A California Republican

So - Ex-Speaker Nunez’s son was arrested for murder, along with 3 other guys.

And it wasn’t a self-defense murder. It was 4 guys who beat up another kid and then stabbed him to death. This was a violent, hateful crime. It is what the Speaker used to speak out against.

And since his son is 19 - he will be going to the adult prison system. Which Speak Nunez doesn’t like, and didn’t try to do much about. So now his son is destined to go there.  I wonder how he feels about the situation?

 And so now his son is going into prison. I can only imagine that he wishes he had done more to reform the system. It is possible his son won’t get out. This was a horrible murder (from what the news has presented). Maybe he gets life without parole. Then he’s there for life. All of a sudden, everything that Nunez didn’t vote for, or voted down, seems to come back to haunt him. Some reforms Nunez voted down for political reasons, not because they were not good reforms. So now what does he think? Any regrets Mr. Ex-Speaker?

Here’s a link to the story: http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1444481.html

In the continuing saga of California’s budget problems, the SEIU has come up with their version of a solution.

I am going to critique them, but first I want to say that at least they made an attempt at a solution. Being a union, and not privy to things that are common sense among others (like the federal government doesn’t have any money to bail us out), it is a good attempt. And in an alternate reality where the federal government isn’t sunk beneath a mountain of debt that makes California’s look little, and where there is no need to get votes from Republicans, and where people don’t mind giving lots of breaks to people who don’t earn as much as others….well maybe then their budget could become a reality. I sure I wouldn’t want to live in this alternate universe that the SEIU lives in, but at least they are attempting a solution - which is more than anyone else has done to this point.

Thier budget includes no cuts - that is enough to doom it right there.

In addition, their ideal budget raises $14.2 billion in taxes through June 2010 (what are they going to do after that date? The problem isn’t going to go away!). The VLF (vehicle licensing fee) would be raised only on vehicles costing more than $20,000. Which basically means on minivans and luxury vehicles. Taxes would be raised on households making more than $250,000 a year - which really isn’t that much in California. Additionally, taxes would be raising on oil production, alcohol, and the sales tax would apply to entertainment.

And the big component of their plan that places it in dreamland - there would be $15 billion in federal bailout money. Everyone can join with me in laughter.

And this budget takes us through June 2010. What happens after that date? Do we go back to the horrible situation we are in now? What possible reason would the government have to lower taxes that they raised? And if peole still bought alcohol, produced oil, and went to entertainment…then those taxes wouldn’t come down either. Once people get used to a higher level of taxation, the government won’t bring the taxes back down. They will just keep them there, spend more, and we will run into another situation like this year sometime in the future.

The SEIU is living in dreamland.