Free Republic

The state has warned nearly 3,300 California state workers this year that their positions may disappear as the government grinds through a slow-motion layoff process that aims to shrink government over the next few years. The notices, overwhelmingly concentrated in the Sacramento area so far, represent the initial wave of warnings that eventually will lead to several thousand state jobs lost. Of the State Restriction of Appointment notices issued, 2,024 went to employees working in Sacramento County. Los Angeles County accounted for the next-highest number of potential layoffs with 800 notices going to workers there. More are coming. Many departments...

Is it fair that businessmen who fail in neighborhood stores have to close shop and often sell their homes, while Wall Street titans are spared the consequences of monumental stupidity and greed? No, it is not fair. Yet, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson may be right. To save the sheep who might have been wiped out in a general financial panic, we may have to save the pigs. Life is unfair, said John F. Kennedy. Yet, this is going to be the mother of all bailouts. Paulson probably will be given authority by Congress to spend $700 billion, 5 percent of...