NBC's Brokaw: California's 'Aging Lion' Jerry Brown 'Has Not Given Up On Big Dreams'
In what amounted to a love letter to California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday's NBC Nightly News, special correspondent Tom Brokaw gushed: "It's not sunshine every day for the California economy, but Jerry Brown has not given up on big dreams. His new big dream, a high-speed rail line from the north to the south..."
Anchor Brian Williams set the scene for Brokaw's fawning report: "California is mounting a comeback led by a man whose name has been synonymous with California government for decades." Brokaw sympathetically declared: "The one-time boy wonder of California politics is now the state's aging lion....Sticking up for his state."
Trying to put a positive spin on the state's continuing economic woes, Brokaw began by arguing: "When California unemployment dropped to just over 11% last week, that was good news....A year ago, the budget deficit hit $26 billion plus. It's now about a 1/3 of that [$9.2 billion]."
Brokaw framed Brown's call for tax hikes as essential: "But to make up the rest, Brown wants to raise the state's sales tax and he's asking Californians who pay the most taxes, the wealthy, to pay even more....Brown says it is the only way to protect the state's education system."
Here is a full transcript of the January 26 report:
7:09PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Another place where those [proposed military] cuts won't go over well is the state of California, which has a huge defense contracting industry and took a major hit when the state's massive housing bubble burst. But California is mounting a comeback led by a man whose name has been synonymous with California government for decades. And that is the back drop tonight for a conversation between Tom Brokaw and Governor Jerry Brown.
JERRY BROWN: Putting it as simply as I can, California is on the mend.
TOM BROKAW: There is a lot to mend. It's been a world of hurt during the downturn. A million jobs were lost when the housing bubble burst. When California unemployment dropped to just over 11% last week, that was good news. There was a time when California set the pace for America's economy. It remains a state of conspicuous wealth, but it is deep in debt. A year ago, the budget deficit hit $26 billion plus. It's now about a 1/3 of that. But to make up the rest, Brown wants to raise the state's sales tax and he's asking Californians who pay the most taxes, the wealthy, to pay even more.
BROWN: Neither is popular, but both must be done.
BROKAW: Brown says it is the only way to protect the state's education system.
BROWN: I'm not doing this unilaterally. I'm putting it to the people and urging them, make the decision for California.
BROKAW: Now that he's back in California for his third term, a lot has changed. Governor Brown is a lot older, it's a new century. It's not sunshine every day for the California economy, but Jerry Brown has not given up on big dreams. His new big dream, a high-speed rail line from the north to the south, through many rural areas, to redistribute the population. How would that help the state's biggest gridlock, the 24/7 traffic jams around greater Los Angeles? I don't have any problem getting from the north to south. I have problems getting across town in Los Angeles. Isn't that a higher priority?
BROWN: When we look at 20 million more people coming to this state, you can't build more airports. You can't build more runways. And you can't build more freeways.
BROKAW: The one-time boy wonder of California politics is now the state's aging lion. A fourth generation Californian.
BROWN: That old guy, that farmer, that's my great grandfather.
BROKAW: Sticking up for his state.
BROWN: California has problems, but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.
WILLIAMS: Tom Brokaw, tonight from California with Governor Jerry Brown.
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Comments
Mounting a comeback?
Submitted by KornKing on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 5:51pm.
I'd sure hate to see what failure looks like in this idiots mind
I live in California and
Submitted by tcm14 on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 5:54pm.
I live in California and nothing has changed. If anything, things have gotten worse. NBC is cherry picking a couple stats and putting on a positive spin because there's a Democrat in office. Transparent propaganda.
No surprise there -- NBC works for Obama
Submitted by Galvanic on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 6:25pm.
Calfornia still carries a lot of Electoral College votes, and Obama doesn't want to have to spend too much time and $$$ campaigning there. So the idea is to look through the rose-colored glasses and tell the public that things are getting better.
Don't be surprised of NBC reports negatively on Arizona and Louisiana, both of which have Republican governors.
tcm14........California's Democrat legislators are making
Submitted by Rush Fan on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 4:10am.
every effort to fix California's problems. I also live in California, and am proud of the excellent work of our Democrat legislators. With a debt of over $300 Billion, and unfunded pension liabilities of over $500 Billion, the California Democrat legislators are not shirking their responsibilities.
As just one example of how they are addressing California's enormous debt, the Democrat legislators last year proposed the most stringent fitted sheets law in the nation. So PLEASE don't say that nothing has changed. ♥♥ :-) ♥♥
Switching Sides
Submitted by KevinB on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 8:20pm.
after being born and raised in Los Angeles, Jerry Brown and other leftist like him
are the reason I became a conservative and a permanent resident of Texas.
however.. I do agree that Jerry Brown is an Aging Lion....
he's been Lying for Ages
Correction
Submitted by stratman on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 6:48pm.
The word is "wet", not "big".
Maybe Tom and Moonbeam are now a couple.
Submitted by drsamherman on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 8:01pm.
They sure have a lot in common: narcissism; has-been; and delusional.
I don't get how people would
Submitted by stratman on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 9:56pm.
I don't get how people would vote a failure like Brown back into office. The only things different is he no longer has Linda Rondtadt to puff up his image and he's tone-downed the constant barrage kook rhetoric to a drip-drip water torture. Same goes for Marion Barry and Dennis Kucinich, both dismal failures but repeatedly re-elected. I think a part of it is Leftists must deny the past in order to continue to try to hammer the same square peg into the same round hole over and over again.
What NBC and Brokaw failed to mention is
Submitted by Lord-come-soon-... on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 6:54pm.
The High Speed Rail Project is effectively dead. The original lie they told about the cost was approximately 20 billion. The dum-dum voters bought that lie and approved seed money to the tune of 4 billion. Then the price suddenly was changed to 100 billion. It's not going to happen. There are initiative drives underway already to reject the whole thing. Our highway system is in complete disarray, and what they need to spend money on is road repair, not a railroad that no one will ride. Brokaw can kiss Brown's arse all he wants, but the fact is Moonbeam is the same liar he was forty years ago.
The thing is, the price going
Submitted by tcm14 on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 7:05pm.
The thing is, the price going from 20 to 100 billion only makes it MORE attractive to the Dems who run the state. As the price doubles and re-doubles, they practically start drooling at the project. You're right, it ain't gonna happen, but that doesn't stop libs from preaching that it is the "enlightened" project, even though we need transit within the individual metro areas if anything, not between northern and southern Cal.
They won't cancel it,
Submitted by Chaitealover on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 12:39am.
but the other night local news here in San Diego was reporting that all school bus transportation in the state [except for the handicapped] will be cancelled. That means, even if a kid lives on a farm 20 miles from his school, he will have to get himself there. It also means that all school bus drivers, mechanics, dispatchers, and other people working for school bus companies will be out of a job as the companies go out of business.
What good is a high speed railroad from LA to SF, when relatively few people actually live in downtown LA? It would take the average person an hour or more to get from their home in the suburbs to the station, then more time to find parking & get to the train. It's nuts!
Chai
Sticking up for his state?
Submitted by almostacowboy on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 6:54pm.
More like "Sticking it TO his state".
Come June, I'm outta here.
How can you not build freeways but can build rail lines?
Submitted by JeffC... on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 7:00pm.
Freeways have higher capacity than passenger rail lines, and don't require everyone to have his or her own locomotive to use one. They also don't require $100 per rider subsidies.
Either that, or Gov. Brown thinks that high speed rail lines don't need to be placed on the ground. Maybe he's thinking of MAGLEV trains, but he's confused about what part levitates.
It's not going to do a thing about traffic in Los Angeles.
.
Submitted by Chaitealover on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 12:42am.
The main point is to get people out of their cars and onto public transportation. Better for the environment, dontcha know?
Chai
Even up to the 60's rail
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 6:55am.
Even up to the 60's rail travel used to be the norm. We need to look and see why rail travel declined. It declined because of the costs involved and the inconvenience.
Even here in Bakersfield
Submitted by Pahlavan on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 7:06pm.
Even here in Bakersfield, the southern terminus of the multi-BILLION dollar high speed railroad to nowhere - the appetite for this project is waning. With the San Joaquin Valley (25% of US agriculture) at high unemployment, lack of water from shutting off the water from envirofascist action (Delta smelt is endangered - it's not even native to California, just another illegal alien), and taxes and regulations that has business moving out or going belly up, all we need is Brokejaw and Moonbeam in a circle jerk of liberal fantasy talking like there is any gold left in the Golden State.
High Speed Rail
Submitted by Schofield Kid on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 7:23pm.
All these pie-in-the sky rail projects are just giant money laundering schemes for dems. Already, 2 billion has been sunk into this disaster in CA and not a single segment of track has been set down. This is exactly like the "green" industry with the government forcing something there is no demand for (yes I know voters elected to do this, but they also voted for Moonbeam). I think the projected ridership and long-term jobs are wildly exaggerated as usual, but it continues to be a wet dream for liberals.
Brokaw longs for the days of Governor Moonbeam
Submitted by frank14 on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 7:20pm.
hanging out with the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, absolutely clueless of what to do after he got elected on Daddy's name. Moonbeam admitted as much to CNN after he left the state in ruins in the early 1980s.
'Aging Lion' Jerry Brown??
Submitted by locomotivebreath1901 on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 7:45pm.
More like 'aging hippy dippy neo-bolshevik nitwit' Jerry Brown.
A little over a year ago, Victor Davis Hanson wrote an insightful look into the third world toilet of 'Two Californias;' subtitled "Abandoned farms, Third World living conditions, pervasive public assistance -- welcome to the once-thriving Central Valley."
I doubt if much has changed in 14 months. Perhaps Tommy Brokaw should take a look around California instead of mailing it in from the' green zone' of Jerry Brown's lap.
Putz.
Sacramento to L.A is 412 miles, according to
Submitted by UpNorth on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 8:56pm.
the Ca. High Speed Rail Authority. That's about $412 Million, in costs, conservatively. As an old calculation on rail construction was about $1 Million a mile. I wouldn't be surprised if the price hasn't at least doubled. That doesn't address equipment, infrastructure or payroll. Not to mention, who's going to build the solar panels for the roofs of all the locomotives? California certainly wouldn't allow a diesel powered train, would they?
And, Moonbeam thinks that 20 million more people will be coming to California? Well, maybe illegals, but I doubt they'll be riding the train. Unless, of course they get free rail passes.
Demwits as Lions is
Submitted by Bodini on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 10:18pm.
Demwits as Lions is only in the minds of Marxist-media bootlickers. Teddy, Jerry and all their ilk qualify as Pusses, but not lions!
More like a big nightmare.
Submitted by big.league.slider on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 12:11am.
California is already over $50 billion in debt, and has another $500 billion in unfunded future state worker pension and healthcare liabilities. Now Brown wants to borrow hundreds of billions to build a rail system that no one will use. Think about it, would you pay twice as much and spend twice as long traveling from LA to SF by rail, as you would traveling by air? And ironically, commercial air travel is now statistically safer than rail travel.
This high speed rail boondoggle has been projected to cost almost $100 billion to build, and that figure comes from the state's own auditors. So it is likely way too low. Yesterday, there were news reports that the operating revenue numbers were also fudged by almost $100 billion more.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-26/california-high-speed-rail-r...
The fact that Gov. Moonbeam thinks this several hundred billion dollar sinkhole is a good idea illustrates just how deranged he is.
Cali will be the next Greece. This is our next financial crisis.
Submitted by humanzee on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 3:39am.
I'm calling it... if Obama gets re-elected this will be the next great crisis to justify an increase in the federal governments power. 2013... if Obama is re-elected he'll be clamoring for a BAILOUT. If the GOP is in office and you have weak kneed Republican in their... they are going to try to sucker him into bailing out Cali and whichever other liberal state claims to be in trouble.
Jerry Brown came in with the media telling people that he was "fiscally conservative" for a Democrat. Arnold sucked big when he gave in to Democrats but this dude is way worse. The media just gives him as pass as he keeps on dancing around California's problems.
California is a one party state. Every damn politician has more or less the exact same ideology. California Republican politicians are usually a joke and have little to no power and often times join in with Democrats in running the state into the ground.
Jerry Brown puts on a press conference to claim he plans on cutting the budget in one place but then holds another press conference a few days later to announce he's planning on signing off on a social "progress" super program that will cost twice as much as he claimed he plan to cut a few days before.
He asks for tax increases, fee increases, claims Democrats cut back but then comes back and says the state is bleeding even more money despite the changes.
The state keeps losing more business, more jobs, more of everything. Democrats don't care. Their attitude is that they have power and that's all that matters. They won't accept defeat. It's like they're waiting for stuff to happen and in the mean time they get to play with building blocks to the build their liberal fantasy land. California's education system sucks and Jerry Brown and company are more worried about teaching kids about gays than math and science. What the hell is that? What are their priorities? Helping average citizens or promoting the gay activist agenda?
I think they're banking on the federal government stepping in and bailing out all of California's spending. They probably think they're entitled to the tax money of residents of other states.
California is a ticking time bomb. This will be our "Southern European" crisis. I get the feeling their emptying the coffers before the stuff hits the fan...all their buddies get some dough while the getting in is good.