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Accounting for California's suicide
Jewish World Review ^ | March 5, 2009 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 03/05/2009 5:44:47 AM PST by reaganaut1

What went wrong in California?

...

California managed to achieve all at once the nation's highest sales and income tax rates — and yet also the largest annual state deficit. So far under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's tenure, state spending grew 34.9 percent, well beyond inflation and population that increased only 21.5 percent. And yet the governor often prevented the state Legislature from spending even more it didn't have.

The budgets of Medi-Cal, the state-run health program for the poor, are out of control. Prison costs increased about 50 percent in less than a decade, and now claim almost 10 percent of state spending — almost as much as higher education.

The state is in its third year of drought. Billions of dollars of agricultural production are threatened by water cut-offs. Yet California hasn't build a major dam or canal in years.

...

More than half a million aliens are caught each year trying to enter California's southern border illegally. Some estimates put illegal alien state residents at 3 million, a population that may cost the state's taxpayers more than $13 billion per year for services.

California has the worst credit rating in the nation. It has the fourth highest unemployment rate and the second highest home foreclosure rate, thanks to enormously inflated prices due in part to complicated building regulations, high labor costs, and often Byzantine land-use restrictions. California's net state-to-state migration loss was higher than every other state.

...

But less discussed is the common culprit: a weird sort of utopian mindset. Perhaps because have-it-all Californians live in such a rich natural landscape and inherited so much from their ancestors, they have convinced themselves that perpetual bounty is now their birthright — not something that can be lost in a generation of complacency.

(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: aliens; calbudget; vdh; victordavishanson
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To: areukiddingme1
“Let me re-phrase my statement”

Thank you.

There are tens of MILLIONS of hardworking, patriotic Americans in CA who have & are putting their lives on the line for this country and with the Grace of God, we WILL turn this mess around...it may take five, ten, twenty years but like the fella says “quitters NEVER win and winners NEVER quit!”
But no matter what, Socialism/Communism is NOT an option and we MUST “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.”

Semper Fi,
Kelly

21 posted on 03/05/2009 10:21:04 AM PST by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: mort56

Actually, outside of LA & SF, the large majority of Californians are conservative. They just don’t have enough votes to overcome SF & LA.


22 posted on 03/05/2009 10:42:53 AM PST by Mr Rogers (Obama - Making Jimmy Carter look like a giant!)
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To: reaganaut1; 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; ...

Ping!


23 posted on 03/05/2009 9:04:27 PM PST by HiJinx (~ Support Our Troops ~ www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil ~)
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To: reaganaut1

Getting rid of illegal aliens, immigrants from enemy countries, sanctuary cities would go a long way towards solving California’s problems.


24 posted on 03/06/2009 7:34:24 AM PST by Dante3
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