under her - just when her grades and test scores are starting to count towards college.

Last week, magnet administrators all over the District urged parents to write to our state represenatatives. Yesterday, I got a form letter back from my new state Senator, Sharon Runner:

Dear Ms. Mills:

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate knowing how my constituents feel about the issues. It's going to be another tough budget year so it's important to get feedback from the people who are impacted by the decisions the legislators make, especially with regard to education funding.

In the next couple of weeks I'll be briefed by colleagues and consultants and lobbied by many interest groups and the Governor himself. I'll carefully consider the Governor's proposal but I'm not sure at the moment how I'll be voting. However, I do appreciate your input.

 

I don't like being cynical. I would like to think that people - even politicians - can be taken at their word.

I went to her website. Her bio describes her as "A lifelong advocate of education." That's good. 

But in the second part of that sentence, it says she founded a parochial school that is now one of the largest in all of California. The cynical side of me can't help but think she may be less supportive of all those godless kids in public schools.

And today, I received the following information in her constituent newsletter:

During my campaign for Senate, I pledged to protect the interests of my constituents and vote no on tax increases of any kind. That is the reason one of my first acts as Senator was to join the Taxpayers Caucus;

Oh. So I guess she didn't need a couple of weeks to make up her mind, after all. In fact:

Yesterday, I participated in a press conference (see picture) announcing the caucus... 

It goes on with the usual Republican Kool-Aid about balancing the budget by cutting "wasteful spending" and how instead of raising revenue for our schools, she will work to get more tax cuts. WHICH DOESN'T MAKE A LICK OF SENSE WHEN YOU'RE TRYING TO FILL A $26 BILLION HOLE.

We've had years and years of Republican governors and years and years of bad budget compromises (for which I blame both parties). I don't like paying taxes any more than anyone else. But I am just as much a taxpayer, and I want to have an opportunity to have a say on this.

In my email yesterday to Sharon Runner I let her know that I think refusing to allow us the vote is undemocratic. And I think all Californians should let their legislators know that, too.

Donna Schwartz Mills lives in Los Angeles. Her personal blog is SoCal Mom.

 

 

This Week's MOMochat: Protest In the Air

The MOMocrats welcome Kelsey Collier-Wise of DakotaWomen.com on tomorrow's edition of MOMochat on BlogTalkRadio. She'll be commenting on South Dakota's jaw-dropping "Kill the Doc" bill, which would have officially classified the killing of an abortion provider as justifiable homicide. 

Collier-Wise is is a fourth generation South Dakotan and adjunct law professor.  A proud instigator and activist, she has worked with a variety of women's organizations and nonprofits at the state and national level. Kelsey is an avid knitter, enthusiastic clogger, and mother to a beautiful feminist-in-training. 

She will join MOMocrats Cynematic, Julie Pippert, Jaelithe Judy and Donna Schwartz Mills in a freewheeling discussion of the week's political events. And what a week it's been:

Protest is in the air, from the Middle East on to Madison, Wisconsin - where people are flooding a statehouse that is missing its Democratic representatives. They skipped this week's sessions (depriving the majority of a quorum) and are reportedly hiding out in Illinois - which is also where the Democratic legislatures from Indiana are thought to be doing the same. 

From Washington to state capitols to local school districts, the debate over how to cut deficits and balance budgets is credited with causing this kind of drama. But there may be other reasons, too.

Tune in live Wednesday at 12:00 Eastern/11 Central/9:00 a.m. Pacific. We'll be taking phone calls at (347) 945-6465.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

 

Two Great Announcements! Please Meet Bubble Genius & Care2.com

Two new things happening here.

We at MOMocrats are very pleased to announce that we have a delightful sponsor for our MOMochat Blog Talk Radio show--Bubble Genius!

It's soap, people, cute shapes and motifs, with all-vegetable ingredients and not tested on animals. Plus, in a wink to political junkies, there are fun PooDoo dolls of your favorite partisan villains, John McCain soap-on-a-rope...and even random space alien soaps and a glorious bagel-shaped soap.

We love Bubble Genius because we know that political participation is like rugby: leaves you sweaty, there's ocasional blood-letting, definitely mud-flinging, and sometimes you barely move the ball down the field. So of course you need to clean up from the muck of electoral politics.

We also signed onto Care2.com's publisher network, featuring petitions to support some of your favorite causes. Every time you sign a petition from our site, you'll be supporting a cause and also helping MOMocrats earn 75c for each email signature on the petition. We're joined in the publisher network by other great content sites and magazines like Mother Jones and Ms. Magazine. It's a way for us to subsidize what it costs to run this site, and maybe--with your help--grow it in directions we've been yearning to take it for a while now.

So please, when you see the petitions at the end of our posts (or hopefully soon on our sidebar), sign up and help us out as you're helping out your cause.

Thanks for reading, and clicking!

The MOMocrats

 

GOP Budget Wars on Reproductive Health

What's happened to the whole Republican "the economy and jobs are our first priority" mantra from the 2010 elections? Eric Cantor can say it all he wants, but that isn't making it true. Instead of jobs, conservatives are once again focused on our lady parts. While I am sort of getting used to the new TSA pat downs, I have to draw the line when it comes to the government getting its hands on my privates.

The GOP is focusing on the budget, but not for creating jobs -- they are trying to impact substantive issues through bills that control spending, as they recently did in their (thankfully) failed attempt to redefine rape in the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act." It initially called for limiting the availability of Medicaid funds for abortion only to women who had been "forcibly" raped.

Since the original passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, no federal taxpayer funds have been available to cover the cost of abortions through Medicaid except in instances of rape, incest or if the life of the mother is in danger. The forcible rape exception, introduced by Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.), didn't explicitly spell out in the bill what that meant, but a variety of organizations, including NOW and EMILY's List, believed it would exclude victims of statutory rape, date rape, rape victims who initially said "no" but weren't able to fend off their attackers, and women who feared for their lives unless they acquiesced to a rapist's demands.

Ronald Reagan at 100: I Remember His Presidency...Well Enough to Skip the Hype

 

Grenada...does anyone even remember the tiny Caribbean island we invaded in the 1980s to keep Cuba from going all Communistic? The one that had a population of 100,000 at the time?

I didn't think so. The people at The Reagan Library are hoping that people born after 1980 don't remember either. Which is why they're so eager to push St. Ronnie. The man already has an airport that had a perfectly good name, Washington National, re-named after him instead, and TWO frickin' postage stamps in the past 6 years. Enough is enough.

Urgent Call to Action: GOP House Pushing Anti-Woman Agenda

In November the American people sent a loud and clear message to Washington: work together to get the economy moving again. And during the lame duck session and then over the past few weeks, I was encouraged by the ability of Republicans and Democrats to come together to work for the American people. But now, just two weeks into the new Congress, it appears Republicans in the House are already seeking to end that spirit of cooperation.

They have introduced HR3: The No Taxpayer Funded Abortions Act, which would restrict women’s access to affordable reproductive care and even deny care to women when their lives are in danger. This bill would severely undermine women’s rights.

I hope you’ll join me in fighting this dangerous piece of legislation by signing this petition and sending a message to Washington that we must preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose.

Even as Republicans lament that the government is being too intrusive in people’s lives, it seems that the very personal, private and often painful issue of ending a pregnancy is one area they are determined to regulate. Tragically, the consequences of this intrusiveness could prove disastrous to the health and well-being of women across America.

The Republicans likely have a large enough majority in the House to pass this bill, but we must block this bill in the U.S. Senate. Earlier this week, Senator Blumenthal and I sent a letter to all of our colleagues in the Senate, urging them to oppose similar legislation.

In the letter we wrote:

We must work together to stop these bills in their tracks, as they represent an unprecedented effort to restrict women’s access to reproductive health care and to their trusted health care providers.

I pledge to you that, just as we did with the Stupak Amendment, we will organize our fellow Senators to make sure we defeat this legislation. Can I count on you to join us in this fight to make sure Republicans and some conservative Democrats don’t succeed in chipping away at a woman’s right to choose even further than they already have?

Please sign this petition and show my colleagues that the grassroots is behind us.

Thank you for your support.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

Cross posted from the Huffington Post.