Once again we Californians find our selves in a conundrum. Republican and Democratic representatives in our state government have come to a standstill and continue to bang their heads against a brick wall, while complaining about a headache. To bad, it’s such a shame, that after all this time all we get is more of the same. With a $24,000,000,000 budget short fall (I had to write that out to see all the zeros for myself) the argument is back to spending cuts or tax increases. In 2008 and 2009 92% of our state revenue was spent on education, social services, and corrections and rehabilitation that represent about $95.2 billion. Our other expenditures totaled $8.2 billion. Our budget deficit is now $24 billion.
The Democratic solution is to raise taxes while cutting $11 billion in services. These benefits are going to be taken away from California’s most vulnerable population. Seniors will lose benefits, our poorest children will lose medical insurance, and the right to an education, and our poorest citizens will be forced to fend for themselves. Not to mention the thousands of criminal furloughs for nonviolent criminals (that’s good at least they are only releasing blue collar criminals, after all who have they really hurt). This plan will hit us all in the pocketbook. The richest Californians will only be able to own 2 or 3 cars because the Democrats are proposing a $15 increase in DMV registration fees. You must realize that’s nearly 3, count ‘em 3 vanilla soy, nonfat, no whip mochas per year. The insanity doesn’t stop there; they are proposing to close tax loopholes for business that profited off of the once strong California econonomy. Suggesting that they should be part of the solution is just silly talk. Also, the nerve of anyone to ask me to pay more in income tax is obnoxious and completely out of the question. After all I wasn’t responsible for any of this mess. I was always in the minority of all of those ridiculous propositions that we put on the ballot every year. Oh yeah, except for that one that said you couldn’t raise my property tax, or my income tax, or my sales tax. And I almost forgot about that one that said that we needed more cops on the streets, cleaner and safer roadways, and air conditioning in my child’s class room, but that didn’t cost much. It’s those environmentalist that are really costing us all this money, $81 million for environmental protection is just ridiculous, that a whopping 5.6% of our state revenue. If we just got rid of those wackos the deficit would only be $23.2 billion. Raising taxes is un-American, Fascist, Socialist and worst of all European!
The Republican solution is simple. CUT SPENDING! Don’t do anything but cut spending. Schools, who needs ‘em? Food stamps, who needs ‘em? Prisons, who needs ‘em? After all who can expect to get elected if they raise taxes on 38 million Californians? They have a better solution; decrease the salaries of 250,000 state workers. That’s better; they only represent 0.6% of the population. After all how bad could a 5% pay cut for a DMV or Medi-Cal worker be. I’m sure they make bank. Have you been in one of those places? Look how they dress decked out in cardigans and new balance sneakers. The state GOP says that we can’t close tax loopholes for businesses or raise taxes or fees on our state citizenry, because that would be devastating for our already fragile economy. I absolutely agree that raising taxes would slow down California’s economic recovery. However, bankruptcy of the worlds eighth largest economy and the economic insolvency that would follow it might be a little worse.
We (and yes I mean you too) created this mess. You don’t agree? That fine, but you are more responsible than your children or your children’s children. Don’t have any kids, that’s okay, your still more responsible than the 10 million children that currently live in this state. After all they are the ones that are taking the largest cuts in funding and also the ones who will pay off this debt after we are long gone. Too bad when the economy gets better they won’t have the education necessary to succeed. To me lower taxes stopped being the American dream sometime after the Revolutionary War and before the New Deal. I thought the American dream was about our children having more opportunities than we did. Take away from the children and you take away from us all. They are easy victims because they are small bodies with little voices. Who will stand up and fight for them?
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