To save our state

Stay in Washington a few days and you will quickly learn that the East Coast media are reveling in California’s budget woes. However, the Beltway’s current mantra -- a crisis is too good an opportunity to waste -- can be a guide for Sacramento.

Cutting $20 billion to $25 billion from a state budget that has been cut repeatedly and, according to the U.S. census, supports one of the leanest state workforces in the country will be tough and traumatic. But if all sides are willing to step back from their habitual actions, the crisis can be an opportunity.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should accept that, in the age of Obama, credibility comes not from doom-and-gloom sound bites but from careful explanations. Claiming that all state parks will close makes for dramatic but easily dismissed headlines. A list of parks subject to seasonal closures, weekend-only openings or permanent closure makes the same point but with credibility.

Republicans, for example, should think about San Francisco, 35% and Winston Churchill.

Many Republicans declared the defeat of Proposition 1A as the triumph of “tea parties” and the return of the anti-tax spirit of Proposition 13. Good spin; lousy analysis. It’s fantasy to think that voters in San Francisco, Santa Monica and other liberal and Democratic strongholds who overwhelming voted against 1A did so for the same reasons as Republicans. Those voters, following the lead of two of the state’s most liberal unions and major players in the “no” campaign -- the Service Employees International Union and the California Faculty Assn. -- opposed the proposition because of its spending caps. Moreover, voters who rejected 1A also rejected 1D’s and 1E’s cuts in mental health and children’s programs.

Republicans should also remember 35%. That’s the percentage of the statewide elections since 1958 that the GOP has won. The last time there were more registered Republicans than Democrats in California, Herbert Hoover was in the White House; the last time GOP registration broke 40%, LBJ was president. In 2001, after 10 years of elections in districts drawn by a Supreme Court dominated by GOP appointees, the Republicans had fewer seats than they had in 1991. The GOP is the minority party here.

A democracy needs a minority party that fights for its beliefs but also understands that its beliefs are not those of the majority of the people. Churchill knew the importance of majority rule, which is why he orchestrated the political emasculation of the House of Lords when it consistently used its minority veto to thwart one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history.

Acentury later, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was so frustrated with the minority Democrats blocking the GOP majority in the Senate that he threatened the “nuclear option” -- replacing the supermajority required to shut down debate with a simple majority vote. A compromise prevented going nuclear. State Republicans should accept that the two-thirds vote gives them both power and responsibility, and remember that Sacramento Democrats have their own version of a nuclear option.

For Democrats, the keys are the Golden Rule and Harry Truman.

If Democrats want Republicans to act responsibly, then treat them responsibly. In 1974, a year of great partisanship, the Assembly had 31 Republicans out of 80 seats. Yet four standing committees were chaired by Republicans, and more than three-quarters of the panels had proportional or greater GOP membership. Today, there are 29 Assembly Republicans but no GOP chairs, and Republicans are under-represented in 60% of standing committees. Deny Republicans meaningful roles in lawmaking and don’t be surprised if they cling to the only tool they have: their supermajority veto.

Truman rooted out waste in the war effort, angering business and labor. He understood that government must be efficient because money lost to waste is money not available for real priorities. Democrats should take on inefficiencies and problems with in-home support services, but also go after the far more costly abuses of Medi-Cal by doctors and hospitals. Understand that furloughs are better than layoffs despite what seniority-obsessed unions claim. Demand that pay cuts be varied rather than across the board so the lowest-paid workers are not disproportionately hurt. Show that Democrats can do something other than protect favored constituencies and cry “more taxes.”

These are not radical suggestions, but all would significantly improve the odds of emerging from the crisis with a strong foundation for rebuilding.

Finally, for the true believers from both parties who think driving the state over a cliff will lead to their ideological nirvana: Shame on you. Shame on your ignorance of history, on your narcissistic indifference toward the millions of ordinary people who will suffer and on your refusal to help California when it most needs it.