My colleague Harold Meyerson is absolutely right on the weirdness, and scale, of Arnold's lurch to the left:
Even for those accustomed to the malleability of Hollywood identity, the rollout of the new Arnold is mind-boggling. After all his talk about holding down spending, the governator now says it's time to renew the legacy of Pat Brown, the great Democratic governor of the late 1950s and early '60s who built the state's freeways, aqueducts and universities. It's time, says Arnold, for a mega-bond issue that would fund more schools, shore up levees, repave roads and build affordable housing. He's still nobody's redistributionist, but the new Arnold apparently, and rightly, believes that big government can fuel big growth.
I'm all for a massive infrastructure renewal program, but my god, even this liberal can't see where the money's coming from. Of course, that's become standard operating procedure for domestically endangered Republicans: spend like a liberal on steroids endorphins, but never utter the word "tax." This, unfortunately, ends up in a gleeful violation of basic laws of economics, and despite the pleasing glint of the programs, somebody still ends up holding the bill. In this case, it'll be my little sister.
It's time for Arnold to raise taxes. That, or its time for him to face the consequences of not raising them. Doing both, however, is irresponsible.
Update: Sorry, meant lurch to the left.
