Reno Hayek Symposium

I hope the recent Republican tsunami in the U.S. House and state governments, and the Senate pick-ups will put the brakes on the leftists’ natural urge to bail out California and reward spendthrift socialism. It certainly looks that way.

In the recent election, California continued its profligate ways by electing Democrats across the board. It rewarded Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown, once again with the top slot on the ticket. Recall that it was he, thirty odd years ago, that gave public employee unions collective bargaining rights in the state. For the unschooled, this is called “watering the tree!” Well, the tree has grown up and now controls the state and elects every Democrat to every major office year after year. Old Jerry was certainly smart in providing for his own re-re-election!

Birkenstocks-shod, Allysia Finley, assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com, herself a left-coaster has a wonderful op-ed piece in today’s WSJ, California: The Lindsay Lohan of States. With acerbic wit she blasts the state for its tax/spend addiction.

“After enjoying ephemeral highs and spending binges, you suffer crashes that culminate in brief, unsuccessful stints in rehab. This cycle repeats itself every five to 10 years, as the rest of the country looks on with a mixture of horror and amusement. We’d feel sorry for you if you didn’t constantly flip us the bird.”

The outgoing Terminator’s budget compromise with the Democrats assumes Federal bailouts. Allysia points out that the next four years will show $80 Billion in budget shortfall! There’s a point at which the costs of doing business in the sunshine exceeds the benefits thereof. That would be when the bills come due and businesses forced to pay them can no longer compete internationally. What do they do but vote with their feet!

For fiscally smart states like Indiana or Wisconsin, California bail outs are a non starter; why should their citizens pay for the California entitlees to bask in the sun. For Republicans in the House, don’t buy the argument that California is too big or too important to fail. Only by failure will our other costal states get the message that spending and promising beyond your means leads to bankruptcy and that public employee unions should be outlawed.

Finley does the nation a service by quoting the new Lt. Governor Gavin Newson, the former mayor of San Francisco, reflecting on his election: ”We’re nothing but a mirror of our consistent thoughts. You tend to manifest what you focus on. If you look around for what’s wrong, you’ll find it. But as all we know up here in San Francisco, when you focus on what’s right, you see it all around you. . . . There is absolutely nothing wrong with California that can’t be fixed by what’s right with California. . . . If you’re from another state, you’d love to have the problems of California.”

Yeah….how about that!  I guess this is how you get elected in the land of the fruits and nuts!