I doubt they'll admit it openly but a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger supporters have to be disappointed with his answer to California's financial woes. Those I spoke to before the election had visions of him being a different kind of exec…someone who would "open the books" (as he kept promising to do in his commercials) and trim mountains of governmental fat and waste. Instead, he's done very little of that, and only in areas where we save small amounts of cash but do considerable harm to the lives of the disabled and poor. His main solution is no solution at all…a $15 billion deficit bond issue. In other words, we will deal with the fact that the state has no money by borrowing and running up the debt in a different way.
As brainstorms go, this isn't one. It's something Gray Davis could have done, though he'd have been accused of "mortgaging our children's future." Hell, Gary Coleman could have done the same thing. How much financial savvy does it take, when you've maxed out your credit card, to get a new credit card at a higher interest rate? It solves nothing.
But Arnold's still in his honeymoon phase so he'll probably get away with it. Besides, by and large, "fiscal responsibility" is one of those things that everyone tells pollsters they want, but when it's offered to them, they don't like what it involves. Better to keep running in the red and hope for a miracle.