Good News/Bad News - RINOs Everywhere

I suppose all this is because of my foolish expectations.

When one hears that six members, out of seven, of our Newport Beach City Council are Republican, you would expect (or at least hope for), at the very minimum, fiscally Conservative ideals to come through.

After all, City Councils are non-partisan, and you can't really expect Socially minded issues to come through this local level.

But I was wrong, or at least I got a bit too idealistic.

Out of the Six Republicans:

• Two personally told me that they probably hover more towards being Moderate.
• One became a Republican a month before announcing his City Council run
• One is a convenient Republican who only gets involved during their Election years (who was no where to be seen during the Republican Party of OC's 70 AD GOTV meeting)
• One is considered a Conservative (fiscally and socially) and should know better.
• Don't know (don't care) about the 6th.

The other Newport Beach Councilmember?

• Changed her Party registration from Green Party to DTS months before her election.

So where am I going with this?

If I told you that there was a Government body which:

• Spent more than they brought in.
• Borrowed to make up the difference
• Raised Fees (taxes) to help bring in more money.
• In incapable of looking within to cut expenses.
  

You'd automatically think that we were talking about the State of California with our "republican" Governor.

Wrong.

You'd be talking about the City of Newport Beach.

Here's the latest article about the City raising fees for City Services in an effort to bring in $3.5 million bucks more per year.

Good News - City will have to borrow less to pay for it's increased spending.

Bad News - City spends too much money.

So...to sum up.

• I'm foolish to believe that just because 6 out of the 7 Newport Beach Councilmembers are Republicans, it doesn't mean that they'll act like Republicans (unless they are guiding their actions after the actions of our Governor)
• Raising Fees (like life support and oxygen in an ambulance) is ok, just so long as we lower others (like bike licenses and jail booking fees).
• Spending more than we bring in is ok (especially in an economic challenging time)
• Cutting expenses and being fiscally responsible only happens in speeches.

I sure hope that when Assemblyman Chuck Devore and County Supervisor John Moorlach, who are both considered perfect examples of how to be a Fiscal (and Social) Conservative, go through the requests for Endorsements from these Newport Beach City Councilmembers, they get a really good explanation on how raising fees and borrowing money to cure Newport Beach's overspending is being a good Republican.