Gee, Wasn’t Arnold All About Fixing California’s Deficit?

I mean, that’s what he kept telling us back in 2002, when Darrell Issa bought him a shot at Gray Davis’ governorship.  

He was talking non-stop about The $38 Billion Deficit, and most of the mainstream press swallowed it whole, not bothering to analyze Schwarzenegger’s howlingly bogus proposed budget until after the election that made him governor.  Few of them noticed that Davis had actually had the deficit paid down to $8 billion by the time anybody’d noticed that there was a deficit in the first place.

Now, guess what?  The deficit that was $8 billion and dropping when Davis was in office five years ago has now grown to nearly double that (h/t Atrios):

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will declare a state of fiscal emergency under never-before-used rules that would force lawmakers into a special session to address a $14 billion deficit.

The governor, touring a hospital in Long Beach, said he will declare the emergency in January when lawmakers return from recess. Under the action, the Legislature would have 45 days to find ways to plug the shortfall. If they fail to find a solution in that time, they are barred from doing any other legislative work or adjourn until they do.

Uh-huh. Yeah, blame the Lege, Arnold.