Could this be a sign of change for reasonable compromise for the good of the people of this state?

Republican Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez says the governor should reverse the millions of dollars in cuts to California’s In-Home Supportive Services program because cutting that program would be hard on seniors and disabled people who live at home.

When it is a good idea, most people will want it to become more than just a good idea.

I must say I am surprised to see a Republican in the State of California being upfront about social programs just because it makes sense. Could this be a sign of change for reasonable compromise for the good of the people of this state?

Skipping to the point, when Bill Clinton, a Democrat, agreed to help the Republicans pass balanced budgets, NAFTA and Welfare Reform in the 1990s, he got them to agree to give him budgets that would be balanced so he could sign them.

However, the Republicans kept to their promise of balancing the budget, and they had to be mindful of the promise Clinton made to raise the gas taxes and only use them when the balanced budget was achieved. Welfare reform included higher minimum wages for those who were forced to work to continue receiving welfare payments and payments to help them pay for childcare when they were at work. The end result of cooperation and compromise was years of balanced budgets, higher incomes for working people, more taxes coming in to eliminate deficits and what was seen as the best peacetime economy since the end of the Second World War.

Helping the old and injured because it is a decent thing to do because anything else would be cruel.

Helping people is what people of good natures do, because anything else would be bad.

It is usually the simple things that work best.

James Ausmus, Leavitt Lake