Posted on 04/27/2017 11:36:46 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There are still budget battles and (probably) blockades from the 9th Circuit to come, but sooner or later the President is going to get some work started on the border wall. But if and when he does, California is laying some landmines in advance for any private contractors who dare to bid on the job and pour a single yard of concrete. In a move being dubbed, “Build it and be banned,” California legislators are proposing to impose a permanent ban for government contracts on any company who takes part in the project. And no… this is not an article from The Onion. (Los Angeles Times)
California legislators took the first step on Tuesday to ban state government contracts for any company that helps build President Trump’s promised wall along the Mexico border, with the author of the plan urging colleagues “to be on the right side of history.”
The bill by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) would prohibit any company from receiving a new or extended contract with the state of California if it participates in a future effort to build a new wall construction along the 2,000 mile international border.
“The wall is another attempt to separate and divide us,” Lara said in testimony to the Senate Governmental Organization Committee. “It sends a message that we are better off in a homogenous society.”
Incredibly, this bill already passed out of committee in the state senate on a party line vote. It wasn’t just the Republicans who were alarmed over the probably illegal measure either. One representative of the Southern California Contractors Association asked the obvious question, saying, “What next unpopular project would be blacklist?” [sic]
Stop and think about the implications of this legislation for a moment. At both the federal and state levels, governments bend over backwards on a regular basis to ensure that private sector companies are given equal access to government jobs when they come available. This is to ensure both a chance at the taxpayer getting the best price and to promote equal opportunity for such opportunities, with particular incentives offered to companies owned by minorities or small business entities who might otherwise have trouble competing with the big boys.
Now California is hoping to take a huge leap in the opposite direction. They would be effectively shutting out companies from the competitive bidding process for the crime of bidding on a different and (by the time it happens) presumably legal infrastructure project which was funded by the federal government. This is absolutely unheard of.
Assuming that this piece of political chicanery actually gets signed into law, I assume that any contractor affected by it (or perhaps one of their trade associations) would be able to challenge the law in court. Given that we’re talking about California the law would likely make it through the first round of challenges. But have we truly fallen so far into national disrepair when it comes to partisan infighting that such a law could survive through the Supreme Court? That would open up the floodgates to states using such arm twisting maneuvers to essentially blacklist any unpopular proposals requiring civilian contractors out of existence. Such blacklisting is a favorite tool of the Social Justice Warriors in the private sector, but if it suddenly receives the imprimatur of the government then all bets are off.
California has truly become the land of granola cereal as a friend of mine likes to say. It’s pretty much nothing but nuts and flakes at this point.
I like Senator Cruz’s proposal to pay for the wall using money already seized from Mexican drug lords. You’re making Mexico pay for it, indirectly, while making us safer.
The irony of building the wall is that you probably will have legal and illegal aliens helping build it, but there will be fewer coming in afterward.
California seems to think it is entitled to it’s own foreign policy. Trump needs to set them straight.
No free speech and now no FREE enterprises. You must submit.
CA is the borg nation.
That’s okay ... some out-of-state construction company can come in and earn the dollars being spent by the Feds for the project. No money for California or Californian workers ...
I’ll bet The Cartels can figure how to build the wall, make money, stay in business and come out ahead.
They think outside the box, and are not hindered by govt regs.
Fine, leave CA companies and employees out of it. There are plenty of companies and people who want the work.
One thought is a shell company, made up just for this job.
Isn’t this IDIOT Lara the same one trying to get socialized medicine in California?
I would say rather, it’s pretty much nothing but mexicans and mexican apologists now. But not really. It’s still ours and we want it back.
Maybe in the end they’ll do more for the States Rights movement than any of the redneck states have ever been able to accomplish!
Won’t be long before CA. won’t have any work for these contractors anyway the state IS FLAT BROKE EVERYTHING in the state is falling apart!!! If these contractors were smart they would get the HELL out of this state!!!! There won’t be ANY WORK in the state to lose!!!!
Route the wall around California. The place is half illegals already
The people of CA are being represented by Liberal scum. There are many here on FR who live in CA. Don’t paint everyone in CA as a wacko Liberal!!
Get a copy of the county by county vote in CA in 2016 and note that a lot of CA is RED!!!
California is a bowl of granola. It is all flakes, nuts, and fruits. Don’t forget the fruits.
Ever wonder what sanctuary state is costing California ?
Try this
http://www.nationaleconomiceditorial.com/2017/02/21/costs-illegal-immigration-califronia/
Senator Ricardo Lara Sworn-in Today, Becomes California’s First Openly Gay Senator of Color in State History
I assume this means California has no problem with people refusing to serve people whom they disagree with,
So leave the Cali section for last. Let them get all the fun.
Only Florida and Texas cast more votes for Trump than California did.
If someone would deport the flood of illegals occupying this state we might be able to take back California.
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