- California faces a $21 billion budget shortfall; Gov. Schwarzenegger promises massive across-the-board budget cuts (a.k.a. service cuts).
- In San Francisco, Mayor Newsom asks department heads to plan for 30% budget cuts, following on 25% cuts last year.
- In Los Angeles, University of California Regents approved a 32% fee increase for students.
Just
one week ago, two of the nation's richest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, told students that "capitalism is great" and that "the fundamentals of the system, a marketplace-driven system where we invest in education and a great infrastructure for the long-term, that's continued." Remarkably, they were cheered, rather than laughed out of the building.
