Posted by
Bill Crawford on Saturday, May 30, 2009 2:32:14 PM
Nobel Prize Economist Paul Krugman is having at it again this week in the New York Times, the Grey Lady of the Night on 43rd Street.
He poses California the same way I do, a history of being some sort of bellwether that survives even today. I mean, there are many states that are losing population and are taxing those who remain to their limits and beyond. California is just better at it than anybody else.
He stresses that California has it's problems, but they could be solved in large part by getting past the limitations of the onerous Proposition 13 and passing a series of "manageable" tax increases. At least they would be manageable if they were passed out over the years, so all of the tax payer frogs could boil in peace because the taxes went to the stratosphere gradually, so they wouldn't notice.
Nothing is mentioned about the interesting priorities established from the spending choices in the Sacramento Legislature. Nada. Zilch. So for starters, health care and college tuition for illegal immigrants is, ipso facto, hunky dory.
But wait, it gets worse. Mr. Laureate Krugman holds repsponsible for all this sorry state of affairs the evil Rush Limbaugh Republicans, who berely have the numbers to maintain a veto power over new taxes, a la Prop 13, which requires a supermajority. Which drives home his point doubly: the problem is not the spending. We just aren't paying our fair share of taxes. Paul is careful to point out that we still don't pay out what they do in Europe.
So that is our goal in life? To tax and spend like they do In Europe?
But it's nice that we get past the swing voter driven generalities and get down to brass tacks what the Community Organizer's agenda is.