Mother Fucking Republicans

It was recently reported that California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is trying to ruin my life for a mistake the majority of his state’s citizen’s had nothing to do with. Schwarzenegger, because of California’s 15.2 million dollar budget deficit, has proposed lowering the pay of nearly 200,000 state employees to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until lawmakers can figure out how to deal with this ridiculous budget. Raped Again By Mother Fucking Republicans.

So what does this mean? It means that thousands of high school teachers aren’t going to be able to pay the lease on their Nissan Altimas, it means thousands of temporary workers will find their jobs even more temporary than expected, it means thousands of college students aren’t even going to be able to afford a grande meal from Taco Bell during one of those hideous drunken nights – hell, they aren’t even going to be able to afford the damn alcohol. This means I might not have rent on time for a couple of months or I won’t have any gas to drive my car to my 6.55 an hour job! This means that I, along with other men and women across the state who decided to pursue a higher education could be federally fucked.

In the wake of the deliberating, college students, most notably ones who work on campus in state schools are going to have much on their minds to worry about, as if the pressures of term papers, final exams and that one professor who is out to get everyone isn’t enough. They’ll have to worry about not only the possibility of their wages being cut substantially, $1.45 less per hour, but tuition fees are set to be raised again – by a whopping 10%. Students who are employed by their schools could potentially be making less money while being forced to pay more to remain enrolled in the said school.

Is this the way things are going to be? I can only ponder conspiracies by credit companies and loan sharks to keep the future of this damn country in debt. How else can this be explained? I’m going to owe money for the rest of my life, and if I end up working for the state of fucking California (God forbid) I can have the wages I’m going to need to be paying back to these damn credit companies and loan sharks cut at any point without a reasonably fair warning. Our collective lives are going to be ruined. Sure, I may be a little extreme with the conspiracy theories or with the assumption that all of our lives (our meaning the college students at state schools in California who work for their schools, a very small demographic in comparassion to those who don’t work for the school), but this can’t be helping and it’s truly unfair.

Schwarzenegger’s spokes man, Aaron McLear, explained the reason for the wage cuts saying, “the Legislature has failed to produce a budget over a month past their deadline and because we don't have a rainy day fund, the governor is looking at a number of options to make sure the state does not run out of cash."

What I would like to know is what these other options are because I really don’t like this one. McLear also goes on to explain that state employees would receive their full salary retroactively once a budget is signed. Retroactively being the key word here. Federal court case Landgraf v. USI states “a particular rule operates `retroactively' comes at the end of a process,” which means, this process can take as short – or as long as they need it to take. State employees can go without their hard earned dollars for several months if need be, something that can put a lot of us in a really bad position.

Because of this there are two problems that I’m very concerned with. One, why is it okay for the state to force me to lend them my money without interest and two, how does this help, instead of hurt our state’s economy?

I can’t answer the first question simply because I wouldn’t know where to look it up and I don’t have the time or patience to look it up. However, I can offer some insight as to why this not only bothers me, but bothers all who would be affected by this preposterous mandate. If this goes through the wages of some of the most important people in our state will be cut dramatically. I’m not talking about importance as far as title and bank accounts go, I’m talking about important as far as what they’re doing for our community. We’re talking about teachers, fire fighters, health care workers, social workers, garbage men and that bitch at the DMV. Our state is nothing without these people, and they work hard for their God dammed money. In fact, they’re doing their jobs much better than Governor Schwarzenegger, who was supposed to be balancing the budget and not putting us in this position in the first place. Weren’t Californians originally pissed off at Governor Gray Davis because of the budget problem he had? Why should Schwarzenegger be given a pass for doing the job just as terribly (actually this budget deficit is nothing compared to the 30+ million Davis seemed to manufacture, but still) and why should he take it out on his employees? He shouldn’t. What Schwarzenegger should have done is done his job right. Somehow he cost the state of California 15 million dollars, and I know for a fact if I cost my boss 15 million I’d be fired. I’m just saying.

As far as the second question goes, I’m not sure if it helps the state’s economy at all. Macro Econ 101 tells us that the more money is circulated through the economy, the better off it will be, especially in a state so dependent on sales and income taxes. We’re either the most materialistic or the second most materialistic state in the country, we like to spend our money and that’s what makes this economy thrive, how is this money going to be circulated when you’re taking it away from us – especially when people are so reluctant to drive long distances with these higher gas prices and are generally spending less anyway for the same reasons. Gas right now is well over four dollars per gallon, and our governor wants to pay us less than two dollars more than the price of gas per gallon. This is going to set a lot of people back, which in turn will probably set the economy back further than it already is – which could lead to companies raising prices – which would ultimately lead to even less spending and all of a sudden we’re in a fucking recession (again, I’m a bit extreme).

How about instead of giving your people more monetary problems because you’ve created your own, get all of these fucking politicians in a fucking room and have them figure out this fucking budget. Because your plan is over a month over due it does not give you the right to make it my problem too. I live in California, not South Dakota, I need my fucking money.

(Side bar, I’m not a money hungry bastard, but I don’t like when the little money I have is taken away from me. It’s not cool at all.)

Stay Hideous
-PB

(Word count to date: 45,063
52 days and 54,937 words to go)