Gov. Schwarzenegger’…

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s State of the State speech needs to be incorporated into Bush’s State of the Union address. Some of my favorite parts:

When individuals overspend themselves into trouble, financial counselors often tell them to consolidate their credit card balances so they can work their way out of trouble – and also tear up their credit cards.

For California, this is referring to Arnold’s “California Recovery Plan”; rolling debt into a single bond, and passing a balanced budget amendment. The federal government desperately needs such a law.

These huge budget deficits are aftershocks of past financial recklessness.

What happened is this.

Over the last five years, the state’s income has increased 25 percent, but spending increased by 43 percent. This was irresponsible.

The fact of the matter is that we do not have a tax crisis; we do not have a budget crisis; we have a spending crisis.

We cannot tax our way out of this problem. More taxes will destroy what we are trying to save which is jobs and revenue.

Democrats (and the mainstream press), are you listening? This is exactly the same problem Washington’s having. No one (of you) ever talks about cutting spending, only about the taxation level. Look at both sides of the equation, will you?

We must make better use of the money that we spend on our schools.

My proposal gets more money into the classroom and thus increases per-pupil funding.

First, we must give local schools the power to meet the specific needs of their own communities.

We can do this by consolidating $2 billion of categorical programs and cutting the strings to Sacramento.

This will give schools the freedom to spend the money as they – not Sacramento – best see fit to serve the children.

Second, school districts are forced to spend an average of 10 to 40 percent more than necessary on non-classroom services.

We must give local schools the freedom to be more cost efficient.

Local solutions to local problems, what a concept! If it’s good for California, certainly it should be good for Washington, D.C. Conservatives have been preaching this for a good long time. Not only does it mean better solutions, but less cost as well.

We cannot afford waste and fraud in any department or agency.

Every governor proposes moving boxes around to reorganize government.

I don’t want to move the boxes around; I want to blow them up.

An apt analogy for the Terminator.

The executive branch of this government is a mastodon frozen in time and about as responsive.

This is not the fault of our public servants but of the system.

We have multiple departments with overlapping responsibilities. I say consolidate them.

We have boards and commissions that serve no pressing public need. I say abolish them.

We have a state purchasing program that is archaic and expensive. I say modernize it.

I plan a total review of government – its performance, its practices, its cost.

Al Gore’s “Reinventing Government” bit was supposed to do this at the federal level. All he did was rearrange it. Hopefully, Arnold will do better in California, and if he does, I hope Bush will take notice.

Best laugh line:

I am a salesman by nature. And now most of my energies will go into selling California. If you can sell, if I can sell tickets to my movies like “Red Sonja” or “Last Action Hero,” you know I can sell just about anything. California is the easiest sell I’ve ever had.

Go get ’em, Ahnold.

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