We’ve criticized Arnold Schwarzenegger often here for his stewardship of California, and for good reason, but give the man his due — he’s right about this. While California’s credit dissolves into a puddle of red ink and while the state’s IOUs threaten to bankrupt businesses and kill jobs, what is the state legislature debating? Cow tails. No, Arnold’s not joking:

Normally I give credit to governments for being able to multitask. For instance, I wouldn’t deride California’s legislature for working on other critical issues while taking on the budget at the same time. We have legislatures structured to handle the multitude of responsibilities it has, and normally we expect them to walk and chew gum at the same time.

This, however, captures in a nutshell what exactly ails California. They’re wasting time on trivialities and attempting to solve a problem that doesn’t exist while adding to the one that does. This scene shows them adding even more law-enforcement responsibilities to a state overburdened with them and which can’t pay to enforce the myriad laws they already have. You hear clearly that the scourge of tail-lopping is so small as to be hardly worth the state’s effort, but that doesn’t stop the legislators from passing a law to criminalize the activity.

I’d love to see these people explain why they’re debating cow tails while the state issues IOUs. They’re making the entire state government look like what’s below the cow’s tail, and unfortunately for Californians, not for the first time.