Monday, February 28, 2011

California Media Begging The Republicans To Allow Tax Hikes To Make Special Election Ballot

OK, sorry for the long headline, but it is true.
Overwhelmingly the California leftywhore media is on cue begging legislative Republicans to break ranks and approve the hair-brained scheme of Gov. Jerry Brown.
The scheme is to put on the California ballot, in a special election that will add cost to the taxpayers, an innitive that will continue the scam worked between former Gov. Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats. That scam increased the state sales tax. Which is currently 8.25% statewide (9.25% in Los Angeles county). And increased the vehicle registration fee. In other words, politicians continuing feeding at the trough. And claiming that gee, we can not really cut anything more.
So, radio talk show hosts John and Ken have a compendium of columnists across California media. And they are begging some Republicans to break ranks and allow the vote to take place.
Enter the Sacramento Bee and writer Dan Morian.
In this he claims that Gov. Brown is the last "adult" standing. And why is that? Because he is "scolding" both fellow Dems and GOP members of the state assembly. According to Mr. Morain, it is because Gov. Brown is calling on his fellow Dems to make deeper cuts. And for GOP members to vote to allow a special election to extend tax increases.
OK, here is a clue.
Republicans have gone down this road before.
Infact, ask the former Lt. Governor, Abel Political Whore Maldonaldo where his vote to raise taxes got him. A nice beating from the current Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Mike Vilines is another who decided to be "an adult". Mr. Vilines was the Assembly Republican leader and decided to support the governor over the people. When he ran for insurance commissioner, he nearly got beat by a total unknown. In the Republican primary. Yeah, you guessed it. Mr. Vilines is not the insurance commissioner.
These are but two examples.
See, Republicans cut a deal, think that they are doing something wonderful and magnanimous and get their hat handed to them in the end.
That is why so many Republicans are saying, as The Who once sang, "We won't get fooled again".
Ah. but Mr. Morain is actually an adult on this beg of the Republicans.
This dim bulb, John Diaz, the editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronic, er Chronicle, accuses the Republicans of hiding. Not offering anything of their own. Why, the Republicans are denying the people of the California the right to raise their taxes. And, because it appears this Diaz fellow has not listened to John and Ken, he does not like their "Heads on a stick" in reference to Republicans that say they will not raise taxes and vote to do so. Now John and Ken have had their "Heads on a stick" shtick for a while. But leave it to Mr. Diaz to throw in how awful it is ever since the assassination attempt on Arizona congressman Gabrielle Giffords to have such a reference. Here it is:

(John and Ken seem to have missed the memo about the unseemliness of violent imagery in the wake of January's attempted assassination of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.)

Hey, dim bulb Diaz, there is no memo except from people like you. And please, stop that already. We know that the attempted assassin, Jared Loughner, is nothing but a nut job. There was nothing political about his murderous rampage. And hey, you sure as hell reference the debate going on in Wisconsin. Why don't you mention all the signs comparing Gov. Scott Walker to Adolf Hitler? Well, maybe you just do not realize that is going on. So few of your leftywhore media folks seem to want to discuss that.
And besides, why should the Republicans make Gov. Brown's job any easier? The man wants to raise taxes. And he does not have the guts to do it. Nor do his fellow Democrats. But hey, if they get a couple of Republicans to be good sports in the legislature, the people can vote to raise their taxes themselves.
Hell, why do we need a state legislature?
This nit wit, Steve Harmon, makes John and Ken's point about the perils of Republicans voting for tax increases.
While his column presents a view that Republicans who voted for the Schwarzenegger/Democrat tax hike fared OK, none of them went on to win elections for higher office in the last election cycle.
Again, there is the Political Whore, Maldonaldo. Sure, he won the GOP primary for lieutenant governor. But no one knew who the other guy was. And I noted that Mr. Villines rely won to be the GOP candidate for insurance commissioner.
And how two tax-hikers, Roy Ashburn and Anthony Adams, are no longer in politics. That is because by the writer's own admission, they were paid off by Gov. Benedict Arnold with cushy government jobs.
The only one to win a higher office, or in this case a lower office, is Dave Codgil. He is now the tax assessor in Stanislaus county. A very appropriate job for Mr. Codgil.
Mr. Harmon's column was insipid at best, pointless at worst.
But the dean of the beggars is the Left Angeles Times Red, er George Skelton. And he invokes the era of Ronald Reagan to assert to his plea to grow up and just raise taxes already.
And of course Mr. Skelton says that taxes are not really all that high in California. He uses some strange stats to write about the income tax burden. Never mind all of the sales tax, bond measures and the like that has crippled the state. And some ballot measures that have locked certain spending in place. And the regulatory burden that has increased, not decreased. And of course business is not fleeing the state. No sir because Red Skelton says so. Or finds someone to say so. Mr. Skelton cites a United States department of commerce data that claims California is number 12 of tax burden in the United States.
The fact is that where is Bank of America? Wells Fargo? They were once two of the major employers of the state in the private sector? Well, neither call California home any more. The largest employer after the federal government is the state government. Eventually, there is not enough of a private sector to go to for more tax revenue.
And Mr. Skelton alludes to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce coming out in support of the Brown plan.
To paraphrase our illustrous Vice-President, Joe Biden, BFD. You know what that means.
The LAACOC is an establishment group that is in bed with the leviathan of government. At all levels. They would not know what to do if they did not have the government harassing them and they trying to help their members.
If our state legislature had the testicles, they would vote on the tax hikes and budget cuts themselves and let the voters decide in the next election if they made the right vote. But, Gov. Brown backed himself in this corner by offering this ploy to look like he would not raise taxes.
But putting such a scam in a special election shortly after the voters said no to all tax increases shows the lack of seriousness in what Gov. Brown and the political class want to do.
In reality, all the politicians should look to what Gov. Walker is doing in Wisconsin. And Gov. John Kasich in Ohio. And Gov. Mitch Daniels in Indiana. They are trying for long-term structural reform. They are willing to take real chances. So are fellow Republicans.
Putting the gun to the voting public's collective heads and saying vote to increase your own taxes is itself a profile in chickeness. And that is what these leftywhores should be writing about.

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