this summer should get interesting, as more and more tax payers learn about their so-called "tax breaks"
Posted on 3/10/2009, 5:39:18 AM by BAW
As portrayed in the 1970’s movie about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Tora, Tora, Tora, Admiral Yamamoto states, after the attack, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Turns out there is little historical evidence suggesting that the Admiral said any such thing. However, the line is illustrative of a self-evident truth: You don’t kick a rabid dog; you don’t poke a tiger with a stick; and you don’t walk into a biker bar and start insulting Harleys.
In February, a political “deal” was reached regarding the state budget. Among the interests involved in the negotiations were the usual suspects: the Governor (no longer even pretending to advance limited government, free market policies), powerful labor interests and their democrat puppets in the Legislature and a handful of Republicans who, pressured by business interests, finally acquiesced to a deal that – more or less – left businesses alone while shafting working Californians.
Looks like everyone was at the table in these negotiations except taxpayers. After all, as recently pointed out by noted economist Ben Zycher commenting on the phony spending cap, the special interests are able to focus their political resources while the diffuse interests of taxpayers are far more difficult to marshal – even though, in the abstract, taxpayers are a powerful force.
Does any of this sound familiar? In the 1970’s, the politicians – with the same special interests controlling Sacramento – refused to believe that taxpayers were serious about rising property taxes. Sure, a couple of yahoos named Jarvis and Gann put a strong tax measure on the ballot, Proposition 13, but it went way too far and the voters would surely reject it, wouldn’t they?
But these interests underestimated badly the anger of the people. By the time the insiders comprehended the size of the tsunami coming at them, it was too late. Not even an alternative property tax initiative that was viewed as too little too late could save them. Prop 13 passed by over 66% .
Fast forward to Saturday. Radio talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou held a taxpayer rally in Fullerton to protest the budget “deal” that left California the most heavily taxed state in America. In the couple of weeks leading up to the rally, they wondered aloud on the air whether anyone would show up. Are Californians now like docile sheep, begrudgingly accepting all the idiocy raining down from Sacramento?
With luck, the rally would be a success and at least a few hundred citizen/voters would show up to fill the Slidebar Café. Well, according to local officials, the crowd that showed up numbered at least eight THOUSAND. And they weren’t very quiet, either. The rally was raucous and wild, with chants of “heads on a stick” reverberating in the air.
The rally in Fullerton may be a turning point in the new California Tax Revolt. Citizens are angry. They are angry at the abject lack of rational fiscal management of the Golden State; they are angry that labor unions are wholly protected with their excessive pay and bullet proof pensions; they are angry at corporate California which is quick to protect its own interests ($500 million tax break for Hollywood) while throwing the working class under the bus.
The only question that our elected officials must now ask themselves is whether the level of anger among ordinary citizens will coalesce into a significant political force. Our bet is that, like 1978, they will make a major miscalculation and will pay the political price for doing so.
California is a basket case.
Uh, Get in line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going Galt for kalifornica!!!GLTA!
My bet is that Californians will re-elect Boxer, Feinswine, and all the rest of the usual suspects and then go back to sleep.
We'll see.
Oh BS. California isn’t going to do a d*mn thing. You don’t have enough with-it citizens to out-vote the “downtrodden.”
The Democrat party has sown the wind, and will eventually reap the whirlwind. Hopefully, that will be soon. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of arrogant, socially-unjust, moral busybodies!
Maybe this article should be written in Spanish?
Hard to believe.
The state was way past broke and the fine citizens of the state voted for more bonds for more stuff just last November...
Stupid is as stupid does and we got a whole lot of stupid going around...
I hope all you Cali’s got kissed after the budget reaming!
LOL :) That's the spirit!
We just got $50 billion from the stimulus bill. This will keep us quiet for 3 months. We will then throw another tantrum and you better have whatever we ask of you ready—gay marriage, amnesty, more money, pot legalization etc. If you do not give in, we will declare you are a moral wretch and undeserving of being an American.
Does this sum up my state’s attitude nicely ;):):)
this summer should get interesting, as more and more tax payers learn about their so-called "tax breaks"
How mad are you?
Mad enough to flood Washington with DEMANDS to close the border?
Mad enough to DEMAND that the ICE enforce the immigration laws?
Mad enough to stop entitlements?
Mad enough to actively campaign for legislation and people who will do the right things?
Mad enough to flog the lobbists into withdrawal and submission?
Mad enough to call out those who will take your possessions from you, your food, your home, your work? Call them out and make them answer to you?
I wonder the same about all of us.
Is it too late? Are there enough who are on your side to make it count?
“You don’t have enough with-it citizens to out-vote the “downtrodden.””
#####
Agreed.
Many of the sane, traditional-values California citizens of the 1978 revolution, are now dead, replaced by their “progressive”, Gaia-worshipping, narcicisstic, smelly hippie offspring.
Good luck. I'm out
I’m afraid I agree. I wish it were not so, but the power of incumbency is almost impossible to overcome - particularly when the media is complicit in maintaining the status quo.
...I’ll believe it when I see the vote tallies...
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