Schwarzenegger: Dems Are Spending 'Addicts'
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Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Saturday, Feb. 12, 2005 4:43 p.m. EST

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says majority Democrats in the state Legislature would have befallen the same fate as former Gov. Gray Davis, had they all been on the ballot to be recalled in 2003.

That's because they "did not get the message" of the recall in the first place, which was, said the Republican governor, their indifference to reforming the state's chronic budget problems.

In a speech to the California Republican Party Friday evening in Sacramento, Schwarzenegger — a fiscal conservative — characterized Democrats as spending "addicts" and described the state's persistent overspending as a result of "evil."

Schwarzenegger believes his election signaled a mandate to erase the state's budget deficit, which was in the tens of billions of dollars (and growing) when he defeated Democrat Davis nearly a year and a half ago.

But majority Democrats in the Legislature appear ready to stick to their old formula of raising taxes to fund more and more programs, Schwarzenegger said, in comments published by the Los Angeles Times.

"You know why they don't get the message? Because we are dealing here with addicts. Even if they try, they cannot stop spending money," he said in his speech to about 1,000 members of the state GOP. "That is why the people of California have sent me here — to be the outside intervention."

Speaking of his budget plans, which, if approved, will include a series of ballot propositions to be voted on by Californians, Schwarzenegger said: "Now we are going to the source — right there where all the evil is — and we're going to fix this problem once and for all. We're going to say this reform is going to happen because now we have a governor who represents the people's interests instead of special interests."

When he was fighting a losing battle for his political life, Davis was facing deficits of at least $34 billion, the Sacramento Bee reported last month. But majority Democrats' insistence on staying the current budgetary course – which, the Ridgecrest Daily Independent says, amounts to about $8 billion annually – puts the state at risk.

It could also put majority Democrats at risk, Schwarzenegger hinted. "If they had been on the [2003] ballot, they all would have been recalled," he told state Republicans.

To illustrate his budgetary points, Schwarzenegger also turned to comedy.

"Schwarzenegger joked about a recent TV movie on his political and bodybuilding career, 'See Arnold Run,' saying Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) had requested equal time and his own movie," the Times reported.

"The network started production on a movie about Fabian's career. But they already shut it down because it's already over budget," the governor said.

A spokesman for Nuñez, however, implied the that the peaker failed to see the humor. "Democrats look forward to moving beyond partisan rhetoric and working to balance the budget," spokesman Vincent Duffy told the Times.

Nuñez wasn't the only Democrat in Schwarzenegger's comedic sites. He also took a jab at wife Maria Schriver's family, the Kennedys.

Noting the accomplishment of the NFL's New England Patriots in winning a third Super Bowl in four years, the governator jibed, "It's great to see a New England dynasty that is not the Kennedys."

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