Some of you may be familiar with the mess facing the California state legislature. Thanks to years of ballot initiatives, the state faces certain spending mandates. The state is also limited in its ability to increase revenue, thanks to another ballot initiative requiring a supermajority for such votes and partisan politicians’ inability to play well together.
Combine that with the political power of special interests, lack of foresight, general bureaucratic inefficiencies, and an economic downturn which is hitting California particularly hard…and you have an imminent train wreck.
So, it seems that the Governator has threatened to start paying bills with IOU’s rather than money, starting Wednesday, assuming that the legislature can’t get its act together.
Although I am not a Californian, the sheer…idiocy of the situation is such that I can’t help but feel a bit of frustration from afar. And it is within that frustration that I find the following comments from a post at The Moderate Voice somewhat attractive:
“Why would we bail out the state when it’s like giving drugs to a drug addict?” said Rep. Devin Nunes, a Republican who represents parts of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Asked if the federal government should be helping California with its budget crisis, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein — the state’s senior senator — shot back: “Do you know what the state is getting in stimulus money? $50 billion.” […]
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the chairwoman of the state’s 33-member Democratic delegation, said California’s budget quagmire is largely a result of structural process which requires any budget or tax increase pass by a two-thirds majority and as a result nothing gets done. “If we [in Congress] had to do what the California legislature does, we would never send a bill to the president of the United States,” she said. “That’s a problem. But I can’t solve that problem. . . . Ultimately the voters of California are going to have to confront what’s happening in their state and figure out what to do about it.”
While I appreciate the appeal of California’s unique mix of activism and democracy…well, there’s a reason why the founding fathers opted to set the national government up as a republic, trusting that enough of the public would choose sufficiently wise leaders to limit calamities such as California’s.
California pays more in taxes to the federal government than it gets in services. For every dollar CA sends to washington DC it gets back only 71 cents. CA is a DONOR state.
Why should Californians pay for midwestern farm subsidies? Or the Wall St handout?
Senators Feinstein and Boxer are useless. They should try to recover California’s money, but they don’t care about this state. They need to be voted out of office.
Let’s be honest, CA has a lot of minorities and the rich want them mowing lawns, filling the prisons and fighting the wars. They don’t want them to get an education.