Bryan Fischer
Time for fiscal conservatives to tell California, New York to drop dead
By Bryan Fischer
You want to see where the next huge test for fiscal conservatism is going to be, look no further than California and New York. Voters last Tuesday ignored the tidal wave of responsible voting that swept the rest of the nation and enthroned leftwing politicians who will drive the tattered remnants of their state economies over the edge into a deep and dark abyss. These now all-but-foregone disasters will quickly be followed by howling, pathetic, angst-driven calls from these architects of utter chaos for the other 48 states to bail them out.
Democrats won all statewide offices in California, and made such gains in the legislature that the Orange County Register said the GOP has been reduced to "almost total irrelevancy" in the state capitol. Democrats took every statewide office in the New York, and appear likely to have held on to the state senate.
We will be told ad nauseum that the Golden State and the Empire State are just too big to fail. The helpless wails of these whimpering incompetents will echo down the halls of Congress, filling every corner with plaintive calls for Congress to rip off the taxpayers in every other state to save them from their own folly.
The GOP leadership needs to declare right now in no uncertain terms: not a dime of taxpayer money to bail out either of these two states. Not a dime. It's time to tell the voters of the nation's two largest states: you made your bed, now you're going to have to fall out of it yourself with nothing to cushion your fall.
You had the opportunity to elect fiscally responsible leadership and didn't do it. You voted with the mindless expectation that you could continue to spend yourselves into oblivion and somebody else somewhere would dump money all over you to protect you from the consequences of your own idiocy.
Fiscal conservatives can't wait to stake out a clear position here and broadcast it to the world. This is the only way they can avoid the gang-tackling from the out-of-the-mainstream media who will brand them as heartless and uncaring. Gotta let 'em know now: we are not going to punish the rest of the Union to pull your bacon out of the grease. Ain't gonna happen. You want to avoid utter, sovereign catastrophes like this in the future, better cast better votes next time.
According to Fred Siegel in the City Journal, New York and California are "Indebted and Unrepentant." Both states are locked into a vicious of cycle of out-migration, in which middle-class workers and voters are leaving in droves while they still can, leaving behind liberals and public sector union types who will only increase taxes and regulations even further, driving even more productive citizens to friendlier climes.
With help from a major teachers' union, Californians passed Proposition 25, which upends the requirement that budgets get two-thirds support. Now with just a simple majority required, Democrats won't need to make any concessions to the GOP at all. Its state budget, already a monstrosity to begin with, will now assume grotesquely misshapen proportions.
New York is already facing a $9 trillion shortfall for its next fiscal year, but the clowns that created that chasm have been given a fresh grip on the gavel.
Siegel, correctly in my view, sees the following scenario:
"This sets up what could be an ugly fight in which a Tea Party — inflected national Republican Party, encouraged by its strength in the interior states, forces California and New York — now heavily dependent on federal subsidies — to reduce their spending sharply. The coastal giants would no doubt respond by threatening defaults, which could affect the credit standing of the entire country, since many of the bonds are held by foreign investors. The upshot would likely be a high-stakes conflict about free trade, globalization, social class, race, illegal immigration, and public-sector unionism."
In other words, Armageddon. Fiscal conservatives better get off this track before they get run over just before the caboose disappears into the inky blackness of the abyss, dragging the rest of the Union along with it.
In "Back to the Future III," Marty saves the day by lurching into the future just in time to complete a railroad bridge which saves Doc Brown and his beloved Mary Steenburgen. But in America, unlike Hollywood, there is no magic bridge. There is only a canyon. The only question is whether two states will wind up at the bottom of that canyon or all 48. It's not too late for the sane states in the Union to decouple from this runaway train, but they are rapidly running out of time. The message to those 48 states: save yourselves while you can. And you better make up your mind right now.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
November 7, 2010
You want to see where the next huge test for fiscal conservatism is going to be, look no further than California and New York. Voters last Tuesday ignored the tidal wave of responsible voting that swept the rest of the nation and enthroned leftwing politicians who will drive the tattered remnants of their state economies over the edge into a deep and dark abyss. These now all-but-foregone disasters will quickly be followed by howling, pathetic, angst-driven calls from these architects of utter chaos for the other 48 states to bail them out.
Democrats won all statewide offices in California, and made such gains in the legislature that the Orange County Register said the GOP has been reduced to "almost total irrelevancy" in the state capitol. Democrats took every statewide office in the New York, and appear likely to have held on to the state senate.
We will be told ad nauseum that the Golden State and the Empire State are just too big to fail. The helpless wails of these whimpering incompetents will echo down the halls of Congress, filling every corner with plaintive calls for Congress to rip off the taxpayers in every other state to save them from their own folly.
The GOP leadership needs to declare right now in no uncertain terms: not a dime of taxpayer money to bail out either of these two states. Not a dime. It's time to tell the voters of the nation's two largest states: you made your bed, now you're going to have to fall out of it yourself with nothing to cushion your fall.
You had the opportunity to elect fiscally responsible leadership and didn't do it. You voted with the mindless expectation that you could continue to spend yourselves into oblivion and somebody else somewhere would dump money all over you to protect you from the consequences of your own idiocy.
Fiscal conservatives can't wait to stake out a clear position here and broadcast it to the world. This is the only way they can avoid the gang-tackling from the out-of-the-mainstream media who will brand them as heartless and uncaring. Gotta let 'em know now: we are not going to punish the rest of the Union to pull your bacon out of the grease. Ain't gonna happen. You want to avoid utter, sovereign catastrophes like this in the future, better cast better votes next time.
According to Fred Siegel in the City Journal, New York and California are "Indebted and Unrepentant." Both states are locked into a vicious of cycle of out-migration, in which middle-class workers and voters are leaving in droves while they still can, leaving behind liberals and public sector union types who will only increase taxes and regulations even further, driving even more productive citizens to friendlier climes.
With help from a major teachers' union, Californians passed Proposition 25, which upends the requirement that budgets get two-thirds support. Now with just a simple majority required, Democrats won't need to make any concessions to the GOP at all. Its state budget, already a monstrosity to begin with, will now assume grotesquely misshapen proportions.
New York is already facing a $9 trillion shortfall for its next fiscal year, but the clowns that created that chasm have been given a fresh grip on the gavel.
Siegel, correctly in my view, sees the following scenario:
"This sets up what could be an ugly fight in which a Tea Party — inflected national Republican Party, encouraged by its strength in the interior states, forces California and New York — now heavily dependent on federal subsidies — to reduce their spending sharply. The coastal giants would no doubt respond by threatening defaults, which could affect the credit standing of the entire country, since many of the bonds are held by foreign investors. The upshot would likely be a high-stakes conflict about free trade, globalization, social class, race, illegal immigration, and public-sector unionism."
In other words, Armageddon. Fiscal conservatives better get off this track before they get run over just before the caboose disappears into the inky blackness of the abyss, dragging the rest of the Union along with it.
In "Back to the Future III," Marty saves the day by lurching into the future just in time to complete a railroad bridge which saves Doc Brown and his beloved Mary Steenburgen. But in America, unlike Hollywood, there is no magic bridge. There is only a canyon. The only question is whether two states will wind up at the bottom of that canyon or all 48. It's not too late for the sane states in the Union to decouple from this runaway train, but they are rapidly running out of time. The message to those 48 states: save yourselves while you can. And you better make up your mind right now.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
