The Roles of Bush and Davis in California’s Budget Crisis

Robert Scheer missed how sly President Bush really is (“Blame Bush in State Fiscal Crisis,” Commentary, July 1).

Bush tricked Gov. Gray Davis into spending 40% more when the revenue increase was a paltry 21%. And Bush outfoxed Davis into hiring someone at over $200,000 a year to buy and sell energy who had never done it. Scheer missed the underhanded way Bush got “Kenny Boy” Lay to contribute millions to President Clinton, while Enron accounting was A-OK for the eight years of the Clinton administration. And the wily way Bush got the economy to start its tanking on Clinton’s watch.

Now that is sneaky. And that just scratches the surface.

John Hardison

Corona

*

I think it was no coincidence that the energy crisis came to a head just days after Bush was inaugurated and his gang of ex-energy-industry insiders took over. Now, thanks to Scheer’s commentary implicating the current administration in this catastrophe, maybe more Californians will stand up and properly assign blame where it belongs.

Hopefully, this will stimulate enough interest and generate momentum to get a search started for all the facts. If the whole affair is properly investigated, I think that instead of a Davis recall effort we will be looking at the last days of a one-term president.

Tim Osborne

Irvine

*

Nice try, Mr. Scheer, but Californians know better. When Davis (a Democrat) took office he inherited a surplus from Gov. Pete Wilson (a Republican). According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the state budget has grown 44% in the past four years.

Davis and his Democratic majority in the state Legislature simply couldn’t resist spending the surplus (and every other dollar they could get their hands on) on every program their constituents wanted.

Big labor, education (Proposition 98), environmentalists all came to Sacramento with their hands out and got what they wanted. Now revenue from capital gains and stock options has plummeted and we are stuck scrambling for revenues to fund this bloated state budget. These problems were created in our own backyard, not in Washington or Texas (Enron).

Elmer Richardson

Riverside

*

Thanks to Scheer for refreshing the facts. Indeed, Davis seems the fall guy -- the trippers being both Bush administrations and their long schmooze with Enron. Quite a relay team, almost forgotten.

Gene Burke

Santa Monica