Who Needs The Big One

How long have we faced the inevitable "Big One"? That is the monster earthquake that will make those old retirees living in their double-wides in Havasu City the happy owners of beach-front property.

Forget about that. The Big One is going to hit this year. Will California pull back from the brink or will we be living in the first state in the union to actually declare bankruptcy. Decades of liberal Democrat spending; wacko enviro-nazi nuts; animal rights fascists; and idiot activists are an irresistible force about to collide with an immovable object - the taxpayer's ability to pay.

California has been cobbling together fraudulent budgets in ever decreasing cycles putting off the inevitable. The people of California have run out of their ability to pay more. The union owned and operated California legislature will never stop spending money. The hapless - no, useless, Republican Party in California is unable to elect a governor with backbone.

Our legislature has gerrymandered itself into a permanent Democrat majority. Now we face the ultimate nightmare. Governor Moonbeam is about to rise from his political grave to take back the seat of his power in Sacramento. This time he will have the most liberal socialist-oriented majority of Dems in history. Califoria is quickly becoming the Nanny Statist's wet dream.

Cap and Trade (California style); the doubling of every tax in existence; the creation of every new tax imaginable; even the prospect of the death of Prop. 13 could be in our future.

And still, California will run out of cash before the mid-point of the fiscal year 2010-11. Anybody who earns a living in California will be moving to Yuma, Lake Havasu, Bullhead City and even Pahrump. This would be a disaster for property values.

Then what?

The Big One. California will inevitably default on its bonds and declare bankruptcy.

Then what?

Retirement benefits from the state's public entities (state and local government, police, fire fighters, university employees, etc.) will be toast. California's bond holders will be out of luck. Public schools will close. Universities will be reduced to skeletal remains depending totally on research funds from the federal government and corporations. Statewide infrastructure will quickly begin disintegrating.

The effect of a California bankruptcy will be far more devastating than if we fell into the Pacific from a 10.5 shaker along the entire length of the San Andreas Fault.

Of course, the lessons learned from California's fiscal and political disaster may be just the lesson needed to wake up the pols in DC and get them to reduce and retool the federal government to manageable levels.

We may not know when the Big One (earthquake) will hit, although we know it will. However, we can easily predict the end of the Golden State of California. If $9B is not cut in about 90 days the state runs out of cash. This will be the first tremor.

There is no more room to borrow (our credit rating is crap) and we can't fake and trick the budget without serious reductions in state government.

My serious belief is that the declaration will be considered by November of this year. I pray it will not be necessary.

I would like to invite any ideas on how to return the Republic of California to fiscal sanity. Here are a few areas on which to focus:

1. Cut their pay and time in Sacramento. I support the initiative to return the California legislature to part-time status. Link to www.reformcal.com

2. When I was working, my car was not provided free of charge along with an employer-paid gas credit card and free auto insurance. Our employees in the state legislature should not have this perk either.

3. 118 boards and commissions were recommended for closure by the California Performance Review. I think that number is conservative.

There are so many ways to reduce expenditures. Most will actually improve the lives of Californians because a better focus on the real needs of the people will result when the bureaucrats concentrate on fewer appropriate tasks that serve our needs as opposed to the needs of unions, corporate interests, and others.

Quote of the day - "The state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else." -- Frederic Bastiat

~Paul M. Laperruque