GOP Budget Cuts Would Hurt Education

So the Republicans have made their budget proposals (July 7), and we now know what the “fat” and “waste” are that they want to eliminate: education ($1 billion from elementary school education, plus the funds to run two entire university campuses); public health ($51 million from medical care for poor children and $6.5 million from health-care clinics); public safety (a 60% reduction in Youth Authority funding, an additional $450 million from state prison funding, as well as elimination of seismic safety programs to protect us in earthquakes).The Republicans want to eliminate funds to help poor blind people feed their seeing-eye dogs and to properly bury foster children.

Most Californians do not think education, health care and public safety are “waste.” Most Californians do not want to eliminate compassionate programs for the most helpless among our citizens. Forget the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. We should recall Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte and his cohort of hatchet men.

John Hamilton Scott

Sherman Oaks

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I am embarrassed by the performance in Sacramento of my fellow Republicans. I’ve worked for GOP causes all my life but can no longer stay silent at this partisan stonewalling over the state’s overdue fiscal budget. Sunday’s session was the first time Republicans would even debate the matter. It’s the same rancorous squabbling, without a shred of the compromise that is called for under these strained circumstances.

A while back, I founded a tax-reduction organization that consistently opposed new taxation when not balanced by increases in retail trade and the greater sales tax revenues to the cities that result. You wouldn’t expect me to be a tax-increase advocate. But taking the state to the edge of bankruptcy and forcing draconian cuts in education, health care and prisons, perhaps forcing the release of lawbreakers back onto our communities, are totally insupportable.

Is mutual cooperation too much to expect from those we elected to represent us? With the Bush administration passing more and more of the cost burden back to state and local levels, every state is having to face up to an agonizing mix of tax hikes and cutbacks. Or do we see a hidden agenda at work here, within the GOP, to recall our elected governor? Let’s get with it, people, before California’s credit rating is downgraded once again and we spiral into a GOP-triggered bankruptcy.

Roger A. Wells

Manhattan Beach

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I am amazed by the disingenuousness of the California Legislature’s Republicans described in your July 8 article about the “Red Ink Diaries,” claiming that the Democrats wasted taxpayer money. How ludicrous: Many Republicans themselves voted for most of the spending increases, and their own budget proposal tries to preserve most of these programs while relying on borrowing. The examples of silly spending, like the teddy bears, are insignificant. Looks like the term “Republican leadership” is an oxymoron in California. Or maybe we should just call them “Obstructicans.”

Clint Trout

West Hollywood