One of the unfortunate aspects of the recent elections were the results from California. The electorate literally voted to commit economic suicide.
First of all, there's the resurgence of Governor Jerry Brown, a tax-and-spend Leftist who did a great deal to make California a hostage of the public employee unions by being the first governor to allow unionized state employees to donate to politicians. He won decisively, along with his fellow Democrats in most statewide offices, including former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsome as Lieutenant Governor.
Brown and his partners in crime are armed with several initiatives the voters passed. Prop 25 destroys one of the few protections left to the voters - the requirement of a two thirds majority to pass a budget, which essentially neuters the few conservatives in Sacramento, puts the staste under one party Democrat rule and leaves the way open to all sorts on things eligible to be included in the budget; tax increases, bond proposals, more draconian environmental regulations, you name it.While Governor Brown insists that he'll go to the voters with any new tax increases, let's just say that his record of veracity on such things is almost non-existent.
The chief target will likely be Proposition 13, an initiative passed in 1978 that limits the percentage and frequency with which property taxes can be raised. Brown and his fellow Democrats see that there is still some cash in California's homes and business properties, and like Gollum in Lord of the Rings, they wants it, they wants it, My Precioussss.
The voters also defeated Prop 23, which would have suspended AB32, California's ridiculous 'greenhouse gas' bill until California’s unemployment is back down below 5.5% for four consecutive quarters. The voters also passed of Prop 24, which repeals one of the few tax breaks given to businesses in California. Both actions will kill jobs and worsent th e state's already poisonous business climate, the worst in the country. And AB32 will raise energy and food prices and hasten the state's demise, especially in the hands of a hard line environmental ideologue like Jerry Brown .
One small bright spot in the carnage was the passing of Prop 20 and the defeat of Prop 25, which means that a non-partisan civilian panel will do redistricting rather than the State Legislature drawing the lines. That may help in time, but with more of the more productive classes - those that can sell their homes and businesses and get out- leaving every day, that may not matter so much in the end.
The State of California is essentially bankrupt. It faces a huge budget deficit of almost $70 billion, massive underfunded public-employee obligations in pensions and health care to the tune of $500 billion and huge costs associated with the influx of illegal aliens. The state is borrowing around $40 million per day from the feds already just to fund unemployment benefits to the one in eight Californians out of a job, and will have to somehow come up with a $362-million payment to Washington by the end of next September.
The public schools which used to rank among the best in the nation have deteriorated to the point of being near the bottom of the list in test scores, although California is still near the top of the list when it comes to tax dollars spent per pupil. Even the state's once burgeoning agricultural industry is failing thanks to environmental regulations that shut off badly needed water to the farmers in the state's rich Central Valley to protect the homes of the two-inch Delta smelt.
Instead of dealing with reality, California's voters not only chose to continue along the same path but voted to turn up the music by voting for politicians who are actually going to accelerate the run up to insolvency.
The rude awakening will come when the state turns to DC for a bailout. While Obama might be willing to turn on the printing presses and comply, Red State voters are unlikely to be willing to screw over their own economies to pay for the party.
Elections have consequences, and the sound you just heard was a once great state flushing itself down the toilet.The people of California have spoken.
7 comments:
"Red State voters are unlikely to be willing to screw over their own economies to pay for the party." I had much the same thought even before I read this. In fact, I had this thought when I learned how the state of CA voted.
Sometimes if a part of the body is cancerous or otherwise damaged it is necessary to cut that part of the body off in order to save the rest of the body. It is unpleasant but sometimes that is the only option. Given the size of CA, if it goes off of the cliff, there is a good chance it would take others with it, if it is allowed to remain in the Union. Can CA be cut off from the Union? This may be the only way to save the United States, by cutting CA off from it.
They'll want a bail-out, and they shouldn't get it, but they probably will, and then the state legislature will find a way to bypass every single federal mandate of consequence that will be half-heartedly imposed in return for the bail-out.
I look for this to be one of the if not THE major issue of the 2012 campaign.
Red State voters are unlikely to be willing to screw over their own economies to pay for the party.
i see an alternative here.
if kahleeforneeah can selectivly export it citizens to specific less populace states, they will bring their blue state mentality with them.
then, all will be right with gov. moonbeam.
Not just CA, but NY and several other states would have to be booted out too. CA is setting the trend, but the other states aren't far behind. We're in a real mess with the Democratic party doing it's best to destroy what's left of traditional America and its values. Literally, God help us.
The sucking sound you hear, is Californians cashing out and moving to Orygun, where frankly they are not well liked. If they can sell their home, they can get a great deal almost anywhere in Orygun, and feel right at home in the Democratic People's Republics of Portland, Eugene & Corvallis. The question is, when Orygun goes over the cliff with Mexifornia, where will I go?
Perhaps Christie will have saved NJ by then, and though I dread it, I can go back there. There's also Florida and Texas, both of which I dread, but they are sunny low tax states. There's Australia & New Zealand, but I'm dread to learn another foreign language. And there's also the land of the rising Yen. I speak the language and am married to one of it's citizens, but entering it's third lost decade, things would have to get really ugly here to want go there. Also I heard NASA is looking for volunteers to colonize distant planets....
Hi Y'All.
Thanks for dropping by.
The Pagan Temple may very well have his finger on something. Obama may bail out California ( and New York and Illinois are not far behind) but it will likely be a major campaign issue if he does.
As for Louie Louie and Rosie, you make good points but skirt around something I see as a major development in American life, and not a good one.
If you remember, Vermont, Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan, Connecticut, Oregon and Washington used to be fairly conservative states.What happened is that after crapping in their own nests and making the cities shining displays of Leftist ideology and Democrat machine politics at work, Lefties from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston cashed in their equity and moved to the above locations as carpet baggers. The then began the same process in their new homes. Howard Dean, originally a Manhattan-ite is a classic example of the breed.
My point is that it is the ideology that has to be fought, and there's no running from it.Michigan and Wisconsin ( and to a much smaller extent, Illinois) are gradually seeing the light as reality catches up with them. Places like California, new York and Massachusetts, not so much. Perhaps a wholesale collapse and the accompanying forced austerity may make for an educational tool.
Regards,
Rob
Good post very interesting.
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