According to the Associated Press, California's controller, John Chiang, stopped paychecks for all 120 state lawmakers. After reviewing the budget Democrats approved he determined it wasn't balanced. Consequently, Chiang, a Democrat himself said lawmakers didn't meet the requirement for getting paid under Proposition 25, which voters approved in November to get the legislature to approve balanced budgets on time.
Taxpayers save $48,603.50 every day lawmakers don't get a salary and per diem. And although lawmakers can start receiving their salaries and expenses again once they pass a balanced budget, they won't be paid retroactively for the days the budget was late.
Assemblyman Mike Gatto, a Democrat from Los Angeles sharply criticised Chiang saying he decided to withhold pay for political reasons and that "I halted a fulfilling private sector career path to enter public service. I now have to explain to my wife and daughter that we won't be able to pay the bills because a politician chose to grandstand at our expense."
And that's where the Assemblyman loses me. Because if he came from the real world he should know that except for cases like nepotism, or outright mismanagement situations, regular folks don't get paid for failure to produce. In fact, most often they get fired. So then, this guy's really lucky. Because unless he's impeached or quits, he'll keep his job no matter that he didn't produce. And if he wants to blame somebody else, it seems like he's got a whole party full of slackers at fault, not just the guy who signs off on paying the bills.
As for Chiang, whose office issues paychecks, he found the Democratic package passed by a simple majority did not meet the requirements for a balanced budget because portions were "miscalculated, miscounted or unfinished." He said it committed the state to $89.8 billion in spending but provided only $87.9 billion in revenues, leaving a hole of about $1.9 billion.
So I guess I'll have to give a Densa award to the California Democrat legislature who apparently not only whine and whinny, they apparently can't add. But then again why should they be upset about a little mistake? After all it's only $1.9 billion of taxpayers money. So, compared to the federal government's gross misuse of $14 trillion dollars, it's not even a drop in the bucket.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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