Posted by
Katy Grimes on Monday, October 05, 2009 1:06:20 PM
Reading Paul Harris' colum in Sunday's Observer, I found myself yelling at him. He might have written an epic Sunday newspaper-worthy story, but he avoided and omitted California's real problem: Public pensions. And Harris forgot to thank Gray Davis and the Democrats for the mess we find ourselves in.
Quick to blame Arnold Schwarzenegger, he's becoming a fast fall guy and convenient deflection for state liberals. But stop and think about where California would be today is Gray Davis had continued as Governor, and public employee unions had no opposition. Imagine if Cruz Bustamante had won... ugh.
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California has a special place in the American psyche. It is the Golden State: a playground of the rich and famous with perfect weather. It symbolises a lifestyle of sunshine, swimming pools and the Hollywood dream factory.
But the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes. Its political system is locked in paralysis and the two-term rule of former movie star
Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a disaster – his approval ratings having sunk to levels that would make George W Bush blush. The crisis is so deep that Professor Kevin Starr, who has written an acclaimed history of the state, recently declared: "California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America."
read the rest of the story
HERE