That's definately less of a shock, but still messed up. I see this as being along the lines of when sales tax went up in what, the early 90s or earlier? It was supposed to be temporary and would go back down, but then we got used to it and it stayed... then went up again, etc. We won't be in a good place in a few months either, but they'll have been taking more money from us anyway and will reason that we were fine for those months, so why not keep going?
If Arney had any backbone at all he'd politely tell them to shove their proposals up their asses and come back with something that'll actually work long term. There isn't a short term fix to a long term situation.
