LAT: California budget deficit is Republicans' problem

According to the LAT this morning, Republicans are to blame for the budget stalemate in Sacramento. The $15 billion budgetary shortfall for fiscal year 2008-2009 would no longer be a problem if Republicans legislators had only agreed to Democrats' proposals to raise taxes. Republicans are just being bull-headed, the LAT says, though not in those exact words. Where are the old kind of Republicans, the reasonable ones, the kind who would agree to raise taxes, the LAT asks

The LAT doesn't consider cutting back on expenditures a viable alternative to raising taxes. The cuts would need to be too deep, apparently.

There are only two ways of solving this problem for future years, the LAT says. One way is to elect more Democrats to the legislature. The other is to amend the California constitution so that tax increases would no longer need to be approved by two-thirds of each house of the legislature.

But Californians are already over taxed. It's unreasonable to expect them to pay more. At some point, a cap must be placed on the state's spending. Increases in line with population growth and inflation should be allowed but bigger increases should not. Republicans shouldn't agree to any tax increases until Democrats agree to a spending cap.