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WASHINGTON A commencement address by the No. 2 Senate Republican was canceled Friday after opposition from students at the historically black university where he was scheduled to speak.

The cancellation of Sen. John Cornyn's planned Saturday address at Texas Southern University came just days after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was booed and heckled as she delivered a commencement speech at a different historically black university, Bethune-Cookman University in Florida.

Students at Texas Southern University in Houston had circulated a petition demanding the Texas senator be withdrawn as a commencement speaker, citing various stances he has taken. These included his confirmation votes in favor of DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his opposition to funding for so-called sanctuary cities that protect immigrants and his support for photo IDs for voting. The petition also cited Cornyn's low rating by the NAACP.

"Having a politician such as him speak at our institution is an insult to the students, to TSU, and to all (historically black colleges and universities)," said the petition on the change.org site. "This is our graduation. We have the right to decide if we want to refuse to sit and listen to the words of a politician who chooses to use his political power in ways that continually harm marginalized and oppressed people."

Senator John Cornyn of Texas walks to the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014. J. Scott Applewhite / AP

The university released a statement saying that, "Every consideration is made to ensure that our students' graduation day is a celebratory occasion and one they will remember positively for years to come. We asked Sen. Cornyn to instead visit with our students again at a future date in order to keep the focus on graduates and their families. We, along with Sen. Cornyn, agree that the primary focus of commencement should be a celebration of academic achievement."

Cornyn's spokesman said, "Sen. Cornyn was honored to be invited to address TSU's graduates, but he respects the administration's decision and looks forward to continuing to engage with the university in the future."

The development comes amid a nationwide debate over free speech on college campuses, in the wake of two high-profile incidents at Berkeley where planned speeches by conservatives ended up getting canceled amid fears of violent student protests.

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Commencement Speech by No. 2 Senate Republican Canceled After Students Protest - NBCNews.com

WILLINGBORO, N.J. Representative Tom MacArthur knew well what he was getting into when he showed up in this Democratic stronghold on Wednesday .

The second-term lawmaker who had almost single-handedly resuscitated the House Republican health-care bill would hear from the constituents who now despised him for playing hero at their expense. He had come back to face a particular kind of musicthe cacophony of boos, jeers, and deprecatory chants that make up the 21st century congressional town hall.

But MacArthur was determined to play his own song first. He would tell the health-care saga of his family: his biological mother who died of cancer when he was four, his step-mother who died of cancer many years later, and the most wrenching of all, his daughter Gracie who died at age 11 after struggling her entire brief life with a rare brain condition. A wealthy insurance executive before entering politics, MacArthur would use Gracies story as an ice-breaker, a reminder to the 200 or so antsy and angered constituents seated around him that he knew something about their anxiety over hospital bills and preexisting conditions, and to explain that he struck his deal with House conservatives because he genuinely wanted to improve the nations health insurance market.

He wanted to disarm them, but they did not want to be disarmed. And they did not want to hear Gracies story.

Shame! one constituent yelled almost as soon as MacArthur uttered his late daughters name.

Weve heard this story! shouted another. We know all about you!

MacArthur appeared momentarily taken aback. I will say shame on you, actually, he replied, more in disappointment than in anger. If you want me to listen to you, Im going to ask you to listen to me.

It was going to be that kind of night.

* * *

Town hall meetings have long since lost their innocence as the purest incarnation of American representative democracy. In the post-Tea Party era, they are largely performative events, set pieces for the pre-ordained political backlash. Activist groups mobilize attendance, ensure television coverage and Facebook live-streams, prepare talking points and detailed questions for constituents to ask. Citizens confront their legislators with ever increasing and perhaps slightly rehearsed passion, sometimes reading their questions from a script or shouting a monologue aimed as much at the cameras in the back as at the congressman in front of them. In response, congressional offices are trying harder to ensure the event hall is filled with actual constituents, not outsiders bussed in from districts far and wide.

The House Votes to Repeal Obamacare

As town halls have lost their authenticity, many House Republicans are forgoing them entirely. In the week after passing legislation to reshape the nations health-care system, barely more than a dozen of the 238 GOP lawmakers have scheduled in-person constituent events. And none were higher on the marquee than MacArthurs.

The Willingboro community center named for John F. Kennedy seemed ready for a much bigger starperhaps a top-tier presidential primary contenderthan a local congressman unknown outside his district until a few weeks ago. The parked cars snaked back more than a quarter-mile along the suburban streets leading up to the Kennedy Center, situated in the middle of a township in south Jersey a couple miles east of the Delaware River and the Pennsylvania border.

The strong showing suggested a venue much larger than it actually was: There were seats for about 200 people in a theater-in-the-round set-up, but hundreds more who lined up outside were turned away. A separate group of protesters picketed nearby, complete with a human-sized inflated chicken, signs that read This Congressmen Hates Women, and others much nastier than that. Police patrolled outside, and electronic signs warned constituents that neither large bags nor any signs or posters would be allowed inside. (A few of the demonstrators stayed all night, watching the town hall via Facebook on their phones until their batteries eventually died.) Those who did make it in wore stickers that said MacArthur Constituent, and many of them snuck in red and green handkerchiefs to wave in approval or disapproval.

MacArthur, 56, won his second term representing New Jerseys 3rd congressional district in November with nearly 60 percent of the vote, an improvement over his 53-44 margin in 2014. But the district is more narrowly divided between the parties, split between heavily Republican Ocean County and the much more liberal Burlington County across the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Were here to show him were unhappy and he should know were coming in 2018, Penn Reagan, a 64-year-old retiree, told me just before MacArthur entered the room. But he added: Im not actually expecting to hear anything I want to hear.

A former councilman who speaks in the easy manner of a warm but practiced politician, MacArthur chose to hold his town hall in Willingboro precisely because the majority-African-American town is on the other side of his political base.

Donald Trump won 9 percent of the vote here, he told the restive crowd, eliciting a few claps and chuckles. I crushed it with 12 percent of the vote.

Ostensibly, MacArthur had come to Willingboro to explain and defend the GOPs American Health Care Act, and in particular the amendment he wrote that saved it. Back in January, he had been one of just nine House Republicans to vote against a budget bill that laid the procedural groundwork for the party to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Three months later, however, he was instrumental in the effort to do just that. MacArthurs amendment bowed to a demand from the conservative House Freedom Caucus that the GOP bill allow states to seek a waiver opting out of some of Obamacares core insurance mandates, including its ban on insurers charging higher premiums to people with preexisting conditions. His deal with conservatives annoyed fellow members of the moderate Tuesday Group, of which MacArthur is one of three co-chairman. But it infuriated the 3rd district residents who lined up early on Wednesday evening to make sure they could confront him directly.

One by one, over a nearly five-hour marathon of questions, MacArthurs constituents berated him in visceral terms over the health-care billand to a lesser extent, his steadfast support for President Trump. Not one of the dozens who spoke on Wednesday night praised either the AHCA or the president.

I have sympathy for your mother. I have sympathy for your daughter. But you did not listen to the lessons they were trying to teach you, Geoff Ginter, a 47-year-old medical assistant wearing his hospital scrubs, told MacArthur. Ginter described how his wife, who has a preexisting condition as a result of having survived breast cancer, would now have renewed fear because of the possibility that he could lose his insurance and cause her rates to skyrocket under the loophole MacArthurs amendment could create. You came after my wife, Ginter said, his voice slow and rising. You have been the single greatest threat to my family in the entire world. You are the reason I stay up at night. When Ginter initially suggested he would not relinquish the microphone, two police officers began to edge closer to him. MacArthur allowed him to speak for 10 minutes, after which Ginter told him he didnt even want to hear his response.

Other constituents trained their ire on Trump, demanding to know whether MacArthur would back a special prosecutor to investigate his campaigns ties to Russia (Not yet, he said) and practically pleading with him to stand up to the president. Why do you Republicans all sit and listen to Donald Trump lie? asked one woman. He lies and lies and lies. You have to know hes lying. Trump was the topic MacArthur least wanted to discuss, and he replied with something of a refrain. Im neither going to defend nor attack everything the president says, he answered. At another point, he drew more boos when he said of Trump, Congress is not the board of directors for the White House, and Im not going to answer for everything he says or does.

At the beginning of the event, MacArthur had promised to stay until every question had been asked. And despite a couple of moments when the room nearly deteriorated into shouting, he kept his word. Though the crowd thinned from a couple hundred to a couple dozen as the hours dragged on, the congressman stayed standing, and responding, for nearly five hours.

Youve really taken a beating tonight, a constituent named Ruth Gage told him. For both the congressman and the crowd, that appeared to be the point.

MacArthur kept his coolmostly. When one constituent shouted him down as an idiot! MacArthur complained about the lack of civil discourse. I wonder, he said to the crowd, how any one of you would perform in Congress with that attitude.

After MacArthur asked them at another point not to be disrespectful, one man replied: Can I be disrespectful on behalf of all the people youre going to kill?

* * *

Through it all, however, a strange thing happened: A Republican congressman had a candid, detailed discussion about health-care policy with his constituents. When they spoke up on behalf of a single-payer, Medicare-for-All plan, MacArthur explained why he didnt support it. When he warned about allowing government bureaucrats to make too many health-care decisions, they asked why it would be any worse than insurance company bureaucrats doing the same thing now.

The residents who came to give MacArthur a piece of their mind were deeply familiar with the particulars of the bill he supported and the amendment he authored, because they knew it could impact them directly. When one attendee asked people to stand if they had a preexisting condition, nearly everyone in the room rose. They knew that even though MacArthur was correct in saying the GOP maintained the requirement that insurers offer coverage to everyone, his amendment could allow companies in some states to charge them much more money for a policy.

A 39-year-old named Derek described how because of a heart condition he had had since he was 23, he could be priced out of the insurance market if he lost his job and went without coverage for more than two months if the AHCA became law. This is something that is very real, he told MacArthur. Without health-care coverage, Im dead.

The congressman acknowledged his point. Your question shows that you really understand the issue. Youve nailed the issue, MacArthur told him. He explained that the Republican proposal included $138 billion to help that class of people, who could face steep rates in high-risk pools in states that received waivers from the federal government. Health policy analysts have warned that pot of money wont be nearly sufficient, and by the end of the evening, MacArthur conceded that might be the case. If it turns out its not enough, he said, I will be the first on line to make sure it is enough.

After hours of back-and-forth, that seemed about as far as anyone had moved. MacArthur listened intently to the emotional pleas and angry lashings of his constituents, but he voiced no regrets about his handling of health care or his support for the AHCA. When someone would vociferously defend Obamacare or denounce Trump, MacArthur would point back to the Republican voters across the Pine Barrens: I hear you, but there are loads of other people who dont see it that way. It was a polite way of pointing to the scoreboard, and the 59 percent of 3rd district voters who sided with him in November.

There are indications, however, that MacArthurs position isnt as safe as he might assume. Political forecasters have moved his district a notch toward Democrats after the Republicans voted for their unpopular bill last week, making it the kind of House seat that could flip parties in a wave election. A former national-security staffer who coordinated anti-ISIS strategy for the Obama White House, Andy Kim, has already started raising money to challenge him and could make a stronger opponent than the Democratic nominee last year, who was haunted by legal troubles. And while there didnt appear to be any Trump voters in attendance on Wednesday night, there were Democrats and independents who had voted for MacArthur. I told everyone you were the best thing since cream cheese, Ellen Bertuglia, 73, told the congressman. I see something thats happened to you, and it scares me. She said MacArthur had become too close to Trump and hadnt kept his commitment to work with Democrats. He zonked you, Bertuglia said of the president.

In an interview later, Bertuglia said she was worried about the health-care bill (I got pre-existing stuff all over) and probably wouldnt vote for MacArthur again. But she added a caveat: If he stands up and does something about Trump, I might change my mind.

Its a show, Nmawa Toe, a 40-year-old computer repairman, told me after many in the crowd had left. He wants to show that hes not afraid, but hes not answering any questions.

Earlier in the evening, Toe had confronted MacArthur directly. Youve been talking a lot about your constituents on the other side of the Pine Barrens and how they affect your policy decisions, he said. If you want to come back here, if you want another term, you might want to listen to what these people have to say, too.

MacArthur said it was a great question. Im always trying to find the intersection of what I believe and what my constituents believe, he replied. The congressman seemed genuinely to believe he had found that sweet spot, notwithstanding the hundreds of people who disagreed, and who on Wednesday night tried so desperately to make him see that he had not.

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A Republican Congressman Meets His Angry Constituency - The Atlantic

Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill through Congress that would allow the president to sack the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at any time for any reason.

But what are the odds President Trump would fire the head of a government agency he has issues with?

Cough.

The Republican legislation, coupled with this weeks ouster of FBI Director James B. Comey, should make CFPB Director Richard Cordray very nervous.

But when I sat down with him Wednesday, he came across as cool, calm and unfazed by the increasingly ugly attacks on him and his watchdog agency.

I dove right in and asked if the FBI mess made him anxious.

Cordray fixed me with a poker players stare and said he had no comment. He noted, though, that he and Comey had been classmates at the University of Chicago Law School.

Cordray probably meant nothing by it. Still, I took it as a veiled way of saying, There but for the grace of God go I.

Trump said last month that he plans to give the law that created the CFPB a very major haircut.

Although weve spoken in the past by phone, this was my first face-to-face conversation with the embattled bureau director. He was in Los Angeles for a CFPB hearing on lending to small businesses.

Cordray seemed sincere when he said the bureau remains focused on its job of safeguarding consumers and that he and his staff go to work every day committed to fighting financial practices that are unfair, predatory or downright illegal.

People are entitled to, and they deserve, someone to make sure these markets are fair and transparent, he told me. Theres a need for this agency. And theres more work to do.

The Republican-controlled House Financial Services Committee voted last week along party lines, 34 to 26, to approve the so-called Financial CHOICE Act and send it to the floor for a vote by the full chamber. (Thats CHOICE as in Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs.)

Among other things, the bill would allow the president to fire the director at will, rather than the current standard that the CFPB chief must be found guilty of inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.

It would strip the CFPB of its authority to monitor the day-to-day activities of financial firms and prohibit it from cracking down on practices deemed unfair, deceptive or abusive. The bill also would shut down the bureaus database of consumer complaints, which contains more than 700,000 searchable listings.

In its most cynical ploy, the Republican legislation would change the name of the bureau to the Consumer Law Enforcement Agency, although it would be anything but.

I cant do a good James Brown, but I feel good, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the author of the bill and chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said as he and his Republican colleagues cast their votes in favor of the Financial CHOICE Act.

I asked Cordray if he cared to respond with his own in-your-face reference to the Godfather of Soul.

He smiled and said, Im more inclined toward easy listening, such as the Mamas and the Papas.

Yeah, OK. But maybe next time he encounters Hensarling, he might want to borrow a lick from Browns The Payback and whisper, Payback is a thing you got to see, hell, never do any damn thing to me.

The conservative congressman has been a vocal critic of the CFPB since it opened for business in 2011. The bureaus creation was part of reforms put in place after financial firms recklessly steered the world to the brink of economic collapse.

I reminded Cordray of Hensarlings blatantly insulting tone when the CFPB director was summoned to testify last month before the Financial Services Committee.

Hensarling mockingly said at the time that he thought Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, would miss the hearing because hed be in his home state running for governor, which he isnt.

Perhaps the rumors of your political aspirations are greatly exaggerated, Hensarling sneered.

Cordray told me he doesnt dwell on the congressmans comments.

I didnt make much of that, to be honest, he said. I dont take any of it personally.

Conservatives insist that the CFPB is a rogue agency with too much power, thumbing its nose at oversight by coolheaded and responsible members of Congress.

The reality is that the bureau is a pebble in the shoe of Republicans and their business buddies by exposing practices that any reasonable person would acknowledge to be anti-consumer.

The CFPB fined Wells Fargo $100 million for the bank having opened unauthorized accounts on behalf of millions of customers. It fined Citigroup $28.8 million for failing to inform homeowners about ways to avoid foreclosure. It fined the credit agency Experian $3 million for deceiving people about the value of its credit scores.

In total, the CFPB estimates that it has returned about $12 billion to consumers over the last six years.

Which makes Hensarling trying to get on the good foot with his consumer-unfriendly bill all the more remarkable.

Cordray said hes not surprised by the pushback from business interests and their Republican allies.

Weve had challenges over the course of our existence, he said. We have consistently and steadfastly emphasized doing our work on behalf of consumers.

I also spoke with California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra at this weeks small-business event. He was in a decidedly sports-minded mood.

Continue reading here:
Consumer agency chief, his job on the line, takes Republican attacks in stride - Los Angeles Times

Across the country in Washington, fresh trouble was breaking out by the hour, enveloping a Republican president and stalling a raft of campaign promises in his young presidency. But here, at a gathering of Republican Party leaders, the mood was upbeat.

On Wednesday, the second day in which President Trumps administration was buried in fallout from his decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey, Republican National Committee members and guests gathered under festive white lights on the lawn of the elegant Hotel del Coronado, serenaded by a guitarist who played Hotel California as the sun set.

Desserts, more beverages and fine cigars were waiting at the RNCs next private party stop, a host told the happy and relaxed crowd.

On Thursday, RNC members heard optimistic assessments of the partys financial standing, listened to an invitation-only speech by the presidents daughter-in-law Lara Trump and talked up strategies for the 2018 election.

For a few days, the members of the RNC are happily in a bubble.

Members of Congress might be growing a bit wobbly on Trump and the media atmospherics may be cloudy and getting darker, but little of that negativity was visible at this sun-splashed resort.

Im the chairman of the California Republican Party, Jim Brulte pointed out, making reference to the GOPs fading registration numbers in the state: By definition Im optimistic.

Party activists here seemed confident not only of securing the three congressional seats up for grabs in special elections this spring, he said, but also of making a strong showing in House and Senate races in 2018, despite Democratic glee at Trumps current problems.If you want an optimistic bubble, you ought to be talking to congressional Democrats because theyre in an optimistic bubble, he said.

Some RNC members quietly hinted at concerns about the president, given that the Republican healthcare bill an answer to years of promises that the GOP would repeal and replace Obamacare faces weeks of work, at a minimum, after a narrow win in the House.

Even before the healthcare debate, the Comey controversy and the continuing investigation into whether Trump allies colluded with Russia to affect the 2016 election, the president suffered from historically low approval ratings.

Id like to see him get some stuff done, said one RNC member, who requested anonymity to preserve relations within the party.

To some extent, the presidents troubles are helping to energize the party, conversations here made clear.

Little cements support for an elected official more than criticism from the enemy, and the raft of insults leveled at Trump by Democrats over recent weeks and months have only buffed his image in the minds of some here.

As RNC member Steve Scheffler of Iowa put it: The mood of Republican activists is that theyre thrilled to have a president and an administration going to basically try to fulfill the promises Donald Trump made, and also to push back against what I would call the shrill, unhinged, socialist left that just never seems to accept the fact that Donald Trump was elected president.

Scheffler cited ruckuses at recent town halls, where Republican officeholders have faced angry crowds worried about losing healthcare benefits or, he suggested, bent on causing trouble in a way that will boomerang in the next elections.

GOP Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, he recalled, was shouted down and called a liar before shed even said her piece at one recent event.The American people see that for what it is, he said. Its not really a civil discourse.

For more on politics

The party could suffer, however, if the president remains under siege as the midterm election arrives. Midterm votes usually play out as referendums on the sitting chief executive.

Several RNC members said the overwhelming view among them of the Comey matter was that the FBI director should have been fired long ago, and that Democrats were hypocrites for defending him now after blaming him for Hillary Clintons loss in 2016. (They avoided noting that late in his campaign, Trump had fiercely defended the man he fired this week.)

As for healthcare, the controversial House bill was a glitch in the road,as Scheffler put it, which Republicans here hope will prove less dangerous once Senate Republicans craft their version. (Several nonpartisan congressional handicappers have moved their forecasts for nearly two dozen House seats toward Democrats in recent weeks a figure perilously close to the number of seats that would give them control of the chamber.)

Some RNC members expressed more open concern. Steve Duprey, the Republican committeeman from New Hampshire and a veteran of that states political races, said Democrats were being hypocritical about Comey. But he added that an errant signal may have been sent when Trump met with two high-ranking Russian officials a day after firing the FBI director in apparent pique over the investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign.

There are some of us who wish the optics were a little different, and the timing, he said. It wouldnt have been how I scheduled it.

Few of the partys major activists backed Trump when his campaign began in 2015, but Duprey and others say members appreciate him now. They specifically cited his appointment of Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Trumps pursuit of a foreign policy more aggressive than President Obamas.

This a president who is trying to make things happen, Duprey said. While some of us would like him to shut down his Twitter account and perhaps change his comportment a little bit, its part of who he is. Yes, he has to deliver on some things, but I think the perception is hes doing a good job.

Although no one was indiscreet enough to say so, another possibility seemed to be in the air among Republicans in Coronado. If Trump could actually pull off a presidential victory despite all the odds, whos to say that Republicans cant succeed just as well in 2018?

I think anybody that will suggest that in May of 2017 they can tell you with certainty whats going to happen in November of 2018 is either a prophet or a charlatan, said California party chief Brulte. And we havent had any prophets that were 100% accurate since Old Testament times.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

@cathleendecker

seema.mehta@latimes.com

@LATSeema

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Sunshine, optimism and a few crossed fingers as Republican Party leaders gather in California to plan for 2018 election - Los Angeles Times

Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday presented a slightly sunnier view of Californias economy than he offered just four months ago, but nonetheless delivered one of his vintage sermons on the evils of overspending when outlining a new state spending plan.

And this time, the man who once trained to be a Jesuit priest singled out the states Republican members of the House for their unanimous vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act a move that alone would result in California losing $18.6 billion in federal funds a decade from now.

They werent sent to Congress just to take orders from that crowd, or from Donald Trump, Brown said. I think they made a mistake, and theyre going to have to do penance for it.

The $183.4-billion spending plan, revised from his first version in January, does not assume any actual loss of federal dollars, given that Congress remains divided over a number of issues on how to rework the Obamacare law. Nor does it offer any assurances that the state has a plan B should it come to pass. Brown has insisted that detailed plans must emerge in Washington before the state changes course.

What the new spending outline does do, though, is offer a handful of concessions to lawmakers, local governments and advocacy groups that had criticized Browns earlier budget proposal as too meager. The governor abandoned his call to delay expansion of full-day preschool and higher payments for child care providers. He also agreed to expand dental benefits for low-income adults, and reversed a decision to fully transfer a new healthcare delivery system to county governments.

Counties had been particularly vocal about Browns winter healthcare proposal, which would have cut annual state spending by $600 million on a program that seeks to streamline the use of medical and in-home support services by seniors and disabled citizens. Instead, the state will gradually reduce its subsidy over a four-year period.

We think well be able to avoid significant cuts to vital county services as a result of the infusion of cash, said Matt Cate, executive director of the California State Assn. of Counties.

The updated spending plan also, at first blush, offers good news for K-12 education. Under the long-standing constitutional guarantee, schools are generally promised more money when tax revenues rise. The governor proposes $1.4 billion more in general fund spending than he did in January. He also has dropped his effort to use future education dollars to pay current obligations, a complicated plan strongly opposed by education advocates.

But Browns new budget seeks to trim future school spending. We wouldnt be growing as fast as the rest of the budget under this plan, said Kevin Gordon, a longtime education lobbyist.

The new budget is likely to raise eyebrows, too, at the University of California, where Brown proposes tying $50 million in funding to recent promises on accepting more transfer students as well as recommendations made in the recent audit of UC President Janet Napolitanos office operations.

Political Road Map: California has $55 billion in tax breaks on the books, many here to stay

That the governor can offer more money to a variety of programs is a sign that he and his advisors now believe their original economic projections were too conservative. In fact, completely missing from the governors question-and-answer session with reporters on Thursday was one of his most dire warnings in the first budget: a projected deficit of $1.6 billion.

Only later did his budget director, Michael Cohen, confirm that the new projected shortfall absent any action to prevent it would be only $400 million in the coming fiscal year. The change is driven by substantially higher estimates of personal income tax collections in the coming budget year, offset by weaker-than-assumed tax receipts for a time period that stretches back the summer of 2015. State budget writers generally use a three-year view of revenue collections to craft, and revise, Californias spending plan.

While the governor backed down on some of his preferred spending constraints, he held fast on others. Perhaps most contentious of those is Browns broad interpretation of the rules governing last years tobacco tax increase, Proposition 56.

Advocates believe that revenue from the new $2-per-pack tax is supposed to go to increasing access to Medi-Cal, the states healthcare program for the poor, and raising the low reimbursement rates paid to Medi-Cal providers. The governor, on the other hand, is calling for that money to be used to maintain existing program levels.

I think the voters voted in good faith, thinking that the money would be there, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) said in an interview with The Times Sacramento bureau this week.

While the majority of the new spending plan represented tweaks or modifications of existing ideas, Brown introduced one notable and unique idea on Thursday when it comes to the states daunting obligation to pay for public employee pensions. In essence, the state would tap an internal government fund to make a one-time $6-billion payment to the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).

The money would effectively double the total size of the states contribution to the pension fund next year, and budget writers believe it could slightly ease the states obligation in future years to make rapidly rising annual payments for retirement promises made to government workers. The money would be a loan from the internal fund, and the debt would be paid back in part with money set aside in Californias newly expanded rainy-day fund.

Even with the proposals outlined Thursday, Brown insisted the states financial future remains unclear. And he offered a particularly sharp critique of the president and Republicans in Congress for changes that could send shockwaves westward.

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Gov. Jerry Brown urges Republican 'penance' for healthcare vote, warns of the impact on California's budget - Los Angeles Times