Politics: Arnold’s knife-wielding helped shrink California’s government
- From the get-go, the governor was very tough in negotiations, and as a result we have a budget that substantially shrinks government. Conservatives have every reason to be overjoyed.
- Republican Party officer Jon Fleischman • On California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger’s hard-line approach to cutting California’s huge deficit. Schwartzenegger, a fiscal conservative, scored a huge political victory with the budget cuts. He closed off multiple roads to closing the gap (higher taxes weren’t an option, really) in an effort to make sure the cuts, in the end, meant smaller government. And he brandished a big knife in the process. • source