In this op/ed in The Fresno Bee, Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines and former Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill explain why they signed off on a budget deal that contained tax increases.
Cogdill lost his leadership post over the move and Villines is under fire from anti-tax Republicans because of it. They showed courage in taking their stands, but that doesn't seem to matter. The easiest thing would have been for Villines and Cogdill to say "no." like most other members of their caucuses.
Villines and Cogdill took a bullet for the Republican Party so most of the other Republicans could vote "no" on taxes. You'd think the other Republican members of the Legislature would be thanking them -- at least privately.
Here are the key paragraphs in today's commentary by Villines and Cogdill:
To be sure, the budget the Legislature passed was very difficult to negotiate and includes some items we strongly disagree with, particularly taxes. If Republicans were the majority party and could control the budget, there would be no talk about raising taxes, period. Republicans would be working to lessen the tax burden on hard-working Californians. But Republicans don't control the budget process; Democrats do.
So we had a choice. We could continue to say no and refuse to negotiate, facing the real prospect of enough lawmakers agreeing to pass a budget without Republican input. That budget would have surely included massive tax increases and overspending, with no reform.
Click here to read the entire commentary.
So the premise of Villines support for the tax and spend budget was if the GOP continued hold out eventually a few GOP would cave and let the Dems get waht they want. Well the DEMs were not getting what they wanted, and yes they did make concessions. So why not hold firm and get more concessions, to where we get real budget cuts, that would secure reform in the long term? Villines wants to assume that someone was going to cave sooner or later, so hey it might as well be him and then he could claim that he did the right thing. Well I disagree, and hope most of the GOP supporters understand that we can not afford to have such cowardly and unprincipled people represent us in the future.
I pretty much agree with you on this. A compromise was going to be done but it was sort of like a game of chicken.....who was going to blink first and the Republicans did. They could have and should have held out for more. I wonder if they would like to play a little poker?
Re: twains
Why not accuse them of treason as well. I hate the budget too. But both of them voted within the law. I thought the extreme Right believed in Law and Order. Don't vote for them again if that is your conviction, but don't call them devastating insulting names.
Issy, The last time I checked I had still had the right of freedom of speech to express my opinion. Nothing illegal about that. As far as my interpretation of Villines' character, nothing devasting about it. As far as insulting, well may be, but he brought it on himself. He let us all down. He showed a complete lack of backbone and principles. I did not accuse him of breaking any laws, and never said he did not have the legal right to vote they way he did. However, I voted for him because of representations and promises he made, which he failed to stay true to. So I have every right to speak out against the weak and intellectual dishonest individual. He knows himself, in his own heart, what I say is true. So he made a choice and now he can suffer the consequences.
I am sorry! I did not mean to even hint that you did not have the right to say what you wanted to say.
It was an appeal to go easy with name calling in front of 40.000 readers of this blog. I am free to say that I wished that this budget had not passed, but a lot of folk disagree with me. Especially those who do not have to manage on a fixed retirement income. But I do recognize that California had to stop the symbolic printing of worthless money.
Now tell me in all honesty, if I were to call names, would it reflect upon me or the one whom I am calling names? Honest Izzy!
Mike D. are you out there? Scot and I, from the axis of evil Democrat bloggers want to talk to you. 630-1916
Honest Izzy. Here is my point. As someone who relied on the promises and representtions Villines made when I voted for him, I believe it is my right, in fact duty to speak my mind, in cases where I think he has done good and in cases where I think he has let us down. The degree of my efforts to express myself will depend on the issue and impact of what he has done. In this case he was weak. Almost all of the GOP held strong, and as a result were getting concessions from the left. The left could not get what they wanted without some weak links on the GOP side of the isle. He had made promises that in situations such as this he would be someone we all could count on to stand strong. Well he didn't. He showed a lack of backbone, an established himself as an opportunist and someone with what I believe is a serious flaw in his character. He was not honest and now has engaged in the game of spinning his way to justify his deceit. More importantly, I truly believe that this issue, the deficit spending, the deficit borrowing, the endless tax increases and raised fees, is going to lead to the financial demise of this state. Thuis is as impotant an issue as it gets. It will have substantial negative impact in all of our lives. Our investments will decrease, our home values will continue to fall and we will have to move or will be forced to suffer the long term consequences. So I am simply speaking out, with facts of what Villines has done and what I now think about him. Bottom line, it is a fact he was weak when we needed someone honest and strong. It is a fact he was not honest with us about his committment on such matters. So no unfair name calling here.
"twain" I hear you. You are coming through loud and clear. And I have no quarrell with it. I am not interested enough to go into "archives" to find the post when I commented on Mr. Villines. It had been based on the info I had from an elected official who said "...he[Villines] is nice enough a guy; but..." The Villines camp responded to the post. My ear is fined tuned to "but". And it is also true that little in life do we dislike more than when we discover that our idol has clay feet.