Posted on 06/25/2009 9:49:45 PM PDT by thecodont
Afew [sic] hours after California voters approved his Proposition 13 tax-cut measure on June 6, 1978, a bibulous and exultant Howard Jarvis dropped his pants for the benefit of a few reporters gathered in his suite at the L.A. Biltmore Hotel.
A reporter had asked Jarvis why he was limping, so his ostensible reason was to show a large, ugly bruise, which he'd suffered in a fall a few days before, on his ample, boxer-clad behind. The surprise gesture, however, also afforded the earthy and profane Jarvis a chance to display his contempt for the press and, by extension, the political class that had mocked him and opposed his cherished measure.
Thirty years later, the ghost of Jarvis and his legacy initiative still aim antipathy, scorn and disdain at California's government and its leaders. Proposition 13 was the first, and most far-reaching, in a cascade of political decisions over the last three decades that have shaped the dysfunctional structure of governance in the state.
Simply put, California today is ungovernable.
As state and local officials struggle to weather the state's fiscal crisis, they wield power with the damaged machinery of a patchwork government system that lacks accountability, encourages stalemate and drifts but cannot be steered.
In this system, elected leaders carry responsibility, but not authority, for far-reaching policies about public revenues and resources. That's not governance -- it's reactive management of a deeply flawed status quo.
Here is a look at six key factors that have made California impossible to govern.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"The public is making a statement, loud and clear, that they expect action."
LMBO!!... As if normal, traditional American families in California will give a rat's behind if government shuts down... Right. Only the Democrat parasite class cares about government, because it is the Democrat parasites who depend on government to confiscate tax money from their neighbors and "redistribute" it to them. Sorry, parasites, the well is dry.
No offense, but it sounds like your wife needs to get her priorities straight.
What total BS.
Californians pay more in state taxes than just about any other state.
Yet somehow it is all prop 13’s fault because it limited tax rates...
It is real simple. The California legislator loves to spend money. Lots of money. Roughly 1 in every 100 is directly on the state’s payroll. And then we have to provide food stamps, health care, education and law enforcement for millions of illegals...
STOP SPENDING ALL OUR DAMN MONEY!
I very much doubt she gets to set her own priorities.
simplistic cynicism? How ‘bout the bit that’s usually attributed to Tytler, tho he pro’ly didn’t write it: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”
Or maybe this from “Industrial Management in a Republic,” delivered in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria at New York during the 250th meeting of the National Conference Board on March 18, 1943, by Henning W. Prentis,
“Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
At the stage between apathy and dependency, men always turn in fear to economic and political panaceas. New conditions, it is claimed, require new remedies. Under such circumstances, the competent citizen is certainly not a fool if he insists upon using the compass of history when forced to sail uncharted seas. Usually so-called new remedies are not new at all. Compulsory planned economy, for example, was tried by the Chinese some three milleniums ago, and by the Romans in the early centuries of the Christian era. It was applied in Germany, Italy and Russia long before the present war broke out. Yet it is being seriously advocated today as a solution of our economic problems in the United States. Its proponents confidently assert that government can successfully plan and control all major business activity in the nation, and still not interfere with our political freedom and our hard-won civil and religious liberties. The lessons of history all point in exactly the reverse direction.”
She has to save them!
She can’t let them expire based on political beliefs.
Letting people die for economic reasons is what Dems do via abortion.
You think I'm a loser? Because I have a stinking job that I hate, a family that doesn't respect me, and a whole city that curses the day I was born? Well, that may mean loser to you, but let me tell you something. Every day when I wake up in the morning, I know it's not going to get any better until I go back to sleep. So I get up. I have my watered-down Tang and my still-frozen Pop Tart. I get in my car with no gas, no upholstery, and six more payments. I fight honking traffic just for the privilege of putting cheap shoes onto the cloven hooves of people like you. I'll never play football like I wanted to. I'll never know the touch of a beautiful woman. And I'll never know the joy of driving through the city without a bag over my head. But I'm not a loser. Because, despite it all, me and every other guy who'll never be what they wanted to be, is out there, being what we don't want to be, forty hours a week, for life. And the fact that I didn't put a gun in my mouth years ago - that little fact makes me a winner, baby.
“I’ll never know the touch of a beautiful woman.”
I always had the hots for Peggy... :P
If not the highest, we have damn near the highest state taxes in the nation. (California) Despite this, Pravda on the Pacific laments the fact taxes can’t be raised some more.
At some point our taxes became what they are today. And you know what, even with some of the highest taxes in the U.S., California can’t live within it’s budget.
Okay, lets say we decided to double our taxes. That would put our sales tax near 20%, and our income taxes, well God only knows... Is anyone under the impression this would alleviate the financial woes of California?
Only a person with an IQ of 55 would come away thinking the state’s politicians wouldn’t spend themselves into another corner even then. So why bother doing it.
Even if it causes the staff of Pravda on the Pacific to cry a river that washes all of Southern California away, there has to be an end to his madness at some point. There has to be a time when the citizens of this state simply stand up and tell the LA Times and our state elected officials to go F themselves, we’re getting off the tax paying treadmill.
I’ve got my own list of six reasons why this state is ungovernable.
1. The Legislature will not stop their spending madness
2. The State Senate will not stop their spending madness
3. The Governor of the State will not stop his spending madness
4. The Unions only give a damn about unions, F everyone else
5. The Teachers in the state would sell their grandmother and her little dog too, if they could only raise their budget 10% each year until the universe collapses
6. The media in the state is going crazy trying to figure out which schtoop to suck on first, a legislator’s, a Senator’s, the Governor’s, a union leader’s, or just your average Democrat on the street. That’s it’s primary goal. To hell with the average Joe Blow stupid enough to try to work, raise, a family, and support a mortgage in this God forsaken state.
No, He didn’t forsake us. Our state officials forsook him, and us.
The state leaders and the media can’t here this clearly enough, “We’re damned sick of this s—t, and we’re not going to take it anymore!”
Do you understand that Los Angeles Times? We pay enough taxes, so screw you! It’s over, and the sooner you get that through your fat heads, but better for the state.
The big lie about Prop 13 is that it freezes property taxes forever. It doesn’t. I does set a limit on property taxes after the property changes hands. Then it can only go up so much, but at the time it sells, the property taxes are adjusted upwards. The new owner pays a much higher rate than the last owner.
The problem with no limits on what property taxes can be, is that you have retired people having to sell their homes, because they can’t afford to pay the property taxes, even if the home has been paid off for decades.
The Democrats who always hawk the idea they stand up for the little guy, are angry as they can be that they can’t swindle Mom and Pop out of the homes they retired in.
Black Bart had nothing on these leeches.
I know this episode well, he is telling this to a crone of a librarian whom he checked out a book from when he was a kid.
He then makes good on his promise and dumps sugar in her gas tank.
You see I have watched that series, at least for its’ first four yrs.
Or maybe this from “Industrial Management in a Republic,” delivered in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria at New York during the 250th meeting of the National Conference Board on March 18, 1943, by Henning W. Prentis,
“Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
<<
That is a megaton of info.
I must admit I never even heard a wink of this ‘Tytler’.
I have heard of Gibbon, Toynbee, and Spengler, but no Tytler!
Prop. 13 caused my property tax in Orange County to drop from just over $1,200 per year to just under $300 per year. By law it could only increase 2% a year.
Gee, nothing about skyrocketing spending? The state gov’t employee unions? The state gov’t taking over K-12 school funding? The LA Times didn’t mention any of that? I find it hard to believe...
You will notice not a word in the press that the Democrats are unable to craft a balanced budget. They are in charge of the legislature. If the Republicans were failing this badly, the press would be making sure the electorate knew it.
Heinlein was a prophet.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
A dimwit wrote it, so naturally it is against cutting taxes and wants to increase taxes and spending and take away even more power from the people. What she means by ungovernable is the fact that the CA gov doesn't have complete control over us and in fact must abide by our wishes sometimes.
Funny -- their reasons look a lot different than mine:
• Massive spending increases
• Excessive salary increases
• Excessive benefit increases
• Bloated and redundant bureaucracy
• Massive borrowing
• Strangling anti-business regulation
• New social programs
• etc.
I didn’t take your comments to mean that. The left is the entity that tries to play it off that Prop 13 froze taxes unrealistically. I disagree with them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.