Money doesn't grow on trees, you know. CA already has extremely high taxes compared to other states. And still, the democrats keep coming back asking for MORE taxes. Good grief.

Time to stop the madness. Companies are leaving the state. Retirees are taking their nest eggs out of the state. Democrats ran this state into the ground. Arnold and the GOP has to clean up the mess. If that's even possible at this stage of the game.

Hey! How'd you make that 3/4 symbol? It's cool, I've never seen it before and I'm creased my html symbol reference doesn't have it. Share the love, eh?

Calpundit makes precisely the same point as our good Duckman: reneging on these promises is revolting and displays the character of a soad dish.

Thank you for this entry. I was trying to hold onto my temper as I wrote mine and if I had ventured into this territory I would have dropped it. Too difficult to keep your sanity in a full text workup exposing the horribly slimy character of this turd.

I guess Maria's happy. I know if the rest of Kennedy clan sees this they'll be appalled. She's put up with stuff like this for years and loves him, so whatever. I couldn't, but it's her life.

Pete Wilson signed the electricity dereg bill. A Republican.

There is no reference to compare CA's tax rates with other states in MuckBrain's asserion that are taxes are high. He's simply lying. He's a Republican, that's what they do.

Muckdog is as much as a charlatan as The Groper. The idea that Democrats ran this state into the ground is ludicrous, inflamatory, untrue drivel from the mind of a puny partisan. Disgusting.

Bzzzzt! But thanks for trying, Paradox.

http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/JTF_TaxBurdenJTF.pdf

By the way, there was no true deregulation of electricity markets here. Prices should've been allowed to rise on consumers. They'd have cut back, and we'd have been fine. It was a flawed, bipartisan, bill.

Calm down there paradox.

Here's a website with comparisions of state income tax rates.

http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/tax_stru.html

As you can see California has a very high tax rate.

Any comparison which includes federal taxes will inflate California's standing because we are a rich state. Any comparison which looks at only state income taxes ignores relatively low property taxes. So, we're 19th in percent of personal income going to state and local governments. It's hardly extraordinary.

So, muckdog and Tato, what would you cut? K-12 education, college education, prisons, or health care for the poor?

Tato, per capita we rank 8th, but as a % of personal income we rank 18th. High, but not neccessarily what I would call very high.

Congrats muckdog, you got one thing right. It was a flawed bill. As for running the state into the ground, no, that would go to your hero, George W Bush. I'm sure you believe the latest drivel from the White House revisionists that the recession now started in the 3rd qtr of 2000, but I don't. But try this on for size. I'll try to keep this short and simple.

A) Unemployed people don't pay as much income tax. B) Underemployed people don't pay as much income tax. C) Job losses are estimated at 3.5 million since Bush took over, or about 500,000 for CA. D) Bush's buddies at Enron et al stole anywhere from $10 to $50 billion dollars from the people and state of California. E)The underfunded mandates of Bush's Homeland Security falls on the states, and states like CA, with a long and busy border, in fact the busiest border crossing in the world I've heard, with major ports and airports, gets stuck with a big chunk of that burden. F) All those Marines and Sailors and Guardsmen from CA killing and getting killed in Bush's nightmare misadventures are not spending their hard earned pay at home, further reducing sales tax revenue. G) While the $80 million or so dollars we spent on the recall is not that much, it certainly was wasted money, since Arnold has no fucking clue, and certainly no better idea, on what to do to solve the budget crisis, except cost us more money in higher bond interest rates, and then asking for more bonds on top of that.

Yes indeed, it's the Democrats fault.

For losing to George Bush, maybe.

To CA Pol Junkie: I'd cut all of the above. Again, I must emphasize this: Money does not grow on trees. I think we really need to cut all that you mention. But lets start with education. It's a bloated pig. We pay so much and, last I heard, only Alabama is churning out less-educated kids than CA. We need to reduce administrative overhead%. Not cut teachers. Not cut the money going to the classrooms. But the money that gets tied up in "everything else." It'd throw some folks on the unemployment rolls for a time, but these folks are educated and should be able to find a new line of work rather quickly I'd think.

Of course, cutting education is against the law due to mandates on education spending. So, we have no money and Wall St is lowering our bond rating. Could CA end up in junk bond land? Nah, I'm sure the Fed wouldn't let CA go bankrupt. I guess they're our ultimate "money tree" should we collapse.

A simple idea would be a spending cap that reduces our current spending growth rate. That way, as the economy recovers and our revenues increase, we'd be able to cover the gap over the course of a few years.

To Duckman GR: I don't even know where to start with that. The stock market predicts what's going to happen in the economy. Companies experience the reality long before it ends up in the press. While Republicans were arguing between McCain and Bush in early 2000, the market peaked and began to collapse. I'm not blaming Clinton. I'm not blaming Bush. In fact, I'd blame Greenspan. What the hell was he thinking with all those rate hikes from 1999-2000? Remember all those speeches about trying to "right the ship" so it doesn't slam into the shore?

I hope you were listening to Bob Brinker in January 2000. He told everybody to sell their stocks, because a bear market was coming... And that, is a non-political statement.

By the way, I am NOT a Republican, either. I hate canned-thinking. I don't like fast-food ideas. Think for yourself. Open your mind.

Both the Republican and Democrat party, and others, have many quality individuals with outstanding ideas. Only, we get blinded by the fast food labels and try to put people in a box.

How unfortunate!

muckdog, at least you're honest that you would cut everything. If Arnold said what you did before the election, he would still be an actor! Cutting K-12 education, reducing access to higher education, denying medical care to the poor, and releasing convicted felons early would help with the budget, but would be extremely unpopular.

Muck darlin', it's just that a lot of us don't see how the mess will be "cleaned up" by borrowing more money--which as you know is Gropinator's plan right now.

Unfortunately, this state is much like the family who has too much debt. Arnold is proposing a debt consolidation plan and to reign in future spending. Just like credit counselors do for those in debt. Amazing! We wanted the government to run their budget like a household has to run theirs, and we're getting it. And democrats aren't happy.

Muckdog, let's cut spending by making the government have the same health and retirement and work schedule as we workers do. Let's cut out the fresh flowers, the elegant meals and decorations, the limousines--there is so much fat in the government that can be cut easily, rather than cutting the services the poor depend on. Let's stop jailing people whose only crime is making themselves feel good with drugs not sanctoned by, and not profited by, the corporations.