As Goes California So Goes the Nation?

And now this.........

Source

Reporting from Sacramento -- With deficit forecasts growing darker by the day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering a plan to slash California's safety net for the poor by eliminating the state's main welfare program, health insurance for low-income families and cash grants to college students. Of course California is known for having "sanctuary cities", $200,000 pensions for firefighters and in general providing largess to everyone - even those who aren't citizens. This is a problem, of course, but it didn't bother all the bleeding hearts so long as all the high-flying people out there were flipping houses and running up their credit cards. Now, of course, the credit card is dead and the home is being foreclosed on, much like the rest of the nation as a whole - but of course the Federal Government can run deficits so long as it can con China - California can't. Its time to set an example here folks:
* No more "freebies" for illegals. Period. No free medical care, no free schools, not even jailing people - you get caught here illegally you get sent home. Period, end of discussion, full-stop. Start right now and enforce the damn law; a HUGE percentage of California's prison population are in fact illegal aliens. We pay twice - first for the crime, then again to jail them. Stop being stupid.

* Stop paying civil service jobs (firefighters, teachers, etc) $100,000+, more than twice the per-capita income.

* Fix the pension system so it can't be gamed and double-dipped to the tune of $200,000+ for that same firefighter when they retire. * Stop subsidizing people who want to have 8 embryos IVF'd into their uterus when they can't personally cover the cost of BIRTHING those eight new mouths, never mind attempting to raise them.

* If you're "poor" and need help, make receiving that help conditioned on working. If nothing else I bet there's a bunch of trash alongside roads that needs to be picked up. If you're able-bodied, no help without working in exchange - for the general benefit of society. Period. What's happening here is entirely predictable and in fact has been predicted. You can't spend more than you make for very long; eventually your credit card comes back "declined."

California is first in this regard but won't be the last. Wake up America. And in the meantime (and as a hedge if the government tries to be even more stupid) go buy a gun and some ammo. When the "entitlement" checks stop going to those who think they have a right to pop out eight kids and bill the state for the medical, I'll make book on riots and other forms of general civil nastiness.

I'll give it 2 to 3 months max before outright civil insurrection begins...

reply to post by RolandBrichter


I'd say less. You're forgetting about all the people like myself who are already prepared for something like this. If they bring the heavy stuff on us OR if the civilians get anarchic we're prepared.

California its going down. Things got real this morning. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

Arnold is such a super-corrupt criminal!!! He talks about citizens making cutbacks but never talks about the 10 million illegals in the state who get taxpayer-funded ER care and school for their kids and don't pay income or property taxes and send their income back to mexico!!!

I hate that this is happening BUT also have quite a few friends who have lived outrageously "well" in CA for many years.

The values and prices of real estate along have buckled the economy out there.Combine that with high-taxes and you have this mess.Can't afford to live in their homes,can't sell them for reasonable value these days.

I will also say that it's a "transient state" in that almost everyone you chat with is "from someplace else" and either trying to break into the entertainment biz or go to school for a "creative field."LOTS have gotten "aid" for education there coming from other states becaue it was "easy" to get.

It's a state of extremes for sure: I volunteered on a soup line in LA last year(well-known one on Wilshire Blvd.) and was shocked to see who came to be fed.Familes who had been hit by the "writer's strike" and ran out of money as well as young oriental girls who worked in a "sweat shop" nearby (yes,they are alive and well in CA) and literally hadn't eaten in days as the door had been locked while they worked.
Young Russian girls hustling in the "Bikini Clubs" who had been brought over on "modeling contracts" and then dumped off after they paid the "transportation fees" the scum charged them and strippers who had managed to get Medcal to pay for plastic surgery,all their "emotionally-balancing meds" and who carried high-end designer purses/wore expensive clothing while trying to feed their 4 kids by 4 different men in the food-line.

The kids were asking me for xtra PBJ sandwiches to take to school the next day as usually they had nothing.I cried everytime I thought about it for weeks after that day!

Mentally "challenged",obvious drunks, and drug abusers with sores and needle-tracks who I literally had to talk into eating something,even if it was soup.Their "caregivers" brought them to the food-line because there wasn't anyplace else that they could get them something to eat,the usual "charities" refuse active drug users as a whole.They begged the serving line to feed them.

This state has been tottering on disaster's edge for years and I'm not sure it's all Arnold's fault.It's been all "love and light and let's be FREE" there for too long...it's been self-imploding for years.
It'such a beautiful place,few states can rival the natural beauty and my heart goes out to all who might be caught in the chit-storm there!


[edit on 23-5-2009 by irishchic]

reply to post by irishchic


Most excellent insight...as a multi generational California native... (Maidu Indian) I know your words are correct... hardly anything surpasses the beauty of that state...but I had to leave...the "vibe" just wasn't right...and it makes me uncomfortable to know what is about to befall those living there....but it has to happen...

Originally posted by Anonymous Avatar
First of all... they need to let some of those prisoners out. Their prison industrial complex is ridiculous.

Secondly if they collapse, that is the type of thing that will push states like mine (Texas) into more contimplation of removing ourselves from the Union. We have no state income taxes and manage to balance our budget. I abhor having to pay for insolvent companies much less insolvent states.

Something the Liberals will never understand. You tax a person less and He spends more money there by spreading the wealth. Liberals want to tax more and eventually people spend less money leading to less wealth. I think if they finally got their heads out of their asses and finally realized the people that are getting taxed are not the super filthy rich but the middle class. I think Texas will be fine in the coming crisis and Louisiana is not that far behind. Here is a hint to all You hard working people Louisiana and Texas are good states to work in because the standard of living is lower and the pay is pretty decent to compared to the living standards. The prices of homes in Texas are cheap to compared to the rest of the USA. I always loved Texas and lived there a good portion of my life. There is a culture and a spirit there that is not in any other state of the union. If any state would ever leave and succeed it would be Texas and hopefully Louisiana would follow suite and join Texas.

thanks to all the people who are on welfare, refuse to work. thanks to all the people who give prisoners more rights than the normal people, thanks for feeding them and spending money on them while homeless keep dying.

on top of that thanks to all the lazy fat americans who only care about themselves, nobody cares about anything, it was all about who has the best house, who has the biggest chevy, who has how many boats, so on and on..

russia, china, will be the country to dominate, both countries are the hardest workers and they always try to get to the top, americans, are not so, fake smiles, everyone trying to rip off everyone

america got dumbefied, got fat and lazy... now we are sinking like a ship, america=titanic nothing will save USA

With all due respect, the original post is not a news article. Welfare hasn't been cut -- yet.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to cut almost $500 million from welfare programs next year and impose new rules aimed at pushing recipients off public assistance and into the workforce, senior administration officials said Sunday...

He also wants to end the practice of providing welfare grants to children whose parents are chronically unemployed and failing to participate in return to work programs.

The administration said the two ideas would save the state $465 million next year.

This seems like a reasonable idea.






[edit on 24-5-2009 by VelmaLu]

Originally posted by truthquest
reply to post by RolandBrichter

 

California has already gone. The day they failed to pay the bills on time was a default. Other states on on the same path. People just don't get it. This is a depression. 15 million Americans starved in the previous depression and to think it cannot happen again is a true shot in the dark.

Our country is in deep debt, with something like a $130,000 average debt load *per taxpayer* and rapidly rising. But on top of that, most individual states are in deep debt California is about $30 billion in debt and losing $2 billion a month. They have no choice but to cut a lot of jobs. But then again so do a lot of states, especially the highly populated ones. Florida maybe the next to go bankrupt. But what is more, many or most individual cities are in debt. But on top of that many individuals are deeply in debt. And many of those in debt are losing their jobs, pushing them to declare bankruptcy. The only solution is rapid liquidation of the debt, meaning their assets must be siezed and sold for a fraction of their actual worth. However the government purposely slows down this process, meaning this thing will drag on for years and years.

The only way this could be resolved without a very nasty depression is if the free market was put in charge of things. That will never happen. I recently heard the banks are still heavily leveraged at about 25x their worth *on average*. That is sheer insanity and means a lot of banks have yet to go bankrupt. And the feds continue over and over again to believe that no matter what, we must be 6 months from a recovery. They are incompetent and just screw things up. And yet they are rewarded for their incompetence by given more and more powers to screw things up even more.

After failing to account for trillion of their bailout money, we still don't even know if Ron Paul's audit the fed bill will pass, meaning congress may be even more incompetent by not even caring about lost trillions. What can I say it isn't their money it is ours.

strong post .......yes over indebted is like a plague reaching critical mass sweeping the country wether individual debt....city Debt...state....gov't....corporate....bank...commercial real estate

people won't rise up until its too late....so gov't wont make the tuff decisons (that hurt their campaign donors) until the TSHTF....i'm not even sure what to do.........how bout a debt jubilee....with creditors getting re-imbursed to a degree as well........or not so fast....perhaps we shouldn't let a good crisis go to waste.........use the pain as leverage to pass the unpassable then fix it up

[edit on 24-5-2009 by cpdaman]

Good news for the Californians:

North Korea threatens attack if ships checked

A U.S. Treasury Department official said it was weighing possible action to isolate the North financially.

news.yahoo.com...

Perhaps if the US government really decides not to continue sending financial aid to South Korea, the saved money could be loaned to California, which Washington denied the aid to deal with its budget woes.

Originally posted by stander
Good news for the Californians:

North Korea threatens attack if ships checked

A U.S. Treasury Department official said it was weighing possible action to isolate the North financially.

news.yahoo.com...

Perhaps if the US government really decides not to continue sending financial aid to South Korea, the saved money could be loaned to California, which Washington denied the aid to deal with its budget woes.

Stander, didn't you mean the US government quiting sending money to North Korea?