Arnold and Ronnie - first terms in office

starting with similar problems... from the Sacremento Bee bq. When Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as California's 38th governor Monday morning, he'll be staring at much the same type of intractable mess his hero, Ronald Reagan, faced when he took office in 1967. bq. The budget deficit is out of control. No one is willing to cut necessary state programs. The public is fed up with Sacramento's dysfunctional politics. Voter-approved spending mandates limit the governor's options. bq. Like Schwarzenegger, fellow Republican and political novice Reagan promised in his campaign to cut taxes and finally force state government to live within its means. bq. That pledge lasted two days. bq. Reagan barely knew his way to the men's room before proposing the biggest tax hike of any governor in history, telling aides he didn't want to wait "until everyone forgets that we did not cause the problem -- we only inherited it." bq. Despite campaign promises, the last Republican movie star to become governor realized immediately that he had to swallow a tax increase or fail, biographer Lou Cannon writes in his new book on the ex-president's Sacramento years, "Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power."