Posted on 05/20/2009 7:53:47 AM PDT by Mr Rogers
Over and Out [Mark Steyn]
Following California's "tax revolt" and the usual editorials from a dying media sneering at the electorate as tantrum-throwing kindergartners, we now move on to the swimsuit round, in which the Golden State's woes are federalized and redistributed to the nation at large. In the states' version of the Obama model for everything from mortgages to credit cards, the feckless will have their pathologies rewarded and the prudent will get stuck with the tab. The Atlantic's Megan McArdle cuts to the chase:
California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed.
Up next: New York.
As Miss McArdle notes, whether you bail out states "too big to fail" or let them go bankrupt, it will cause pain to taxpayers. But the pain of the latter is relatively short-term. Passing Sacramento's buck to Washington will accelerate the centralizing pull in American politics and eventually eliminate any advantage to voting with your feet.
Not to be too gloomy, but the country feels like it's seizing up. It's as if California and New York have burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi. If you're underneath, it's not going to be fun.
Link to McArdle's article in Steyn post at NRO - not sure how to transfer the link.
That's a mental picture I could have done without.
“Not to be too gloomy, but the country feels like it’s seizing up. It’s as if California and New York have burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi. If you’re underneath, it’s not going to be fun.”
What a way with words! I love this guy. Thanks for posting. :)
This is true of course but Steyn could have easily added the fact that it will allow the Sacramento Thieves to continue on their spending binge with the bill to be paid by Obama. This is the solution to California's lament that it can't print money. Well, as we will see, it can via a surrogate in Washington D.C.
“The swimsuit round”
LMAO, Steyn always has that quintessential point of the knife to stick in.
The swimsuit round!! But there will be no Miss Congeniality.
There really ought to be some creative ways for productive states to divorce the coasts. Perhaps TX, OK, LA and AK should stop shipping all oil and gas products to these states that are at the forefront of blocking domestic oil and gas production. Other states may want to stop shipping grain and meat products to states that are enemies of modern agriculture.
After all, urban areas are dependent on rural areas for basic necessities of life. There is absolutely no reason for producers to continue to wear the “Kick Me” signs as the PETA/Sierra Club whiners get their punitive agendas passed by their allies in D.C.
I hope that at least the states will exercise their constitutional rights; however, I have no confidence in the SCOTUS or any other federal court in ruling in favor of the states or the Constitution. The majority of the justices are statists and liberals. We may be too late in salvaging states’ rights. We are headed toward the path of secession.
"DeFacto", this has already taken place. Michigan's Governor Granholm used about $800 million in Federal Stimulus dollars to balance the 2008-2009 budget and there are already plans to use more stimulus money for the 2009-2010 budget. Then she term limits out and the stimulus money is gone. Then she comes back and runs for Senator and says things weren't as bad when she was Governor. And the incredibly uninformed "citizens" of Michigan will buy it lock, stock and barrel of crap. Where is our media and education system?
What do you suppose the fallout might be if California and New York (and perhaps Massachusetts and others) essentially declared bankruptcy and applied to the Federal government for a "bailout"? If you are not so unfortunate as to live in one of these terminally-mismanaged states, you may wind up even more unfortunate in being asked to pay for their folly and profligacy in the form of higher taxes and interest rates.
Like Mr. Stein, I live in New Hampshire, and in no way do I intend to pay to clean up California's mess. Federalism still means something (I think), and I would hope the residents of most states would feel the same way. Now, that would be a tax revolt to remember.
I think if 0, Reid, Pelosi, Frank et. al. want to create an anti-tax revolution, this is an excellent way to go about it.
I think it might galvanize a great number of Americans in an instant to understand what it really at stake in our time: the ability of free people to control their own lives and fortunes in a way we used to when our Constitution was still essentially intact and our government supported the private institutions it now seeks to dominate or destroy.
There truly is more at stake here than most of the sheeple realize. Why else would something like the Tea Party movement have such legs?
You are right, the unwashed of Cali’s two major cities run roughshod over the great producers of the rest of this mostly rural state. Years ago, after Clinton’s second election, a Californian told me that had CA been set up like the electoral college, Clinton would’ve had no chance. Looks like the farmers need to go back to the old days of 8 to 12 kids to bring this state back to America.
I’m in California and I want our state to fail. No bailout from the feds. I want every politician in Sacramento who voted for enlarging our already-obese government to suffer the blame and shame of being at fault for our state’s bankruptcy. Heck, this state’s been morally bankrupt for years. Might as well let the fiscal bankruptcy occur and maybe the voters will send the culprits packing back home with their tails between their legs.
Arnold is no better than Gray Davis. In some ways he’s worse.
If the federal government is going to illegally and unconstitutionally bail out the states, we might as well tear up the document and just let Obama do whatever he wants. Freedom and the rule of Law means nothing at that point.
In this regard (and most others), the average citizen is entirely at odds with the policy elites who run the country, and who wish to tamp down the burgeoning TEA Party movement, in part because they themselves recognize that it is about much more than just taxes.
Just how far we have gone down the road toward socialism and how much freedom we have lost will soon become evident, I think. And when it does, there will be some event or incident that serves as a rallying point for the opposition. It's just a matter of time.
You’re right. It’s just like when Glann Beck asked Ben Stein recently what steps he would take if he was intent on destroying this country’s auto manufacturing and Stein listed all the things that 0bama has been doing.
Their anti-American behavior is pushing us toward revolution. It won’t be pretty.
Don't forget the Jell-O!
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