The Congress Does Its Job

You can complain about the way it did its job or what it accomplished, but by passing a continuing resolution for the rest of the year that included specific direction to agencies on spending priorities, the Congress has finally done its job after a four abdication, mostly by Democrats in the Senate, in passing a budget.

The other interesting note is that the liberty movement seems to be winning the war, despite losing many battles.  Lower spending based on sequestration has locked in.  No new taxes were proposed.  The government is on a trajectory to spend less.  You could argue that without entitlement reform, these spending reductions will be overwhelmed by entitlement spending increases.  I have made that argument myself.  But I believe this sets the stage for the Congress to start believing it can restore its rightful place in our Constitutional order, and perhaps craft a deal on entitlements as well.  I guarantee that if that happens, I won't be happy, and my readers won't be happy.  The left won't be happy either, but the Republic will muddle through and the dynamism of our economy will cover a lot of sins in the capital.

I am one of the employees who still might face a furlough, so I have followed the budget closely.  It was interesting to see the Congress reassert its authority, by changing some spending priorities, setting limits on flexibility, and in general restoring some of its authority.  I still don't know if I will be furloughed, but if I am, it looks to be fewer unpaid days off and I will know that it wasn't solely because the administration unilaterally made my job a bargaining pawn with the Congress.  Some of the bargaining may still happen, but in a manner more consistent with the Founder's intent.

Furloughs Upheld

In some rare good news for taxpayers, the California Supreme Court ruling that furloughs for state employees are not a violation of the state constitution. (Some workers get every other Friday off as unpaid leave.) This will give Meg Whitman an opportunity to have some tough negotiations with the unions, because she will have a good hand. She can threaten more furloughs if the unions aren't reasonable over salaries. If Jerry Brown is elected, forgot about it.

From the U-T article:

The latest furlough order exempts departments that collect revenue, such as the Franchise Tax Board, and provide public safety protection, including the California Highway Patrol.

It also exempts about 37,000 workers in six unions that recently reached tentative labor agreements with the Schwarzenegger administration. Those unions agreed for their members to contribute more of their salaries toward their pension benefits and to take one day of unpaid personal leave a month, the equivalent of a nearly 5 percent pay cut.

Is there any doubt that those concessions would not have been won without the furloughs?

I have been thinking about how to deal with the pension issue for a while. Couldn't the state negotiate new agreements with current employees to immediately reduce the burden of pensions on the state budget? Of course they could, but what about negotiations over pensions earned in the past for employees who have not yet retired, could a retroactive change be lawful if their union agreed to it?