BigT
CAGiversary!
I've been following the budget crisis in California for quite some time and I think it may be a harbinger of what is to come nationally...
The Wall Street Journal article below is a great summary:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123517419077037281.html
Some high points:
The Wall Street Journal article below is a great summary:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123517419077037281.html
Some high points:
As California goes, says an old cliché, so goes the nation. Oh my.
These days, the Golden State leads the nation on economic and fiscal dysfunction, from the empty homes spread across the Central Valley to the highest state budget shortfall in the nation's history. Meanwhile, its political class pioneers denial in the face of catastrophe.
Even discounting for the impact of global recession, the most populous state's ills are unique and self-inflicted -- and avoidable. In the last three decades, California expanded the public sector and regulation to Europe-like dimensions. Schools, state employees, health care, even dog kennels, benefited from largesse in flush times. Government workers got 16 official holidays, everyone else six. The state dabbled with universal health care and adopted strict environmental standards. In short, California went where our new president and Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco want America to go.
California is in a French-like bind: unable to afford a welfare-type state, and unable to overhaul it. "The people say they want all these programs, then there's nothing they want to pay for," says Hector De La Torre, a Democratic assemblyman. "The schizophrenia in the legislature reflects the peoples'."