CA: %12 of the population, 1/3 of all welfare recipients

[Balog]

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304537904577277242682364690.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the state defaults...

[Perd Hapley]

Working link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304537904577277242682364690.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[longeyes]

If Obama gets a second term, you can expect this preponderantly Democratic state to be subsidized.  Meanwhile, they will play footsy with the books and try to raise every tax and fee in sight.

[Balog]

Bah, thanks fisty. Links get jacked up when I post from the ole phone.

If Obama gets a second term, you can expect this preponderantly Democratic state to be subsidized.  Meanwhile, they will play footsy with the books and try to raise every tax and fee in sight.

I'd be surprised if either side would do differently.

[Jamie B]

If Obama gets a second term, you can expect this preponderantly Democratic state to be subsidized.  Meanwhile, they will play footsy with the books and try to raise every tax and fee in sight.

Ahnald was not a very impressive governor from what I saw.

[bedlamite]

Ahnald was not a very impressive governor from what I saw.

It requires more than a governor, you also need legiscritters that are willing to do what's right.

[HankB]

Ahnald was not a very impressive governor from what I saw.

Ahnald the actor was not nearly as conservative as many of the characters he played - and remember, he married into the extended Kennedy clan. [sarcasm](Although to his credit, he did cheat . . . ) [/sarcasm]

A CA bailout would require some sort of funding through Congress, and many GOP senators and reps would not be very eager to send THEIR constituent's money to CA. (Probably more than a few Dems would be reluctant, too.)

To aid after a big earthquake, sure . . . but to aid after big spending? Nope.

[brimic]

A CA bailout would require some sort of funding through Congress, and many GOP senators and reps would not be very eager to send THEIR constituent's money to CA. (Probably more than a few Dems would be reluctant, too.)

We bail out Greece, we'll bail out our own Greece as well.

[Perd Hapley]

Did we bail out Greece?

[HankB]

Hmmm . . . didn't one of Obama's minions recently assert that handouts are good for the economy?

Maybe what Kalifornia needs is more people getting handouts. I suggest we all lobby our legislators to encourage - vigorously! - the wholesale relocation of our own welfare class to the Golden State to give their economy a much needed shot in the arm.

It will be hard, but I'm willing to make the sacrifice . . . I'm even willing to throw in some illegal aliens as a bonus; kick the percentage up a little, and places like LA won't even have to keep printing street signs and ballots in English any more.

[Ben]

It requires more than a governor, you also need legiscritters that are willing to do what's right.

This.

Which is why CA is getting to be a lost cause. I didn't vote for Arnold, I voted for McClintock. Nevertheless, I have to give Arnold credit for at least giving it a good try budget-wise his first year in office. He was simply overwhelmed by a ridiculous majority of progressives in the state legislature. After he gave up his budget fight, he simply became another Democrat, because that's where he was all along on social issues.

[LadySmith]

I didn't vote for Arnold, I voted for McClintock.

Great minds think alike. 

We're getting money from somewhere.
We went from "ZOMG, we're broke!!! Close the libraries! Lay off all the police & fire fighters unless we raise taxes to 98%!!!" to "Oops, it's not as bad as we thought. Let's hire back everybody we laid off and go back to work on our roads."
Perhaps CA is "too big to fail".

[longeyes]

I was for McC. too, but McC. is rara avis in a state like this.  A true conservative here?  Downright unnatural.

California is owned by the public sector unions and the Aztlan lobbyists in Sacramento.  There's no mystery about what's happened in the last 25 years.  I was here and watched the whole thing unfold.  No one in power will hear of real roll-backs on anything; too many hands out. The education octopus, in league with the unions, continues to expand and devour even as the schools decline.  Six-figure pensions are exploding but no one has the will to say the hard no.  They'd rather talk about higher taxes and high-speed rail to nowhere, about a green California with 50 million people (and, uh-oh, no water).  It's madness, a preview of what can happen nationally unless we begin to stop the insanity.  Everyone who can is leaving.

[brimic]

Did we bail out Greece?

Yes, but indirectly through the IMF.
The EU/Eurozone gets credit for bailing out Greece as well, but they are also backed by US taxpayer greenbacks.
If it wasn't for the US taxpayer, all of Europe would have fallen already under the weight of their welfare states.*

What's that sucking sound?

*Taken to its logical conclusion, one could argue that China is financing the bailuot of the Eurozone welfare states.