I posted the comment below over at Digby's in response to this question
"Are the government workers in California prepared to share wage and salary cuts and hours-cuts in order to avoid any of them being laid off? Are the taxpayers of California prepared to pay enough more taxes to protect their government workers from layoff?"
As a state worker and a taxpayer I am ready to contribute to solutions for the state. But I wonder if the citizens of California are ready to see what happens when the government shuts down. Right now the Guv has ordered that I take two unpaid days off every month which works out to a ten percent reduction of my salary. In addition he has ordered a ten percent across the board reduction in workers. Sounds simple doesn't it. However, do you think he is going to give early release to enough prisoners so that ten percent of the guards can get laid off. Is he going to cut the Highway patrol by ten percent. Is he going to cut his staff by ten percent? The answer to all of these is no. There will be exceptions and justifications and exemptions for Health and Safety classifications so that the rest of the workforce will absorb the shock. These folks that will be impacted are the ones that process disability claims, collect taxes, issue drivers licenses, inspect and investigate abuse in elder care and child care facilities, keep parks open, issue permits for agricultural pest control, make sure labor laws are obeyed, investigate fraud in medi-cal, and make sure that strung-out doctors aren't allowed to practice medicine and crooked attorneys are not allowed to practice law. These are the folks that go after crooked mechanics and car dealers. These are the folks that make sure that truckers are not working dangerous double and triple shifts.
These people and many more who provide essential services to maintain our civil society are the ones who will take the hit. The services they provide are as essential as they are ubiquitous.I don't see Arnie asking any of his friends or peers to sacrifice a damn thing. But when a child dies in a daycare because no one has inspected the operator for ten years, there will be a big fuss. When some rich or famous bastard's mother or father is mistreated and dies from negligence in an assisted care facility that has not been inspected for five or six years, there will be a hell of an outcry and some low-level flunky will take the fall instead of the politician who was too chickenshit to ask the taxpayers to pay for services they demand.
Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
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