So Goes California, So Goes the Nation
by James Hudnall
California voters just put four rounds in the tax propositions yesterday. As they should have.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had this to say:
“I respect the will of the people who are frustrated with the dysfunction in our budget system,” Mr Schwarzenegger said in a statement from Washington, conceding defeat. “In order to prevent a fiscal disaster, Democrats and Republicans must collaborate and work together to address this shortfall.”
California has become a preview of where America is going under Obama. An insane political class has decided that you can spend your way out of debt. But California can’t borrow money anymore. They destroyed their credit, their bonds are poorly rated and they can’t print money like the Obama administration has.
There’s an old saying that says, “So goes California goes the nation.” As the world’s eighth largest economy, and one of the world’s richest, California is in many respects a microcosm of the US. It has geographical and population diversity. It has major industries and corporations. But many are in decline thanks to its punitive taxes and regulations. Many of its progressive policy ideas tend to spread to other states and eventually the nation.
The excessive regulations and taxes have driven many businesses and successful people from the state, just as the US polices are driving out corporations and manufacturing jobs. And that has led to a decline in tax revenues, the very thing the government needs to survive.
We’re witnessing what years of those progressive policies have wrought and its not pretty sight. The State, like the Federal Government is awash in debt and had to keep borrowing to meet its obligations. Now its credit is virtually worthless and people have stopped buying their bonds. The Federal Government is on the same track under Obama, with a projected 18 trillion dollar debt in the next 10 years.
Democrats everywhere should look to California and see the nation’s future writ large in stark detail. They should witness how ineffectual and toxic their policies are in the long term. If they’re smart they’ll start voting against Obama’s many frivolous bills before it’s too late. Of course, knowing them they’re likely to bail out California which will be another nightmare for the state. Taking money from the Obama administration is like borrowing from the mob. Once you do business with them, they think they own you. Ask the auto and banking industries.
The best and only real solution to California’s (and the nation’s) budget problems is to make real cuts. All the special interest programs that aren’t absolutely necessary need to go. They also need to seriously look at pay freezes, cutting hours and even laying off people in government jobs.
These ideas are heresy to Statists because they need to show that government jobs are invulnerable.
But we live in hard times and that means the Governator has to make some hard choices.
Well, not that hard. There are a lot of wasteful, pointless and inane things that the state spends money on. It’s time Arnold busted out the red pen and started terminating every pork project in the budget, then look at which jobs can go, which departments are not necessary.
When you have too many expenses the answer is either go out and make more money or cut the expenses. Since they can’t do the former, they must do the latter.
While I no longer live in the state, I’m a native Californian. In fact, I can trace my family back five generations on my mom’s side. They were some of the first settlers in Sonoma County, where I was born. I love my home state but I haven’t lived there since 1996. I left in disgust as I watched the state government completely trash the place.
Now the state is going broke and their predictable answer is to try to raise taxes. Not make cuts in stupid programs, which they have a mountain of. No. They want to compete with New York for the highest taxes in the land.
As a result, thousands of millionaires have fled the state in this decade. No surprise. Who likes being mugged by greedy bureaucrats who spend billions on things like education for illegal aliens and endless pay raises for themselves? The state spends millions on things like “green chemistry” and anti-smoking campaigns, and they threaten to cut police and teachers and release prisoners if they don’t get their way.
Governor Schwarzenegger started out as a fiscal conservative but eventually morphed into another tax and spend liberal who wants to waste money on things like global warming initiatives. It’s time he got back to the campaign promises that got him elected and back to the world of common sense.
We the people can help out. The state budget is a public record. We can send our suggestions along. Maybe if enough people do that they will get the message.
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175 Comments
Now that they've voted down a series of tax increases, presumably because they believe their taxes are already too high, does that make the majority of California voters the 'extremists' that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was warning us to keep an eye out for?
Californians should also start voting out their career politicians. At a time when real leadership is needed, the only solution is to raise taxes? Get real.
President Obama keeps looking for California as a example. He forgets the mention the brown outs, the brain drain (thanks to higher unnecessary taxes), & businesses going to other lower tax states. Mr. Hudnall is correct in his assessment.
Arnold needs to be kicked out of office since he morphed into Grey Davis.
The state bureaucrats need to stop the spending. But I don't think this is going to happen until the state government collapses.
The BOHECA attitude that the politicians have been delivering to the taxpayers has finally reached a boiling point. Are we expected to see a reduction in government as a result of this spending? Maybe, but our friendly federal government can bail out CA just as they did everyone else. I'm sure we have people believing that they are too big to fail. Then we have NY to follow. When will people learn that we can't spend and tax our way out of this? My fear is that this can get out of control in a hurry.
It's like Texas doesn't even exist. They have shown how to successfully gain tax revenue in the fairest way possible but no one seems to pay attention…California is just a preview of what we will be seeing in a lot of states.
Since Arnold morphed into a Democrat (no big surprise he's related to the biggest lib family in the US), does that mean we should elect a Democrat to run the state so they can morph into a Republican?
Here's a hint Ahnold and the rest of the free spending Democrats and Republicans. Quit spending like your dad just won the lottery. Cut stoooopid programs, and you know what they are. Return to the purpose of what your state government is for – collect enough taxes to pay for NECESSARY services and upkeep of the state. Nothing, or very little more unless it is deemed critical (and in government lingo, that is a very grey area). California IS what is going to happen to the entire country with high spending by Bush and out of control spending by Obama and this congress. Private sector jobs dropped last month but government jobs went up 66,000. You can see where this is going?
What the hell did anyone expect? Why on earth would Californians want to add even more to the already crushing cost of living in the state? Why would anyone want to hand over fresh billions of dollars to an inept-but–entrenched political class would then spend it like a drunk at a strip club? Why would anyone want to reward California's amazingly grasping public service unions with more to grasp? In truth Golden Staters have had this coming for quite a while. They have tolerated a state legislature that must be the most willingly irresponsible group of public officials on the planet but have willingly gobbled up the goodies that same legislature throws at them. The state resembles Great Britain in the mid-1970's except that there is no Margaret Thatcher on the horizon to go in and do the dirty work of retrenchment.
They all need to be kicked out of office. The dems have ruined this state. They have no choice but to kill those programs and I was glad to help with that vote.
I doubt it. We just elected a Democrat for president and ended up with a socialist. Maybe a libertarian needs to be elected and then they will turn into a conservative.
All I can say is by the grace of God I opened my business in Texas instead of California. I feel sorry for the people that have to live in these liberal cities/states and moving isn't a viable option. At least I'm just getting screwed by the federal govt and not the state as well.
Look at the states that are most in the red. They're blue states run by Democrats. I'm thinking California, NY, NY, Mass, Mich, Illinois. I'm not saying there aren't Republican run states that are having a tough time, but the ones that are crying the most look to be blue. When are the citizens of these states going to wake up and find that these policies after decades of Democratic rule, have put them here, and vote them out? Probably never, but the California vote seems to be a bright outlook that maybe they are getting it?
Yeah, I'd love to be able to move to TX.
Sow the beans, reap the flatus.
As for California, I like the place itself. The people range from ok to damn weird. The politicians are all bug-house nuts. The celebs are all satan-worshipers. The Homer-sexuals are all F'd in the head.
To all those Californians who have elected to move to other states; don't even think about bringing that whacked-out liberal ideology with you. That $h!t don't fly in the real America. And come prepared to work.
Wow. And all that oil. Just sitting there. Sort of like pictures I used to see from India, starving people piled high in traffic waiting for the cows to clear the road.
Seems to be a growing trend in the country, the local and state government's fiscal system being broken down by useless programs that don't work and budding career politicians spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave. The first thing to go are core government services, police, fire, jails, roads and yet they continue on like we're going to keep picking up the bill. It isn't going to happen, people are getting tired of busting their butts so half the population can sit on theirs. This was the essence of the tea party movement and something that just buzzed right over the media's heads.
We need to build a jail if the current one is not sufficent, we need to fix and improve the roads when they become overcrowded, we don't need to punish the company that just had it's best year ever and wants to add to it's workforce, or the small business owner that survived his first year and is ready to expand. If just a few states follow the Texas example and not the California one, we might turn this around.
There are already California politicians talking about how the people made the wrong decision by voting against the taxes. Thats the problem when you have statists running the government, the people can't be trusted to make their own decisions.
As a native Californian I can tell you most of those people you mention came from other states. All the famous California serial killers came from other states. California didn't create the weirdos. It attracted them. Because it's a nice place to live.
As for them moving out, they DO screw up other states. They screwed up Oregon, Washington, Colorado and they're working on Nevada, Arizona and Idaho.
Proudly, yes.
That's what really bugs me. All California really has to do is tap that oil and tax it like Alaska did, they would seriously reap windfalls that would solve most of their budget problems.
But the truth is, politicians need to have their access to the people's money cut off. They need to learn how to do more with less.
The reason for the problems is because they won't raise taxes. Plain and simple. People want highways, hospitals, schools and other services but they don't want to pay for them.
Raise taxes and raise them now. Make the rich pay more of their share. They had no problem with this in the 1990's.
Name some of these stupid programs, please.
The fed will start to put taxes in place on the states that are succesful to support the states like CA, NJ, and NY. It worked for mortgages and credit cards they think so why not at the state level. Get ready TX. FL, TN, and all of you states that think you are doing better. Obama will make it up to your state to save the others whether you like it or not.
OK Hudnall, what's with the changing avatar? First it's kinda Hulk-ified, then warm and fuzzy, now back to the Hulk. Or does it relfect a Banner-to-Hulk metamorphosis when you get hot about an issue? As a NY-er I hope Galeeforneea doesn't try to compete with NYS for the highest taxes crown. That'll only make the knotheads in the legislature and the guv move to take back the crown.
http://shermansmarch.blogspot.com
If I could sell my house and find a job in TX I would be there in a week!
Dead state walking.
And here I thought Colin Powell told us that we needed to move left because taxpayers want to pay more in taxes so that they can get more services? Gee, I wonder if he was wrong?
Absolutely! Under no circumstances give these drunken-spenders access to an independent source of income.
I must respectfully disagree with Hudnall's assessment of California's problems.
First, California shot itself in the foot when Prop 13 was enacted. Yes, it helped save long-time homeowners from taxes that would have skyrocketed when real estate values went up so precipitously, but it also created an inequitable system and drained money away form the schools, which have been on the decline ever since.
Second, "high taxes" didn't stop thousands of entrepreneurs from starting high-tech businesses in the state that fueled the economic boom of the '90s, and then again in the early 2000s. I moved away from California in 2003 (family reasons), but I'm not aware of a dramatic change in the tax laws or regulatory structure since then. From my own experience and people I have spoken to, the high cost of real estate is more likely to have cost the state jobs than the regulatory environment.
Californians pay a premium to live in such a beautiful state, including regulatory costs, and I for one did not regret paying extra to maintain its beauty.
One of the big problems in the state, and what I think is the major problem there, are that the two political parties are so firmly entrenched in their camps that no solution that smacks of compromise can ever be reached. The Democratic party may be spendthrifts, but the Republican party's insistence on cutting revenues even when they can't get spending cuts through has also contributed to the state's fiscal problems. Let's remember that conservative Orange County was the first to go Chapter 13. That can't blamed on the Democrats.
true. I guess I was just wishing again.
I live here.
We vote again in twenty-ten.
You ain't seen nothin' yet.
If I was a Democrat or free-spending Republican holding office, I'd be taking night classes for my new career right now.
But if they followed Texas's example, they wouldn't get to micromanage the little people's lives.
Start off with anything to do with environmental protection, Welfare (or should I say money for nothing), paying for illegal immigrants, a million dollar study to see if Hetch Hetchy can be returned to a natural river.
I have to disagree with you as well. I live in California and I work in the Sierras, some would say a beautiful area, but it is not worth what I pay in taxes.
" like drunken sailors on shore leave. " hey now, always remember- drunken sailors spend their own money.
I have been saying for a long time to drill off the coast. Because if we don't one day we will wake up and see drilling rigs off the coast with China's flag flying over them, or some other countries.
===The reason for the problems is because they won't raise taxes.====
You economic illiterate fool. Tell me stupid, when in the history of mankind has a govt been able to tax its way to prosperity? Don't you get it idiot, if you spend more than you take in you're going to run deficits. Maybe you should have paid attention in school instead of gazing at your navel and picking your nose.
[...] The poster child for dysfunction and Live from the Cali tax revolt James Hudnall, Big Hollywood: So Goes California, So Goes the Nation Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Hey, Arnold, we are not your ATM! Hot Air: Crazy Arnie: Everything must go! [...]
I could feel for CA if they hadn't brought this on themselves. The citizens are suffering from self-inflicted wounds. Wounds that can be easily cured. They elect people incapable of providing and paying for the social programs they promise. There exist no financing model that supports liberal social programs without forfeiting basic human freedoms and rights! The state is like a derelict crack addict slouched against a building along Rodeo Drive. Sad, but what ya gonna do? It's time for a systemic correction. I guess it's time to break out the popcorn and watch the show. Rome had the Colosseum, we have California. Yeehawww!
How about the one that cut off the water to the farmers to protect the smelt? Well, that cost California millions in revenue. Or the one that pays 160 teachers to stay at home and still retain their salaries? That's 10 million there. Heck that was even in the LA Times. If you can't even take the time find waste in your own state, why should the rest of us help you out?
===Make the rich pay more of their share.===
You stupid POS. The "rich" pay the lionshare of the taxes. Almost half of Americans don't even pay federal income tax. You're such a fool you deserve to lose your job and end up penniless in the street.
======Make the rich pay more of their share.===
By the way moron, have you noticed how the liberal degenerates in the federal govt are tax cheats? Typical hypocrites; you socialist sacks of shyt squeal about raising taxes yet you cheat on your taxes. The greatest mystery is why anyone with an IQ above room temp takes you liberal parasites seriously.
Well, well ,well…. It seems the tax and spend addicts is Sacramento just got a little intervention from the voters. Now we need to keep up the pressure. Drunken sailors in the legislature need to pay more attention and Gov Girlyman needs to remember to live up to campaign promises on stopping the out-of-control deficit spending. Read my lips! No More Taxes or we get out the axes. Chop, chop, chop. Cut down the illegal aliens propping nanny programs now or the voters will start at your knees in the next election.
Well, well, well, what do we have here the bluest of blue states saying take a hike to the Governator and the Liberals. Take note Washington this is coming your way. The change most Americans are looking for is less government not more, and change is going to come to the rest of the country in 2010, right on California. Hey I got an idea kick out a couple million illegals problem solved, Awnald.
I like this avatar better for this site. The other one is hard to see properly shrunk down like that. It was also distorted a little. Both were done by comic book artist friends of mine. The "hulk" one by Daniel Brereton and the other by Michael Netzer.
So are you saying there aren't any? Look at the other responses. I'm sure there are more, many more than is listed there. Health care and subsidies for illegals? There's a ton of money there alone. Don't be dumb. California is one of the leaders of "entitlements" that are and have been draining the state coffers for years.
What I don't understand, this may be a smidge OT, is how all of a sudden and almost at the same time all of these states suddenly had huge budget deficits. I mean here in AZ we were running along as normal and then we started hearing about other states being in the red, thought they were just idiots and then bam, out of nowhere we're idiots right along with the rest. Could there be THAT many screw ups running our states?
Well, I disagree with you. Governments must learn to live within their means. They have done the opposite.
As for tax dollars = better education, I have a post coming that will deal with that argument in detail
Two examples of how out-of-control California spending is. The average wage of a BART worker (Bay Area Rapid Transit) who runs the trains is – $120,000. That's the AVERAGE wage, so half are higher than that. Second, over half of the workers in the California school system are not teachers. They're paper pushers, chart makers, file clerks, assistants to assistants to assistants, etc. What's the connection between these two out of control groups? Both of them are unions. And it gets worse. The Big Zero just refused our state $4 billion in stimulus funds unless our governor restores cuts in salaries of union health care workers which were cut because of our fiscal crisis.
The unions are killing us. And come November, I aim to be one less body for them to shoot at. I am leaving this state before the end of this year. I can't take it here anymore.
Hopefully things turn around here soon in Colorado … I fear we're next for a good rough Californication.
The problem that I see with CA is that it's ALWAYS been a high dollar state. EVERYTHING there costs big bucks, I don't care if it's taxes, fuel, food, rent or whatever, everything is outrageously priced therefore it only stands to reason that the state would run out of money. I mean wages for city and state workers has to be astronomical and whenever the state needs to contract out work you just know that they're going with a high dollar contractor etc..Everything MUST be high quality and they're willing to pay through the nose to get the best, at the tax payers expense of course.
What bull!!! Because they think I'm working at a job to pay for their pet projects. And that the money pit is endless! As long as they can extort money from the citizens of their state through taxation, they won't have to cut spending. If you think your little list is ALL they spend money on, I can see how it's gotten to this point. You have no clue.
===but it also created an inequitable system and drained money away form the schools,===
I'll type this slowly fool so pay attention. LAUSD's budget is half of that for the entire city of Los Angeles. Can you comprehend that moron? Also stupid, we spend $10,000 per student in LA public schools. For arguments sake lets assume there are 30 kids per class. That's $300,000 per class. Let’s say the teacher makes $50,000. Where did the remaining $250,000 go? To exorbitant and undeserved pensions, needless administrators, perks such as computers for the administrators, etc. Don't you see we're being fleeced? Of course not, you're a liberal idiot whistling past the graveyard.
Orange County may be a more apt comparison than you realize. The major reason Orange County declared bankruptcy in 1994 was due to massive financial fraud perpetuated by long-time County Treasurer Robert Citron. I'm not pressing the point but Citron was the only Democrat elected to county-wide office in OC for many years. [He later pled guilty to a variety of federal charges.] The county had to suck it up, reduce services and cut over 3,000 jobs. The county emerged from bankruptcy after about a year and has remembered it's hard-learned lessons.
This guy is regurgitating talking points from Hammer & Sickle Monthly.
To all those who want to blame Prop 13. Just remember that evebn with Prop 13, both Reagan and Wilson left their terms with a multimillion dollar SURPLUS in the State coffers. Since then, the liberals in the legislature have been in charge of spending and even if PROP 13 wasn't around to protect homeowners from the egarious raising of property taxes, it would not matter. For the last 12 years, the CA State tax revenue has been the largest in the nation and that still didn't matter because of continuous out of control deficit spending by the State government. If you spend more than you take in by a factor of 6 to 1 and continue kill business opportunity like the liberal legislature has done for the last 20 years, you end up in this mess.
while ostensibly good news, all this does it set CA up for the 'too big to fail' crowd… after the demonizing of the 60 odd percent of the voters (teabaggers, anyone?) and the requisite fearmongering (we'll let 40,000 prisoner loose, fire cops, blah blah) they will seamlessly move into bailout territory.
No way Barry will let a solidly blue state cut back on overpaid unions- you all know that- and so does CA…
Haha. No doubt.
I gotta tell ya,… I live in the land of milk and honey (otherwise known as Texas) and we would love to have you guys, but don't all come at once. Besides, the property taxes on my house are the biggest tax bill outside of the Feds, but if that's as tough as it gets, I can live with it.
Let it Burn & go Bankrupt. It's not too big to fail. Think of the new job loss to state employees as Arnies Katrina.
I am so effing tired of "Democrats and Republicans must work together". It not only shows that the speaker is a useless gasbag incapable of speaking anything other than empty platitudes; it shows that they lack a basic comprehension of our political system.
We have two major parties for a reason: because they have two vastly different ideas of how our government should be run. The two CAN'T "come together" over most things because the answer for Democrats is always "add entitlements through taxation" which is at cross purposes with the Republican answer (and no I'm not counting RINO's like Schwarzenegger).
When a Democrat or a RINO says "we have to put aside our differences and work together" they ALWAYS mean "stop arguing with me and do what I say". Schwarzenegger has put on a big show about being willing to listen, but has offered zero alternatives to raising taxes. He isn't willing to take on the unions, he isn't willing to take on the entitlement programs. So where's his 'give'? Where is his 'coming together'?
Actually, it's economic trickery coming home to roost.
State budgets need to balance. To make them "balance", politicians have gotten very good at using creative accounting and overly-optimistic estimates of revenue growth to make the numbers work. This allows them to commit to spend much more than they take in, at the expense of carrying debt into the future.
When the recession started, even after it became clear that the economy would shrink, these same politicians refused to give up their budget games because they didn't want to slow their spending. So they kept their crazy estimates. Hence, according to last year's budget estimates — everything was fine.
But now the reality is setting in that the revenues are far, far worse than the fake estimates in the budgets. So suddenly, these deficits appear as if by magic.
You're the exact person that the Dems in California salivate for. You have no clue and you buy all their class warfare propaganda. I use the word propaganda because I'm sure that there are quite a few of your Democratic legislators that are Marxists. As you sound like you are too.
I would say by the vote yesterday, you have a resounding YES!! and that Colin Powell should stick to military related topics.
The problem is very few Republicans in CA are actually conservatives. So RINOs in the legislature and abbetted by the RINO Governator working with the Democrats has created this disaster and continuing to work together spells an even bigger disaster. But this time, if Obama has anything to say, the disaster will be for ALL who pay FEDERAL and CA State taxes.
Indeed. we have had it.
Bankruptch MIGHT wake up these toads but I doubt it.
Exactly. Prop 13 was one of the best things that ever happened. But all the politicians did was come up with alternate taxes to soak the public. We need to cut up their ATM cards. They can't be trusted with our money.
I live in CA. The state spends money like it had a press and the public be damned. Illegals>? Sure, pls send them up and we will educate them and give them healthcare.
Sound policy? Ah, no.
I will leave as soon as I have the opportunity. These folks are simply crazy.
Texas, here I come.
I think this argument is easily refuted that more money means more better students. As you can tell I skipped my English classes. We ran out of gubbernment money and cheese.
Yes and the unions run CA pure and simple.
Man you are so dead on. That is the issue, we can't pass propositions as fast as they can pass tax increases.
He had some fuzzy thinking on military related topics as well though.
I've always believed that Arnie is a democrat under cover. I'm sure that there are many others out there as well.
The undeniable consequences of unfettered illegal immigration, illustrates the terrible burden placed on Californians with a crushing budget meltdown. A time back city councilor Andronovich stated, " $ 11. billion can be attributed to every illegal alien, who slips across the border." Annually the cost of illegal immigration to Los Angeles County taxpayers exceeds one billion dollars, which includes $220 million for public safety, $400 million for health care, and $500 million in welfare and food stamps allocations. Public Social Services also shows that children of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County collected more than $21 million in welfare and more than $22 million in food stamps in March 2009 — an increase of $1 million from the previous month, according to a news release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. In addition Twenty-four percent of the county's total allotment of welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of illegal aliens born in the United States he indicated. But that's just Los Angeles County? That's the awful quagmire of taxes of forced mandates. REMOVE THE STIGMA OF SANCTUARY CITIES & STATES OF WHICH CALIFORNIA HAS IMPLEMENTED AGAINST FEDERAL LAW.
It is estimated 3 to 4 million foreign nationals have illegal settled in this county alone. What about the rest of California? How about the the liberal stronghold of San Francisco, where illegals criminals are sheltered, and where a drained city treasury can still find hundreds of thousands of dollars to issue illegal ID cards. How about the mandatory taxes extracted from every American nationwide? The people will no longer accept higher taxes to support illegal immigrants and their families, who have strained the both federal , county and state funding. The reservoirs of money supposedly to pay for medical care, education and government to benefit citizens and residents in California have been paid out instead to illegal immigrants. The dire cash problems in California shows years of neglect by its legislators, who have genuflected to the business communities.
Analyst Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation found high school-dropouts-who headed households pay an average of $9,700 a year in taxes but collect an average of $32,138 a year in benefits. Overpopulation should be a major concern in the state. Only the nocturnal drivers are free over traffic clogs. In a third year of drought, this is the time to enact in California, the illegal alien extraction tool called E-Verify. Only the predatory businesses refuse to identify foreign workers with this excellent successful program. Only the corrupt members of Sacramento's state assembly have not made it a permanent law, that should be used for all American workers. Only Sen.Harry Reid, majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other mostly Democratic Senators have tried to weaken or kill it's power to perform. Learn more at JUDICIALWATCH, NUMBERSUSA & CAPSWEB.
The undeniable consequences of unfettered illegal immigration, illustrates the terrible burden placed on Californians with a crushing budget meltdown. A time back city councilor Andronovich stated, " $ 11. billion can be attributed to every illegal alien, who slips across the border." Annually the cost of illegal immigration to Los Angeles County taxpayers exceeds one billion dollars, which includes $220 million for public safety, $400 million for health care, and $500 million in welfare and food stamps allocations. Public Social Services also shows that children of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County collected more than $21 million in welfare and more than $22 million in food stamps in March 2009 — an increase of $1 million from the previous month, according to a news release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. In addition Twenty-four percent of the county's total allotment of welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of illegal aliens born in the United States he indicated. But that's just Los Angeles County? That's the awful quagmire of taxes of forced mandates. REMOVE THE STIGMA OF SANCTUARY CITIES & STATES OF WHICH CALIFORNIA HAS IMPLEMENTED AGAINST FEDERAL LAW.
It is estimated 3 to 4 million foreign nationals have illegal settled in this county alone. What about the rest of California? How about the the liberal stronghold of San Francisco, where illegals criminals are sheltered, and where a drained city treasury can still find hundreds of thousands of dollars to issue illegal ID cards. How about the mandatory taxes extracted from every American nationwide? The people will no longer accept higher taxes to support illegal immigrants and their families, who have strained the both federal , county and state funding. The reservoirs of money supposedly to pay for medical care, education and government to benefit citizens and residents in California have been paid out instead to illegal immigrants. The dire cash problems in California shows years of neglect by its legislators, who have genuflected to the business communities.
Analyst Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation found high school-dropouts-who headed households pay an average of $9,700 a year in taxes but collect an average of $32,138 a year in benefits. Overpopulation should be a major concern in the state. Only the nocturnal drivers are free over traffic clogs. In a third year of drought, this is the time to enact in California, the illegal alien extraction tool called E-Verify. Only the predatory businesses refuse to identify foreign workers with this excellent successful program. Only the corrupt members of Sacramento's state assembly have not made it a permanent law, that should be used for all American workers. Only Sen.Harry Reid, majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other mostly Democratic Senators have tried to weaken or kill it's power to perform. Learn more at JUDICIALWATCH, NUMBERSUSA & CAPSWEB.
Unions are the source for killing the American car industry; the unions are also responsible for the collapse of Bruno's, a Southern grocery store. Wal-Mart has taken over the lead where Bruno's once lead.
I know Schwarzkopf did most of the heavy lifting and Powell was the pretty face for the camera's. Although it was much more fun to watch Schwarzkopf.
I'd love to live in TX, I have land near El Paso but I don't want to live in or near El Paso.
I see..Thanks for explaining that since the politicians don't.
I remember hearing about him giving an estimate of 55,000 dead if we started Operation Desert Storm.
I live in So Cal and I am constantly seeing herds of orange vested people sitting on the sides of highways pulling weeds on weekends no less. The Governator tells us that we have a water shortage and need to reduce watering. Well turn off the water to those freeway shoulders and let the weeds die.
Well, it's obviously too difficult to explain. Plus, you really don't need to concern yourself with that. . . here, have a new highway. Don't look behind the curtain.
Another problem you'll see get even bigger is the refugee syndrome. It starts when places like California raise their taxes to the point that people start leaving the state for greener pastures. But what happens then is the people from California get to a place like Arizona, as happened a lot right around 2000, what did they do? Well they started driving up housing prices because anything that they'd pay in AZ was half of what they'd pay in California, so that means the people selling houses in AZ could raise the prices through the roof because people would pay them. This was great for people selling houses 3 or so years ago (when I was in AZ for a while) but terrible if you're looking to buy a house which cost twice as much as it did 5 years before. Then when the bubble burst last year nationwide, guess who's holding the bag and then holding out the tin cup for their bailout? Lenders from places where the housing costs were inflated because of people "fleeing" oppressive taxes elsewhere.
That would be bad enough, but what causes even more damage is that once people flee places like California, New York, New Jersey, etc. they vote for the same sort of liberal Democrats that they were used to voting for there, which means that the new state's government starts to become more liberal, which means that they start spending like sailors with a lottery check on shore leave in Manila. They don't understand that if you leave one place for cheaper pastures, but insist on keeping the same voting patterns which lead to your original "too expensive" state becoming that way, well you'll inevitably do the same thing to your new home. Then after screwing up a previously sane state with the level of debt and tax insanity that they helped bring, they'll move on to the next "hot cheap state" and repeat the process.
It's ridiculous. My advice to liberals is to suck it up and put your own house in order, stay in whatever workers paradise you created and quit ruining the rest of the country by importing the same mindset you had in your home state. Seriously it doesn't take a genius to figure out if you start enabling the same behavior where you flee too that it won't end up exactly like what you left. Moreover, it'll look like what you left because *you* are the problem! Stay the hell where you are and demand more responsible government there, or if you do move change your voting habits to not inflict the insanity you left originally on the rest of us.
"One thing we do know is the voters' wish list is a lot longer than the 'I'm willing to pay for it' list. People are going to have to rectify the two," state Treasurer Bill Lockyer said.
I will keep that in mind the next time that he is up for election. I will not make that mistake again.
TTFN Mr Lockyer.
I'm not a fan of El Paso myself, but Odessa, I could definitely live there.
unlike the nation as a whole, California is constitutionally bound to have a balanced budget. So there's an apples to oranges comparison here.
but I agree that my state is a mess- I think we need to overhaul our state constitution. Its literally the wild west out here.
You made that up. We all know it was all Bush's fault (and Dick Cheney stealing money from the economy). ;-P
Putting the criminal unions aside you're exactly right that illegal aliens are the principle cause of our financial hemorrhaging. I’m not waiting for CA to fix its mess; I’ll be gone from here in no more than 18 months.
Both show a good hand. You know I just pokin' ya'.
On the same token that Obama is engaging with the health care industry to entice them to positively contribute to their own reform…. he should task the Unions to reform themselves.
Impossible you say? Well, for the Unions its do or die. As we see with the UAW, the Unions have an existential challenge. There's no one threatening their right to exist as unions, but without jobs, there's not much for them to be organized about in the first place.
Welcome to the right.
Got to love the "It's because of Prop 13" crowd. Prop 13 came about because people watched their property taxes rise dramatically during the real estate boom in the late 70's. Not because they went out and bought more expensive homes, but because the market price had risen and the tax collectors reassessed their homes every year. It sparked a taxpayer's revolt. What is forgotten is that Proposition 13 passed with 65 percent of the vote—nearly a two-to-one approval margin. It still commands widespread approval among the voters of the state. Woe is to the politician that even mutters the word "repeal". What is also forgotten is that California was once a very Red state. Given how the Democrats have run the state into the ground (third generation Californian myself) it may revert back to "Red" status.
I disagree with your claim. Prop 13 capped the tax rate on property at 1% in 1978. I bought my home in 1977 for 60k. During the recent housing bubble it was valued at over 500k. By remaining in my home my taxes may be lower, but once the house sells the tax jumps to the level of the selling price. I have seen almost every house in my block sell at least twice since 1978. So I do not have empathy that we shot ourselves with Prop 13.
People back then were loosing their homes when they retired because they could not afford the taxes. The governments were more then happy to help those people out, usually with a moving van.
"Of course, knowing them they’re likely to bail out California which will be another nightmare for the state. Taking money from the Obama administration is like borrowing from the mob. Once you do business with them, they think they own you. Ask the auto and banking industries."
Maybe obama will "Fire" Arnold Schwarzenegger and replace him with William Ayers
This is why I despise people like Powell, Specter, and even Steele saying the party has to 'listen' and 'change' (Steele more than the others b/c Powell and Specter are just opportunists).
'Changed' Republicans, or RINO's, are all we have in California. They softened their stance to get elected by a left-wing wacko constituency with slight right leanings. And this is the mess we have. It amazes me that California is THE example of how poorly Democrats run things, yet nobody talks about it (except us). It's really as if left-wingers cannot accept the failure of their ideas. They just plug their ears, turn away, and complain some more about Rush Limbaugh.
If anything Republicans need to become more hard-line. Stand apart from the Democrats and RINO's. Let them take ownership for all these idiotic things they're pushing to cheering throngs of Code Pinkos and MoveOn members. When the bill comes due and the whole thing falls apart, there will be a strong swing back to the right. So we have to be sure there is a Right left to swing to.
Okay I made up the part about NY or NJ ever being called a "paradise" in any way, shape or form, but otherwise I stand by it.
At what point does the ever speeding tankage of the economy become Obama's fault though I wonder…
I read the other day that in 2008 Texas added more jobs than the other 49 states combined! Combined! We must be doing something right. While others complain about not being able to sell their houses we had a house down the street sell in one day.
will the last american(read; non-illegal alien)leaving california please bring the flag.
Except with term limits, we do not have very many career politicians in the Legislature. The LACK of career politicians is likely a problem–people show up with little knowledge, are rolled by lobbyists, and are looking for their next job soon and then gone. Career pols have an incentive to keep things somewhat sane. Or that's my guess–State government was not this bad when I was a kid, although it has never been great. But the Duke and Pete WIlson seemed to do ok. Now we have a revolving door, and the system is designed to elect radicals on both sides–which means 2/3 liberal dems and 1/3 wild eyed republicans. Normal people are not wanted.
That's right. With his grasp of policies and economics, he should run as a Democrat.
Now, now, now fellers…El Paso does suck in several ways, I grew up here left for several years and returned to finish school, but ODESSA? ODESSA? I lived in Midland for a while driving a lumber truck and that was crappy enough (Midland had a nice little downtown) but Odessa was pretty rowdy. Got busted there and spent three days in Odessa's beautiful "Gray Bar Hotel". Now, take me back to the Armadillo and I'll be happy again…
I'm there with you. This constant sucking off the gubberment teat is going to break us all. Republicans and Democrats. The union bosses killed their organizations years ago.
It's a black hole, subsidizing illegals. Their money goes back over the border and they use enough of the money to live here. Meanwhile we're giving them free healthcare, in some places free education or substantially reduced prices on college education that a person (legal) in a neighboring state can't get.
Except that Californians already pay the highest business, personal income, and gasoline taxes in the country. Moron.
The money was coming in by the busload for the last 10 years of booming economy.
The problem was that the DEMOCRAP legislature was spending it by the trainload.
STFU and move to Moscow.
I'll give you two answers.
One: The democrats will never consider it Obama's fault.
Two: I think Obama has already taken responsibility for the economy. Ironically, his attempts to grab credit for the stock market rise have made people think that his policies have solved our problems. Thus, it is now his economy. When this bear market ralley ends and we go crashing again in September, people will say, "Obama's policies aren't working." They won't say, "Wow, that Bush guy really scr..wed us."
That's the problem with trying to grab credit for good things, you put a target on yourself when they go wrong again.
Yep, I remember well when Prop 13 passed and the debates. One of the problems with the old tax system was that old people were being forced out of their homes because the taxes got too high. The property taxes were out of control.
I also remember when California was a red state. Most of it still is but the major cities us what makes it blue.
One of the things that killed that is all the military base closures. Clinton went out of his way to close as many as possible in California to turn the state. I went to high school in San Diego (Point Loma High), close to the naval training center. My step dad was a instructor there when I was a little kid. That's all been turned into a condo development now.
You don't know what you're talking about, if you ever did.
California spends more per student than almost every state, and we perform worse that almost all of them.
The schools are awash in money, even as most parents who can afford to send their kids anywhere other than the public schools.
Why?
Because the money is spent trying desperately to teach millions of illiterate illegal alien children to read English, and in LAUSD, over 50% drop out anyways before graduation, which numbers aren't counted in their final abysmal exit test scores.
California shot itself in the foot when it elected Democrats and RINO Republicans to run the state, and having helped to sow those seeds, you've flown to coop to let others reap the chaos.
Please do CA a favor: wherever you've moved, STAY THERE.
Why not, he's already endorsing them.
One thing is for sure though, NO Republican should be listening to his advise.
And for those f you in the other 49: Ahnuld isn't a Republican.
Write that on your hands lest you forget.
He lied about every policy he said he supported, and has refused to, EVEN ONCE, use his line-item veto to cut rampant socialist state spending. The state budget is up 40$ since he took over, and has DOUBLED in the past 10 years. Even with revenues going up like a ballon, state spending has gone up like a rocket.
He is truly and totally WORSE than the Democrat he replaced.
The legislature is a pack of braindead liberal Democrats, and helpless and hopeless RINOs, who have pork-barreled and influence-peddled us into this mess.
The toll on incumbents next couple of times out at the polls should be heartening.
And trust me, it's fun to watch uncontrolled statism crash and burn.
I plan to move to Texas, but not Austin; too many libs there.
Where does Bush live again?
My son thinks that the USA will break up into 2 or 3 nations. I am beginning to think he is right.
Imagine if all the hard working folks moved into one nation and we left the lefties to themselves>?
Wow, that's the best parody of a Demo-zombie I have ever seen. LOL
For those who are not aware of the California ballot measures that the people just soundly defeated, I just posted a companion article with some detail over at http://commentarama.blogspot.com/ . There were actually six ballot measures, of which the first five were defeated. The sixth (Prop 1F), passed. It provided that state legislators cannot receive a pay raise any time the state budget is in deficit. They'll be waiting a long, long time to get anything "extra" in their paychecks.
Well, not every California voter self inflicts wounds. I have voted against liberal social programs since I COULD vote. (I cannot tell you how odd the sensation of having voted for the winning side is to me. I am a conservative native Californian. Yeah, an endangered species. But I'm not protected.)
And maybe investing in some body armor as well.
After he was elected Arnold tried with a special election, but the voters left him high and dry and he morphed into Gray Davis II.
With you I empathize. 2/3 of CA is represented by the democrats, 1/3 by the republicans. The 1/3 are being drug through the briar patch.
Listen, I understand how pleasant it is for people from other places to fantasize about how we're all a bunch of insane weirdos, but the fact is Californians on the whole aren't a whole lot different from you. What you don't have are A) huge enclaves of elitist insanity where liberal idiots from all across the country have come to congregate, and B) enormous numbers of illegals and other government-dependents in the inner cities who inevitably skew things Left.
Please. Have some sympathy. Most of us in the middle class are trying to make the best of a very bad situtation out here. We didn't vote for this shit. We get this crap imposed on us by unelected judges and/or get outvoted at the ballot box by the teeming hordes.
SgtTank, his wife is a flaming liberal from the Kennedy clan. Schwarzenegger did give it a good shot in the beginning but once he realized the legislature is filled with leftist zealots and 2/3 of Californians are lobotomized he decided to throw in the towel and go along to get along.
CA’s only salvation may be with Meg Whitman, former executive [President?] of Ebay. During Gray Davis’ term he added 44,000 parasites to the state’s payroll. Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting 5,000 jobs, which is as pitiful as Hussein cutting a few billion from a $9 Trillion fleecing and payoff to union supporters. We need to cut 40,000 employees and that’s exactly what Whitman said she’d do. If she can do it she will almost certainly be the first female president of the United States.
Just when you think it couldn't get any worse for California, it does. After the voters rejected five of the six ballot measures which were nothing more than tax and borrow, the administration in DC has announced that the new federal automobile mileage and pollution standards will be almost the same as those California has spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars for in useless litigation. California enacted stricter standards than the feds, but the standards were struck down by courts that said federal law pre-empted the field. California has been appealing through the federal courts ever since. So now, all California has to do is wait for the feds to enact the legislation, drop the court appeal, and join hands in going over the cliff.
Yeah but James, I like rowdy!
I still have a humorous little paperback I bought when it came out on a lark called "How to Defeat Saddam Hussein" it was written before Desert Shield was even completely manned and positioned. The reason it was humorous? The battle plan hypothesized by the author was 95% correct. The only missing pieces were the casualty figures (he guessed around 2,000), his not being able to foresee the Battle of Khafji, and the fact that Marines actually conducted amphibious raids on Iraqi islands in the Gulf. Other than those understandable oversights, it was as if someone printed out the operations plans and decided to make a buck or two off them.
CA is in such a mess they are going to have to go back to square one and start from scratch. And that ain't gonna be pretty.
Hey Lawhawk, I figured you were still down at your voting precinct kicking Democrats in their a$$es, saying, “how can you be so stupid?” The funny thing to me is Barry’s administration holds California up as an example on how things are done, amazing.
CA could (temporarily) balance their budget by simply rolling it back to the 2005 budget. A common-sense act any business would do in a heartbeat. But they won't. They are cash junkies owned by the unions who DON'T CARE if they gut the goose that lays their salaries and pensions (see: the UAW)
Obama will violate the Constitution (again) by bailing out CA. Which will respond by raising their budget and be back with a hand out again next year. And the next. And the next.
There are a lot of perceptive and inteliigent people commenting on this blog, but I wonder how many realize just how bad things are getting, and how fast? China is right now working to remove the dollar as the standard currency and have cut their US bond purchases for the first time ever. Some people say they "need us" to sell to. No. Sales to the US from China total 5% (five percent) of their exports. They don't need us very much at all, considering they are now (wisely) putting their money into resources instead.
And that just touches on the disasters awaiting. Pension meltdowns, heck, "entitlement" meltdowns of all types. SSI and Medicare collapse seem to be moved closer every time someone does a study. The US credit card is maxed and the kneebreakers are coming for us and I have yet to hear a solution to the problem that is being proposed seriously by any one in a position to actually make it happen.
Whatever comes out of thus, the USA as we knew is gone forever. At best, we'll end up another Britain, a once-great world power now a sniveling welfare state offering practically nothing to the world.
I'm not thrilled to write this, but I'm a successful businessman, not a dreamer. I've closed my business and am on the way to my ex-homeland of Canada, where they at least have resources they are willing to use and some vague idea how to run a socialist economy.
[...] So Goes California, So Goes the Nation by James Hudnall [...]
It beggars belief that politicians always want to cut front line services like police and fire fighters – or road and bridge repair – when in a pinch, but never consider eliminating entire agencies that do nothing other than spend money and provide welfare-to-work programs for lazy leeches.
I'll believe it's a real fiscal crisis when the first worthless multi-billion dollar agency – like HUD, NEA, TSA or SBA – is eliminated in its entirety. Until that point, it's just a bunch of lawyer-politicians scaremongering.
I think we're close, though. The US citizens do seem to be showing some signs of waking up.
Oh I'm sure they'll figure out a way to make it Bush's fault even then. It's what they do.
California could always crack down on welfare fraud. That would save a couple Billion every year. That one would be to easy never mind. Or how about stopping medical care for non citizen except for "True" emergencies. That would save 5 billion. Oh wait that might be considered torture and Nancy would not like that.
Its only money California should just keep on spending the money and pay a higher interest rate on its bonds. Stall for awhile until they get bailed out with the funny money the feds are printing up.
I do not think you will see any crack addict slouched against the wall on Rodeo Drive. Maybe every other street but not Rodeo Drive.
Wait for the Truth Hearings on the economy. Thats when even you will know it was President Bush's fault. They have a special blend of kool-aid for your mind set.
I am pretty sure spending is up 181% over the last 10 years in California. Heck if it was only up 100% California would be doing good.
Bummer forecast. Could you take us all with you. Like you say at least Canada is experienced at running this kind of economy. This government team will use some hybrid Alinsky style economics and that spells big trouble!
blackhawk–Rufus rolled out the red carpet for you and you missed your own party!
McClintock should have won. He might have worked out.
I prefer to stay and fight. This is what apathy gets you, voters. I admit I did not vote in most elections until recent times because I have always hated the choices. But if people just give up things will only get worse. It's time for a REAL change. Or as I like to say, it's time to CLEAN HOUSE.
Someone earlier said (Here? Senior moment) – that the main constituency most of our polls serve are the public labor unions and the welfare bureaucracy. Just about any Californian could look around and tell you how to cut billions and we wouldn't even know the difference.
But the pols have to threaten us with fire and police cuts.
What is mystifying to me is that in about 5 years our budget has gone up $40 billion. What is there to show for it? Our highways still need repair.
To think these idiots couldn't even push the budget back to 5 years ago is ridiculous.
I suspect that a lot of it is going into retirement benefits for public labor unions. Which then give the pols lots of money and dinners.
But that gets back to my first point
Make the rich pay more of their fair share? The rich are the ones paying most of the taxes. Tell us, who's getting all the freebies–free school breakfasts, lunches, day-care, subsidized housing, healthcare, etc.? Who's paying for the largest poor, illegal immigrant population? There's a whole lot of people not paying THEIR fair share, and it's not the rich. You're probably a free-loader yourself.
I am convinced that appeals by conservatives to liberals based on fiscal common sense are failing because a large contingent of Americans simply believe that capitalism is morally wrong. They are raised in the Barney mold of "I love you, you love me" and "let's all share." They think capitalism is morally cold and "uncompassionate," when it is merely a system of creation, production, capital exchange and trade. The capitalist economic system is granted by moderates and even some liberals as efficient, but the main selling point should be that it works in conjunction with personal freedom, to work in a profession of one's desire (provided the talent and determination to compete), and to spend one's earned wealth on what one wants and desires. The way to make money is thus to fulfill others' wants and desires in the marketplace.
The idea that the market is cold and uncompassionate is a myth. The market reflects the values of a people. If the mass culture is shallow or perverse, this does not arise from out of nowhere (Marxists hold it as predetermined). Hollywood and the music industry intentionally promote a sexualized, violent, and "victimized" culture, while the education system persuades people that our culture, apparently inescapable, is a reflection of our own heartless (bourgeois) nature.
The idea that there is life outside the economic sphere and freedom to act compassionately on one's own does not strike the liberal, leading to contradictory behavior such as advocating a more compassionate "system" but not partaking in or donating to true private charities. The liberal mindset is totalitarian and seeks integration of all public, and eventually private, spheres into a cohesive whole. This is unstable, dangerous, naive, and can only lead to tyranny.
There is another fallacy that needs to be disabused that with a capitalist system some professions are "underpaid," but the fact is that the market determines wages just like it sets prices. If you don't cultivate marketable skills, then you can get underbid by people with the same skills as yours who will work for a lower wage than you are willing to accept. The obvious solution? Education, self-improvement and hard work.
There is also a more obscure reason that people perceive the capitalist system as uncompassionate and cruel. Most people are unaware or oblivious to the easily verifiable fact that the "American Dream" is being eroded by statism.
This should not, and indeed, cannot be dismissed as "conspiracy theory." It is quite clear, as the dollar stands to lose its AAA rating as a store of value, that the currency is being abused by federal bureaucrats through a process that leads to intentional inflation and "currency devaluation." This translates into deteriorated savings and a scramble to save the money one works hard for. People thus invest their money in order not to lose it, but since they are busy working hard, most of them lack the knowledge to invest wisely. The result is a market with concentrated capital based on bad investment decisions (investment doesn't accurately reflect the changing market and the scarcity of resources or lack of demand).
The market is disrupted and the house of cards collapses.
I'm not arguing that more money = better education. However, Prop 13 took away local control of schools and gave it to the state, and made them compete for money with every other state program. Naturally, there's a great disparity between the schools in areas with powerful state politicians and weaker ones. Even the wealthiest neighborhood schools in Northern CA hold fundraisers.
In normal times, I'd agree with you–yes, governments must live within their means, and there should have been budget cuts in the good years, with some money set aside for the inevitable bad times. Major cuts right now would lead to a spiral of layoffs in both the public and private sectors, and increase the costs to the state.
My argument isn't that CA should keep spending the way they are spending–it's that both parties need to start working together instead of taking their ideological stands that drag everyone down.
So much for Ann Coulter's "conservatives are nice while liberals are insulting" bulls****
I never said throwing money at the schools was a panacea–I'm saying the system is inequitable. Try reading a little more slowly and watch those knee-jerk responses–you're going to hurt yourself.
Where I lived houses stayed in families for generations or sold to family members for $1 to keep the taxes low. I'm not saying that it was wrong for them to do that necessarily, and I absolutely agree that it saved a lot of people from losing their homes, but it also certainly made school funding more dicey and local schools dependent on the state bureaucracy.
Another ever-so-polite conservative.
I lived in Northern CA, where the schools were better but unevenly funded, and the best public schools have lotteries and waiting lists because the demand is so great. Even so, teachers can't afford to own houses, except for in the special "teacher's ghetto" San Francisco created to give them affordable housing.
The arguments here seem to be that LA is a hell-hole, and from my visits there, I'd agree. But that's not speaking for the whole state.
I appreciate your willingness to debate this and wish some of the moonbats would go away. I don't think you are correct with all of your points – but the desire to have things without paying for them is certainly part of the problem here.
Great read Reasonjester! Education, self-improvement and hard work. Wow, this would require our worthless parasitic class to get up before noon, and god forbid work more than 40 hrs a week, if at all. IMO failure in America is a personal choice, your station in life in the USA is in direct correlation with the effort you put in, work hard, work smart and success will follow.
Thanks, Stan. I agree with you that failure is a personal choice. Well, at least until Obama outlawed failure, that is.
Remember, even the first Christians 2000 years ago tried to make a "communist" heaven on earth. It failed. The pilgrims did the same – it failed. Our hope, is that we too will realize once again that capitalism is a system that does the most to lift as many people out of poverty. Nothing else seems to work.
So we can hope that the tea party movement and the tax backllash in California finds some legs in deciding that we cannot tax and spend our way to prosperity, and that government for the people and BY the people is still an operable system. California is often held up for being a trendsetter. You cannot lose the momentum you have started. You need to keep pushing this. Every single incumbant needs a real race next time around, and if your representative has voted for all this BS, you need to vote him out.
Here is a link to the various bureaucracies in CA http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/deptIndex.html
If you cruise through the links you can see there are a lot of them and they all have wonderful sounding names; the various conservancies, child nutrition, emergency management, etc. and they all sound indispensable but here is the problem as I have experienced it.
Bureaucracies share characteristics of large, collective, brainless organisms like coral reefs. As long as the stuff is there to make them grow, they will grow. For decades taxpayers have been shamed into providing unlimited resources to the various programs because, after all who doesn't want kids to be educated or have food? Growth means promotions for many, and as the bureaucracy grows meaningless positions are made to promote people to. Soon more than half the people in the organization have nothing to do with the mandate of the department (see administrative costs of public education versus private)
Another area of monumental bureaucratic waste is environmental regulation. I have been an environmental consultant for over 20 years and I could bore you for hours but instead I will just invite you to read the Federal Register entry for just ONE proposed environmental regulation. There are tens of thousands of such regulations, each like an organism seeking its own survival and proliferation.
ModDem I am going to give you a quote to CHEW on. Socialism works till you run out of other peoples money. Tell you what, if you want all of that crap and I do mean CRAP because thats what it is then YOU and your friends pay for it. Use your private funds and do it yourselves. No one is stopping you. However don't expect everyone to wanna just come along because you think they should. California is an unhealthy climate for business because of the fruit and nutter crowds, insane taxation, Its too expensive for a normal middle class family to live. And here you are whining about people not wanting high taxes…gee….would you rather have some fat beureaucrat in Sacremento running your life or are you grown up enough to do it yourself? Apparently ModDem doesn't get the real depths of what LIBERTY means. My advice, the people made the call. Leave them alone. Thats ultimately what they want.
I don´t accept that argument anyway. Why would you pay taxes (i.e., be punished) for the beauty of the land? The state didn´t make the land. Do you pay fewer taxes when you live in an ugly spot? No. The landscape was there when taxes were low. "Maintaining the beauty" is fine but that is not what California´s problems are about.
"…both parties need to start working together…" Yes, but to what end? Whose holy cows should have to go to the slaughter? If you cannot lay off public sector workers, what is there to talk about? If you cannot ease the regulatory burden on businesses, what is there to talk about?
Congrats, Californians. Did not know you had it in you. Next is to get rid of all politicians in office you can in 2010……..sure, some good ones will get whacked, but that's evolution. Doing this will set the stage for 2012. Now, let's see if other states can follow.
There is a word for channeling money to unions who then pay for your election. That word is corruption. Obama is corrupt. Just on a scale never seen before.
We should have seen this coming. I think Arnold wants to be popular and "successful" and that´s it. I mean, he is an actor after all. He will not risk everything for any policy, especially one that his liberal peers sneer at.
When Reagan became governor of CA he had already written and spoken about politics for a decade. He knew what he stood for and so did everyone else. Schwarzenegger was pretty much a blank slate. Where is the evidence that he ever thought about policy before he started running?
Any person with a job knows, intimately, what happens when you spend more than you earn. That lesson is learned early and emphatically! This is the lesson the voters in CA are giving their legislature. Said legislature has an institutional culture of deficit spending. Finally the pigeons are coming home to roost.
Boy, reality bites doesn't it?!
Yes, exactly true if you cherry pick the taxes you want to talk about — or get your "information" from right-wing talk show hosts who can't stand the idea of paying taxes on their multi-million dollar salary. In terms of all taxes, fees, etc,. California comes in at number 18 for the nation. But thanks for regurgitating the required talking point.
And Arnold could have had a surplus, too — if he hadn't rolled back the vehicle license fee, costing the state over two billion a year.
You'd be hard pressed to find a conservative who wouldn't be happy to pay taxes for highways, hospitals, schools, etc. But that's not exactly what are taxes are being used for, is it? Instead of paying for necessary services, our taxes are used as means of wealth redistribution by funding welfare programs for people who don't pay taxes. Then when the taxpayers complain, liberals accuse them of being greedy.
Highways, hospitals, schools, defense, etc are already accounted for in a variety of taxes. The problem in California is an extreme level of regulation on businesses combined with extreme levels of taxation. As businesses and people leave, there will be nothing left but a bunch of whiny liberal Hollywood types, elderly hippies and illegals. How empty of ideas do you have to be to seriously discuss taxing pot to raise money?
Id say as a Born and Bred Texan, come one, come all…but PLEASE, FOR GOD'S SAKE, DONT LOOK TO CHANGE IT. Thats the trouble with the **** Yankees (no offense)…y'all come down here and LIKE it because of the way we have things but then y'all start twiddling…and then what do we end up with? A state like California!!! Please…I love Texas. I love showing off Texas. Id love to SHARE Texas…but LEAVE IT ALONE!!!
We need conservatives to take claim to Austin…the Hill Country is just too darn pretty to waste on Lefties…
Because career politicians are doing such a great job in D.C. Maybe we outta elect people who have, I'm just spitballing here, life experience. You know little things like jobs and families and reason to be concerned about the repercussions of what the legislate.
Hey, Reagan was a Dem who morphed into a Republican…The born-again are always more faithful to the cause than those that know nothing else but it… sometimes.
(Yeah, I know.. hopes shouldn't be that high)
Even with a federal bailout, it's too late for California. Twenty years of overwhelmingly betraying malfeasance of the state legislature has established an unstoppable magnet for consumers of tax revenue, and a fatal outflow to more rational states of job creators and tax revenue providers.
The two lines on that chart have now inevitably crossed to the tune of negative 21 billion, a number that will only increase annually and exponentially hereafter.
Say adios to Mexifornia.
Could you provide documentation for that assertion? In what way does California come in at #18 in terms of taxes/fees when its income tax and sales tax rates are the highest in the country?
[...] your eyes on California. As Big Hollywood reminds us, “So goes California, so goes the [...]
Let's stop calling it 'capitalism' – a term foisted upon us by Marx anyway.
Let's call it The Free Economy. Or Economic Freedom.
Let's change 'capital' to 'private property.'
Let's stop saying 'tax cuts' (which repetition has made automatic the addition of '…for the rich') and instead say 'keep your own money.'
The Left has had great success by controlling the language – new words, and new definitions for existing words. We need to learn how to play that game.
Good points all, Cherie. The one I hate, and which Hayek laments in The Road to Serfdom, is the "conservative" mantle. Free marketers have nothing to do with European conservatives or Tories. I'm reading Alinsky now and he is lumping in American patriots in with "Tories." Idiotic, but a natural consequence of the right allowing the left to define them.
When called a conservative, a person should automatically rebut it and qualify that they are an American patriot. That scares the hell out of the left and shows them you're not messing around. When someone calls oneself liberal, rebut that they're not a liberal and then define it (Madison, Locke, Smith, e.g.). If progressive, ask which kind. The nationalist, religious, organic-statist, or socialist kind? We have to take the language back. I'm with you on that Cherie.
Why is housing so expensive that teachers have to be assigned "cheap zones" (which is in itself the sign of a centrally planned and therefore inefficient economy). Teachers aren´t that low on the income ladder. Why doesn´t the market clear? Could it be that new construction has been intentionally restricted by politicians? I don´t know the answer, but usually such a development doesn´t just happen.
I am a bit late, but I have to ask this question:
How could California's elected state representatives have proposed a budget deal that was just rejected by the 2/3rds of the voters. Exactly who are these people representing?
[...] and What George Will missed: The decrepit state of the California GOP James Hudnall, Big Hollywood: So Goes California, So Goes the Nation Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Hey, Arnold, we are not your ATM! and 10,000 workers in Mexifornia to be [...]
[...] and What George Will missed: The decrepit state of the California GOP James Hudnall, Big Hollywood: So Goes California, So Goes the Nation Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Hey, Arnold, we are not your ATM! and 10,000 workers in Mexifornia to be [...]
[...] and What George Will missed: The decrepit state of the California GOP James Hudnall, Big Hollywood: So Goes California, So Goes the Nation Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Hey, Arnold, we are not your ATM! and 10,000 workers in Mexifornia to be [...]
[...] cash and California elected officials’ pay will be cut 18% James Hudnall, Big Hollywood: So Goes California, So Goes the Nation Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Hey, Arnold, we are not your ATM! and 10,000 workers in Mexifornia to be [...]
[...] Obamacare for illegal aliens and Nice “work” if you can get it James Hudnall, Big Hollywood: So Goes California, So Goes the Nation Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Hey, Arnold, we are not your ATM! California Chronicle: Garamendi Says the [...]
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