Saturday, November 10, 2012

California’s Deadly Embrace of Big Government

The national election sends troubling signs about the direction the country is headed, but nothing much will change from the past four years, so we know what to expect even if it isn’t particularly good. But California voters have sent their state into some new and potentially dark territory, the results of which will soon be felt.
I quoted journalist H.L. Mencken before the election, but now is a good time to repeat his quip about democracy being the theory that the people know what they want and deserve to get it … “good and hard.” Californians are definitely going to feel the pain, not just in the passage of Proposition 30 and its direct hike in taxes.
The big news: It looks like voters have handed two-thirds majorities to Democrats in the state Senate and Assembly. The Senate is a sure thing and final counting will likely yield supermajority control of the Assembly, thanks in part to Fullerton voters’ apparent ousting of Chris Norby.
Currently, the only thing standing between California residents and endless sea of increases in sales taxes, income taxes, gasoline taxes, and business taxes has been the constitutional requirement that tax increases gain a two-thirds vote.
Republicans in California don’t stand for much, but they have mostly stood together in their opposition to tax increases. Likewise, Democrats—including the handful of “moderates”—have been unified in their promotion of higher taxes as the answer to California’s problems. Now the Democrats will have their way early and often.

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/11/09/californias-deadly-embrace-of-big-govern

No comments: