Arnold: Let's sink this state

Peter Schrag in the Sac Bee:

Four days after his wipeout in last week's special election, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was letting the world know he's thinking bigger than ever.

The big thinking is not in wowing the Chinese, but in talking about a humongous $50 billion bond to fund a vast array of infrastructure projects - highways, ports, bridges, levees - "everything," as he said in one interview, "that has to do with infrastructure that will upgrade the state." In one statement he also talked about housing, hospitals and schools.

This is a big change of pace for Arnold. Before the special election, state spending was out of control, and Arnold tried to use tax hikes to scare voters into voting his way. But now that that's failed, we may as well go for broke in this state - literally.

Granted these improvements are needed. But these changes have to be paid for as well, and until a way to fund this massive bond bill that will double the state's structural deficit can be found, it should be little more than wishful thinking by Arnold.