Jerry Brown: “as I stand here, I can't decide whether people should be laughing or crying. Is it low farce or dark tragedy to spend…”

“as I stand here, I can't decide whether people should be laughing or crying. Is it low farce or dark tragedy to spend time doing the people's business debating a budget that virtually everyone knows is already dead? Today we debate the Budget Committee Majority's sorry, no account, buy today-pay tomorrow, credit card budget. In doing so, most Members on both sides of the aisle have been made reluctant participants in the spectacle of arguing over a corpse. The Republican leadership seems to have concluded that since we have brought the budget deficit under control it is time to engage in the same sort of shenanigans that got us that deficit in the first place. And why not? Budget deficits have been very, very good to the Republican majority. Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore have brought us a smaller government and our booming economy and the 1993 budget agreement have led to a balanced budget. As a result, the Republicans don't have much reason for being. They have become the one trick pony of American politics whose sole excuse for political existence is to rail against irresponsible government excess. It is hard to show excess if there isn't a deficit, so Mr. Kasich's budget promises tax cuts today and pays for them with unspecified, politically unpalatable spending reductions somewhere out in the future. His budget would again put us on a path for deficits.”