Patrick Mallon
Friday, July 19, 2002

The week that ended on Friday, July 19, provoked the question: Do either of these guys fathom where the cash is going to come from to pay the bills? The state just ended its third week without a budget, 2,300 legislative employees are sans paychecks, and California is now borrowing money to pay bills.

So, how did the incumbent and the challenger address the monetary crisis?

Gov. Davis said in Los Angeles Monday that he is "tired of neighborhood Napoleons banning the display of the American flag." Davis signed a bill allowing homeowners to fly their flags even if property association bylaws forbid it. Touchingly symbolic, but without expressions of nationalism or patriotism so as not to offend major constituencies.

In similar fashion, Bill Simon spoke in Santa Barbara about protecting offshore oil platforms from terrorist attacks, but he didn't explain how or whether the terrorists seeking to eliminate offshore drilling might actually be meeting sometime this week up in Berkeley.

If the state does not have a budget by Aug. 1, payment to dozens of low-income programs will cease. To pass a budget, four Republican votes in the Assembly must be conned, cajoled – dare we say "paid off" – or the clock will strike 12.

Guess who Davis will blame if these four votes are not secured? All bets are on for four whores to cave when they get goodies for their districts.

A Speech That Would Guarantee Victory

My fellow Californians,

The state is in a financial crisis. We must address our budget earnestly and objectively, or we will be forced to raise taxes. California boasts the highest sales tax in the country. Workers are pressured by job loss, record levels of debt and substantially diminished wealth due to the stock market meltdown. The state has no budget and is borrowing money to pay bills. Some employees are not receiving their paychecks.

There are programs and departments that must be pared, consolidated or eliminated altogether in the spirit of fiscal responsibility. Californians, like most Americans, are some of the most generous and compassionate people on Earth. If we are going to have a budget, just like a household or a business we must account for all expenses.

We have become so politically correct that we are paralyzed from facing reality. There is no way to address our financial condition without defining the extent of our financial outlays to illegal aliens. It is patently unfair to citizens to behave as if a problem does not exist.

A Northeastern University study states that as of 2001, illegal aliens in the U.S. number 13 million. The INS has estimated that about 40 percent of illegal aliens live in California.

Conservatively, that means 5 million illegal aliens live in California. We have to break the code of silence and discuss this issue rationally, before any new taxes are foisted upon already overburdened taxpayers. Today we start that dialogue.

Illegal aliens receive treatment in state hospitals, schooling and welfare benefits. Most do not file state tax returns. A citizen not filing a tax return would be subject to arrest and prosecution. We must quit pretending and confront this hypocritical double standard and its consequent costs, now estimated to be in the billions.

We are compassionate to the plight of those seeking a better life, but resolute in reconciling our balance sheet. This financial accounting will not – I repeat not – impact the status of those living in the state without legal status.

Without including this substantial component in the budgetary equation, there is no credibility in our public pronouncements. As it stands now, we are facing $2 billion in tax hikes. It is time to right our house of cards, before more drastic socioeconomic measures are required.

What They Didn't Say This Week

• Simon won't release his tax returns, nor explain why: big mistake! Unless he's hiding something embarrassing.

• Simon was accused by the IRS, in a front page WSJ article, of using foreign shelters set up by KPMG to send money out of the country to avoid paying taxes. He declined to answer.

• Davis won't go directly to the Republican leadership to address the budget. Instead, he has directed Democrat leaders to offer four Republican Assembly members "big bucks" for their districts to secure their votes in favor of a budget that guarantees tax increases.

• California ranks 47th out of the 50 states in scholastic achievement, K-12. That's 8.7 million children near the bottom nationally. Not a word about it from either candidate!

Simon's chief strategist, Sal Russo, issued a staff e-mail naming Rob Lapsley the fourth campaign manager since March. The ideological struggle between the Bush administration's stance – that Simon take a more aggressive approach against Davis, water down the conservatism and adopt the strategies of Bush operative Gerald Parsky – may soon reach a head with Sal Russo, odd man out. The money is NOT coming in the way it is for Davis.

Dumbest Quotes of the Week

• Simon on when he'll release tax returns to Californians: "When I'm their governor."

• Davis fundraising has averaged $91,000 DAILY since February. Campaign manager Garry South, when asked whether Davis spends more time raising money than doing his job, said: "There's no relationship between the amount of time the governor spends and the amount of money the governor raises."

Any man who is not a socialist before he is 30 has no heart, King George V said, "and any man who is a socialist after 30 has no head."

Joseph "Gray" Davis is 59. He isn't going to change, and there is no reasoning with him. The $50 million he has raised will fund commercial spots appealing to fear and emotion, not to reason. Assuming an audience of shallow, sun-baked fun seekers, it's a great strategy.

Davis is enlisting top cops such as Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas to warn fellow police officers, the majority of whom are conservative Republicans, that budget cuts will severely impact departmental resources and public safety. The top cops are being assigned to twist the arms of four Republican assemblymen to cave and turn their votes. See how this works?

Selective Indignation From the Left

The Sacramento Bee's Daniel Weintraub said, when questioning Simon's tax shelter probe: "Californians expect more in a governor than someone who simply takes advice from others. They expect someone capable of making independent judgments about right and wrong, someone willing to do what's right even if they think they can get away with doing something wrong though technically legal."

Does the same expectation apply to Gov. Davis, Mr. Weintraub?

The "fair and balanced" SacBee didn't have much to say about the national arbitration panel release of $1.25 BILLION to 60 law firms in the tobacco lawsuit. This extraordinary sum, dubbed by dissenting panel member and former federal judge Charles Renfrew as one that "shocks the conscience," was the conclusion to a lawsuit filed by none other than Gov. Gray Davis. The suit, known as "Davis/Ellis," was filed in 1994 when Davis was lieutenant governor.

Four California law firms shared in the award. One of them, Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson of Newport Beach, contributed $143,000 to Davis' gubernatorial campaign in 1998. Get the connection, Mr. Weintraub? How soon do you think another check to Davis will be forthcoming from the appreciative gang at Robinson?

Winding Up the Week

And this just in on Thursday, according to news radio: "Davis calls for new and more powerful jets for the Fresno National Guard." Forgive me, but is the governor calling up the Guard? If this keeps up, he'll need a lot more than air cover.

See next article in series: Simon Survives Attacks, Davis Cons for Cash

You may e-mail Patrick Mallon at patrick@newsmax.com.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
California Governor's Race

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