Don't you love it when you run for public office and you campaign on "reforms" and manipulate everyone into thinking that's what you're going to do...? Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger did, and nothing was reformed...
What about re-running for the public office that you held some twenty five years before, and campaign on "living within our means"... well Jerry Brown did, and it looks like "living within our means" might become "live in total poverty" soon enough.
It turns out that California Governor-elect Jerry Brown came clean yesterday, adding: "We've been living in fantasy land, it is much worse than I thought. I'm shocked..."
Oh my, I'm so shocked too!
But don't worry Governor Brown, the California Legislative Analyst Office said that the State will not go bankrupt and the Government will not collapse.
Yeah right.
You would think that something like this would at least force people to wake up to the grim reality that California is in. In a more common comparison, California's deepening financial crisis is of the magnitude that Greece is currently going through.
Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger and the State Legislature made significant cutbacks to State programs, yet, it still faced a $20 billion budget gap, which in turn just last month, actually amounted to $25 billion because the Legislature under estimated some of those cuts. Of course that does not include the $200 billion California has in loans and other debts.
Business Insider had an interesting look at some of the other ridiculous spending in Sacramento that has gone on over the last several years:
- In the past 23 years, California has established 23 prisons (one per year) each costing roughly $100 million a year to operate; yet it only established one University, being UC Merced.
- To prove that we spend more money on illegal aliens, than we spend on improving our educational system, 23,000 teachers received pink slips in the last year, yet we spend $859 million a year on imprisoning illegal aliens.
- Seven of the most unemployed cities in the United States, are right in California.
- $500 million is spent each year on fire control
The situation is incredible. Now California is already having to rely on the Federal Government for some kind of bailout. Last month, Sacramento announced it would receive $40 million a day from Washington just to cover its unemployment benefits.
Already, Governor Brown says California's deficit could rise to $28 billion over the next year and a half, and face $20 billion in State deficits through fiscal year 2015-2016. He and the State Treasurer are looking into cutting spending by 25% across the board, and even potential problems in California raising over $3 billion in costs associated to meet the mandates in President Obama's Health Care Bill. At the same time, he is exploring the option of raising taxes into his first year, which is the last thing he should even think about. That would rise the unemployment levels in California and perhaps force people into the brink of poverty.
It is clear that the California State Legislature is the problem. They bow down to the unions and want spending for all their radical programs and other things that this State simply cannot afford any more. I'm sure that nearly 95% of them probably don't even read any of the bills they implement in Sacramento, and of course, they're supposed to be the ones that approve the budget each year, and probably that same 95% don't even have a clear conscious as to what they're doing.
The central spending problem in California is obvious: The cost of illegal immigration and funding to pension plans and benefits. Reform those two issues, and California's crisis can be reduced.
Whether or not Jerry Brown will actually see the writing on the wall and realize that this has to stop, is still unclear.
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