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Why We Need Bigger Government October 2, 2006 There is always a good excuse for big government. I thought I would spend some time to catalogue some of those excuses, just to put them down on the record. Whether it is on the floor of the Senate or Assembly, in budget or other committee hearings in the Legislature, these excuses pop up from time to time. In this era of term limits, it is rare for those in decision making positions to hang around long enough to hear these excuses repeated, so this article can act as a chronicle, since I have now heard many of these excuses over and over again. Let’s start with the environment, since that seems to be one of the topics we have heard about of late. The excuse for big government can be broken down into four major categories: air, water, soil and the globe. First, ...............
air. The excuse goes something like this: Business owners are greedy, say the proponents of big government, and care only about making a profit. Given half a chance, these greedy business owners would kill off all of their customers, their neighbors, their children, their spouses, and themselves by spewing dirt into the air on purpose just to make this profit. Only government can save the lives of all of these people, so government needs more money, more power, and more bureaucrats. Water. Greedy business owners like dirty water, it increases their profit. So government needs more money, more power and more bureaucrats. Dirt. Greedy business owners dump stuff on their own property because that is how they increase the value of their property. Only government can stop this greed, so it needs more money, more power, and more bureaucrats The Globe. People drive cars, cars spew greenhouse gases. Farmers raise cattle, cattle spew greenhouse gases. Business owners liked the age of the dinosaur, and therefore, spew greenhouse gases to return to that age. Politicians talk a lot, and spew greenhouse gases, but politicians can control everyone else’s greenhouse gas emissions to make sure that the globe never again gets as warm as it did with the dinosaurs, so government needs more money, more power, and more bureaucrats. Next, welfare. Poor people exist, and existed long before poverty programs were created. There is more poverty today than when poverty programs first started, and the more poverty programs we have, the more poverty grows. Rich people are heartless, and will never help poor people. Therefore, government must create more poverty programs, so government needs more money, more power, and more bureaucrats. Next, government education, child care, and children’s programs. Parents don’t love their children, and want to be sure that every child they raise grows up ignorant and starving, so government must have school breakfast and lunch programs. Childhood obesity is a growing problem, especially among children on government run school breakfast and lunch programs. Ignorance is a growing problem, especially at government run schools, so government needs more money, more power and more bureaucrats. Next, government health care. People don’t know who is a good doctor, doctors don’t care about their patients, and greedy business owners only want sick employees. Only a government run health care program can deliver quality health care on a timely and inexpensive basis, therefore, government needs more money, more power and more bureaucrats. In California, in the last 14 years, government has grown 250%. It has continually demanded more money, more power, and more bureaucrats, yet the problems it was supposed to solve with the money, power, and bureaucrats have gotten worse, so it demands more money, more power, and more bureaucrats. It will never end until the whole thing collapses, which may not be far away. We can only hope. ****************************** Governments Face Big Bills For Promises http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4391830 09-25-06 The bill is coming due for years of generous benefits bestowed upon state, county, city and school employees, and it's a stunner: hundreds of billions of dollars over the next three decades, threatening some local governments with bankruptcy and all but guaranteeing cuts in education, public safety and other services. This staggering burden is coming to light because of new rules issued by the Government Accounting Standards Board. They require public agencies to disclose the future cost of health care and other benefits - such as dental, vision and life insurance - promised in addition to traditional pensions to the nation's estimated 24.5 million active and retired state and local public employees. ****************************** Driver’s License Bill Vetoed By Governor http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/31264.html 09-29-06 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation Thursday to allow illegal immigrants to obtain California driver's licenses, marking the eighth consecutive year such proposals have died. Senate Bill 1162 was a far weaker proposal than had been pushed in years past, recognizing the string of defeats and bitter political friction over the issue in an election year. The veto marked one of dozens of actions taken Thursday by Schwarzenegger, who is racing to meet a deadline of midnight Saturday to sign or veto about 500 bills remaining on his desk. ****************************** Bill To Let Schools Land Good Teachers http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/28829.html 09-25-06 It can take years to fire a bad teacher. So some principals don't even bother trying. Instead, they make a deal. The principal asks the teacher to look for a job elsewhere in the district. In exchange, the teacher gets a good evaluation. Now here's the rub. Since there's plenty of competition for plum jobs at affluent schools, the bad teacher gets funneled to a struggling school serving a needy population. ****************************** Workers’ Comp Rates Keep Falling http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/31198.html 09-29-06 Steven and Jennifer Sarver feared another double-digit spike in workers' compensation insurance rates would put a stranglehold on their fledgling restaurant business. The surging costs, they worried, could threaten ambitious plans to grow their San Francisco Soup Co. retail and wholesale business. "Our rates were astronomical. It was keeping us from expanding," Jennifer Sarver recalled. ****************************** More Needs To Be Done For College Readiness http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/15610497.htm 09-26-06 Most first-year students entering California State University schools such as San Jose State aren't ready for college-level math or English, despite earning a B average or better in college-prep courses in high school: 60 percent will be placed in no-credit remedial classes in English, math or both. For the past three years, juniors in high school have been able to take a CSU-designed assessment test added to the California Standards Test given in the spring. ****************************** Remember The Structural Deficit? http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_1290109.php 09-27-06 One issue that needs much more play in the gubernatorial election is California's structural deficit. On Sept. 26 state Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill released her latest analysis of the state budget. She found that the state's structural deficit – its nagging inability to pay its bills – will be "in the range of $4.5 billion and $5 billion projected for" fiscal 2007-08, which begins next July 1, and fiscal 2008-09. ****************************** No on 89 http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_27_ed_prop89_1_elx_edit.32d29b2.html 09-27-06 California politics are bad enough without billing taxpayers for the ads that assault state residents before each election. Voters would do well to defeat Prop. 89 on the Nov. 7 ballot. Prop. 89 would raise an estimated $200 million a year by boosting taxes on banks and corporations to publicly finance election campaigns. But public funding of campaigns is far down the list of the state's pressing needs. If Californians wish to support a tax increase, the money would better go to address deficiencies in roads, courts, law enforcement and other public services. ****************************** School bond burden shouldn't be increased http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/editorials/article_1284744.php 09-27-06 Measure O on the November ballot would raise $393 million in construction bonds for Rancho Santiago Community College District. It's a 25-year bond that follows on the heels of Measure E, a $337 million bond passed in 2002. The cost to taxpayers in the district for Measure O would be about $149.94 a year for a home assessed at $600,000. That's slightly more than the $147.78 a year that Measure E tacks on to the same house. ****************************** Prop. 73 returns as 85 http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1288690.php 09-27-06 The message hasn't changed: Proponents want parents notified before minors get abortions. The same measure lost in November's special election. Backers of Proposition 85 expect to be outspent again by their opponents, but they say they'll win this time around because of a different type of voter turnout – one more sympathetic to their cause. "If it was on any other ballot besides that special election, it would pass," said Newport Beach's Mike Schroeder, a supporter and former chairman of the state Republican Party, referring to last year's defeat. ****************************** O.C. Contract Slashes Union Retiree Medical Coverage http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oclabor27sep27,1,2757165.story?coll=la-headlines-california 09-27-06 Orange County supervisors Tuesday approved labor contracts with unions representing attorneys and managers, granting pay raises of as much as 4.75% in exchange for concessions on retiree medical coverage. The agreements, approved by the rank and file, are modeled on deals with two larger unions that the board adopted this month after vociferous opposition from retired county employees and lengthy speeches by supervisors. No opponents spoke against the deals this time, and the board adopted them with no discussion. ****************************** Top-flight colleges fail civics, study says/ Cal and Stanford seniors test poorly http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/27/MNGC4LDHS91.DTL 09-27-06 Seniors at UC Berkeley, the nation's premier public university, got an F in their basic knowledge of American history, government and politics in a new national survey, and students at Stanford University didn't do much better, getting a D. Out of 50 schools surveyed, Cal ranked 49th and Stanford 31st in how well they are increasing student knowledge about American history and civics between the freshman and senior years. And they're not alone among major universities in being fitted for a civics dunce cap. ****************************** State Red Tape Trips Up Green Energy Efforts http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/24/MNGFTLBL0B1.DTL 09-25-06 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares this week to sign into law the nation's most ambitious effort to address global warming, a key component of California's push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- increasing the use of renewable power to create electricity -- has faltered. Despite overwhelming public and political support for renewable power, ratepayer contributions of $319 million, and a 2002 law mandating a dramatic increase in the use of sun and wind to create megawatts, California has boosted its use of renewable energy by less than 1 percent of the state's overall electricity use in the past four years. ****************************** Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066 To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
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