Reagan famously said that Republicans believe everyday is the 4th of July and the Democrats believe everyday is April 15th. An oversimplification to be sure, but that sentiment was not far from the minds of the Massachusetts voters. Already laboring under a bad state imposed health care system, in spectacular fashion, they rejected ObamaCare and elected Scott Brown to a “people’s seat.”
In California, that lesson apparently went unnoticed for California Democrats. Less than 48 hours after the dust settled from the Brown triumph, California Democrats voted for a State imposed “universal” health care plan. In other words, a state run health care system that would bar private insurance.
Keep in mind that California is already amidst a chronic and prolonged budget crisis brought on by runaway spending and exorbitant taxing. Perennially listed among the worst states in our Union to do business, California features 10%+ income taxes and the highest regulatory burden around. So imposing are the costs to business in California, despite its ports and natural resources, Nevada and its desert is #1 in the Country in new business development.
As Congressman Tom McClintock famously says, only government policy could convince people and business to relocate from lush California to the barren deserts of Nevada. The practical result of those anti-job polices is that California now has a revenue problem. Just 3 years ago revenues were in the $125 billion dollar range. Now they are in the $85+ billion dollar range. In other words, government has created a revenue problem by killing off jobs and, without those jobs, there are less taxpayers, less income tax and less sales tax.
Rather than make California job friendly again – and thereby increase government revenues through sales taxes and new income taxes from new jobs – California Democrats offer nothing but tax hikes and even more regulation. And now this.
The estimated cost of the Democrats California Health Care bill is over $210 billion dollars a year! Nearly 250% more than the existing state revenues. But wait – there is more – or less depending on how you think about it. The Democrats don’t even have a funding mechanism in place to pay for their bill. Instead, they want to create a committee (itself costing $1 to $2 million) to come up with a funding mechanism. Of course, that means a government committee to devise a tax scheme to pay for government bureaucracy.
When this bill was considered before, the Democrats claimed that they would raise billions upon billions of dollars thorough new taxes and fees. However, the “non-partisan” Legislative Analyst’s Office, predicted that the new fees and taxes would result in added deficits of over $40 billion per year, i.e. over 40% of the current budget.
In truth, the deficits would be far worse because there is not $200 billion or $100 billion or even $25 billion more to collect from California tax payers. They are already over taxed and over regulated -which is why so many have left the state, or are unemployed, and the government has a revenue problem today.
But don’t tell the Democrats in Sacramento that. They are going to govern us whether we like it or not – at least until November that is and California may have its own 4th of July.
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