Singing the Blues ‘Cuz I’m in the Red!

By William L. Garvin

If the Blue (Democrat) states are any indication of how things will go if Democrats retain the presidency and control of the Senate, there is no economic hope. Take California, one of the bluesiest of blue states, as an example. The Legislative Analyst’s Office reports that it expects tax revenues to come in at $6.5 billion less than Governor Brown’s 2012-2013 budget. Keep in mind that the Governor already projected a $9.2 billion deficit! That means the Golden State is even worse off than the U.S. Postal Service which is only pegged to be $14.1 billion in the red this year.
Compared to last year, California’s tax revenues in February shrunk by over $1.2 billion. This disaster is double the shocking $535 million decline for the preceding January. Maybe it has to do with the number of companies that are moving people, jobs, and headquarters to other states. Spectrum Locations Consultants observed 254 California companies moving some or all of their work, jobs, or headquarters out of state in 2011. This is 26 percent more than in 2010 and five times as much as in 2009. According to SLC President Joe Vranich, the “top 10 reasons companies are leaving California” include the State being “increasingly adversarial toward business, uncontrollable public spending, unfriendly business climate, expensive business locations, unfriendly legal environment, worst regulatory burden, severe tax treatment, and unprecedented energy costs.”
The pace is accelerating, Vranich said. An average of 4.9 businesses left California each week of 2011, compared to 3.9 per week (202 total) in 2010 and one a week (51 total) in 2009. As far as energy costs go, PG&E must by state fiat raise the percentage of electricity purchases they make from renewable sources from twenty percent to thirty percent. Since electricity from the “not ready for prime time renewable energy players” is many times more expensive than coal, gas, or nuclear, you can expect a massive jump in your energy bills very soon.
This of course fits perfectly into President Obama’s vision. In case you’ve forgotten, President Obama is on record as saying: “I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, natural gas, you name it—whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers under my plan of a cap-and-trade system. Electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” Questioned as to why he would not explicitly ban coal-fired power plants, Obama responded, “If somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.”
Apparently the President intends to make all the same mistakes that California has, only on a national scale. Expect businesses to continue to flee this country (just as they are fleeing California) as government central planning strangles the fifty percent of taxpayers who subsidize the other fifty percent. Many of the ungrateful latter are demanding more and more while contributing less and less.
Why would any sane person support such a disastrous agenda? Maybe it’s not entirely coincidental when USA Today reports that 1 in 8 voter records are flawed. “More than 24 million voter-registration records in the United States—about one in eight—are inaccurate, out-of-date or duplicates. Nearly 2.8 million people are registered in two or more states, and perhaps 1.8 million registered voters are dead.” Later on they note “In Wood County Ohio, home of Bowling Green State University, there are 106% as many registered voters as there were people in the 2010 census.” The census includes every man, woman and child. No one can explain it.
Maybe it’s not coincidental that the President’s Attorney General Eric Holder is blocking voter identification laws in South Carolina and Texas. Thirty states already have voter identification requirements. Two are trying. Maybe it’s not coincidental that Holder’s blocks are the first in twenty years. Maybe it’s not coincidental that the NAACP is taking the issue to the United Nations human Rights Council where Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia will review our processes from their lofty status as human rights champions. The idea that voter id is “human rights abuse” is absolutely ludicrous but it’s increasingly popular in blue fraud circles.