Posted on 02/11/2010 9:14:49 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Something has gone haywire in the California Democratic Party. It is supposed to be the party that cares about poor families, blue-collar workers and the unemployed – allegedly unlike the Republican Party, which Democrats regularly disparage as being devoted to the wealthy and indifferent to economic suffering.
But in Sacramento, the policies pursued by the Democrats who control the Legislature could scarcely be more hostile to what are supposed to be its prime constituencies. Increasingly extreme environmental laws have created a depression in Central Valley farming communities. These laws, high taxes and heavy regulation in general threaten to drive away nearly all the state’s manufacturing and heavy-industry jobs – even though these jobs, because they pay relatively well and don’t require college degrees, are idealized in Democratic rhetoric as providing struggling families a crucial path to realizing the American dream.
Instead, Democratic lawmakers care first and foremost about public employees and expanding the public sector of the economy. They are indifferent, even hostile, to the idea that the state should help the private sector.
Even with state unemployment higher than 12 percent, this attitude was on display once again this week.
The occasion was the release of a 27-bill “jobs agenda” package by the Senate Democratic Caucus. Instead of helping the state’s reeling private sector, however, the Democrats’ blueprint is almost entirely focused on using taxpayer funds to create government-paid positions. The primary method is bills that would hasten bond spending.
The only significant job-training measures involve “green” positions that even the most optimistic reports say will represent a tiny fraction of employment.
In the entire package, there is only one measure – by Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego – that has the goal of spurring broad private-sector growth: It would create a “one-stop” shop at Cal-EPA to help businesses promptly get projects through the permit process.
Meanwhile, state Republicans’ proposals to use tax credits and to temporarily ease green regulations to encourage job creation were ignored.
The contrast with parallel efforts in Washington, D.C., is striking. This week, President Barack Obama said he welcomed GOP suggestions on how to encourage job growth, in particular with tax incentives for small businesses and with regulatory relief. In Congress, Democrats from Farm Belt and Rust Belt states are siding with Republicans – tacitly and otherwise – in opposing for now a new “cap-and-trade” law to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming. They say the economy is just not healthy enough to sustain a forced shift to cleaner but much costlier energy – and that it makes more sense for the world’s largest economies to make such a shift simultaneously so the United States would not be left at a competitive disadvantage.
In Sacramento, however, the dominant narrative holds that forcing every last California business, government, nonprofit and family to pay more for energy will somehow spur an economic boom.
This much is safe to say: If California’s economy ever rebounds, it won’t be thanks to the Legislature.
'Stukc on Studip Unions'
The largest industry and employer is government. Its primary duty and care is the growth of government and its minions, government workers. In these hard times it is imperative that it seek out all grazing fields to harvest money to bring back to its hive, Sacramento.
(Everybody else, screw.)
What do you expect from DUMMIES. They are waiting for an ADULT to clean up their mess.
“It is supposed to be the party that cares about poor families, blue-collar workers and the unemployed”
WRONG, and it never has been. Since it’s inception The Democrat Party has been the Party of RACISM and CLASS WARFARE in an effort to instill MARXISM as a way of Life. The KKK is and was a Creation of the DEMOCRAT PARTY.
the evolution of the term “rich” now extends to “owners”, as per liberalspeak
if you own anything...a home, a business, a retirement account, a health insurance policy.... you are “rich” and you only got “rich” by luck or by exploiting the underclass
so give it up!
Zimbabwe
this is what they want.. a collapsed system... so they dont care.. this is their objective
Stukc on Studip and kick backs.
Countless thousands of people trekked across a hostile continent and/or braved hostile oceans to reach California for economic gain during the GOLD RUSH. The aim of the GREENS is to depopulate a state they regard as overcrowded.
Now countless thousands of people will trek across a friendly continent and/or brave friendly skies as they seek economic gain for themselves and their posterity.
Go California, it is working well.
Pretty much an assesment many have had for years, watching the population bomb crowd become the ecology crowd.
I think their hand is a losing one, and even if they barely hold California in 2010, they will certainly lose the state legislature in 2012.
That still parallels what is playing out at the national level.
The influx of illegals has reduced wages for working class families to lower than survival in CA. In the meantime the illegals are costing the state a fortune.
The Rats want to give them amnesity and then allow even more illegal immigration.
Its all about their perpetual retention of power and control of the money. GW should have invaded here first!
“Indifferent”???
They’ve declared all out war on the private sector in CA and they’re winning.
Then there is the overly complex and financially burdensome development permiting process, which in combination with the environmental laws, adds years and many dollars to pretty much any building project. A friend of mine who left my company before I did and became a partner in a real estate development firm has vowed that he will never undertake a project in California again. A person I whom I support in her run for political office tells of a man she knows who undertook to build two factories, one in California and one in the Ukraine, two and one-half years ago. The one in the Ukraine was up and running in six months. He hasn't broken ground yet on the California facility. San Diego County needs as many sources of fresh, potable water as it can get. The desalinization plant in Carlsbad has been delayed for years by spurious environmental complaints. My wife and I had a leak from a second floor balcony into our sun room. The city took the position that a leak repair required a permit. It then took the position that we had to clear historical review to get the permit. Admittedly our house was built 80 years ago, which is old for California, but the leak was in an addition built 25 years ago. At the back of the house. Not visible from the street.
And now the Governator has bought into Globull Warming. So we have a law that apparently requires our counties and cities to include carbon emission reduction in their general plans. Our Attorney General, who is running for Governor, has sued at least one county to compel it to do so. This requirement will result in even more restrictions in the development permiting process.
California has among the most generous welfare benefits in the country. We have 10%of the nation's population and 32% of its welfare caseload. Might there be a connection?
Approximately one in twelve California residents is an illegal alien.
The public employee unions, including the teachers, are by far the strongest political force in California. They get pretty much whatever they want at the bargaining table because, in effect, they are sitting on both sides of the table, be it at the state, county, or municipal level.
We have among the highest rates of taxation in the country and they are highly progressive. Our personal income tax laws have so many provisions that are inconsistent with federal law that those few among us who still make some money and pay taxes have to spend significant sums on accountants so that those differences can be reconciled.
Our legislative districts are so gerrymandered that incumbents very rarely lose.
In short, there is no hope for the beautiful State of my birth in which I have lived for most of my years. If I were young and looking to build my career and my estate, I would move elsewhere. I still may do so. It depends on where the majority of our five children settle. One of our daughters will be entering law school next fall. She has applied to a number of schools across the country, including some here in California. She will probably take the bar in the State in which she graduates. I will urge her to consider that fact when selecting a school.
You hit on a solid half-dozen points which I could have said myself. Well said!
I wish I could posit an answer to the state of affairs in CA. I think I’ve actually gone nihilist at this point. I think it literally has to crash and burn for there to be enough movement to make a difference.
The budget deficit in California is equal to the cost of public services to illegals here in CA.
But the delivery of those services passes through the teachers unions and government workers unions, which have the legislature in their pocket, and provide money and manpower for elections.
I am not so sanguine about the democrat stranglehold of the legislature being overturned in CA for that reason.
I think CA will have to spend a generation in the wilderness until it learns a lesson.
The problem now is the entitlement mentality that is growing. You can get free childcare now if you are unemployed, the idea being that you need to have time to look for a job. Childcare that has government subsidy also includes free breakfast and lunch.
Can you imagine that, not being expected to feed you own child ?
I raised my children as a single parent and never asked for a dime of help.
Now one out of every eight Americans is on food stamps.
Here are two corporations that moved their Corp. Hq. out of California in recent years:
Fidelity National Title
(from Santa Barbara, to Jacksonville, FL)
Fluor Corp.
(From Aliso Viejo, to Irving, TX)
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