Bond Proposal for Balancing State Budget

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to balance the state’s budget by floating a $15-billion bond is unconscionable (Nov. 19). The idea of forcing our children and grandchildren to pay off our debt is immoral. Republicans have proved once again that they are the party of borrow and spend. Had Gray Davis proposed such a scheme, conservatives would have hanged him.

Ralph S. Brax

Lancaster

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It was disappointing to read that as Schwarzenegger vowed to change “the entire political climate of our state” (Nov. 18) and end partisan wrangling, he continued to raise money from the special-interest groups he once made a point of shunning. Then he tells us he intends to further raise money to win ballot measures.

What happened to bringing legislation to Sacramento, getting bipartisan support and making changes? Please get our elected leaders to do what we put them in Sacramento to do. If his strategy is to put more ballot measures before the voters, Schwarzenegger could have done that without becoming governor.

Karen Morin

Studio City

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In his inaugural speech, Gov. Schwarzenegger said, “As a boy, [I] saw Soviet tanks rolling through the streets of Austria,” implying that the Russians invaded Austria. Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, and the Russian tanks liberated it from the Nazi forces -- to which his father then belonged -- in April 1945. The governor was born in 1947. Austria was divided into four occupation zones -- U.S., U.K., France, Soviets -- and granted sovereignty by the Allies in 1955.

G. B. Mathieu

Laguna Beach