Posted on 03/15/2012 4:01:15 AM PDT by Kaslin
In less than 50 years they ruined my home state.
They over-taxed it, over-regulated it and bankrupted it. They strangled its vibrant economy, destroyed its education system and let its infrastructure crumble.
Who are these people who've turned the Golden State into Greece?
Not Big Business. Not the rich. Not the poor. Not millions of immigrants from Des Moines or Juarez.
"They" are the career politicians in Sacramento. Their excessive lawmaking, taxing and spending have transformed California into a European welfare state with a grim future.
It's hard for me to believe how things have deteriorated in California since the late 1960s. I can remember when Ronald Reagan was governor. We had a surplus. He actually gave money back to the people of California.
The state once was famous for having the best education system, the best business climate, the best roads and infrastructure in America. It was a growing, dynamic paradise where people came to pursue their dreams and hopes.
Now California's a wreck that people and businesses are leaving in droves. And Gov. Brown and his gang are offering us more of the same this fall -- higher income and sales taxes and a bullet train no one wants but them.
To reverse its death spiral, California needs to return to a part-time legislature and turn its career politicians into part-time citizen politicians -- which is what they are in 41 other states and what they were in California until 1967.
Today the state's 120 legislators work year-round and their $95,000 salaries are sweetened by as much as $50,000 in tax-free per diem allowances. They are the highest-paid lawmakers in the country.
Compare California to Texas and Florida. In Texas they pay legislators $600 a month and the legislature meets 140 days a year. In Florida lawmakers get $30,000 a year and meet just 60 days.
The politicians in Texas and Florida do not make politics their careers. They have to have real jobs in the real world. When they're not in Austin or Tallahassee, they must live and do business under the same laws they have written.
Part-time legislators are what the founding fathers wanted lawmakers to be. My father Ronald Reagan was a citizen politician. Politics was not a career for him. It was a service. He gave of himself.
People have repeatedly asked me to run for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein. But I think that a new job I have -- chairing the "Citizen Legislature Act" -- is better for me and the state.
California citizens are in the streets collecting signatures now to put the initiative on the fall ballot. The act would return the state to a part-time legislature. Lawmaking sessions would be cut from 230 days to 90 days. And legislators would be forced to produce on-time, balanced budgets or not get paid. What a concept.
The act also would end politics as a full-time career in California. Legislators would be paid $1,500 a month. At $18,000 a year, they'd have to find real jobs and see what it's like to live under the dumb and/or bad laws they write by the thousands in Sacramento.
The "Citizen Legislature Act," which I will work hard to see become law, would shock the systems of the politicians. They'd have to start serving the people of California, not themselves. And I bet they wouldn't be passing any new bullet train legislation.
If this gets on the ballot, unions (mostly public) will spend hundreds of millions of $ to defeat it. The full-time, bought and paid for CA legislature is a huge gravy train for them.
One of the channels this week was talking about the welfare numbers & they said that California has over HALF of the welfare recipients!!!
Glad I left there after 40 years.
Nevada does the same. I think for 120 days only. Any ‘overage’ isn’t paid to politicians, either.
They want that bullet train, or any other major project financed by combinations of public, and private investment solely for the purpose of setting that money into motion under guise of a project. Once that money is “legitimately” set into motion it is difficult to track every penny, and easy as can be to pocket a considerable amount from the rapidly moving monetary exchanges. “They” report in the end “cost overruns”. Nobody goes to jail.”””””
There is a big reason why Warren Buffett bought out Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, IMO.
Also note the proposed route of the so-called bullet train (which keeps changing) is from nowhere to nowhere.
Chowchilla to Bakersfield? Only those going to visit prison inmates in Chowchilla will ride the thing. It will NEVER be viable, it will NEVER pay for itself.
Now the proposal is to have the bullet train go straight up the San Joaquin Valley, the advocates for this outrage and monstrosity claiming that “millions of people will be moving to the San Joaquin Valley in the next decades.” Nevermind that there are no JOBS there and that the SJV is agricultural, with lousy Hispanic majority schools and neighborhoods and businesses are fleeing Cal, not setting up here due to a hostile business climate.
We left California after living there for 39 years.
The legislative passes so many insane laws.
Someone asked Who elects them?
I don’t know. I suspect significant voter fraud.
Also note the proposed route of the so-called bullet train (which keeps changing) is from nowhere to nowhere.
Chowchilla to Bakersfield? Only those going to visit prison inmates in Chowchilla will ride the thing. It will NEVER be viable, it will NEVER pay for itself.
Now the proposal is to have the bullet train go straight up the San Joaquin Valley, the advocates for this outrage and monstrosity claiming that “millions of people will be moving to the San Joaquin Valley in the next decades.” Nevermind that there are no JOBS there and that the SJV is agricultural, with lousy Hispanic majority schools and neighborhoods and businesses are fleeing Cal, not setting up here due to a hostile business climate.
Historically, some of them have been very good at it. Eichmann, for instance.
If Michael Reagan can’t see a difference between someone from Des Moines - a US citizen, and someone from Juarez- an illegal, then he’s not worth messing with any more.
Go find Chuck deVore’s column “California vs Texas” instead.
I love the every other year thing.
It’s not clear to me that he can’t see a difference between a citizen and an illegal. What I hear him saying is the leftist response to illegals is what has caused the problem. If the laws as they were in 1965 were inforced as written, illegals would not be a problem. The liberals in Clownifornia decided not to enforce the law and, instead, voted to extend an endless stream of unpaid for benefits to illegals and others. It is the state government and the leftists who put them there that are the problem that will destroy the place.
California’s public unions seeking excessive tax dollars are the main source for funds for Democrat pols’ campaigning nationally.
A BK California. Whatever. It’s all in the plan.
Collateral damage.
I remember that not too long ago he seemed to defend amnesty “like his dad” even though Ronald Reagan admitted it had been a big mistake.
That isn’t quite accurate.
First, the federal government controls immigration and when they refuse to enforce the law the state doesn’t have a lot recourse. Ask Arizona...
Second, California voters have repeatedly tried to stop payments to illegals, remember prop 187?, and the Federal courts repeatedly strike them down.
Federal judges are nominated by presidents. How often has California’s electoral votes gone to democrats? You reap what you sow.
The same can be said for the country.
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