Posted on 10/10/2009 3:16:54 PM PDT by EternalVigilance
I recently read a newsmax.com article (California Becomes Fiscal Basket Case) summarizing California's fiscal woes that included an observation from USC professor Kevin Starr that "California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America."
Recounting the history of California's current woes, the article notes that "Had California lived within the limitation imposed under the 1979 Gann Amendment, which limited the growth of spending to the rate of economic growth, some analysts say the state would be in a far better fiscal situation today. But former Gov. George Deukmejian allowed exemptions to budget items, such as education, before leaving office in 1991, which began the state's current fiscal trend." With this permission from a Governor wearing the label that supposedly represents fiscal discipline, "California' spending increased 180.9 percent between 1991 and 2001, and the state budget ballooned from $51.4 billion in 1991 to $144.5 billion during the past fiscal year, according to the Reason foundation."
(Excerpt) Read more at loyaltoliberty.com ...
Failure is a great thing to Democrats, they reward failure in every walk of life.
Failure is not an option - it’s a requirement.
America needa Alan Keyes in the Senate.
I’m pretty sure he’s talking primarily about grossly insufficient Republican responses to that.
When Gay Davis imploded, we should have eliminated the legislature and the governor’s office and let McClintock run the state for about 10 years as dictator.
Trivial griping.. there is no “T” in Schwarzenegger.
If Swarz had been a Dem he would have already found a way to run for Prez, his failure in Calif could get him elected
He struck out. He had 2 stikes in Maryland and 1 in Illinois against BO...
There have been failed nations before, most recently Iceland. The external debts are greater than what may be repaid from the resources available within that state.
California has no such excuse. There are agricultural production and processing facilities, petroleum resources, power generation potential that is NOT being exploited, and plenty of talented people to run all these industries, if they have not all left the state by now, to be replaced with low-wage, relatively uneducated and untrained people.
There is little to lure new potential into the state. Antiquated legal standards (they must be antiquated, else why are they not being enforced?), coupled with poor regard for obligations, combine to make the state look like a Third-World country in many localities.
California suffers more a failure of will, than from economic dislocation. Even back during the days of the Great Depression, California held hope for people who lacked any, as they flocked westward to pick citrus fruit and tend cotton fields.
Oklahoma and Arkansas even lent their states’ names to these migrants, the “Okies” and the “Arkies”.
What has happened since then?
Leadership vacuum. If one exists, and good and decent people don’t step up, something will always fill that void. And it won’t be good.
Unfortunately Californians live in America where the people are stupidly allowed to vote for their government. "We" could try to petition the rat controlled CA state legislature to eliminate itself and install McClintock as dictator. Very unlikely, and the rat controlled state supreme court would likely overturn it. Perhaps "we" could convince the rat controlled US Congress or President 0 to aid our mission to thwart the will of the people. Maybe "we" should start figuring out how to win elections. It ain't McClintock. He has lost 3 state wide election since 2002. The voters don't like Tom
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