We're often told that California is the wave of the future; what's going on in California today will be coming to the rest of the Union soon.
With Democrats having complete control of California for some time, there are two Democrats and no Republicans running for the open Senate seat for example, what's happening in California today is a perfect example of what Democrats in general will bring to your neighborhood if they win in November.
First we all know how much Democrats say they care for the poor. They show it by making sure there are lots of poor people. If you doubt that just note that while California has 12% of the US population it has 34% of the US's welfare recipients.
We constantly hear about how Democrats care about the homeless. Yet all the big cities in California--including San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles-- have massive homeless populations. Despite the $241,000,000 a year that SF spends on the homeless problem there are more and more people living on the streets.
Perhaps that's due to the insane costs of housing in California. A 1300 sq ft house can go for >$2,000,000 and a single bedroom apartment can run you $1700 a month, and that's not in SF itself where a single bedroom apartment runs, on average, $3334/month.
All those peoples living on the streets has led to so much human poop on sidewalks that there is an app for that; the app lets you report human feces you see to the city. If you want to plan a poop free stroll through SF you can go here where there is a poop map. Sadly it's not updated in real time so when you walk in SF you literally have to keep your head down.
The poop and the general unsanitary condition of the homeless lead to serious public health issues such as Hepatitis A outbreaks in San Diego and other California cities like Los Angeles.
The good news is that compared to all the used needles that are on the street the poop might not be the biggest health risk.
The poop and the general unsanitary condition of the homeless lead to serious public health issues such as Hepatitis A outbreaks in San Diego and other California cities like Los Angeles.
The good news is that compared to all the used needles that are on the street the poop might not be the biggest health risk.
The time is coming when SF and other cities won't be able to wash the poop away. Because California hasn't increased its water storage capacity since the 1970s even though the state’s population has gone from 25,000,000 in 1982 to 40,000,000 today the ruling Democrats have passed a law mandating permanent water rationing even when California isn't experiencing a drought. Because "environmentalists" view dams and other water storage techniques as bad and the Democrats are nothing if not environmentally conscious, no oil platforms spoiling the views from their beachfront mansions, the only solution in the minds of Democrats is to force people to live with less water.
Here's how California's water use breaks down; 50% for the environment, 40% for farming, and 10% for cities. Even in the middle of the drought and written in stone via the new and tightening water use laws passed by the Democrats half of all the fresh water available to California is used for environmental purposes. Of course for the rich Silicon Valley and LA elites there are ways around water rationing so the Democrat base will stay happy. They don't care that cutting off water for farmers throws farm workers, who are mostly minorities, out of jobs.
Keeping that wealthy base happy is absolutely critical to California. The top 1% income earners in California account for 48% of the state’s revenues. If just a few thousand people decided to leave California for say a state where they don't pay 13.3% state tax on top of their Federal taxes the state would collapse.
Which is why Democrats are desperately trying to figure out how to let the rich in California cheat on their Federal taxes. As part of the Republican tax reduction plan deductions for State taxes were capped at $10,000. Given that only the uber rich would pay anywhere near that much even in highly taxed states like California one would think that Democrats would love it. Instead they're trying to find ways for rich Californians to avoid it.
Trump is working hard to prevent State sponsored tax cheating. If he succeeds those mega wealthy folk who California depends on might ponder moving to other states with less rip off the rich attitudes. Note that California Democrats aren't trying to reduce the tax load only make sure that they get more of taxpayer’s money and the Federal government gets less.
But at least we can know that the Democrats are being financially responsible right? Wrong. The state has a deficit in funding for public pensions ranging between $247,000,000,000 and $992,000,000,000 depending on how rosy a financial projection for future growth in the US economy is used. Yes you read that right; California could be nearly a trillion dollars in the hole on its pension obligations.
Like Democrats in general however California Democrats aren't worried about that because by the time the pensions of all those California public employees dry up the current crop of California Democrats will be no longer running for office and hence will have no need to buy votes using the taxpayers money.
The Democrats have also shown that they don't care about mundane things like maintaining the California infrastructure. California should be spending about $77,000,000,000 to fix its aging infrastructure.
Instead they're concentrating on things that really matter like providing free lawyers for illegals. That's right the 2018 California budget includes $10,000,000 for lawyers to fight deportation of illegals. Another $1,600,000 will go to establish an office of eight attorneys and investigators to carry out the new California law that requires employers to notify illegal employees of upcoming immigration actions.
The Democrat vision of a borderless country where anyone who can wander in will get welfare for life is being tried in California. In addition to being a sanctuary state, note that only illegals who commit more crimes once they're in the US benefit from sanctuary cities or states, California welcomes illegals with open arms. Illegals get state subsidized tuition at California colleges even though they presumably don't pay the state’s high state income tax rates. Even better from a Democrat perspective illegals are actually stealing slots at California colleges from the children of real US citizens. Because of the subsidies there are only so many slots available in California public colleges. Every illegal who gets in is keeping one child of actual US citizens out.
But at least we can know that the Democrats are being financially responsible right? Wrong. The state has a deficit in funding for public pensions ranging between $247,000,000,000 and $992,000,000,000 depending on how rosy a financial projection for future growth in the US economy is used. Yes you read that right; California could be nearly a trillion dollars in the hole on its pension obligations.
Like Democrats in general however California Democrats aren't worried about that because by the time the pensions of all those California public employees dry up the current crop of California Democrats will be no longer running for office and hence will have no need to buy votes using the taxpayers money.
The Democrats have also shown that they don't care about mundane things like maintaining the California infrastructure. California should be spending about $77,000,000,000 to fix its aging infrastructure.
Instead they're concentrating on things that really matter like providing free lawyers for illegals. That's right the 2018 California budget includes $10,000,000 for lawyers to fight deportation of illegals. Another $1,600,000 will go to establish an office of eight attorneys and investigators to carry out the new California law that requires employers to notify illegal employees of upcoming immigration actions.
The Democrat vision of a borderless country where anyone who can wander in will get welfare for life is being tried in California. In addition to being a sanctuary state, note that only illegals who commit more crimes once they're in the US benefit from sanctuary cities or states, California welcomes illegals with open arms. Illegals get state subsidized tuition at California colleges even though they presumably don't pay the state’s high state income tax rates. Even better from a Democrat perspective illegals are actually stealing slots at California colleges from the children of real US citizens. Because of the subsidies there are only so many slots available in California public colleges. Every illegal who gets in is keeping one child of actual US citizens out.
Sadly some critical things, like providing free medical care and tax breaks to illegals, didn't make it into the budget but the Democrat candidate for Governor Gavin Newsom, you know the guy who had an affair with his assistant who happened to be the wife of a close associate but it's not a #MeToo thing because he's a Democrat like Clinton, says that he'll provide medical care for everyone in California including illegals.
Newsom is showing some uncharacteristic fiscal constraint for a Democrat. Instead of supporting the full $64,000,000,000 high speed train from SF to LA he's for a limited yet massively expensive plan to make a high-speed train that runs from the San Joaquin Valley to the SF Bay Area so Silicon Valley workers can live in the Fresno and commute to the Bay area. Which means the state as a whole is subsidizing Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and Google to the tune of billions of dollars. But then that's the Democrats vision; give your buddies who are censoring conservative speech all the money they want.
The money Newsom "saves" by building a smaller train that no one will use won't make a dent in his $400,000,000,000 plan to provide health care for all Californians and all illegals. Aside from the fact that the California government hasn't show any ability to efficiently run anything there is the small problem that Newsom would have to raise taxes by $50,000,000,000 to pay for it.
The Democrats in California have released criminals early and have made felonies into misdemeanors. As a result violent crime, and crime in general, has gone up. This is a standard Democrat view of the world though; every time higher incarceration rates leads to lower crime rates Democrats express shock.
And of course the California Democrats are all for raising taxes; they just massively increased the gas tax which translates into the average California family giving an additional $650-$800 to the ruling Democrats. What's odd is that while a gasoline tax is highly regressive, it has a much more significant impact on the poor than on the rich, Democrats who are supposedly champions of the poor are all for it.
California Democrats have shown us the true Democrat vision for America:
California Democrats have shown us the true Democrat vision for America:
- Massive overspending government
- Open borders
- Soft on criminals
- Taking away your doctors and your medical insurance
- Creating lots of poor people
- #MeToo only applies to conservative offenders; Bill Clinton champions women
- Government of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich
- Unaffordable housing and an exploding homeless population
- Raising taxes on the poor so that the rulers can spend even more of the people's money
No sane person wants the rest of the US to follow California down the rat hole that the Democrats have made. But that's where we're all headed if we turn the reins of power over to the Democrats in November.
You can read more of Tom's rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment