Opinion

Sunday, Jul. 12, 2009

Dan Walters: This may be apocalyptic fiscal duel

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A cornerstone of Christian dogma, as described in the Bible, is that there ultimately will be an epic confrontation between good and evil in which God will triumph over Satan.

Or as Revelation 20 describes it, when the devil's army surrounds God's people, "Fire will come down from heaven and destroy the whole army (and) the devil who fooled them will be thrown into the lake of fire and burning sulfur."

There's something faintly biblical about the Capitol's ever-tenser political confrontation over how to close a whopping budget deficit.

For years, the opposing ideological armies have flirted with a final confrontation over whether to expand the state's revenue structure to support its superstructure of educational, social, health and penal services, or shrink spending to match revenues.

Each time the apocalyptic moment appeared nigh, however, those involved would avoid a decisive battle with some new set of accounting gimmicks or loans that postponed the day of fiscal reckoning and left the underlying ideological conflicts unresolved.

This may be the moment, however, when one side or the other emerges triumphant. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, after years of playing both sides against the middle, seemingly has planted himself on the conservative side, demanding deep and lasting spending cuts that would markedly tighten the state's array of services.

Schwarzenegger was elected governor nearly six years ago to fix California's out-of-control budget but failed miserably, largely because he wasn't willing to risk his popularity.

Now, with time running out on his governorship and with the state's budget crisis worse than ever, Schwarzenegger appears to savor a conclusive confrontation.

"This is the year we have to stop promising people things we can't deliver," he said last week.

Meanwhile, Democrats are just as determined to dodge the bullet Schwarzenegger wants to fire. They clearly want to increase taxes again, but barring that, they want temporary fixes that will leave the safety net of social services intact, hoping that an improved economy and/or a new governor will make them whole again.

"We're not cutting deeper," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said during one debate. "The price is too high," he said on another occasion.

If he sticks to his guns – and that's always uncertain with Schwarzenegger – the governor is playing a stronger hand. He clearly wants a legacy of having tamed the budget monster as promised, and he's a lame duck who won't be seeking office in California again, so he has nothing to lose politically.

The state is already issuing IOUs to some creditors and in another couple of months will be unable to pay any of its bills unless it floats some short-term cash flow loans, thus forcing a decision of some kind to satisfy lenders.

This, indeed, could be the final confrontation that has been so many years in the making. But who is good and who is evil?