Fiscal Truth in Short Supply

We are still waiting for some real honesty from politicians from both parties about budgets. The fact is there are hard choices ahead, and despite a little better candor this election year the headliners are still not fully levelling with the American people about the difficulties these choices present.

Here in California there is a projected $16 billion deficit for a $110 billion budget. Governor Schwarzenegger and the Republican minorities in the Senate and Assembly tell the Republican base what it wants to hear. There is no way they will allow taxes to be raised. The Democratic majorities in both houses tell their base what it wants to hear, too. All programs will be fully funded. Neither of these promises can be kept, and they all know it.

There is not enough discretionary spending to cut $16 billion out of the budget. To do that means people would have to be OK with emergency response times of four hours, having 50 kids in a classroom, closing most of the state park system and not resurfacing the roads for twenty years at a time. People will not be OK with that and the Republicans know it.

Similarly, there is no way to fully fund all projects, increase public employee pay and benefits and provide the customary level of services without tax increases most Californians would consider ruinous.

The situation calls for compromise. There have to be some tax increases. There have to be some program cuts. Yet up to now the politicians have been more afraid of antagonizing their most vehement partisans than they have been resolute in doing what the state needs done. Former Governor Gray Davis was recalled when the deficit reached $7 billion. Schwarzenegger and the legislature have done even worse since. Where is the courage?

Things are little better on the national stage. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama justifiably assail President Bush and the Republican majority congress (2001-2007) for its fiscal lunacy. Yet they promise universal health care, to fully fund Social Security and Medicare, massive new programs for energy development, education, medical research and infrastructure restoration and promise to do all this without raising taxes on anyone but those making over $200,000 or $250,000 a year. It doesn't add up. They and their advisors know this. Where is the courage?

John McCain is no better. He promises to erase a $450 billion federal deficit with cuts alone. There will be no tax increases in a McCain Administration; in fact he proffers even more tax reductions. He says he will go after earmarks with a vengeance. They are, however, just $18 billion a year, and some of them are actually necessary. There are some bridges, highways and post offices that really do need to be built, for example. To his credit, he has mentioned ethanol and sugar subsidies too, but even then his numbers also do not come close to adding up either. That is particularly true given his inflexible position on the $150 billion dollar a year gorilla in the budgetary living room, the Iraq War. He and his advisors know they cannot pare enough to balance a budget while cutting taxes and paying for a war, yet they stick to that story. Where is the courage?

It is well past high time for the leaders of both parties to come clean with the American people and, in a joint press conference, deliver some real "straight talk" to the people they are elected to serve. Their magic pony platforms promise what they cannot deliver and the national financial structure cannot bear the stress much longer. The signs grow more apparent all the time, including the subprime meltdown, the fall of the dollar and the surge in personal bankruptcies. Some things are more important than getting elected. At least we have to hope there are those in politics who still believe that.