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Facing up to $335,000,000,000 in debt, California is just “living the dream” – the Democratic dream. (California’s Debt) California is controlled by Democrats at every level of government with a Democratic Governor, Democratic State Senate, Democratic State Legislatures and a judiciary dominated by liberals California has been the perfect laboratory for the great “Democratic” experiment. What has this “great experiment” created? Spending out of control, taxation higher than any other state in the union, a decaying educational system, companies fleeing the state on a daily basis to avoid a ridiculous spaghetti of burdensome regulations and with public unions negotiating pension deals that will quickly bankrupt most of California’s cities and counties.
“Directors of the State Budget Crisis Task Force said their researchers had found a lot of other debts that did not turn up in California’s official tally. Much of it involved irrevocable promises to provide pensions to public workers, health care for retirees, the cost of delayed highway maintenance and an estimated $40 billion bill to bring drinking water up to federal standards.
They also pointed out many of the same unpaid bills from previous years that the governor had brought to light, like $8 billion in delayed payments to schools and community colleges, and $250 million that was raided from a fund dedicated to transportation and treated as revenue.
The task force estimated that the burden of debt totaled at least $167 billion and as much as $335 billion. Its members warned that the off-the-books debts tended to grow over time, so that even if Mr. Brown should succeed in pushing through his tax increase, gaining an additional $50 billion over the next seven years, the wall of debt would still be there, casting its shadow over the state.
“With inadequate information, our legislators and citizens are flying blind,” said David Crane, a board member who issued the task force’s special report on California’s fiscal condition at a news conference in San Francisco on Thursday.
Mr. Crane, a former adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was joined by the economist George P. Shultz, who served various administrations as secretary of treasury, labor and state.
A spokesman for Governor Brown did not dispute the report but said the governor was making progress in his effort to restore fiscal balance.” (California Budget Crisis)
Increasing taxes, increasing regulations, making things tougher on business and businessmen and desperately trying to avoid any real effort to curtail spending, President Obama has selected this model for disaster as the template for our national economy. With similar economic failures in Greece, Spain and France you would think that our leaders would be able to see the correlation between increased taxes. uncontrolled spending and financial ruin, but evidently Obama needs to have us all learn this oft-repeated lesson the hard way.
Evidently emboldened by the victory of President Obama, Democrats seem more intent on positioning themselves to blame Republicans than they on actually addressing our out of control spending that has put us more than five trillion dollars in debt over the past five years. As late as yesterday President Obama suggested that he would like to see agreement on tax increases now and “we can address the spending side next year.” Yeah, if Republicans cave on the tax hike it is real likely that spending will be addressed when all of their leverage is gone. I feel sorry for my kids – I do not feel like I am going to leave them with a better country than my parents left to me.
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Bwaaahaaahaaahaaa!!! Classic Republican ploy. Trying to blame the barely year old Democratic administration for 8 years of destruction of the state under the Republican Governor Schwarzenegger. Once again, just like with President Obama, a Democrat has to come in and clean up the mess a Republican left behind! And once again, Republicans delude themselves into actually believing that history starts the minute a Democrat is sworn in and all past indiscretions under the Republican administration should be fixed immediately on Day 1. All blame and never an admission of culpability. Hil-ar-i-ous!!!! And oh so predictable!!! And here we have another “original idea” that mirrors a “story” on Fox News tonight. Surprise! Naw, just a “coincidence” (wink).
So where is any mention that the huge debt the new Governor inherited, at first thought to be $28 billion but once studied further found to be $167-$335 billion, which the previous Republican Governor passed along? (Notice how the author only mentioned the higher amount and not a range or the lower amount. That tangled web we weave….) Where is any mention of the measures the new Governor has taken to clean up the mess of his predecessor? Where is any mention of the huge cuts to the budget under – wait for it – a Democratic Governor! GASP! A Democratic Governor actually CUT the budget? A Democratic legislature actually passed the draconian cuts? Where is any mention of the ballot initiative passed where the voters agreed to increases for a short, limited time (not permanent)? Even S&P is considering upgrading CA’s bond rating, thanks to the Democratic Governor’s hard work and tough decisions. You see, the intellectually dishonest Republican can only villify Democrats at every opportunity and marginalize – and even ignore and deny – anything good that comes from a Democrat. Democrats don’t just have a different ideology than Republicans. Democrats are the enemy and pure evil to Republicans.
The saddest thing about Republicans is that they deceive and LIE incessantly and actually think – and believe – the craziest things like “President Obama has selected this model for disaster as a template for our national economy”. They have this crazy notion that somehow Democrats are responsible for all spending, even calling it things like “out of control” while totally forgetting the trillion dollar cuts to the federal budget just last year. Add here we thought “elephants never forget”. Of course they don’t forget – they just choose to ignore anything positive if it emanates from a Democratic administration. They think that conflation equates to logical reasoning and correlation = causation. Ya just can’t make this craziness up, folks! Well, Republicans can.
As early as just this evening, Newt Gingrich was advocating for chopping the “fiscal cliff” facing us into multiple smaller issues – small hills I believe he called them – and tackle one at a time. Sounds exactly like what the President is proposing. Fix one – move to the next. But this is what we’ve seen for the past 4 years. When a Democrat proposes something, it’s chaos and destruction and “the sky is falling”. But when a Republican proposes the same thing, it’s somehow BRILLIANT!
I feel sorry for the kids of Republicans being indoctrinated with this garbage. Let’s hope it’s not genetic!
The only thing being duplicated is “Republican stupidity”. Why do Republicans dwell on the negative? They must be miserable people to always see bad in everything. Well, everything Democratic, anyway. Sad indeed.
Snoopy you write well, and like all good propagandists do a good job of imbedding your untruths inside partial truths making it a lengthy process to unwind the truth. California has had a completely controlled Democratic House and Senate for decades. Governor Schwarzenegger was not particularly effective at blocking either the public unions on the pension liability explosion or in limiting the speding habits of the Democratic controlled legislature. Governor Brown has been unexpectedly productive in creating a slightly better environment for discussion (kind of like only Nixon could go to China), but even with the Governor’s actions, unless the completely Democratically controlled state can reign in its spending habits, something that it has shown no ability to do, California is facing increasingly impossible economic conditions.
Sorry comprehension isn’t one of your strong suits, GW, that it’s a “lengthy process” understanding my “propaganda”. Luckily, your propaganda oozing from the 30 millionth website is so transparent it doesn’t take much to unravel the untruths – like Obama “duplicat[ing] failure” and “selecting this model for disaster as a template”. Not one shred of truth in those statements and even if taken as opinion, devoid of any critical reasoning. Propaganda or bloviating? C: Both.
All problems in Cali lay squarely at the feet of Arnold just as all problems in the USA (nay, the world) are laid squarely at the feet of Obama. It’s Arnold’s failure in leadership that caused Cali’s problems. Just as the Republican controlled House and the endless filibustering by Republicans in the Senate bear no responsibility in the nation’s economic problems, the state legislature in Cali is not culpable. It is solely the failure in leadership of Brown’s Republican predecessor who is to blame. Sauce goose/sauce gander. The new Democratic Governor is leading despite your contempt for and rejecting everthing Democratic.
Still you try to minimize the great strides – and leadership – of Gov. Brown and ignore the facts of Brown’s successes in only one year in office, calling them “unexpected”. Why unexepected? Because of “Democratic stupidity”? Why is a Brown environment only “slightly better for discussion”? Compared to Arnold’s complete failure at discussion? It doesn’t matter to you that the legislature HAS reigned in spending by passing draconian cuts. The accusation is enough, in a Republican’s mind, to prove the “won’t and can’t”. Somehow billions in cuts is “no ability” to you? Past failure of a Republican Governor does not guarantee similar future performance of a Democratic Governor.
So how’s that trillion and a half in cuts under Obama’s leadership show uncontrolled spending? Shoo, facts, shoo! Obama WANTS failure and is hell bent on finding every bad policy or event from around the world and “duplicating” just the worse parts here! Bring me that Iceland “plan”, Pelosi. We need to REALLY destroy this country on purpose because that’s what all records sealing, socialist, Kenyan, Muslim, Marxist, economy destroying, American hating “stupid Democrats” do.
I hope Cali doesn’t get it’s bond rating upgraded by S&P. There may be “heads exploding” if a Democrat is successful at anything.
(How many words is this one, Christopher? Do you think I spent too much of MY time producing commentary? I’m not concerned with such trivial matters and didn’t keep track.)
, and call for the Impeachment of the sitting President, who we all can see now is an idiot. Lets run down his idiot-ness (is that a word?) and see how well he’s done in his first 100 days in offcie The Europeans, who were all lining up to take turns kissing up to the Messiah sucking up to him like a vintage Hoover vacuum cleaner have had an epiphany, and now are convinced that he’s an utter moron who doesn’t know his ass from his elbow about economics, foreign policy, domestic policy, etc, etc, etc, and is also completely clueless on how to properly treat a visiting head of state or foreign dignitary with the decorum that the position deserves. Us conservatives pointed out that he was a complete bumbling idiot, but the liberals wouldn’t listen, and accused us conservatives of trying to *steal* the election by scaring the world into thinking that he would ruin their economies. I guess we were right, but its rather a moot point, because the idiot got elected.He has spent more, in the first 100 days of the presidency, than all of the other presidents COMBINED have spent in their first FULL YEAR in offcie. That’s impressive, only because we were told that it would be impossible to spend that much money in that short of a period because it would bankrupt the country, so all of us conservatives were told that we were just *being alarmists* and trying to win an election with our own moron by scaring the beJesus out of the population in order to *steal* the election from the Messiah. I guess we were right, but its rather a moot point, because the idiot got elected.We conservatives pointed out that he couldn’t cobble together a coherent sentence on his own without the help of a staff of writers, and Teleprompters placed in a grid-like pattern in a radius of 50 feet, spaced two feet apart in any direction form the next available Teleprompter, so as to make sure the idiot wouldn’t stumble over the words, or forget his place. And even with all that, the idiot *lost* his place on the scrolling Teleprompter, and just babbled for 5 minutes while the staff tried to scroll the text back so that he could stop making an idiot of himself. Again, I guess we were right, but its rather a moot point, because the idiot got elected. Pretty impressive isn’t it!He wouldn’t know an un-corrupt politician if said politician dropped to his knees and bowed to him… . His is the first presidency in history where the amount of overall appointments is running neck and neck with the amount of tax cheats he’s appointed. Us conservatives pointed out that OBambi was nothing more than a corrupt Chicago asswipe. I guess we were right, but its rather a moot point, because the idiot got elected.We pointed out that he’s a gun-grabber, and he even turned the spotlight onto himself with the *clinging to religion and guns* statement he made, but the panty-wetters at the Brady Outhouse to Prevent you from Exercising your Second Amendment Right got their titty-nipples tied into knots and claimed that we were trying to scare the law-abiding citizens into not voting for him, in effect trying to steal the election by spreading false and vicious rumors. I guess we were right, but its rather a moot point, because the idiot got elected.The list of stuff goes on, but I’m not going to bore the readership with the more mundane things that prove, beyond a doubt, that he’s a complete bozo, and an idiot who couldn’t find his behind with both hands and a map, a moron who demeans the offcie of the Presidency by going on late-night talk shows and yucks it up, laughing as he talks about how much money he’s going to be spending in order to *fix* the broken government that he *inherited*And you Libs thought Bush was stupid? This guy is infantile. He’s way out of his league, and he may very well be impeached after the 2010 election by the wave of conservatives that will no doubt be swept into offcie.And another thing… Shut the Mexico Border down. What is the deal?? Are we trying to spread this illness faster than wildfire?? You know the Mexican people are fleeing their country and running into ours! But Prez says, Duh!.
Have you considered accessing the mental health benefits in your health insurance policy, Asif?
Asif, don’t let the attempts at censorship from the left stop you from voicing your opinion. Interesting turn of phrase here and there and there are certainly things on which I have a different opinion, but that was a pretty good rant.
Mr. Willis, I challege you…nay, demand you…to justify your characterization of “attempts at censorship from the left”. Or is simply the accusation enough?
It’s not surprising you’d think someone calling the POTUS an “utter moron” or “idiot” or “Messiah” or “asswipe” or “infantile” or “bozo” (demeaning the office of the Presidency) would pen a “pretty good rant”. One could reasonable deduce that all that hold a JD can be characterized similarly. But then they would be intellectually bankrupt, just as those who actually think Asif’s “opinions” are a “pretty good rant”.
I knew you could attain “a new low” I just didn’t think it would be so soon.
While I too agree that the president has not been able to fololw up on many of his campaign promises, I don’t think it was for lack of trying. In healthcare the plan we got does not go far enough, but I think it was the best we could get with this obstructionist Congress. I can’t understand why he is appealing the don’t ask don’t tell decision while saying that he wants to end it. I can’t understand why he has kept the faith based initiative office going. The only reason I can think of for many of his actions is that the white house probably believes that these positions will help them in some way politically during this election cycle. The problem is that they are disillusioning the base. While this president is not perfect and has not gone far enough on a number of issues, and obstructionist Congress, in particular filibustering republicans, has been a major source of this lack of progress. Even if you are unhappy with things that have been done or not done by this president, what every democrat needs to do though is to go out and vote for every democratic candidate they can. The alternative would be much worse. Democrats are too much the cup half empty party. We need to learn from the republicans and have some unity in this election cycle or we are giving the government back to those whose policies are demonstrably significantly worse.
“and obstructionist Congress, in particular filibustering republicans, has been a major source of this lack of progress.” Uhm, did you forget that there was a Democratic controlled House AND Senate for the first two years of his term.
“Uhm, did you forget that there was a Democratic controlled House AND Senate for the first two years of his term.”
And this changes the obstructionist Congress and historic use of the filibuster over the past two years how, exactly?
Diversion to irrelevant ≠ refutation.
Snoopy, you are just tireless in your misquoting. Tas made a blanket statement that obstruction by Republicans was a major cause of Obama’s first term failures and I pointed out that for fully 1/2 of his term Obama had complete control of the agenda without “Republican obstructionism” because Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House. Your continually half truths and obfuscation is a bit frustrating and actually a tactic used by the Obama campaign to mix just enough of the truth into a lie that explaining why its a lie takes ten times the effort.
No, Mr. Willis, you are tireless in your false inferences and “hearing” what isn’t “said”. Your very selective parsing of Tas’s complete statement, a purposeful intellectually dishonest tactic of the right to avoid addressing a topic in context or in full, is what continually calls your credibility into question. Tas did not delineate “first half” vs “second half” of the President’s first term, but addressed the “lack of progress”. You chose to make the distinction, somehow actually believing that the first two years negates the accuracy of Tas’s, and my, description of obstruction and Republican filibustering during the second two, the most recent and most important for continuing progress. Republicans stopped progress. There is no half-truth…it is completely true – obstruction and filibustering has indeed been a primary source of lack of progress, as Tas stated. Progress was indeed made during the first two years, despite your opinion to the contrary. Progress ended during the second half. What Changed™? The loss of the House by Democrats and the loss of a filibuster-proof Senate by the Democrats. It’s no coincedence that progress stopped at exactly the same time, or as the rest of the country calls it – obstruction and filibustering being the primary cause.
I submit it is you who is peddling in half truths and obfuscation with your parsing and “discussing” only that which is “comfortable” to you. You did not refute Tas’s argument. You attempted to use a non sequitur which is a logical fallacy in debate/discussion. You have even gone so far as to accuse others of using this fallacy and negating (or is it “attempt at censorship”) their argument for using diversion. I am sure the reality of the lack of progress through obstruction and unprecedented use of the filibuster by Republicans is a very tough truth to accept for you. Your failure to accept this reality does not invalidate it’s accuracy as the “tools” of the right and its culpability for halting progress. “One term” was more important to Republicans than “One Nation”.
Luckily, your lies don’t take “ten times the effort” since they’re so transparent.
California would be in much better shape if we were not subsidizing the rest of the country. Californians pay far more in taxes to the federal government than the state gets back from the federal government. Most states get far more from the feds than they pay in. (Isn’t that some kind of socialism?)
Roger, I would love to see this data. I believe what you say, but with the huge California congressional delegation, how could that happen?
Here is the list as provided by http://www.heartland.org and the Tax Foundation
What a state receives back from Federal government for every dollar sent and rank
New Mexico $2.03 1
Mississippi $2.02 2
Alaska $1.84 3
Louisiana $1.78 4
West Virginia $1.76 5
North Dakota $1.68 6
Alabama $1.66 7
South Dakota $1.53 8
Kentucky $1.51 9
Virginia $1.51 10
Montana $1.47 11
Hawaii $1.44 12
Maine $1.41 13
Arkansas $1.41 14
Oklahoma $1.36 15
South Carolina $1.35 16
Missouri $1.32 17
Maryland $1.30 18
Tennessee $1.27 19
Idaho $1.21 20
Arizona $1.19 21
Kansas $1.12 22
Wyoming $1.11 23
Iowa $1.10 24
Nebraska $1.10 25
Vermont $1.08 26
North Carolina $1.08 27
Pennsylvania $1.07 28
Utah $1.07 29
Indiana $1.05 30
Ohio $1.05 31
Georgia $1.01 32
Rhode Island $1.00 33
Florida $0.97 34
Texas $0.94 35
Oregon $0.93 36
Michigan $0.92 37
Washington $0.88 38
Wisconsin $0.86 39
Massachusetts $0.82 40
Colorado $0.81 41
New York $0.79 42
California $0.78 43
Delaware $0.77 44
Illinois $0.75 45
Minnesota $0.72 46
New Hampshire $0.71 47
Connecticut $0.69 48
Nevada $0.65 49
New Jersey $0.61 50
The state that burns me the most is Alaska. Alaskans pay no state income tax, no sales tax and get money from the sale of “their” oil. Plus they unloaded that idiot Palin off onto the rest of the country. Talk about adding insult to injury.
They’re a bunch of socialist moochers!
The state that burns me the most is Alaska. Alaskans pay no state income tax, no sales tax and get money from the sale of “their” oil. Plus they unloaded that idiot Palin off onto the rest of the country. Talk about adding insult to injury.
They’re a bunch of socialist moochers!
Joe, you say a lot of really weird things, but calling Alaskan’s “socialists” is hilarious. They pay no state tax because they have entered into voluntary arrangements with private companies that create a government surplus. Not sure how that is socialism – the private company is making huge profits, the agreement is voluntary and the Alaskans don’t have a spending problem. Yeah, that is the definition of socialism.
Every year, Alaska citizens receive checks from the Alaska Permanent Fund, which takes oil revenue money and divvies it up amongst the citizens. Every Alaskan citizen, whether hard working or unemployed gets around $1000 every year for simply living there. That sounds like socialism to me.
All you have to do is become a citizen of Alaska for one year, sit on your porch staring at Russia, discuss the decline of American morality with your teen daughter and her out-of-wedlock baby, and you too can get a check. You can also pass the time by calling the President a socialist from your home studio. A gubmint check could be a game changer in your life.
If GW thinks Obama is responsible for the “more than five trillion dollars in debt over the past five years” I’d like for him to list and add up the Obama policies that account for that spending.
The TRUTH is that most of the debt is due to the Bush tax cuts, the wars and the recession, NOT OBAMA’S POLICIES.
[MarketWatch, 5/22/12]
WSJ’s MarketWatch: “Under Obama, Federal Spending Is Rising At The Slowest Pace Since … The 1950s.”From the MarketWatch column:
Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.
[...]
In the 2009 fiscal year — the last of George W. Bush’s presidency — federal spending rose by 17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. Check the official numbers at the Office of Management and Budget.
• In fiscal 2010 — the first budget under Obama — spending fell 1.8% to $3.46 trillion.
• In fiscal 2011, spending rose 4.3% to $3.60 trillion.
• In fiscal 2012, spending is set to rise 0.7% to $3.63 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the budget that was agreed to last August.
Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4%.
There has been no huge increase in spending under the current president, despite what you hear. [MarketWatch, 5/22/12]
Joe, we have both debated this (who is at “fault” for the five trillion in additional debt during Obama’s first term) and simply will always disagree. Now that Obama has been reelected, is he NOW responsible for new debt increases or will that still be Bush’s fault?
I’ve decided to rivsiet this page and as I’m reading the Comments again, I’m beginning to see the point of those who are saying that we should no longer use the phrase “Reverse Discrimination”.It’s just like I argued on one of your earlier Posts in relation to Redefining the Word Marriage. When we Redefine and Change Words, we also Change Culture. To Redefine the Word Marriage, we change culture in a way that approves Homosexuality and devalues Traditional Marriage.Since Language defines Culture, Language is important, so doing away with the phrase “Reverse Discrimination” would be doing away with the faulty distinction that Discrimination against Whites is in any way different than Discrimination against Blacks. Since there is no Distinction, wouldn’t it be better to do away with any phrase that implies that there is.Since the phrase “Reverse Discrimination” implies the inequality of one form of Discrimination in comparison to another, perhaps it would be better to answer your Question “Is there such a thing?” by saying no, there is not. Discrimination is simply Discrimination and it can be done against Whites as well as Blacks.
Glenn Beck must be in 7th heaven tohnigt after driving the HONORARY pace car today at the Daytona 500 before nearly 160,000 WHITE fans, even being part of the exclusive pre-race drivers’ meeting. I hate how NASCAR fans (aka REAL muricans) seem to think the SOUTH owns the races even though races are held all over the nation from California to New Hampshire, New York to Homestead, Florida.I grew up a racing fan, my family personal friends of the Gaerte family in Indiana who manufacture custom racing engines. Mauri Rose, three time winner of the Indy 500 was from my hometown of South Bend and a hero to us kids of the 1940′s. I worked as an usher at the 500 during my college years for free admission and a few bucks wages. Since AJ Foyt’s brother-in-law was a frat brother of my brother, we were both invited to AJ’s hotel room to meet the whole Texas family. However, it was an intense time in that room as an enraged Foyt was firing his car owners over the phone! When AJ’s in-laws couldn’t get a cab to show up, I drove them and AJ, Jr. to the Indy airport. Everyone was staying for the drivers’ banquet the next night. The father-in-law was an EXXON corporate attorney and had an EXXON private plane awaiting him. He had me drive through a No Admittance but open gate and I drove down the taxiways to the plane’s stairs. Leaving the Indy airport, I feared both the taxiing planes, luggage trains, etc. and being stopped by security for being on the tarmac (with the lawyer no longer my passenger to speak up for me).I have been a race fan of everything from dirt track midgets to Formula ONE including NASCAR. Last September, my partner and I spent a day at the Daytona track and museum. However, I get the feeling that I am not redneck or REAL murican enough to be a fan (plus I voted for a black president!). I even get dissed by some for liking Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, drivers from Indiana, which I guess makes them Damned Yankees and therefore NASCAR carpetbaggers !Today, along with the military jet flyover, Martina McBride put her country flourishes on her rendition of the National Anthem, and country star Brad Paisley sang, This Is Country with some of the lyrics below. You’re not supposed to say the word “cancer” in a song.And tellin’ folks Jesus is the answer can rub ‘em wrong.And if there’s anyone that still has pride and the memory of those that died defending the old red, white, and blue,This is country music and we do.Today, it was Dale Earnhardt Memorial Day who died in 2001 (one of the worst catastrophes of that year for some). Dale was called the Intimidator for forcing other drivers into walls, died after hitting a wall! During the THIRD lap, in honor of Dale’s #3 car, the track went silent (even Fox News made not a peep) and all fans held up 3 fingers for that lap. Darrell Waltrip, a Fox commentator was almost chocking up saying that not a day goes by when I don’t hear, What would Dale say? or What would Dale do? (WWDD?) Reminds me of WWJD What would Jesus do? Dale, JR. was the track favorite today but came in 24th. Guess his daddy in heaven doesn’t have enough pull with the Lord to rig the race.