Showing posts with label bankrupcy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bankrupcy. Show all posts
Monday, September 10, 2012
UMWA: Stupid Is As Stupid Does
During his campaigning in 2008, Barack Obama promised, on several occasions, “I will bankrupt the coal industry “.
In spite of that promise, the president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Cecil E. Roberts announced on May 21, 2008 that his organization is endorsing Barack Obama for president. Roberts then added, “He understands and will fight for the needs our members have today and the hopes our members have for a secure future for themselves and their families.”
Obama has taken the steps needed to fulfill that promise. All coal burning power plants are scheduled for shutdown and the supporting mines are being shuttered.
Yet, in several recent appearances Roberts has addressed the issue as if it were a rogue EPA and not Obama that is responsible for the dismantling of the coal industry.
A couple of weeks ago it was announced that the United Mine Workers of America had decided not to endorse either Obama/Biden or Romney/Ryan.
Mike Caputo stated, “As of right now, we have elected to stay out of this election.” Then added,
“Our members right now have indicated to stay out of this race, and that’s why we’ve done that.... I don’t think, quite frankly, that coalfield folks are crazy about either candidate."
(Note: Mike Caputo is an UMWA official and a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates.)
Stay out of the race? Endorse no one? How stupid can they get?
Full disclosure:
The old WachDog grew up (at least my first 23 years) in the coalfields of WV. My Grandfather was a miner (WV and IL); my father was a mining engineer and superintendent, I spent four summers working at assorted mining jobs. And there are still many relatives and friends working in mines.
I was for a brief time a member of the UMWA. At that time, John L. Lewis, a devout communist, was the president. In the fifty years since, the UMWA has had a long history of ho-hum presidents. It would appear that Cecil E. Roberts is no exception!
The rank and file members are not stupid people. You cannot function in a modern mine without a considerable degree of intelligence. So why do these otherwise smart people blindly follow their idiot leadership down the road to oblivion? I could not answer that question in the 1950’s and I can’t answer it now. But I can tell you that if you have a choice between someone that you don't like because he is not a democrat and someone that is is devoted to wiping out your job, your community, and your families future, you want to make damn certain that the bastard is defeated.
To insure that Obama is defeated, you must support Romney!
The choice is yours, defy your union handlers and vote to save your job or spend the rest of your life dreaming of what might have been. -- WD
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Down Grade Is No Big Deal; But Spending Is!
Late Friday, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) announced that they had lowered the United State’s credit rating from an AAA to an AA+. Moody's also followed suit with a down grade of their own.
In the real world, this reduction in credit rating is not a big deal. The stock market will be volatile for a few days or perhaps a week for investors to figure this out, but in the long run this reduction will have no lasting effect. The U.S. role in the World economy has not changed.
The only exception would be if the Obama administration intentionally creates a crisis.
As soon as the White House heard about the down grade, their spin machine was set into motion. They accused S&P of incompetence, they blamed Bush, they blamed the House of Representatives, they blamed the Tea Party, and they blamed the kitchen sink. Most of all, they blamed the House because of the drawn out negotiations to finally raise the debt ceiling in the eleventh hour.
You will note that they do not see themselves responsible at all. Nor did they point out that they had inherited an AAA rating from George Bush.
The down grade came as no surprise to those who were paying attention! The credit rating agencies had told anyone that would listen that the U.S. needed to cut spending by at least $4 trillion, in real spending, if we wanted to retain an AAA rating.
According to at least one S&P spokesman, the first bill PASSED by the House of Representatives and backed by the “Tea Party” would have met ALL the requirements. But as we all know the White House and Harry Reid declared it dead on arrival. Throughout the discussions on raising the Debt Ceiling, it was the Senate Democrats and the White House that stood as obstructionist’s and offered no plans of their own. And it was the Democrats that opposed all real spending cuts.
It has been made very clear that the only path back to an AAA rating must contain a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment’, because Congress cannot pass a bill that any future Congress or even by themselves cannot change.
Both parties are too blame for the massive debt. However, 80% of the current problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the Obama regime. A quote from S&P specifically said that Obamacare would require significant modifications to bring down the growing costs associated with it.
S&P never, in spite of the Democrats claims, stated that tax increases were needed and neither did Moody's. In fact, one of their concerns was that we keep going to a relatively small number of sources with our ever growing taxation.
A GAO report stated that if we doubled the amount of taxes received from all current payers, we would still fall short of our annual expenditures by about ½ a trillion dollars.
It is the “Tea Party” that was pushing for a ‘Debt Ceiling’ bill that would have protected the AAA credit rating and moved the nation toward a sound financial policy by insisting that a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment” be moved through Congress and sent to the states.
The Democrats have been terrified by the grassroots ‘Tea Party’ movement and take every opportunity to attack them. “Why? Because that is what they do!” (line borrowed from Chris Plante/talk radio host).
However, if we are going to save this nation, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Conservatives, and others had better adopt the ‘Tea Party’ values of getting back to the Constitution, while reducing the size and cost of the Federal government.
Ronald Reagan used to say, “The government is not the solution to the problem, the government is the problem.”
Never has that been truer than it is today. We have the EPA about to cost millions of jobs and trillions of dollars with phony baloney, Cap and Trade’ carbon regulations, Obamacare is already on its way to bankrupt the nation while destroying the best heath care system in the World, and there is the planned energy policy which will cost even more jobs and kill the economy, just in case all else fails.
If you don’t believe that Obama wants to economically destroy America, ask yourself, If he wanted to destroy America’s economy and prestige, what would he have done differently? The answer is nothing would have been different!
No one could be that wrong or that stupid by accident!
Wake up People! You have to be the ones that save America!
God bless the ‘Tea Party’ and all others that think like them.
In the real world, this reduction in credit rating is not a big deal. The stock market will be volatile for a few days or perhaps a week for investors to figure this out, but in the long run this reduction will have no lasting effect. The U.S. role in the World economy has not changed.
The only exception would be if the Obama administration intentionally creates a crisis.
As soon as the White House heard about the down grade, their spin machine was set into motion. They accused S&P of incompetence, they blamed Bush, they blamed the House of Representatives, they blamed the Tea Party, and they blamed the kitchen sink. Most of all, they blamed the House because of the drawn out negotiations to finally raise the debt ceiling in the eleventh hour.
You will note that they do not see themselves responsible at all. Nor did they point out that they had inherited an AAA rating from George Bush.
The down grade came as no surprise to those who were paying attention! The credit rating agencies had told anyone that would listen that the U.S. needed to cut spending by at least $4 trillion, in real spending, if we wanted to retain an AAA rating.
According to at least one S&P spokesman, the first bill PASSED by the House of Representatives and backed by the “Tea Party” would have met ALL the requirements. But as we all know the White House and Harry Reid declared it dead on arrival. Throughout the discussions on raising the Debt Ceiling, it was the Senate Democrats and the White House that stood as obstructionist’s and offered no plans of their own. And it was the Democrats that opposed all real spending cuts.
It has been made very clear that the only path back to an AAA rating must contain a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment’, because Congress cannot pass a bill that any future Congress or even by themselves cannot change.
Both parties are too blame for the massive debt. However, 80% of the current problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the Obama regime. A quote from S&P specifically said that Obamacare would require significant modifications to bring down the growing costs associated with it.
S&P never, in spite of the Democrats claims, stated that tax increases were needed and neither did Moody's. In fact, one of their concerns was that we keep going to a relatively small number of sources with our ever growing taxation.
A GAO report stated that if we doubled the amount of taxes received from all current payers, we would still fall short of our annual expenditures by about ½ a trillion dollars.
It is the “Tea Party” that was pushing for a ‘Debt Ceiling’ bill that would have protected the AAA credit rating and moved the nation toward a sound financial policy by insisting that a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment” be moved through Congress and sent to the states.
The Democrats have been terrified by the grassroots ‘Tea Party’ movement and take every opportunity to attack them. “Why? Because that is what they do!” (line borrowed from Chris Plante/talk radio host).
However, if we are going to save this nation, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Conservatives, and others had better adopt the ‘Tea Party’ values of getting back to the Constitution, while reducing the size and cost of the Federal government.
Ronald Reagan used to say, “The government is not the solution to the problem, the government is the problem.”
Never has that been truer than it is today. We have the EPA about to cost millions of jobs and trillions of dollars with phony baloney, Cap and Trade’ carbon regulations, Obamacare is already on its way to bankrupt the nation while destroying the best heath care system in the World, and there is the planned energy policy which will cost even more jobs and kill the economy, just in case all else fails.
If you don’t believe that Obama wants to economically destroy America, ask yourself, If he wanted to destroy America’s economy and prestige, what would he have done differently? The answer is nothing would have been different!
No one could be that wrong or that stupid by accident!
Wake up People! You have to be the ones that save America!
God bless the ‘Tea Party’ and all others that think like them.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
California,The “Failed State”
By Austin Hill
“Failed state.”
That sounds harsh, doesn’t it? Do a web search with the words “failed state” and names like Somalia, Haiti, and Sudan will appear on your computer screen.
Unfortunately, the 31st state in our union – California – is looking more and more like a “failed state” as well. And this should matter to every American, because like it or not, California is both a global economic epicenter and a spectacular place in the world.
My native homeland of California is home to the highest mountain in the contiguous forty-eight states (Mount Whitney), the lowest valley (Death Valley), Facebook, “Surf City, U.S.A.”(Huntington Beach), Apple Computers, The World Champion San Francisco Giants, the most fertile farm land in the world (San Joaquin Valley), eBay, Legoland, Cisco Systems, “the entertainment capitol of the world” (Hollywood), three U.S. Presidents (Richard Nixon by birth, and Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan by “adoption”), and Mitsubishi Motors of North America. It remains a global leader in the agricultural, information technology, and aerospace sectors. If it were its own country, it would comprise the eight largest national economy in the world.
This is to say that California can be and should be a place of robust economic opportunity across multiple sectors. But politicians and government employee labor unions have a stranglehold on the state (sound familiar?). Businesses and capital are now leaving while actual economic output is slumping.
Most academicians and government bureaucrats who keep track of the world’s “failed states” still won’t admit that Greece belongs on their lists, so the idea that California has in any sense “failed” isn’t even considered. But if we take seriously the criteria for determining a “failed state,” then the sad truth about California becomes painfully clear.
One of the most often quoted authorities on failed states is The Fund for Peace, a Washington, DC-based non-profit think tank organization, and among the many indicators of a failed state that “FFP” notes is “uneven economic development among group lines.” This notion of “uneven economic development” often has “life or death” implications in places like Zimbabwe or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet the idea is every bit as real in California as it regards the disparity between the government, and the private sector economy.
For the record, the government of California presently entails a budget deficit of somewhere between $10 and $15 billion – a deficit that is expected to swell to about $25 billion by the middle of 2012. With this as his backdrop, Governor Jerry Brown took office in January noting at the time that California had a history of “kickin’ the can down the road” with its budget woes, and that his plan to solve California’s dreadful fiscal problems would involve both cuts in government spending, and – if California voters approved – tax increases.
Yet Governor Brown is a life-long government employee, and will have nothing to do with cutting state spending where it is most problematic – in the arena of government employee salaries, benefits, and retirement pensions. In fact, while he has been completely unable to implement his plan of “temporarily extending” certain “temporarily inflated tax rates” (which de facto amounts to a tax increase plan), he has continued lining the pockets of unionized government employees with more lavish expenditures on their salaries, benefits, and retirement pensions.
In April, for example, Brown approved a new contract for the California Prison Guard’s union, which allows guards to accrue unlimited numbers of un-used paid vacation days each year. When a guard retires, the un-used vacation time can now be “cashed-in” at the guard’s highest salary rate- a sweet pay-off from Governor Brown to a labor union that spent nearly $2 million on his campaign last year.
And here’s where yet another set of criteria comes in to play for determining a “failed state.” According to the Fund for Peace, failed states often exhibit “a disappearance of basic state functions that serve the people, including a failure to protect citizens from terrorism and violence…” The high-minded folks at the FFP may not know this, but – shocking news! – California has so horribly mismanaged its prison system that it can’t afford to facilitate all of its prisoners.
After being taken to court over the conditions in which they were detaining convicts – which included as many as 54 prisoners sharing one toilet – the California government was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in May of this year to release huge numbers of prisoners. This is to say that California’s leaders had plenty of money to spend on their unionized prison guards, yet it doesn’t have enough money to properly facilitate prisoners so as to comply with federal requirements.
Is this “failure enough” to get anybody’s attention? By the FFP’s own criteria, California has failed to fulfill a “basic state function” and to protect “citizens” from “violence.”
The Fund for Peace needs to sound the alarm bells over the California government’s failures, but they probably won’t. It’s up to the state’s citizenry to demand better leadership in Sacramento – before it’s too late.
Email: Austin Hill
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
“Failed state.”
That sounds harsh, doesn’t it? Do a web search with the words “failed state” and names like Somalia, Haiti, and Sudan will appear on your computer screen.
Unfortunately, the 31st state in our union – California – is looking more and more like a “failed state” as well. And this should matter to every American, because like it or not, California is both a global economic epicenter and a spectacular place in the world.
My native homeland of California is home to the highest mountain in the contiguous forty-eight states (Mount Whitney), the lowest valley (Death Valley), Facebook, “Surf City, U.S.A.”(Huntington Beach), Apple Computers, The World Champion San Francisco Giants, the most fertile farm land in the world (San Joaquin Valley), eBay, Legoland, Cisco Systems, “the entertainment capitol of the world” (Hollywood), three U.S. Presidents (Richard Nixon by birth, and Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan by “adoption”), and Mitsubishi Motors of North America. It remains a global leader in the agricultural, information technology, and aerospace sectors. If it were its own country, it would comprise the eight largest national economy in the world.
This is to say that California can be and should be a place of robust economic opportunity across multiple sectors. But politicians and government employee labor unions have a stranglehold on the state (sound familiar?). Businesses and capital are now leaving while actual economic output is slumping.
Most academicians and government bureaucrats who keep track of the world’s “failed states” still won’t admit that Greece belongs on their lists, so the idea that California has in any sense “failed” isn’t even considered. But if we take seriously the criteria for determining a “failed state,” then the sad truth about California becomes painfully clear.
One of the most often quoted authorities on failed states is The Fund for Peace, a Washington, DC-based non-profit think tank organization, and among the many indicators of a failed state that “FFP” notes is “uneven economic development among group lines.” This notion of “uneven economic development” often has “life or death” implications in places like Zimbabwe or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet the idea is every bit as real in California as it regards the disparity between the government, and the private sector economy.
For the record, the government of California presently entails a budget deficit of somewhere between $10 and $15 billion – a deficit that is expected to swell to about $25 billion by the middle of 2012. With this as his backdrop, Governor Jerry Brown took office in January noting at the time that California had a history of “kickin’ the can down the road” with its budget woes, and that his plan to solve California’s dreadful fiscal problems would involve both cuts in government spending, and – if California voters approved – tax increases.
Yet Governor Brown is a life-long government employee, and will have nothing to do with cutting state spending where it is most problematic – in the arena of government employee salaries, benefits, and retirement pensions. In fact, while he has been completely unable to implement his plan of “temporarily extending” certain “temporarily inflated tax rates” (which de facto amounts to a tax increase plan), he has continued lining the pockets of unionized government employees with more lavish expenditures on their salaries, benefits, and retirement pensions.
In April, for example, Brown approved a new contract for the California Prison Guard’s union, which allows guards to accrue unlimited numbers of un-used paid vacation days each year. When a guard retires, the un-used vacation time can now be “cashed-in” at the guard’s highest salary rate- a sweet pay-off from Governor Brown to a labor union that spent nearly $2 million on his campaign last year.
And here’s where yet another set of criteria comes in to play for determining a “failed state.” According to the Fund for Peace, failed states often exhibit “a disappearance of basic state functions that serve the people, including a failure to protect citizens from terrorism and violence…” The high-minded folks at the FFP may not know this, but – shocking news! – California has so horribly mismanaged its prison system that it can’t afford to facilitate all of its prisoners.
After being taken to court over the conditions in which they were detaining convicts – which included as many as 54 prisoners sharing one toilet – the California government was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in May of this year to release huge numbers of prisoners. This is to say that California’s leaders had plenty of money to spend on their unionized prison guards, yet it doesn’t have enough money to properly facilitate prisoners so as to comply with federal requirements.
Is this “failure enough” to get anybody’s attention? By the FFP’s own criteria, California has failed to fulfill a “basic state function” and to protect “citizens” from “violence.”
The Fund for Peace needs to sound the alarm bells over the California government’s failures, but they probably won’t. It’s up to the state’s citizenry to demand better leadership in Sacramento – before it’s too late.
Email: Austin Hill
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Soros/Obama Conspire To, “End America as we know it!”
A few weeks ago, George Soros hosted a major economic conference, called the Bretton Woods Event, whose purpose was to change the entire global economy. The main objective is to remove America as a key player in the world’s economy by destroying the Dollar. The major media paid little attention to the event.
What can George Soros do to harm the Dollar? You may ask.
It was the billionaire Soros who crushed the British pound through currency trading. He has declared that he plans to reform the world’s currency system. The America hating Soros has publicly stated, America must end its reign as the world reserve currency. In 2009, Soros wrote, “The dollar no longer enjoys the trust and confidence that it once did, yet no other currency can take its place.”
In October 2009, Soros founded the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) with a donation of $50 million of his own money. The founding of INET was a major move toward undermining the dollar.
Long time Soros friend, Nobel Prize Winner, Joseph Stiglitz chairs the ‘UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System.’ Stiglitz is arguing for a new 'global system,' saying the current one is 'fundamentally unfair because it means that poor countries are lending to the U.S. at close to zero interest rates.'
It has only been a few weeks, since the Bretton Woods event, but the move against the dollar has gained momentum rapidly. In 2009, Soros wrote “The rising powers must be present at the creation of this new system to ensure that they will be active supporters.”
Those rising powers have begun to join together--
The BRICS member nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – held a summit meeting one week after Soros held his. The BRICS nations are calling for “Restructuring of the World War II-era global financial system and an eventual end to the long reign of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency.”
One of the options being considered is called “Special Drawing Rights” (SDRs). SDRs are essentially a mix of - the Euro, Japanese Yen, Pound Sterling and U.S. Dollar. A switch to the SDRs would result in the decline of the U.S. economy.
There is also considerable support to include the Chinese Remimbi in the SDR’s.
The odds on favorite to become the new leader of the “International Monetary Fund is former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This is significant because Brown is a Soros believer and attended the Bretton Woods Event.
Brown’s major contribution to that conference was the line, “American and European dominance is no longer a fact.'
Soros once pledged that he was willing to spend every penny of his vast fortune to bring America to her knees. He is working hard to make that desire a reality.
For years, Soros has used his billions to influence elections, fund radical anti-American organizations including ACORN, La Raza, MoveOn.org, NOW and the Center for American Progress -- an organization that is feeding progressive talking points to the Obama administration.
There is a great deal of evidence that indicates that Soros, through his many organizations, bought the 2008 election for Obama.
Obama, who also hates America (read his damn books) is repaying Soros big time!
Just look at what Obama is doing to undermine the economy and the dollar:
1. Extremely high fuel prices cause by the administration!
2. Bankruptcy as the result of government spending
3. A total moratorium on any new Oil and Gas production
4. Destruction of the Coal Industry and forcing the shutdown of Coal fueled power plants
5. The pushing of Cap and Trade regulations by the EPA
6. The government seizure of corporations, with more to come
7. The massive redistribution of wealth
8. The takeover (and destruction) of the healthcare system
9. The absolute refusal to recognize the need for budget-cuts
10. He has done absolutely nothing to help create jobs.
All of these have led to a major reduction in the United State’s bond rating, as announced by Standard and Poors, this week.
That reduction in our bond rating has greatly strengthened Soros' hand, and you now have the makings for “The End of America as we know it!”
“The End of America as we know it!”; wasn’t that an Obama campaign pledge?
Obama's answer to everything is a big speech packed with lies.
-- WD
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
What can George Soros do to harm the Dollar? You may ask.
It was the billionaire Soros who crushed the British pound through currency trading. He has declared that he plans to reform the world’s currency system. The America hating Soros has publicly stated, America must end its reign as the world reserve currency. In 2009, Soros wrote, “The dollar no longer enjoys the trust and confidence that it once did, yet no other currency can take its place.”
In October 2009, Soros founded the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) with a donation of $50 million of his own money. The founding of INET was a major move toward undermining the dollar.
Long time Soros friend, Nobel Prize Winner, Joseph Stiglitz chairs the ‘UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System.’ Stiglitz is arguing for a new 'global system,' saying the current one is 'fundamentally unfair because it means that poor countries are lending to the U.S. at close to zero interest rates.'
It has only been a few weeks, since the Bretton Woods event, but the move against the dollar has gained momentum rapidly. In 2009, Soros wrote “The rising powers must be present at the creation of this new system to ensure that they will be active supporters.”
Those rising powers have begun to join together--
The BRICS member nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – held a summit meeting one week after Soros held his. The BRICS nations are calling for “Restructuring of the World War II-era global financial system and an eventual end to the long reign of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency.”
One of the options being considered is called “Special Drawing Rights” (SDRs). SDRs are essentially a mix of - the Euro, Japanese Yen, Pound Sterling and U.S. Dollar. A switch to the SDRs would result in the decline of the U.S. economy.
There is also considerable support to include the Chinese Remimbi in the SDR’s.
The odds on favorite to become the new leader of the “International Monetary Fund is former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This is significant because Brown is a Soros believer and attended the Bretton Woods Event.
Brown’s major contribution to that conference was the line, “American and European dominance is no longer a fact.'
Soros once pledged that he was willing to spend every penny of his vast fortune to bring America to her knees. He is working hard to make that desire a reality.
For years, Soros has used his billions to influence elections, fund radical anti-American organizations including ACORN, La Raza, MoveOn.org, NOW and the Center for American Progress -- an organization that is feeding progressive talking points to the Obama administration.
There is a great deal of evidence that indicates that Soros, through his many organizations, bought the 2008 election for Obama.
Obama, who also hates America (read his damn books) is repaying Soros big time!
Just look at what Obama is doing to undermine the economy and the dollar:
1. Extremely high fuel prices cause by the administration!
2. Bankruptcy as the result of government spending
3. A total moratorium on any new Oil and Gas production
4. Destruction of the Coal Industry and forcing the shutdown of Coal fueled power plants
5. The pushing of Cap and Trade regulations by the EPA
6. The government seizure of corporations, with more to come
7. The massive redistribution of wealth
8. The takeover (and destruction) of the healthcare system
9. The absolute refusal to recognize the need for budget-cuts
10. He has done absolutely nothing to help create jobs.
All of these have led to a major reduction in the United State’s bond rating, as announced by Standard and Poors, this week.
That reduction in our bond rating has greatly strengthened Soros' hand, and you now have the makings for “The End of America as we know it!”
“The End of America as we know it!”; wasn’t that an Obama campaign pledge?
Obama's answer to everything is a big speech packed with lies.
-- WD
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
“Hi, I’m California, And I’m Addicted To Spending…”
By Austin Hill
“Hi, I’m California, And I’m Addicted to Spending…”
What a magnificent confession this would be, if only we could hear it collectively from our 31st state.
Imagine -California emerges from its’ state of denial, and admits that it is addicted to government spending. And then, after acknowledging its’ addiction, envision the government of California coming to believe that a power greater than itself (the private sector) could restore its’ sanity, and then turning itself over to the care of that greater power, and, in so doing, checking itself into “rehab.”
Psychobabble and twelve-step metaphors can only go so far. But in all seriousness, our “friend” California has a very severe problem with spending, yet remains in denial. And there’s no indication that California will stop “using” anytime soon.
My native home state –which is also home to the highest mountain on the continent (Mount Whitney), the lowest valley (Death Valley), Facebook, “Surf City, U.S.A.” (Huntington Beach), the most robust farm land (the San Joaquin Valley), Google, Disneyland, Mattel Toys, The World Champion San Francisco Giants, Legoland, Cisco Systems, “Hollywood,” three U.S. Presidents (Richard Nixon by birth, and Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan by “adoption”), Mitsubishi Motors of North America, and the most notorious, mystery/non-existent NFL franchise (there are always rumors about L.A. getting a team again) – is in serious trouble.
I wish we could perform an “intervention” – perhaps at the Betty Ford Center (which, conveniently, is in Palm Springs) -and get dear California some help.
The last election provided an opportunity for California and the rest of America to admit that it had a problem, and then to begin working on its “recovery.” And while a good bit of the country took the first couple of “steps” among the twelve, the Golden State chose to remain on its current course.
“I’m just a social spender,” our friend California seemed to be saying last Fall. “I could stop whenever I want, but I don’t want to. I’m happy living this way, and I’m not hurting anybody, so quit hassling me…”
Evidence of this denial was apparent in the days immediately following the election. As if the $6 billion budget shortfall that he presided over didn’t really exist – a deficit that is expected to expand to a whopping $24.5 billion over the next eighteen months - outgoing Governor Arnold Governor Schwarzenegger called the legislature in to a “special session,” and then held a press conference to announce his “really big plan.” For a second and final time before leaving office, he was going to try to - - cut spending? – no, no, he was going to try and legislate a state-wide ban on plastic grocery bags. This, he explained would help save the planet, but would also create “green jobs.”
But that was last December. Now, a guy who was Governor for eight of my elementary, junior high and high school years is Governor yet again. A perennial government employee, Jerry Brown is back in Sacramento, and he appears ready to continue the addictive cycle.
The problem with California’s budget, Governor Brown seems to be reasoning, is not that politicians had spent too much or that government agencies are wasteful. No, Jerry Brown seems to be treating the spending problem as merely a “revenue” matter – if he can confiscate more revenue from private people and put it in to “public” coffers, he can “fix” the problem, and continue on the current course.
With less than 2 months in office, Governor Brown has already hinted that California’s famous “Proposition 13” might need to be undone. In case you’ve forgotten, this was a landmark ballot proposition that drew a record number of voters to the precincts in 1978. It passed in a landslide, and imposed a statewide limit on the rate at which local counties and cities could levy property taxes.
Along with a possible “tweaking” of Proposition 13, Governor Brown is also proposing to retain several tax increases that are supposed to expire later this year. And he says he wants to “let the people decide” – he’s not pushing for these tax increases to happen legislatively, but rather, he wants Californians to vote on them in a “special election” this June. Just as the people of Egypt want their voices to be heard in Egypt’s government, so Governor Brown reasoned, “it would be irresponsible to exclude the people from this process.”
In addition to the tax increases, Governor Brown has proposed some modest sell-offs of state owned vehicle fleets. But he’s ignoring serious systemic problems: California’s state employee retirement pension funds have been severely mismanaged and present the state with huge liabilities; and California goes further in to debt roughly $40 million each day, just paying-out the state’s generous unemployment benefits.
Isn’t this just a classic example of an addiction problem? “I could stop at any time, but I don’t want to. Just give me more of my drug-of-choice, and I’ll be fine.”
Our friend California apparently hasn’t “hit bottom” yet.
Email Austin Hill
Comments are invited!
Send feedback to: WatchDog
.
“Hi, I’m California, And I’m Addicted to Spending…”
What a magnificent confession this would be, if only we could hear it collectively from our 31st state.
Imagine -California emerges from its’ state of denial, and admits that it is addicted to government spending. And then, after acknowledging its’ addiction, envision the government of California coming to believe that a power greater than itself (the private sector) could restore its’ sanity, and then turning itself over to the care of that greater power, and, in so doing, checking itself into “rehab.”
Psychobabble and twelve-step metaphors can only go so far. But in all seriousness, our “friend” California has a very severe problem with spending, yet remains in denial. And there’s no indication that California will stop “using” anytime soon.
My native home state –which is also home to the highest mountain on the continent (Mount Whitney), the lowest valley (Death Valley), Facebook, “Surf City, U.S.A.” (Huntington Beach), the most robust farm land (the San Joaquin Valley), Google, Disneyland, Mattel Toys, The World Champion San Francisco Giants, Legoland, Cisco Systems, “Hollywood,” three U.S. Presidents (Richard Nixon by birth, and Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan by “adoption”), Mitsubishi Motors of North America, and the most notorious, mystery/non-existent NFL franchise (there are always rumors about L.A. getting a team again) – is in serious trouble.
I wish we could perform an “intervention” – perhaps at the Betty Ford Center (which, conveniently, is in Palm Springs) -and get dear California some help.
The last election provided an opportunity for California and the rest of America to admit that it had a problem, and then to begin working on its “recovery.” And while a good bit of the country took the first couple of “steps” among the twelve, the Golden State chose to remain on its current course.
“I’m just a social spender,” our friend California seemed to be saying last Fall. “I could stop whenever I want, but I don’t want to. I’m happy living this way, and I’m not hurting anybody, so quit hassling me…”
Evidence of this denial was apparent in the days immediately following the election. As if the $6 billion budget shortfall that he presided over didn’t really exist – a deficit that is expected to expand to a whopping $24.5 billion over the next eighteen months - outgoing Governor Arnold Governor Schwarzenegger called the legislature in to a “special session,” and then held a press conference to announce his “really big plan.” For a second and final time before leaving office, he was going to try to - - cut spending? – no, no, he was going to try and legislate a state-wide ban on plastic grocery bags. This, he explained would help save the planet, but would also create “green jobs.”
But that was last December. Now, a guy who was Governor for eight of my elementary, junior high and high school years is Governor yet again. A perennial government employee, Jerry Brown is back in Sacramento, and he appears ready to continue the addictive cycle.
The problem with California’s budget, Governor Brown seems to be reasoning, is not that politicians had spent too much or that government agencies are wasteful. No, Jerry Brown seems to be treating the spending problem as merely a “revenue” matter – if he can confiscate more revenue from private people and put it in to “public” coffers, he can “fix” the problem, and continue on the current course.
With less than 2 months in office, Governor Brown has already hinted that California’s famous “Proposition 13” might need to be undone. In case you’ve forgotten, this was a landmark ballot proposition that drew a record number of voters to the precincts in 1978. It passed in a landslide, and imposed a statewide limit on the rate at which local counties and cities could levy property taxes.
Along with a possible “tweaking” of Proposition 13, Governor Brown is also proposing to retain several tax increases that are supposed to expire later this year. And he says he wants to “let the people decide” – he’s not pushing for these tax increases to happen legislatively, but rather, he wants Californians to vote on them in a “special election” this June. Just as the people of Egypt want their voices to be heard in Egypt’s government, so Governor Brown reasoned, “it would be irresponsible to exclude the people from this process.”
In addition to the tax increases, Governor Brown has proposed some modest sell-offs of state owned vehicle fleets. But he’s ignoring serious systemic problems: California’s state employee retirement pension funds have been severely mismanaged and present the state with huge liabilities; and California goes further in to debt roughly $40 million each day, just paying-out the state’s generous unemployment benefits.
Isn’t this just a classic example of an addiction problem? “I could stop at any time, but I don’t want to. Just give me more of my drug-of-choice, and I’ll be fine.”
Our friend California apparently hasn’t “hit bottom” yet.
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