Sen. Harman: 'California is Not on the Mend'

In his response Wednesday to Gov. Jerry Brown's State of the State address, Republican State Sen. Tom Harman accused Brown of being out of touch with reality when it comes to the state's economic troubles.

"The governor’s assessment of the state glossed over the economic reality, a reality over two million unemployed Californians already know," Harman said. "We desperately need jobs and Sacramento hasn’t done enough about it. Arguing for more taxes to feed a bloated and lethargic government is not the answer; it is the problem. We should be arguing for the elimination of the regulations choking businesses, reforms to the public pension system, spending limits and an overhaul of our tax structure."

In his address, Brown asserted that the state was "on the mend," touting what he called a one-fourth reduction in the budget deficit. He reiterated his desire to both cut spending and to increase taxes temporarily to close the remaining gap, he said, left behind as the result of four Republican votes that would have put his tax inititiative on the ballot. Harman's response took on both Brown's assesment of the state's condition, and his plans to improve it.

"California is not on the mend," Harman said. "You can’t tax yourself into fiscal solvency. If that were the case, California would be the healthiest state on earth. The governor should be focusing on putting people back to work, not increasing the size of government and the tax dollars needed to support it.”