California's asinine ballot propositions
Note: This probably doesn't mean much to you if you're not living in California, but I am (for the time being), so I'm going to rant about it. Also, this blog post may contain obscene references, and not just the pointers to the obscene ballot initiatives; I think the California legislature should take most of the blame, though, because without their continued gross incompetence, corruption, and enormous malfeasance, we wouldn't be voting on this steaming pile of crap next week.
The understand why these proposals are so insulting, you really have to look at California's politics over the last decade (and longer). Without getting into the details, basically California spends money on unions, welfare, and crap, and lots of it, so much so that even with an income which eclipses many countries, California has been running a deficit for a long time, which is now around $40 billion (and $20 billion annually), as far as I can tell. And it that's not enough, we already also have some of the highest tax rates in the entire country. Yes, California truly is the laughing stock of fiscal responsibility in the US, second only to the Obama administration in magnitude of waste and gross fiscal incompetence.
Now, apparently, after many years of papering over growing problems, being bailed out by increased revenue from various bubble, and all the while ever increasing the wasteful spending, California has approached the point where they need to close the budget gap (a little... closing roughly 25% of the annual gap is apparently enough to meet the state Constitutional requirement of a "balanced" budget, no doubt through more accounting gymnastics). Our brainless legislators have come up with a set of proposals the boldly reduce the budget deficit, making the necessary sacrifices to save money along-side the many state residents who are struggling to make ends meet...
No, wait, they didn't do that at all... THEY F-ING RAISED TAXES! W... T... F...?!? After years and years of papering over the problem, we're finally at the point where the legislature would be forced, finally, to adopt a minuscule smidgen of fiscal responsibility, and they have the unmitigated gall to instead demand even more money for their gross incompetence and corruption! It's ridiculous, it's insulting, and it's sadly indicative of just how fundamentally corrupt and disconnected California's government is.
On a slightly less aggravating note, it looks like all the proposals except one will be defeated; the one exception being the one proposal added by the people and not by the incompetent retards in government, which limits government compensation increases when there's a budget deficit (a woefully inadequate punishment for continued obscene stupidity, but a good start). I'm sure the government will just figure out a new and more creative way to paper over the deficits without voter approval in an unconstitutional manner like they have for the last ten years, but it's nice to see the voters solidly rejecting the latest attempts to be insulted by our leaders. Maybe eventually that rejection of malfeasance will percolate up to the elections of the people largely responsible for the actual disaster that is California's finances, although I'm probably not going to bet my financial livelihood on it much longer.
The understand why these proposals are so insulting, you really have to look at California's politics over the last decade (and longer). Without getting into the details, basically California spends money on unions, welfare, and crap, and lots of it, so much so that even with an income which eclipses many countries, California has been running a deficit for a long time, which is now around $40 billion (and $20 billion annually), as far as I can tell. And it that's not enough, we already also have some of the highest tax rates in the entire country. Yes, California truly is the laughing stock of fiscal responsibility in the US, second only to the Obama administration in magnitude of waste and gross fiscal incompetence.
Now, apparently, after many years of papering over growing problems, being bailed out by increased revenue from various bubble, and all the while ever increasing the wasteful spending, California has approached the point where they need to close the budget gap (a little... closing roughly 25% of the annual gap is apparently enough to meet the state Constitutional requirement of a "balanced" budget, no doubt through more accounting gymnastics). Our brainless legislators have come up with a set of proposals the boldly reduce the budget deficit, making the necessary sacrifices to save money along-side the many state residents who are struggling to make ends meet...
No, wait, they didn't do that at all... THEY F-ING RAISED TAXES! W... T... F...?!? After years and years of papering over the problem, we're finally at the point where the legislature would be forced, finally, to adopt a minuscule smidgen of fiscal responsibility, and they have the unmitigated gall to instead demand even more money for their gross incompetence and corruption! It's ridiculous, it's insulting, and it's sadly indicative of just how fundamentally corrupt and disconnected California's government is.
On a slightly less aggravating note, it looks like all the proposals except one will be defeated; the one exception being the one proposal added by the people and not by the incompetent retards in government, which limits government compensation increases when there's a budget deficit (a woefully inadequate punishment for continued obscene stupidity, but a good start). I'm sure the government will just figure out a new and more creative way to paper over the deficits without voter approval in an unconstitutional manner like they have for the last ten years, but it's nice to see the voters solidly rejecting the latest attempts to be insulted by our leaders. Maybe eventually that rejection of malfeasance will percolate up to the elections of the people largely responsible for the actual disaster that is California's finances, although I'm probably not going to bet my financial livelihood on it much longer.
Nick - My wife and I sat down at the dinner table and filled out our absentee ballot. We applied basic 1st grade math skills and common sense that a kindergarten student could grasp. Shockingly we voted against every single prop, except for the compensation one. Well said here. WTF has this state turned into?
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