gray davis was right

According to the conventional wisdom in California is that during the good times, you can't raise taxes on the rich, because it might threaten those same good times. And you can't raise taxes on the rich during bad times, because the last thing you want to do during a recession is raise anyone's taxes. That pretty much applies to the "okay" times too. So you can't raise anyone's taxes ever. And you can't raise the sales tax, or any other taxes either, because the last Governor who actually thought that the state balance sheet might actually matter was driven out of office like some sort of child molestor.

So, with no extra money coming in, surprise, surprise, California is about to run out of money. Arnold's faith in the market and staunch opposition to any taxes have contributed to an already bad economic crisis. Maybe it's just now occurring to Arnold that taxes are a necessary evil. 

Mr Schwarzenegger is proposing the same kind of emergency tax rises that in 2003 turned Mr Davis into a pariah. He has suggested a 1.5 per cent increase in sales tax — the equivalent of Britain’s VAT — and a tripling of the car tax. When Mr Schwarzenegger first ran for office, he did so on a promise to revoke a similar car tax increase proposed by his predecessor.

So basically, yeah, Gray Davis was right. Philosophical arguments against any and all tax increases don't usually jibe well with the reality of actually running a government. It's extremely easy to sell the public on the "all taxes are bad taxes" line, but what do you do once the bed is shat?

Somehow this gross mismanagement has not led to a recall. Funny how that works. Clinton impeached. Davis Recalled. Yet Bush and Schwarzeneggerget off scot-free.