Robert Scheer, the L.A. Times' own tax-dodging Communist real-estate mogul, is using this week's column to campaign for Cruz Bustamante.
Bustamante has the training, experience and track record required to work with the Legislature to produce a budget come January.What kind of training does Bustamante have that makes him uniquely capable to run the world's sixth largest economy? A report in today's Christian Science Monitor says Bustamante was
A C-average student in high school ... He once studied to become a butcher, and though he started college some 30 years ago, he didn't finish until this May.Just what California needs -- a butcher school dropout. How will he cut spending if he can't even figure out how to cut meat?
Scheer thinks it is dishonest to say that California's taxes are too high:
Schwarzenegger is betraying the public trust -- and sounding like a typical I'll-do-anything-to-win politician -- when he insists that Californians are overtaxed and promises to alleviate that condition without cutting any programs.I managed to lower my total tax (on the same pre-tax income) by several thousand dollars simply by moving from California to Washington. My quality of life here is at least as good as it was in California and unlike San Francisco there are public schools here that I can send my kids to. What did all that money I used to mail to Sacramento buy me? I have absolutely no idea.
But Scheer pretends that the State of California is run as efficiently as possible and asks sneeringly:
Where is the fat in K-12 education or emergency-room care that Schwarzenegger will terminate?Some examples may be found here.
Bustamante, meanwhile, thinks he can restore California's greatness by giving its productive class another reason to flee:
He wants to repeal the tripling of the car tax signed by Davis - but only for cars valued under $20,000. Then, he plans to make up the difference by increasing taxes on the rich.Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 26, 2003 11:45 AM
Bustamante is a member of MEChA, a latino racial supremacist group that wants to toss whitey and the blacks out of SW USA and rejoin Mexico... cause when the 'Whites' in the USA took the land inhabited by the 'Reds' from the 'Browns' in Mexico back in 1848 it wasn't... fair.
Posted by: DANEgerus on August 26, 2003 12:34 PMOK, i hereby swear, that if bustamante is elected governor, i will VERY SERIOUSLY consider moving me and my family to oregon or washington. there. now please let him get elected so i can leave this state of complete disarray.
Posted by: jannol on August 26, 2003 03:10 PMGret point! When I moved from Ohio to Indiana, I gave myself a fat raise, too. My state income tax dropped from 7% to 3.13% while municipal taxes vanished. In Ohio, I paid 3.5% in city taxes. Indiana doesn't even permit the collection of municipal income taxes. My quality of life has not slipped one iota. In fact, I rather think it is better in Indianapolis than it was in Cleveland.
There is some incredible arrogance in the minds of some of our state governors. They should know that ours is a mobile society, and that we can choose where to live. I always wonder why they rely so heavily on people staying put. This country was founded by people who left inferior conditions in other countries. Now, instead of immigrating, we migrate.
Posted by: Mike Kole on August 26, 2003 03:54 PMDon't forget Scheer's blatant falsehood: "that California's governor, reelected by a clear majority less than a year ago, is suddenly unfit to govern." Davis did not receive a "clear" or any other kind of majority, he got 47.3% of the vote to Simon's 42.4% according to the Sec of State's website. I won't hold my breath for an LA Times correction.
Posted by: Mr. Olympia on August 26, 2003 04:09 PMI notice you omitted the article's key positive notes on Cruz's role as an effective politician: Bustamante plays the political foot soldier - listening and delegating. Bronzan remembers him as the most effective staffer he ever saw at handling constituents' problems.
"He doesn't make himself the issue. I would send him into a meeting where nobody would speak to each other, and they would speak to Cruz," says Bronzan. "He looks right at you, and he listens.... The more complicated the problem, the more he would relish the opportunity to fix it."
Posted by: Assiq on August 27, 2003 03:44 PM