#46 Marc Malone: yes and no on Arnold: he tried in his first year to limit public pensions and benefits, control teacher’s unions and more. It was ambitious and perhaps too much so.
The panicked unions came down on him like a ton of bricks: commercials showing police officers claiming “Arnold’s going to take a way my wife’s pension,” and tired trauma nurses claiming the same thing. The newspapers were no help: they like government spending. The voters, goodhearted people who didn’t want to take away a police officer’s pension, rejected the proposed limits, which was too bad. It was a great opportunity to impose some sensible limits, but the voters were not ready. Maybe next time. But Arnold is light years better than Gray Davis and the Democratic legislature. I don’t think he’s corrupt and I do think he wants to do the right thing. But when the legislature controls the credit cards, its hard to budget.
