Fomer Cali Gov. Pete Wilson weeps he never could “count on” Tom McClintock

California has had a lot of miserable governors the past 50 years, including the incumbent, Gov. Steroid. But one of the worst is ex-Gov. Pete Wilson, in power 1991-1998. He’s now written a letter carping at state Sen. Tom McClintock — the great friend of taxpayers who’s now running for the U.S. House of Reps. Wilson gripes:

As Governor, I could never count on Tom McClintock. He was always the first to criticize, but the last to help the team. His record doesn’t match his rhetoric.

That is, Wilson couldn’t “count on” McClintock to back his Tax Increase Team. McClintock led the opposition to Wilson’s $7 billion tax increase in 1991 — the equivalent of a $18 billion tax increase today. The increase not only didn’t balance the budget, as promised, but cut tax receipts by $2 billion, from $42 billion a year to $40 billion. The state economy imploded. I remember seeing signs reading, “Nevada, Here We Come!” (Nevada has no state income tax, compared to California’s top rate of 10.3%, then and now.)

The only good thing about the whole taxing episode was that it destroyed forever Wilson’s chances of getting the GOP nomination for president. Even Bob Dole — the “tax collector for the welfare state” — looked good by comparison.

Wilson simply was obsessed with walloping taxpayers so he could fund his favorite program: tax-funded abortions.

And he’s still defending the tax increases:

But I am going to say they [Gov. Steroid and the state Legislature] have the deficit which I was seeking to avoid. I didn’t want us to get started on it. I didn’t want to be on that slippery slope…. We did it the hard way. And it has frankly worked out pretty well.

No, it didn’t work out!

Yes, I will cite the infamous budget numbers

Ok, Pete, you made me do it. To prove you’re a phony, I’m going to link to the state budget numbers [.pdf] in Gov. Steroid’s budget proposal, so readers can check it out themselves. Folks, just click on that link and it will pop up as a .pdf document. Then scroll down to Appendix Schedule 6, which is on page Appendix 13.

Then look under the “Revenue…General Fund…Millions” column. The numbers are for the state’s “fiscal year,” which begins on July 1. So, the “1991-92” fiscal year is for the period July 1991-June 1992, and so on.

1991-92 (first year of the tax increase, before businesses could adjust by leaving): 42,026. (That is, $42.026 billion in revenue.)

1992-93 (first year of tax increase impact): 40,946.

1993-94: 40,095.

1993-94: 42,710.

1994-95 (as most of the tax increases began to expire): 46,296

Even a second-grader cans see that the tax receipts dropped after the tax increases. Those first three years also showed budget deficits. Wilson didn’t “do it the hard way” because he didn’t do it at all.

So McClintock obviously was right to oppose Wilson’s Tax Increase Team back in 1991.

Appointing “Justice” George

It also was Wilson who put on the state Supreme Soviet — excuse me, Supreme Farce — excuse me again — Supreme Court the ridiculous tyrant George III, a/k/a Chief “Justice” Ronald George in 1991, then as chief “justice” in 1996. I was at the Register at the time and wrote several editorials against the appointments, noting that it was for one purpose: George was, like Wilson, a pro-abort. As soon as he was appointed (I think the 1991 appointment), the court tipped pro-abort, and restored a ridiculous ruling that the state Constitution mandated tax-funded abortions. At the time, everybody knew that this was George’s purpose on the court.

And it was George who just penned the risible “opinion” “legalizing” so-called same-sex “marriage” — but in effect redefining real marriage out of existence.

Thanks again, Pete.

Except on opposing illegal immigration — and even there, Wilson was just an opportunist — Wilson prefigured Gov. Steroid’s calls for “post-partisanship” and “rebranding” the GOP. In his 8 years in office, Wilson disheartened and discombobulated the GOP so much there’s not much left of it. Except for Gov. Steroid’s two quirky victories, the party hasn’t won a race for the state’s three top positions (governor and the two U.S. senators) since, and only a couple of other statewide races.

Back McClintock

And McClintock, of course, has been a thorn in the side of another spendthrift governor, Gov. Steroid himself — a Wilson progege. McClintock warned over and over again that Ahhhhnold was overspending like Cimino on “Heaven’s Gate.”

McClintock is a California version of Ron Paul: a principled, longtime opponent of spendthrift, tax-obsessed government. He should be honored that Wilson opposes him.

If Wilson really wanted to help his party, state, and country, he would retire to Cuba or some other place more congenial to his tax-and-abort policies and leave real Republicans like Tom McClintock alone.

If you can, give Tom a hand in his campaign for California’s 4th Congressional District. His site is here.