As if to prove that the Republican Party is as virulently socialist as the Democratic, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing his bit to push America off an economic cliff. His idea of how best to close his state’s budget gap (estimated to be around $24 billion and growing) is not to stop spending other peoples’ money as if it were water but to borrow more and, since private lenders are reluctant to continue funding California’s endless spending spree, to have federal politicians force taxpayers from other states to back the new loans.
Returning from DC with an empty begging bowl, Arnold and his tax-funded friends were dealt another blow on May 19, when the unwashed voters of the state shot down every tax scheme the politicians had proposed, despite the childish and irresponsible scare tactics that California’s politically connected unions used in a well-funded media campaign.
Naturally, this has refocused attention on the quandary California’s politicians have put themselves (and the sad sack taxpayers) into. The promises they made to buy votes are turning out to be just that – promises. There is no money left in the vault to pay for the lavish salaries, pensions, and perks that California’s political class and their friends have come to expect at the taxpayers’ expense.
Needless to say, this will turn into a problem for Obama and the members of Congress who call California home. The state has some of the most virulently aggressive and politically active unions, and they expect to be paid for mustering the votes. Already California Congressman Brad Sherman has declared, “There’s simply no better stimulus than guaranteeing state and local bonds, particularly those that are being used to get through the crisis and avoid layoffs.”
Of course, the layoffs he fears will hurt the parasitic class that feeds off the California working masses, layoffs that I declare would be a positive benefit to the state. As anyone who paid any attention in Economics 101 will tell you, when you hit a depression reducing the burden on the working masses is not only the correct thing to do from the economic point of view, but from the moral as well.