Monday, June 29, 2009
With California’s state government deadlocked over a $24 billion hole in its budget, the Golden State is hurtling toward financial apocalypse.
And the response from the Obama White House? Deal with it yourselves.
What caused California’s economic conditions. A catastrophic convergence of events starting with Bush’s failed economic policies which included billions of dollars in tax cuts for the rich during war times, a protracted national recession, to the state’s over reliance on revenues from its richest residents, has left California’s budget drowning in a sea of red ink.
California relies on personal income tax for nearly half its massive general fund revenues. The top 5 percent pay 68 percent of the tax. Much of the wealthy taxpayers’ money comes from gains in the stock market and from other investments. When the economy is down, so is their income.
The state has already ordered state workers to take two unpaid days off each month. Department of Motor Vehicle Departments offices are now closed every other Friday and over 20,000 teachers statewide have received pink slips with Los Angeles Unified firing 9,000 teachers.
But, President Obama has expressed no interest in helping the nation’s largest state.
“We’ll continue to monitor the challenges that they have. But this budgetary problem, unfortunately, is one that they’re going to have to solve,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier this month.
In May, when State Treasurer Bill Lockyer asked the Obama administration for aid in the form of federal guarantees for the short-term bonds the state needs to sell to pay its bills this summer, the White House said no. Treasury determined that such assistance would help only at the margins.
All of this begs the question? If last fall, when former President Bush’s economic team, along with Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Frank determined AIG to be “too big to fail,” isn’t California “too big to fail”?
Jean Ross, executive director of the nonpartisan California Budget Project says yes:
“California is such a large and important fraction of the nation’s economy now and in the future that pending budget cuts could delay a national recovery and weaken the nation’s long-term competitiveness.”
I’m telling you guys Obama is going to be a one-term President if he can’t carry California in ’12.
I agree.
Obama has lost much of the California delegation, the gay community and many of the independents who voted for him and not McCain.
At the rate things are going, Obama could see his approval numbers fall into the low 40′s by next spring, leading to the House going back to the GOP in the midterms. He’s turning out to be a terrible leader.
We had a mobile DMV that was popular with the elderly and the disabled who find it difficult to get into the city. The van/truck would come around twice a month to the library for folks to register their cars, get plates, etc.
Anyway, it’s been axed. Too expensive says the governor.
But wait, there’s more. The meds on the ADAP list for folks living with HIV/AIDS has been cut in half to trim costs. That’s right. The message from Sacramento is, “Die Fuckers.”
These are the people the Obama administration wants to pretend don’t exists.
I’m skeptical of the claim that the top 5% pay most of the total income tax revenue. Anti tax activists are numerous and devious there, and the love to spread disinformation.
Oh, I believe it. The upper 5% of wage earners in California control the political machine in Sacramento and that’s why people like Feinstein and Pelosi are undefeatable. In a state like this, with 12 separate media markets and 37 million people, and the largest concentration of millionaires in the nation said to be 350,000, these folks don’t want to see the state take on more debt or taxes raised, which are the only two solutions until the economy rebounds.
Call me strange but the president won’t help the state of California and its 37 million residents but he didn’t hesitate to request $118 billion MORE to keep Bush’s illegal Iraq and Afghanistan wars in full blaze.
This just rubs me the wroooooooong way.
Ok, why is the only Republican defending President Obama. Newsflash: Obama will be re-elected in a landslide, the Republicans have no candidate that can win nationwide.
Also, he is doing an ok job and should be judged by November 2010 for his accomplishments.
But with California, the voters are getting what they deserve. It’s like they have a mentality of 1+1= Free Candy for everyone. They have no option but for a constitutional convention, bye-bye Prop. 8. For once they voters are the problem not the politicos. You cannot pass tax increases with 67% of politicans. It can’t be done.
The voters not they voters. Also to any sane voters in Cali, sorry but yeah it does suck to be you.
Strangely enough, my sympathies rest with the President this time.
As long as California’s laws about taxes and budgets are what they are, no entity with any sense is going to front them any money. This isn’t the President’s fault; you can thank Howard Jarvis and the “initiative” system for the reluctance of the Federal Government to fund California as things are right now. Quite frankly, “at the margins” was the correct way to frame this.
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Obama, DINO that he is turning out to be, is in no way responsible for profligate Californians’ troubles. I would not like to see my Federal tax dollars going to shore up a broken system there, with no help for Hawaii or New Jersey or Georgia or Michigan, which have “worked hard and played by the rules,” any more than I liked seeing tax dollars go to Wall St. or Detroit with no reforms attached, while other industries suffered BECAUSE of the corruption and incompetence of those two.
California and Texas have blessed us with our worst Presidents and our worst political scams in the last 80 years. Johnson & Bush II dragged us into ruinous wars, without providing for any way to pay for them. Nixon & Reagan preyed on fear and hate and greed and envy, with their pie-in-the-sky promises of a better life at no additional cost, even as they gutted the social welfare infrastructure set up by FDR & JFK. Those two monstrously large States have helped to drag this country down into the mud where we all find ourselves today.
The “conservatives” destroyed California itself years ago with their no-tax + big-spending fantasies. Californians willingly got on board the Free-Lunch Express in 1978 when they voted overwhelmingly to freeze their own property taxes with Prop 13. Since then, it has been nearly impossible to run the Golden State with any kind of fiscal discipline, short of the occasional draconian measures being employed now. The Prop 8 mess is just another example of the childish, selfish, immature and irresponsible nature of the Cali voter. The Bear Republic has become completely dysfunctional.
The long-term result is a State economy in shambles, the best public education system in the country is now one of the worst, and no one from Mexico to Oregon has the guts to say “BASTA!” It’s time they went cold turkey, stopped philandering with Repukelickin’ & DINO no-tax whores, voted in fiscally savvy progressives and started living responsibly, like the rest of us.
Having lived in SD, LA, SF and the desert, I do know and love California, and her many kookie people. It’s a great place. But it’s like an alcoholic or a junkie who is out of control and near rock bottom. Avoidance, denial, enabling, co-dependency, and just getting scammed by an attractive addict are not in CA’s interest, or ours as non-Californians. If they haven’t “bottomed out” yet, Gawd help them.
The only thing we should do is rebuild the social safety net for all Americans, so that the poorest and weakest among us do not have to suffer even more now because of the excesses of the richest and the strongest.
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I read somewhere that Obama’s people are concerned that if they bail out California, the other states will line up for money. That said, there was plenty of money for the banks, no? Change we can believe in, my ass.
Rural and unincorporated Sacramento county will have 209 fewer deputies to respond to 911 calls for residents in an area roughly 200 square miles thanks to budget cuts.
Patrol staffing will be knocked down by 74 percent – leaving just 10 cars patrolling the entire unincorporated county at any given time. Detective staffing will be halved. Helicopters will be grounded.
Imagine hearing someone breaking into your home and you call 911, only to be told there will be a one to two hour wait until a sheriff can respond? This is the reality of the California budget mess and I believe the consequences will be deadly for many residents.
I’m sorry, I agree with the President on this one. I’m tired of the bailouts. If California gets mad at him because he doesn’t want to throw gasoline on the fire, then so be it. He will still be re-elected because the GOP doesn’t have a viable candidate. Who are they going to put out there? Palin? A cheating Governor? Jingle Bells??
There is only so much money, and I am much more concerned with health care than Cali.
Well, Christopher, I don’t disagree with you placing the blame on the voters, but hell, just to cite a couple of examples, I blame them in 2000 and 2004. Too many uninformed dumbasses voting for an uninformed dumbass.