Arnold has little to do with the collapse of California? What has he and the republican party been doing the last 5 years or more except impeaching governors and claiming they have all te answers and solutions for fixing California? Was he and the republicans lying then, or are they lying now?
As far as being a conservative - if he walks and talks like a duck… I know, it must suck to support a party that has bankrupted not only California but America too.
It sucks about as much as being completely blinded to the reality of the world. Besides, I didn’t vote for Arnold - but, you keep casting generalizations as it makes you sound so informed.
When you can provide specifics as to how the Republicans - over the last 5 years - have bankrupted the California economy, I’ll listen to you. Until then, I’d recommend reading the most recent Economist, they have a fascinating summary article of the California situation. Should I sit back and wait for you to tell me that the Economist is a conservative opinion?
What is leading to the collapse of CA is too many illegal and legal Mexican migrants and public employee unions. You solve those two issues and you solve CA’s problems.
Thats pretty standard rhetoric throughout history when we fall upon hard times; blame the people who just got here, who are at the bottom of the social and economic ladders and who might look or speak a bit differently from us.
We have blamed Jews, Italians, Germans and Irish, today its the Mexicans. In 50 years from now it will be someone else.
last time I checked there were no “illegal immigrants” running Wall Street Investment banks and no “illegal immigrants” writing state budgets.
I was at a conference yesterday in Sacramento that sought to address the state’s ills and what can be done to fix them. There were business types, local electeds, academics, historians, labor, Orange County republicans, seniors, Moveon.orgers, and a few Sacramento lawmakers even dared to show their faces, I heard a lot of people talk and offer up their reasons for the mess we are in and in 7 hours of discussion from a very diverse collection of people I didn’t hear a single person blame either immigration or public employee unions for our difficulties.
The general consensus in the room was that the people of California have failed the state…2 generations worth…by taking so much power away from the legislature they have made it ineffective, by mandating so much spending and so many tax ceilings, by running the state by a series stand alone initiaitves rather than a coherent policy or vision.
2 generations of Californians have run the state into the ditch and its real easy to look up from the bottom of that ditch and yell that a Mexican ran you off the road…easy, but not true.
I’m not sure if that comment is pink font material but I’ll assume it’s not. The reason they come here is well documented and justified in many cases. That does not erase the reality that they require a lot of care, alter populations were they settle, require large expenditures in facilites in areas that normally wouldn’t have a need.
They come here because there is a demand for their labor, they don’t come for our magnificent 50th out of 50 States public education system, thats for damn sure.
As I stated, I was in a room full of 400 people yesterday all discussing what has brought the state to this point, and not a single person mentioned immigration, illegal or otherwise. Its not the problem, but it is a convenient scapegoat…always has been.
Maybe your 400 participants are not from immigrant country.
Where I live it’s a pretty big topic. We have whole cities being transformed. Hospital ER’s overwhlemed, expensive schools being built in podunk communities, low income apartment built with state tax credits, crime, graffiti, state prisons full of Mexican gangs, drive by killing between Mexican gangs that happen to drive in the wrong area.
The state’s biggest problem is that the people we elect to govern can’t govern. 7% of our budget is discretionary spending. The rest is voter mandated…how can you possibly balance a budget if 93% of expenditures are out of your control? on the revenue side, because of Prop 13 we are almost totally dependent on income taxes. Well we all know that income taxes fluctuate wildly according to the economy and right now they are wildly down. Also, when tax revenues are high in the good years, voter mandated formulae kick in to hire more teachers, prison guards, Caltrans workers and fund new programs, then the very next year if Google has a bad run (and I’m not joking) our revenues plummet and we have a bunch of people on the payroll and no money to pay them.
The 2/3 requirement for a budget does not work. There is no accountability in government for when things go wrong. If a bad budget requires everyone’s sign off nobody has to take responsibility for it and as always happens everyone gets to blame the other guy.
The voters have been running this state by initiative for 30 years and we have done a lousy job. We have voted to cut our taxes and mandate spending for our favorite causes, and after so many years of doing we have no room left to do anything. We are running the state on a structural deficit and look for new accounting tricks and gimmicks every year to get a deal done. Well there are no more tricks or gimmicks left after we sell the State lottery.
We have also been living in denial and blaming everyone…usually the people we elect to do this impossible job…except ourselves. Term limits were and remain an awful idea. Right now there are freshmen legislators who can;t find the bathroom and are chaiting important Committees! this is the 7th biggest economy in the world and we run it like a banana republic. We need to either abolish term limits altogether ot extend them to 14 years in a single house so that elected have time to learn the job and rebuild all the institutional knowledge that has been lost. There used to be people who understood the budget in Sacramento…now they hardly have time to leaf through Roberts Rules before they are running for the next office.
To blame illegal immigration for our monstrosity of a 500 page constitution and our completely disfunctional government is, well its just stupid.
Maybe your 400 participants are not from immigrant country.
Where I live it’s a pretty big topic. We have whole cities being transformed. Hospital ER’s overwhlemed, expensive schools being built in podunk communities, low income apartment built with state tax credits, crime, graffiti, state prisons full of Mexican gangs, drive by killing between Mexican gangs that happen to drive in the wrong area.
They were from all over the state. There were speakers from Imperial County to Modoc and all points in between.
Perhaps you should have come along, it was open to the public.
i was being sarcastic. personaly, I think illegal immagration is a big problem financially for our state. just a i feel cases like octomom are as well. the schools, especially LA city School district, is bleeding us.
i have no problem helping people out, but there has to be a limit on that~! Or the cycle of entitlement will continue on…
Like I said it was a very diverse (in terms of opinion and gegraphy) crowd and lots of wildly differing opinions were stated and nobody was booed or chased anywhere, not even the guy from the Lincoln Club of Orange County who was a prominent speaker.
If you think you have a valid and more importantly an as yet unrepresented opinion you should contact the organizers and let them know how you and your community or opinion bloc feels because it was not shared by anyone yesterday.
I’m guessing the only ones who show up to those things are the ones without real jobs because if the subject of illegal immigration and the cost to provide services did not come up, there is no way it could have been a credible discussion. The Feds inability to control our border is one of many significant drains on our system. Ignoring that FACT is incredibly naive.
There were 400 people in the room give or take, I’d say about a good third of them representatives of local and county government from around the state, the rest a mixture of business leaders, constitutional experts, academics, labor, and Joe and Jane Public who care enough about the future of the state to take a day off work and travel to Sacramento to participate.
Every single group in the state that studies government and governance was there and most of them had podium time; California Forward, Common Cause, League of Women Voters, New America Foundation, Center for Government Reform, COurage Campaign, Bay Area Council, Lincoln Club of Orange County, William C Velazquez Institute.
The most notable slant or bias in the room was that it was overwhelmingly white and largely male.
Like you said, you’re only guessing, and you’re guessing wrong.
Unfortunately, I’m going to be part of the problem and not the solution and vote with my feet. I’m outta here ASAP. I just don’t see any way to cure the two problems I brought up and both are going to grow exponentially.
I am with ya…Born and raised in SoCal…but, as soon as I finish up this military gig, I am out of here (apr/may2010). I am going to go hang out with Lance in Austin, Tx…Tx does not tax my military pension…and the cost of living is way cheaper. My retirement dollar will go a bit farther there!~ I will only miss the surfing, but, I could always visit or just head off to Costa Rica…
Arnold is only a Republican by title. His actions have always been that of a liberal. That is one of the big problems with the Republican party. Rather than acting like conservatives, they have acted like big libs. George Bush was another one who was a Republican by name, but acted like a big lib on spending.
IMO both parties need a big boot out of office. Why morons keep voting these guys in is the real problem. If people would actually care more about their government, they probably would. Most people that go to the polls are very very misinformed. They only seem to vote on what they hear rather than what actually occurs.
I would blame most of our current problems on the government inept ways of doing things.