Poster Child for Insanity: Los Angeles Times Advocates Even Higher Taxes So Californians Can "Pay It Forward"

Those sounds you just heard were California's beleaguered taxpayers smacking themselves on their foreheads:

California's budget is almost never adopted by the legal deadline, but it was this year — in part because of a new simple-majority-vote requirement that left quarrelsome Republicans out of the discussion, and in part because daydreaming Democrats relied on a vaporous wish that the economy was going to improve and that the state would recoup $3.7 billion more in tax revenues than now seems likely. The shortfall is expected to trigger $2 billion in spending cuts, and Californians who think that's a good thing — that the cuts will impose needed fiscal discipline, or will force the state to make more responsible decisions, or will punish lazy freeloaders or greedy state workers — should wake up and smell the future...

...California is a wealthy state, with enough money and brains to create a future of opportunity and achievement for the next generation. As we face these new triggered cuts and even deeper cuts in the coming year, Californians must now show whether we still have sufficient regard for each other and for our successors to invest a little more today for an abundant, and sustainable, future.

The Times ignores the costs of California's operation as a sanctuary state, which the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates at $20 billion. Consider just one slice of that figure and the devastating effects that California's open borders policies have on taxpayers:

According to The Modesto Bee, the California correctional system spends $50,000 annually to house each prisoner. This translates to 10 percent of the entire state's budget -- more than double that of the immense California university system -- which is spent on prisoners.

The state prison system currently houses about 155,000 inmates, 21,000 of whom are illegal aliens. Thus, California is spending about $1,050,000,000 (one billion and fifty million dollars) on imprisonment of illegals alone.

There is only way out of this mess for California before cities and the state itself descend into bankruptcy and chaos: they must eradicate collective bargaining rights for public sector workers; they must terminate open borders policies that allow sanctuary cities to exist in California; and they must rein in the regulatory superstate that has sent businesses fleeing the state in record numbers.

The time is now, Californians. You don't have much time left to repair this mess. Reject the idiocy of the Los Angeles Times and the other leftists who have set the state on a course for economic collapse. Vote for freedom.

California's Version of the 'Buffet Rule' Working Out Beautifully. Oh, Wait: It's Actually an Unmitigated Disaster.

'Progressive' left hardest hit.

The state's over-reliance on taxing the rich has been a disaster during bad times

If President Obama really wants to see the "Buffett Rule" in action, he should look at California's tax system. The state has been plagued by it for years.

The revenue stream is unstable and the state budget has been a deficit disaster... In California, we've got what you could call a Buffett Rule-Plus. There's an extra tax bracket — at 10.3% — for income exceeding $1 million.

...California relies heavily on rich investors for its income tax revenue, which fuels half of the general fund... Some examples of this over-dependence, based on the 2009 tax year:

• The top 1% earned 18% of California's income but paid 37% of the income tax.

Illustrating the volatility of the California income tax, however, the top 1% paid 48% of the total take in 2007 before the stock market collapsed. In the next two years, the state's income tax revenue fell 25%.

• The top 10% earned 45% of the income but paid 72% of the taxes.

• During the recession, the middle class paid a slightly larger share of the declining income tax take. Those earning between $45,000 and $84,000 kicked in 11% of the total revenue in 2009, compared to 9% two years earlier. But one could argue they still were under-taxed. They earned 19% of the income.

"The real people who don't get taxed enough in California are the middle-income folks," says Steve Levy, director of the left-leaning Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy...

...Meanwhile, if Buffett really wanted to live by his own rule, he could leave Nebraska, move to California and pay our state taxes.

The math is actually pretty simple, unless you're a Democrat:

• If you punish success, you drive successful people away.

• If you reward sloth, you get more sloth.

• If you promote illegal behavior (such as illegal immigration), you get more illegal behavior.

But you can be sure that none of the tautological facts describing human behavior will ever influence a single progressive. Because for drones, ideology always trumps facts, logic, history and reason.


Image: HillBuzz.