Bankrupt Cities of California The Future of America?

The failure of liberal leadership in California, is this what Americans in other states can look forward to in their towns?

Currently, the very basic precepts of capitalism and the American theme of self reliance are being challenged by the entitlement mentality in the US. Never before have Americans been so pressured by federal and state level government to accept hand outs and the crumbs of mediocrity as opposed to independence and success.

Once upon a time individualism and affluence were looked upon admiringly as the righteous and deserving fruits of one’s labor, yet we are now being urged to view these rewards for diligent work ethic and the blessings of our efforts as something to despise. That somehow when an American has risen to a level of success that he has cheated society and should be forced by the government to hand over his wealth to others who either did not work as hard or did not find the right recipe for success. Whose fault was that? The fault of the rich? Are we to persecute those who have done well for themselves just because we did not reach the same level of prosperity?

A Harbinger of Things To Come

In 2010 San Jose, California was one of the first progressive communities in the Golden State to declare bankruptcy. Why? It seems California has a very grave problem over the representation of the general public and tax. It seems that California legislators like leftist Barbara Boxer and the embattled Maxine Waters are working overtime to insure that state government will grow and prosper at the expense of its citizens. That the confiscatory policy of government outweighs the rights the people it is supposed to answer to.

State Government Out of Control

Somehow state residents, citizens, Americans have allowed their political parties to be co-opted by radical influence, Marxism, the type of progressive taxation that was advocated in the Communist Manifesto that proposed distribution of wealth. Progressive taxes have taken the concept of building more public works like necessities such as roads and bridges and perverted it into a spending spree by government officials who think they are above us  and beyond accountability. Thinking they don’t have to answer for leaving the budget in a hopeless deficit that will only result in more pain to the general public after this pampered politician has left office with his sweetheart contracts and generous benefits package at the expense of taxpayers for years to come. Such has been the case in California.

Recently more liberal California communities have succumbed to the pitfalls of out of control city spending and benefits for elected officials, municipal employees, and administrators who have profited off the public’s hard earned taxes with their bloated and collectively bargained pensions, healthcare packages, and other perks not always within the public purview. Cooked books by California politicians have been responsible with city officials over appraising real estate property values in order to increase tax revenue bases as part of the problem.

Stockton, who has been fighting a budget battle for years is now bankrupt, so is Vallejo. According to experts more of the Golden state’s towns are headed for the same. Why? California politics have been dominated by liberal politicians who find more ways to spend taxpayer’s money, find more social causes to throw money at, and use these expensive vote buying strategies as a debilitating way to stay in power as more and more Californians find it hard to stay employed, hang onto the mortgage of their catastrophically devalued property, and pay more state income tax for the privilege of remaining a  resident.

California's Regulations Are Job Killers

To make matters worse state government has mandated insanely punitive EPA regulations, ordinances, statutes, and codes that cost potential employers so much money they cannot afford to set up shop in California. State government actually maintains an adversarial role with corporations willing to do business in the Golden State but unable to comply with the excessive cost of operating under California’s punitive regulatory fees.

The CEO of Intel Corporation recently pointed out that the cost of building a plant in California was double what it would take for the company to establish a facility anywhere else in the US or abroad. These kinds of barriers to new business start ups are just partially responsible for the economic woes of the great west coast state. Instead, Intel officials opted to build a new chip factory in China. The loss of tax revenue, employment, and prestige is an immeasurable embarrassment to California government.

In Wisconsin where Governor Scott Walker had to contend with bloated state employee’s unions who had amassed pension and benefits that were causing deep state deficits, changes needed to be negotiated such as removing collective bargaining and asking employees to accept meager cuts in their benefits packages rather than raise taxes. As it turned out the plan worked, but not in California. State officials simply refuse to reduce the size of the government or the entitlement pressure being brought to bare upon city, county, and state levels.

Bloated Employee Pensions Killing Budgets

When librarians make more money than governors, when a city official’s retirement pension exceeds the tax revenue base of the community taxing authority, something is wrong. This is emblematic of California where voters don’t become informed or the leftist element is too strong to challenge. Recently with California in a 25.4 billion deficit in October of 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed the Dream Act for illegal immigrants in the state. At an initial cost of 40 million dollars at a time when California hospitals and clinics are going broke rendering treatment to a growing and demanding Mexican population of non-citizens government clearly demonstrates that it is a major part of the problem. With the growing influx of illegal immigrants and relocating out of state welfare recipients taking advantage of California’s generous handouts, the budget seems unrecoverable.

The Fruition of Liberal Leadership Failure

This is liberal government policy at work. It is a distinct warning to the rest of America how not to manage a state budget and allow runaway government to rob tax payers while social engineering. California state officials know where the growth is coming from, and that’s Mexico. They are willing to compromise the rights and interests of their residents in order to provide a foolish government sanctioned utopia that will drive out the middle class. Already doctors, businessmen, families, and small businesses are being forced to leave California unable to keep up with the cost of living there.

Soon California will reflect the very fruit of leftist political designs. Only the very rich will be left, who can afford the punitive confiscatory assault on their wallets while those living on the dole will remain living off the charity of the state government who had bought their loyalty through social programs paid for via state deficits and taxpayer’s grief. Nancy Pelosi answered the call of Washington DC leaving her representative position in San Francisco to fly back and forth between the nation’s capital and California. Demonstrating the typical self indulgence of liberal politicians the C-20B Gulfstream III 12 passenger jet was just not enough having to refill just short of her destination at times due to high winds that caused more fuel consumption in winter. Majority Speaker of the House Nancy instead requested larger military aircraft and even the Boeing 757, a much larger aircraft so as not to inconvenience herself. According to ABC news Pelosi had traveled on 20 roundtrip flights over 11 months from January 2007 to December 2008. Under the Aegis of security requirements after the 9-11 attack, and ordering the Air Force according to sources, Pelosi tied up large military aircraft in order to accommodate her  nonstop cross country flights. Obviously taxpayers footed the bill.

Thank Obama For The Example Set

In lieu of all the ways that government officials are eager to spend public funds, California should serve as a lesson to the rest of America. The states need to start exercising fiscal restraint and not to follow such abominable mishandling of revenues as has been evident in the liberal philosophy of spending without accountability as California has demonstrated. Yet, we see the same fiscal malaise repeated in President Obama’s refusal to draft a budget or restrain his spending habits as he has already brought the nation to one debt ceiling crisis and downgraded the credit rating of the US doing it.