A Doomsday Showdown

I have a funny feeling that despite the Democratic leadership junta's push for new and higher taxes, that we are going to wind up with a stalemate just by reading today's article in the Capital and this quote from Ed DeGrange:

"It forces everyone to come together (to find a solution)...We do need to have revenues if we are going to continue to fund the way we have historically done....It is going to be very difficult to get 24 votes (for a majority) in the Senate for any of these thing. It takes a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of support."

So it becomes apparent that the Senate neither wants to raise taxes, nor do they want to reduce spending. That becomes somewhat problematic in a state that is Constitutionally obligated to pass a balanced budget.

The biggest problem with the Doomsday Budget as it has been presented so far is the fact that at no point does it seem like the budget architects are serious about reducing spending. Most of the spending cuts are just costs passed down to the counties, which will either force counties to raise taxes or cut their own budgets to cover the difference. These aren't budget cuts; it's just passing the blame along. It does not seem like Democratic leadership is interested, for example, in cutting recently added programs and to reduce unnecessary social spending.

I'm sure that there are alternative ways to make up the revenue without raising taxes or forcing deep cuts in education. The Administration just needs to find the political cojones to make the tough decisions.