California Reamin'
Dan Walters -- Sacramento Bee
An election eve e-mail from a reader in Oxnard perfectly captured the tone of Tuesday's voting, to wit: "Schwarzenegger, Bass, Cogdill, Villines, Steinberg and the rest of those stinking, lying Sacramento bastards can go straight to hell. They're going to be whacked hard upside their heads tomorrow." [See Cal Meltdown Watch]
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National Review
5.20.09
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Mark Steyn
Following California's "tax revolt" and the usual editorials from a dying media sneering at the electorate as tantrum-throwing kindergartners, we now move on to the swimsuit round, in which the Golden State's woes are federalized and redistributed to the nation at large. In the states' version of the Obama model for everything from mortgages to credit cards, the feckless will have their pathologies rewarded and the prudent will get stuck with the tab. The Atlantic's Megan McArdle cuts to the chase:
"California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed."
Up next: New York.
As Miss McArdle notes, whether you bail out states "too big to fail" or let them go bankrupt, it will cause pain to taxpayers. But the pain of the latter is relatively short-term. Passing Sacramento's buck to Washington will accelerate the centralizing pull in American politics and eventually eliminate any advantage to voting with your feet.
Not to be too gloomy, but the country feels like it's seizing up. It's as if California and New York have burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi. If you're underneath, it's not going to be fun.
Following California's "tax revolt" and the usual editorials from a dying media sneering at the electorate as tantrum-throwing kindergartners, we now move on to the swimsuit round, in which the Golden State's woes are federalized and redistributed to the nation at large. In the states' version of the Obama model for everything from mortgages to credit cards, the feckless will have their pathologies rewarded and the prudent will get stuck with the tab. The Atlantic's Megan McArdle cuts to the chase:
"California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed."
Up next: New York.
As Miss McArdle notes, whether you bail out states "too big to fail" or let them go bankrupt, it will cause pain to taxpayers. But the pain of the latter is relatively short-term. Passing Sacramento's buck to Washington will accelerate the centralizing pull in American politics and eventually eliminate any advantage to voting with your feet.
Not to be too gloomy, but the country feels like it's seizing up. It's as if California and New York have burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi. If you're underneath, it's not going to be fun.
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Kathryn Jean Lopez
Tom Golisano is moving there. He says he has been taxed out of New York:
I LOVE New York. But how much should it cost to call New York home? Decades of out-of-control budgets, spending hikes and relentless borrowing have made New York simply too expensive.
Politicians like to talk about incentives — for businesses to relocate, for example, or to get folks to buy local. After reviewing the new budget, I have identified the most compelling incentive of all: a major tax break immedi ately available to all New Yorkers. To be eligible, you need do only one thing: move out of New York state.
Last week I spent 90 minutes doing a couple of simple things — registering to vote, changing my driver's license, filling out a domicile certificate and signing a homestead certificate — in Florida. Combined with spending 184 days a year outside New York, these simple procedures will save me over $5 million in New York taxes annually.
By moving to Florida, I can spend that $5 million on worthy causes, like better hospitals, improving education or the Clinton Global Initiative. Or maybe I'll continue to invest it in fighting the status quo in Albany. One thing's certain: That money won'tcontinue to fund Albany's bloated bureaucracy, corrupt politicians and regular special-interest handouts.
Read the whole New York Post piece here.
When President Obama gets done modelling the country after California and New York where will everyone move?
Tom Golisano is moving there. He says he has been taxed out of New York:
I LOVE New York. But how much should it cost to call New York home? Decades of out-of-control budgets, spending hikes and relentless borrowing have made New York simply too expensive.
Politicians like to talk about incentives — for businesses to relocate, for example, or to get folks to buy local. After reviewing the new budget, I have identified the most compelling incentive of all: a major tax break immedi ately available to all New Yorkers. To be eligible, you need do only one thing: move out of New York state.
Last week I spent 90 minutes doing a couple of simple things — registering to vote, changing my driver's license, filling out a domicile certificate and signing a homestead certificate — in Florida. Combined with spending 184 days a year outside New York, these simple procedures will save me over $5 million in New York taxes annually.
By moving to Florida, I can spend that $5 million on worthy causes, like better hospitals, improving education or the Clinton Global Initiative. Or maybe I'll continue to invest it in fighting the status quo in Albany. One thing's certain: That money won'tcontinue to fund Albany's bloated bureaucracy, corrupt politicians and regular special-interest handouts.
Read the whole New York Post piece here.
When President Obama gets done modelling the country after California and New York where will everyone move?
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George Will:
California, the sunny incubator of America's future, has relished its role as a leading indicator of political trends. Tuesday it became what it thinks it should be, the center of attention, but not in the way it wants to be...
posted by jillosophy at 5/20/2009 12:36:00 PM
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