CONSEQUENCES FOR
ENABLERS
And I Buried The
Lead...
Geoff Metcalf
January 12, 2003
NewsWithViews.com
California
is facing a series of reality checks that could/would lead to catastrophic
results.
Many
in other parts of the country say, “So what?
The land of fruits and nuts deserves whatever they get.” However,
despite the regional immediacy, the success or failure of California WILL
impact significantly on the rest of the country.
Faced
with a $36-Billion budget deficit of it’s own making liberal California
Democrats have positioned the state for a personification of “payback is
a bitch”. Unfortunately it
will be Californians who will be paying and paying and paying….
If
the two-year shortfall reaches Davis' new predictions, it will eclipse the
largest ever experienced in California.
Davis started his first two years in office with
multibillion-dollar surpluses…a distant memory that will remain an
unrequited erotic dream.
Despite
democratic denial, the imperative that has sparked a proposed $20.7
billion in budget cuts (including $4.5 billion to education) and an
inevitable avalanche of new taxes shallowly disguised, as “fees and
assessments” is a product of their own making.
Davis
has pitched a 1-cent sales tax increase.
Hey, come on, it’s only a penny?
That penny would raise about $4.5 billion and would cost the
typical family about $200 to $250 a year. But that isn’t nearly enough.
The governor also called for increasing income taxes for the
state's top earners and a $1.10 per pack cigarette tax hike.
Tax
and spend democrats (who control the governors office and the legislature)
have been enabled by liberal left over flower children in Armani in the
high population centers of the state.
All
one needs to do is revisit the Election 2002 map of Red and Blue [http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/votemap_20001116.html].
Gore won California because of San Diego, Los Angeles, and San
Francisco Bay area.
Those
metroplexes have the highest population density in the state and they
invariably lean way left. The
bulk of California’s land mass showed red on that election results map.
The
reality is more gross numbers of Californians ARE liberal.
However those gross numbers come from high population density
quagmires of goo-goo leftist liberalism.
So
in once sense California deserves the government they have elected.
The only caveat might be that invariably the democrats who DO get
elected in California are far more liberal (and rabid) than the
constituencies that elect them.
I
have too often noted that there are consequences to the things we do and
don’t do. California is
about to realize a host of negative consequences to their penchant for
enabling extreme liberal democrats.
Liberal
democrats have literally been ‘enabled’ by four myopic special
interest groups with lots of money.
1.
The Hollywood crowd with more money and media access than good
sense.
2.
The middle-aged former flower children and Woodstock pilgrims who
are now ruling fiefdoms in Sacramento.
3.
The unbridled immigration advocates who have successfully skewed
the states demographics on the road to Azatlan.
4.
The homosexual activists who defy reason with noise and money.
As
Davis (and his successors) attempt to staunch the hemorrhage of their own
making it is both sadly just that the liberal enablers will reap what they
have sown, and tragic that tens of millions of California’s will suffer
the consequences of abuse of power.
Here’s
the deal. California needs to
use a meat clever not a scalpel on the budget.
They won’t.
*
The inevitable result will be a growing need for more and more
money from taxpayers.
*
Middle class Californians and small businesses that had resisted
the obvious imperative WILL begin a migration to more friendly and
reasonable states (Nevada, Oregon, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, even
Washington).
*
California will suffer a reduction in the tax base when they most
need it.
*
California will become a marginalized state with two classes of
citizens….the very rich, and the very poor.
*
California will continue to require massive amounts of money and
guess what? They won’t be able to extract it from the very poor so the
Mandarin class will be expected to pick up the slack.
*
NOTE: This Mandarin class is the very same enablers who allowed
California to tax and spend the state into fiscal insolvency.
*
HOWEVER, the very rich (in L.A., the Bay Area and San Diego)
won’t subsidize the product of their own actions.
Rather, they too will move their prime residence (tax address) to
Lake Tahoe, Oregon or Mexico. They
will continue to ‘live, work and play’ in California…they just
won’t support the tax base.
Despite
his abysmal job performance Governor Davis has the stones to include in
his suggestions for
the Legislature to restore the governor's power to make budget changes
midyear without lawmakers' approval.
The
budget process is just that…it is not an event….it IS a process.
The January proposed budget will be followed by a “May Revised
Budget”.
Unless
or until the legislature overcomes partisan dogma and makes the hard
decisions you can anticipate things will get a lot worse in California and
the consequences of Sacramento’s malfeasance will ripple across the
country.
© 2003 Geoff Metcalf - All Rights Reserved
Geoff is a veteran
media performer. He has had an eclectic professional background covering
a wide spectrum of radio, television,
magazine, and newspapers. A former Green Beret and retired
Army officer he is in great demand as a speaker. Metcalf has hosted
his radio talk show on the ABC/Disney
owned and operated KSFO and in worldwide
syndication. www.geoffmetcalf.com
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