WHERE ARE THE LEADERS?

Lawmakers are considering plans to reduce grants to recipients of state SSI and SSP programs for the needy, elderly, blind and disabled. Theyre also considering cuts in the CalWorks welfare programs along with increased taxes which they plan on calling fees instead of taxes. Theyre considering laying off state workers.

Increased fees on a can o beer, increasing the state gasoline tax to .39 cents-a-gallon (and calling it a fee) and increasing all workers state income taxes (calling it a surcharge) and adding fees onto haircuts, landscaping, lawyer services.and increasing the car tax three-fold. The list of ways to steal money from Californians goes on and on.

Meanwhile, our brave elected officials continue to pocket tax-free per diem, enjoying the highest paid salaries of any state legislature, and appointing termed-out and defeated democrats to plumb jobs at exorbitant salaries.

The Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board acts as a second level of appeal duplicating the first level. There are seven positions on that board and all are political patronage jobs given to friends of Arnold and washed-up democrat politicians.

Former State Senator Sheila Kuehl, termed out, has been given a plumb job on a useless board, and now earns 133 thousand annual salary. State Senator Carol Migden, defeated in the last election gets named to another board, and now earns $132 thousand annually.

When he first ran for governor, Schwarzenneger said he wanted to blow up the boxes, not just move em around. He cited 45 useless boards and commissions and wanted to get rid of em. He ran up against Democrat opposition, and we never heard him mention it again.

If our democrat-controlled legislature would get real serious about this states fiscal plight, they would start looking inward at themselves rather than targeting the needy, blind, disabled, elderly, and honest hard-working Californians.

In an open letter to freshman Assemblyman Dan Logue, Jack Lee suggested Logue introduce a bill cutting lawmakers pay by thirty percent. Will he do it? No! He would be ostracizeddemonized and shunned into ineffectiveness by his fellow lawmakers.

Even if he DID introduce such a bill, it would be quickly defeated by lawmakers who are living high on the hog on the money extorted from the working class, the blind, elderly, disabled. Those lawmakers arent about to give up the lifestyle to which theyve become accustomed. Theyve found their place at the public teat, and theyre not about to let go.

Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens says his company will slash executive compensation by fifty percent! Ohio-based AK Steel says it will immediately implement a five percent pay cut for the CEO and executive officers. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendel told state executives to return their cost-of-living increases.

FedEx CEO Fred Smith says he will take a twenty percent pay cut. Gymboree CEO Matthew McCauley has announced salary cuts among senior managers and corporate staff.

Leaders should set an example! Where are our leaders in California? The sad truth is, we dont have any. Its easier for them to layoff state workers and steal from the rest of us.