Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Do Californians really understand what they want from state gov?

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On Wednesday in Sacramento, Guv-elect Jerry Brown will have his first major public discussion about how bad California's budget situation is. No, this isn't a "solutions" discussion, Brown's peeps assure us.

Reading between the lines, it will be about two things:

1. Making sure everybody knows that this mess wasn't Jerry's fault.

2. Outlining how bad it will be, so Jerry can propose some tough love solutions. Which might be easier for Dems to embrace than the tough love Guv Schwarzenegger just proposed.

But do Californians REALLY understand what they want from state government? Do they understand the tradeoffs they're going to have to make. Public Policy Institute of California prez Mark Baldassare says yes.

What Baldassare said voters want to hear from Jer, starting Wednesday: Leadership. And a plan...the details of which Jerry was uncharacteristically, shall we say, reticent to share during the campaign.

Key snippet from a new interview Mark just did with the California Report:

GC: Governor-elect Jerry Brown is hinting that he'll put the tough budget questions to voters and insist that they choose between fewer services or higher taxes. How's that likely to work out?

MB: Voters would rather have leadership that provides them with a plan. You want a governor to go to the legislature and agree on a plan and then go to the voters. You want a governor who can work with the legislature effectively: that's what has been missing.

Posted By: Joe Garofoli (Email, Twitter, Facebook) | Dec 07 at 12:42 PM

Listed Under: California Budget | Permalink

Poll: Obama donors/supporters less likely to give after Prez's tax deal

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Bad news for President Obama in the wake of the Bush-era tax deal he cut with Congressional Republicans: A lot of his staunchest supporters aren't going to give or volunteer their time for his 2012 re-election effort in 2012.

A new survey of of 1,132 voters who have given money or time to Obama -- commissioned by liberal activists at MoveOn and conducted by SurveyUSA -- contains a lot of potentially bad news for Obama.

The gut blow: 51 percent of former Obama contributors, say striking such a deal would make them less likely to contribute to the Obama re‐election campaign in 2012.

Bad news for other Dems: 57 percent of former Obama contributors surveyed said that they would be less likely to support Democrats in 2012 who support this deal.

As Daily Kos czar Markos Moulitsas wrote Tuesday:

"This shouldn't be worrisome to the White House because these people won't vote for him in 2012. They probably will. But will they give money and knock on doors and make phone calls and drag their social circle to the polls? Nope. They didn't in 2010. And at this rate, they sure as hell won't in 2012."

Big Labor is ticked, too. Quick reminder: Labor gave $68 million to Dems in 2008.

AFL-CIO czar Richard Trumka said: "It is unconscionable that the price of support for struggling middle class families and workers who have been unable to find jobs for months and months and months is yet more giveaways for our country's wealthiest families.

"The gains for the middle class and jobless workers in the deal come at too high a price," Trumka said.

Among the highlights from the survey memo slipped to Greg Sargent:

An overwhelming majority, 83 percent of former Obama contributors, oppose extending the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a year --- 70 percent of them strongly.

More than 74 percent of former Obama contributors oppose the president's making a deal with Republicans that would extend the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000.

67 percent of former Obama contributors surveyed said they support extending tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 a year.

The liberal activists at Daily Kos have launched an online pushback, urging supporters to "Join the rebellion against the deal!"

Team Obama can smell the anger -- which is why The O is now standing at the podium in a middle-of-the-day impromptu news conference to quell the rebellion.

His first answer, however, was about as political as you can get. Asked how the American people can trust him when he "flip-flops" on a major piece of his agenda to satisfy the "politics of the moment," Obama replied:

"This isn't about politics of the moment,"Obama said. "This is about what we can get done right now."

Uh, isn't that the same thing....?

Posted By: Joe Garofoli (Email, Twitter, Facebook) | Dec 07 at 11:35 AM

Listed Under: Obama | Permalink

Oil industry pushing for Congress -- not Obama -- to set enviromental regs

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This report was written by Jennifer Dlouhy of the Washington bureau.

Oil and gas industry leaders are pinning their hopes on Congress to overrule Obama administration decisions on offshore drilling and environmental regulation, even as lawmakers get shut out of more of those moves.

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"Key decisions . . . should not be made by unelected bureaucrats," said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute , in a phone call with reporters Monday. "These decisions should be made by the Congress of the United States."

The industry is still bristling from the White House's decision last week to reverse course on offshore drilling and block exploration in federal waters along the Atlantic Coast and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico as part of the government's 2012-2017 outer continental shelf lease plan.

Some lawmakers want to hold oversight hearings examining the policy reversal next year. But oil and gas lobbyists want Congress to go further and are pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that would force the administration to hold lease sales in those now-walled-off areas.

"We intend to work with both the Department (of Interior) and the Hill," Gerard said, adding that "congressional action and oversight are needed."

"We will pursue whatever avenues we think are best for the American people and what we think will be the best for our nation to help it recover (economically) and provide the oil and gas we need," Gerard said.

Industry advocates also have been imploring Congress to give the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement the money it needs to swiftly implement new safety rules and process well permits -- but without hiking offshore drilling fees to do it.

In a letter to appropriators on Capitol Hill , the Independent Petroleum Association of America noted that "the oil and natural gas industry contributes billions of dollars each year to the federal treasury" and some of that "could pay to increase staffing and funding at BOEMRE."

With Republicans taking control of the House next year and the Democrats' newly narrow hold on the Senate, the administration is expected to circumvent any gridlock on Capitol Hill by advancing more of its energy and environmental policies through executive agencies. For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency is set to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities and other stationary sources on Jan. 1.

Gerard said he was counting on "bipartisan leaders on the Hill (to) take exception" with any administration attempts to use federal agencies to advance "an ideological agenda . . . that is inconsistent with where the people want them to go."

"The bipartisan leadership on Capitol Hill will review those actions very closely," Gerard said. "If there are efforts to take this purely through a regulatory front, I think those elected officials in Congress will have something to say about it."

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Posted By: Richard Dunham (Email) | Dec 07 at 07:44 AM

Listed Under: Congress | Permalink