Feb 20, 2009
California: Land of Idiots
Yay! The State budget has been approved!
Disclaimer. I’m going to swear a few times in this article, so if you don’t want to hear that, ya’ll can SHOO.
Go read this article at the LA Times. Yes, I’m serious.
Ok. Did you notice how now that we have the budget passed, everyone is talking about how we can stop this from happening again? There are a lot of ideas out there: Maybe we can dock lawmaker’s pay, maybe we can change it so that only 55% of lawmakers have to approve a budget, maybe we can lower the amount of votes required for new taxes, etc. just to name a few.
But, what’s the ONE thing they AREN’T talking about doing?
The ONE thing they AREN’T talking about is:
STOP FUCKING SPENDING!
Ahem.
Sorry.
A few key points:
- Doing things like making it EASIER for them to pass a budget ISN’T whats needed! The budget didn’t pass because they were spending too damn much. Take away the power of a few to demand a balanced budget, and we’ll just be worse off.
- Docking their pay if they are late – screw that, its only a band-aid. How about making their pay performance based instead? If the State is doing well, taxes are below a certain point and there is a surplus, they get paid out of the surplus. If it isn’t, they don’t get paid that year. THAT would balance the fucking budget in a week.
- Lowering the amount of votes for new taxes. Um, excuse me, how about you STOP FUCKING SPENDING INSTEAD!? They have clearly done SO well with the money we’ve already given them – should we really make it easier for them to get more of our money? Like hell!
All of the “fixes” floating around in Sacramento are focused on one thing: making it easier for the lawmakers to pass a budget. How easy or hard it is to pass the budget is NOT the problem. The problem is that our damn legislators spend TOO MUCH MONEY. The ideas should be focusing on how to spend LESS and balance our budget, not on making it easier for the legislators to screw us up even further.
Hey, HERE’S a thought – how about ALL government programs outside of law enforcement, transportation, utilities and schooling are now canceled and have to be reenacted?
“Well, you just couldn’t DO that!” How can you NOT?! The only reason the State can continue to operate today is because they simply reach deeper and deeper into our pockets with impunity. If I can’t afford my Cable bill, I can’t have Cable anymore. If I can’t afford to eat out, I can’t eat out. If I can’t afford to buy new clothes, I wear what I already have.
Not the government though – they just send us further into debt, pass tax hikes, take more of our money and then piss it away.
There is no long term accountability – no one is held responsible for what they do today that screws us in the future. That needs to change.
Eventually, those of use with the pockets have to smack the hand that we feed and demand OUR money back. Remember, the government doesn’t have a single dollar that doesn’t come out of OUR pockets.
They should hang that sign on the front of every building in Sacramento.
*sighs* I would point and laugh (not at you, but rather the politicians (read “morons”) in charge of your state), but then I remember that everything that starts in Kalifornistan invariably spreads elsewhere.
I escaped, for now, but it will catch up with me.
The concept of decreasing spending is one that is completely foreign to 90% of the politicians… to do so would decrease their power, decrease their sway over their constituents, decrease everything they, personally, hold near and dear. And since these societal leaches are out for nothing but power… this is what we have.
Unfortunately, they are still able to somehow limp along, doing what they are doing, and our country keeps spiraling the drain. Good fun.
What good is power if what you have power over is destroyed from within?
Everybody seems to be interested in grabbing what they can regardless of the cost.
Is is frustrating as hell, isn’t it?
Believe me, I’m right there with you.
The focus of that crappy LA Times article is truly like something out of the old Soviet Union. I REALLY, TRULY used to scratch my head and wonder how millions of people could live one reality, while their newspapers, politicians, and media at large touted a completely different one- I thought, “How the hell do people allow that to happen? How do people live in a place like the Soviet Union with such a horrible gap between the realities of real people’s lives, and the lies and propaganda put forward by the State?
Well ***k if I’m not LIVING IN THE EXACT SAME situation in this freakin’ state! The LA Times is just as bad, if not worse than Pravda!
People I know, people I meet, EVERYONE with AN OUNCE OF FREAKIN’ SENSE isn’t sitting around wringing their hands over how long it takes, or how “boo-hoo they stayed up late!” ‘hard’ it is for the crooks in Sacramento to pass a friggen budget! No one with a functioning brain is clamoring to have these thugs re-write the state constitution go grant themselves an UNCHALLENGED PIPELINE INTO ALL OF OUR **#$#$#@@ WALLETS whenever they spend like drunken sailors and want more money!
How dare that rag of a newspaper portray that as the big concern. “Oh boo hoo, we’re all worried about how the politicians will fare if they can’t pass a budget!”
BULLCRAP!
Most people are worried about having a JOB! They’re worried about paying their mortgage or rent. They’re worried about the business they work for packing the ***k up and getting the hell out of dodge. They’re worried when the see the news that even our home grown industries in California- like Silicon Valley- are packing the hell up and LEAVING. Intel- practically a SYMBOL of what this state used to be- just announced they’re opening new plants in multiple states EXCEPT California! Thousands of new jobs ANYWHERE ELSE BUT HERE! So much for Cali getting any of that tax money- but Arizona and Oregon will gladly take it! Hilton just moved their headquarters out of California to Virginia- bye bye to that tax money too.
The brickskulls in Sacramento, and their clueless Pravda allies in the press need to figure out that businesses don’t have to sit around and take being endlessly taxed- they can MOVE! And take thier jobs and tax dollars WITH THEM. And now there’s more incentive than ever for businesses to do just that!
No one is worried about the dimbulbs in Sacramento not having to work at passing a freakin’ budget- not liberals I know, not conservatives I know, not apolitical people I know. The LA Times is in fantasyland! But how about talking to ANYONE about raising their taxes- already the HIGHEST IN THE COUNTRY by an average of another $1000 per person at a time when people are struggling, and let’s see how many people say that’s a bigger concern.
When I business gets anywhere near as bad as California, the thing needs to declare bankruptcy, shut down, and just start over. THAT’s what the state of California needs to do. Just shut the government down, FIRE ALL OF THE CLOWNS, restructure everything with fiscal responsibility priority #1- make sure rules are in place to keep it that way, with public OVERSIGHT over these political nitwits, and the threat of recall (IE: YOU’RE FIRED!) hanging over their heads based on performance the same as anyone else working a REAL job- and then let’s see how things go.
Enough bullcrap is enough.
Yeah- I’m pretty angry, in case it isn’t obvious. Even in the 18 years I’ve been here, I’ve seen this state run completely into the ground and then some. I’ve seen a lot of people I know who can’t take it anymore pack up and leave. I’ve seen enough to get fed up with how mismanaged and clueless the morons in Sacramento are, and the disconnect between their propaganda and everyone else’s REALITY that’s as wretched as anything from the old Soviet Union. Enough is enough.
Harry, as usual, you are SO right on…
Its funny – you compared it to the old Soviet Union – I’ve been comparing it to the Revolution… I’ve been thinking that I never understood how people could get so upset that they would actually revolt against a government, but this whole thing here in CA has allowed me to START to understand. I think we should revolt against Sacramento and give control of the state to Arizona instead.
Seriously though – it really drives home how a government can become so disconnected with the needs and concerns of the people. These bureaucrats are killing us one year at a time, and what are we to do about it?
I feel like I’m trapped in this insane state because I can’t sell my house.