Posted on 02/17/2009 6:56:20 PM PST by Steelfish
FEBRUARY 18, 2009
The Decline of California They still think they can tax their way out of this one.
If you thought Washington's stimulus debate was depressing, take a look at the long-running budget spectacle in California.
The Golden State's deficit has reached $42 billion, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to furlough 20,000 state workers (go ahead, make our day), and as we went to press yesterday Democrats who control the legislature had blocked lawmakers from leaving until they finally get a deal.
It's sad to watch.
The Golden State -- which a decade ago was the booming technology capital of the world -- has been done in by two decades of chronic overspending, overregulating and a hyperprogressive tax code that exaggerates the impact on state revenues of economic boom and bust.
Total state expenditures have grown to $145 billion in 2008 from $104 billion in 2003 and California now has the worst credit rating in the nation -- worse even than Louisiana's.
It also has the nation's fourth highest unemployment rate of 9.3% (after Michigan, Rhode Island and South Carolina) and the second highest home foreclosure rate (after Nevada).
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Not only that, but the wacky legal system and stacked deck against the insurance company has made California virtually uninsurable. There are businesses moving just over the line to keep from paying California rates.
That will run a business down quick when you are taxing them to death on top of it.
In about 30 years the US will look like California. It is the canary in the coal mine.
I’ve always said...we need to TAX POOR PEOPLE
I'm of course being facetious regarding this last part but it does tend to illustrate where times like this might lead if we don't gain control over the people we elect to make our lives better, and they wind up doing just the opposite.
Get on the phone and call every assembly member and senator, both R&D, and tell them you oppose this budget. And call the Governor's office too.
Write letters to the editors questioning their constant mantra of "one Republican holding up the budget." Tell them you oppose it and those other 40 or so Republicans opposing this budget are the only ones looking out for the people of California. Tell them Republicans are in search of one or more democrats with an ounce of fiscal sanity to speak out for what is obvious -- the state needs to cut its bureacracy, drastically.... Ask them why they are not honest about the so-called spending reductions (the cuts are not cuts as they are backfilled with fed stimul(i)?) and that most economists will tell you that raising taxes when we already have a 10-15% unemployment rate is just plain stupid!
Well, that's for starters.
Will they ever stop electing the same people over and over that got them into this mess (stupid RINO Governors included)?
Republicans should start making ads and talking about what happens to liberal run cities and states. Talk loud and often. They have many, many examples.
The Founders warned against granting the Franchise to non freeholders and those under 21.
Over the past 90 years their advice went unheeded and it is these very groups that are responsible for the election of the socialists who have destroyed the country a State at a time.
This doesn't get solved at the ballot box.
This doesn't get solved by continuing to allow imbeciles, welfare recipients, convicts, children,and most importantly, PEOPLE WHO DON'T PAY TAXES, to vote.
When it hits the fan its going to be bloody, quick, and a real shock to the marxists riding high today.
There will be a provisional military government and homosexual socialist crooks like Barney Frank will be SOL.
This talk of Californians leaving and screwing up other states is a laugh as most of the population moved here from somewhere else in the first place...
A simple law that prohibits withholding tax would go a long way toward solving the mess. All citizens would have to send one whopper check to the feds and state govt on April 15. Problem solved. People wouldn’t stand for big government after that.
The parasite sees that its host is dying, so it sucks harder.
Don’t blame me. I voted for McClintock.
Such an optimist.
Damn, I liked that post. It's what I expect of Free Republic, and only wish that there were more of your kind of sentiment displayed here.
Only one thing is going to get us through this, and preserve the Republic, and that is RESISTANCE.
I agree with ya. I chuckled at that myself.
The east coast liberals that moved in on the CA GOP are the worst of the bunch, IMO.
We’re infested with east coast transplants and illegal border crossers from the south.
It’s surprising how few people are actually native Californians.
As bad as things in California it is still a net donor state. The figure I remember was 30 billion a goes to Washington and dosen’t come back. You would miss the fruits and nuts also.
Let me know and I'll try to make it as well.
In Spain in 1936 something similar happened when a left wing government was elected with heavy communist and socialist support. Right after the election famous politicians from both the left and the right started being mysteriously assassinated by extremists from both sides. The army finally stepped in and the Spanish civil war started.
This war is a practical lesson in what happens when government breaks down and the military steps in. It was particularly brutal because of the hatreds generated by politicians from both extremes. Once it started there could be no going back and it was a war where most prisoners on both sides were automatically shot after they surrendered because politicians had so demonized the opposing sides that they felt the only remedy was to kill everyone who disagreed with them. Push desperate people into a corner and make them believe their life is hopeless and their future has been stolen from them and events tend to take on a life of their own .
Different country-different era, yes, but the political passions generated today and its causal effects are not dissimilar. I stopped saying "it could never happen here" after 9-11. That we're even speaking about this is proof of that.
Statements like those above brings the attention of the feds to you, this forum and all who frequent it.
Do you think Jim could prevent disclosure of real email addresses, which leads to further disclosure of identity, if he were to receive a subpoena from a Federal Grand Jury investigating sedition? Do you think the dims/commies won't attempt to first "regulate", then suppress internet speech?
Hell, you think these bastards wouldn't round us all up if they thought we were serious?
Keep you powder dry and your mouth shut. It's not necessary to sway others to your point of view. Look after getting YOURSELF ready to defend liberty...
Everyone will know what to do when the time comes.
Lawmakers were locked in the Capitol starting at 5 p.m. Saturday as leaders sought to squeeze out the last vote.
Legislators and their staffs spent the night in their Capitol offices while sergeants-at-arms reportedly confiscated car keys so lawmakers couldn’t leave the premises.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/budget-vote-republican-2309145-plan-senate
IOW, martial law in the legislature without actually saying it.
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