A warning shot in California:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to permanently fix California's "broken budget system." But three times now he has tried and failed to smooth out the state's roller coaster revenues.
Voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected his latest effort, a package of budget-balancing measures that he promised would provide a short-term patch for the current financial crisis and prevent further catastrophe in the future.
Instead, he now faces a $21.3 billion budget deficit and a budget system that has not changed a bit since he took office nearly six years ago.
California, in the words of the Atlantic's Megan McArdle, "is completely, totally, irreparably hosed." The state will eventually "figure out whether it wants higher taxes or lower spending." The whole country needs to figure that one out, and
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California is failing because of its liberal government spending and its direct democracy, aka mobocracy, which puts special interest propositions before its voters almost every year.
Look for the Governator to appeal to Obama for a bailout instead of cutting unnecessary government programs. So far he threatens necessary programs such as police, fire and prisons but most of the bloated bureacracy will survive.
See my blog on the this subject by clicking "gadfly."
California is truly the most progressive state of all. Progressively driving right off the frickin' cliff, as the rest of the country will do eventually in this grand era of hope-n-change.
First time ever that the next generation will be worse off in America. They'll be poor, but hey, at least they'll be politically correct. That's what's important.