Lawmakers Fiddle While the Budget Burns

Re “Lawmakers See Slim Chance of Meeting Budget Deadline,” June 11: The Republican lawmakers in Sacramento should be reading my lips instead of Senate GOP Leader Jim Brulte’s (R-Rancho Cucamonga). As a Republican voter, I will vote against any candidate who refuses to vote for enough taxes to balance the budget. So it is time for other Republican leaders to take over and push Brulte to the side, unless they want to destroy the California Republican Party.

They should immediately increase the sales tax (how about 1%?), increase the car registration fee (when I paid mine it was embarrassingly low) and increase the income tax rates.

Add to that any other increases necessary, along with some decreases in spending, and produce a balanced budget. But I do not want all government services and school funding to be eliminated; we should be looking to the future of California, not trying to destroy it. Not that it’s difficult to do; anybody with a small knowledge of accounting could do it. If the Republicans can’t manage this, maybe we should recall the bunch of them for incompetence.

Tom Cootz

Westwood

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It is time for our elected representatives in Sacramento to stop behaving like spoiled children and begin acting like adults with respect to the current budget crisis (“Where Are the Grown-Ups?” editorial, June 11). Actually, it’s quite late, but better late than never.

Susan Guilford

Orange