Hasta La Vista, Baby

Published in El Mundo
(Spain) on 3 January 2011
by Pablo Scarpellini (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Rachel Evans. Edited by Heidi Kaufmann.
Within a few hours, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be jobless — an ironic truth to accompany the galloping crisis suffered by the state he has governed over the past seven years. He will relinquish his scepter of power to a Democrat, Jerry Brown, who returns to the office almost three decades later. Struck by an unemployment rate of 12.4 percent and with a deficit established at $20 billion, he will take his leave through public forum, a means of assessment. Much to his grief, it is a negative balance sheet for California.

No matter how hard he tries, he can’t help but be reminded that in broad terms, that figure is like a summation of his term in office. Clearly you can say, and with good reason, that in 2003 he inherited a state in the middle of a grave electricity, water supply and prison system crisis. In addition, the state’s debt threatened future shortages. At that time, the problem was that he hesitated to stop the hemorrhaging, although he had the confidence and the support of the voters to do it. That ultimately cost him dearly.

Failures

In a recent interview with The Los Angeles Times, the ex-actor admitted that his first and most serious error was supporting an initiative to continue borrowing money ($15 billion, to be exact). This was an attempt not to burden the voters with more taxes.

“It was a mistake,” he said. “I should’ve gone the other direction to early on solve the budget problem and use the political muscle I had in that first year in office.”

He believes, however, that his plan would have worked had it not been for the recession that hit the world’s eighth-largest economy. Shaken by the astronomical number of evictions and loss of capital in the movie industry, which quickly sank the California finances, many movie shootings left Hollywood for states with more favorable financial policies.

Insights

In favor of “the Governator,” his aggressive law will always be relied upon in order to fight against climate change, which proposes to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 15 percent by 2020. Despite his characteristic style with cases of gay weddings and recreational marijuana consumption, there were clear intentions of alleviating such a worn budgetary deficit, although he got behind on some things.

He will always have Hollywood, where he has threatened to return if they offered him an interesting role. But first, he will have to participate in his successor’s opening ceremony. One can argue that the $20 billion of the budget in the red will be a burden to Brown. The famous Schwarzenegger will leave him the lamentable state of public education after budget cuts and the overpopulation in state prisons, just to mention a few.

As it has been said, he will always have Hollywood.



Dentro de unas pocas horas, Arnold Schwarzenegger estará sin trabajo, irónica realidad para acompañar a la crisis galopante que sufre el estado que ha gobernado durante los últimos siete años. Cederá su cetro de poder a un demócrata, Jerry Brown, que regresa al cargo casi tres décadas después, y hará mutis por el foro para evaluar lo que a todas luces, y muy a su pesar, es un balance negativo para California, golpeado por un desempleo del 12,4% y con un déficit instalado en los 20.000 millones de dólares.

Por mucho que lo intente, no podrá evitar que le recuerden la cifra como resumen a grandes rasgos de su mandato. Claro que podrá decir, con razón, que heredó en 2003 un estado con una grave crisis eléctrica, de suministro de agua y con el sistema de prisiones en jaque, además de la deuda del estado amenazando futuras penurias. El problema fue que dudó a la hora de cortar la hemorragia, pese a que tenía el crédito y el respaldo del votante para hacerlo. Y eso, a la postre, le costó muy caro.

Los fracasos

En una entrevista reciente con el Los Angeles Times, el ex actor admitió que ese fue su primer y más grave error, el haber respaldado una iniciativa para seguir pidiendo dinero prestado (15.000 millones de dólares más, para ser exactos) con el fin de no volcar la carga sobre los votantes con más impuestos.

"Aquello fue un error", dijo. "Debería haber ido en la otra dirección para resolver el problema del presupuesto y usar el músculo político que tenía en mi primer año en el cargo".

Cree, sin embargo, que su plan hubiera funcionado de no haber sido por la recesión que sacudió a la octava economía del mundo. Eso hundió las finanzas californianas a gran velocidad, sacudidas por las astronómicas cifras de desahucios y por la huida de capital en la industria del cine. Muchos rodajes abandonaron Hollywood hacia estados con políticas fiscales más favorables.

Los aciertos

A favor, el 'gobernator' siempre contará con su agresiva ley para luchar contra el cambio climático, que propone reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero un 15 por ciento antes del 2020, además de su sintonía con la causa de la bodas gay y del consumo de marihuana para uso recreativo, aunque detrás hubiera claras intenciones de paliar el tan traído déficit presupuestario.

Siempre le quedará Hollywood, a donde ha amenazado con volver, si es que le ofrecen un papel que le resulte interesante. Antes, tendrá que participar en el acto de apertura de su sucesor en el cargo, un Brown que podrá argumentar que le pesan los 20.000 millones en rojo del presupuesto, el lamentable estado de la educación pública por los recortes, y el exceso de población en las prisiones del estado por mencionar algunos puntos generales que le deja el célebre Schwarzenegger.

Lo dicho. Siempre le quedará Hollywood.

This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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