Agreed. As an Oregonian who lives 15 miles to the North of the Golden State, it is obvious that California's 2/3's rule is insane. Truly insane. This is the West Coast. By definition, there is no 2/3 consensus on any issue on the West Coast.

I didn't vote for them.

And it makes me cry that their constituents won't ever hold them to the fire for this asshattery.

I recall reading a few years ago that Grover Norquist was trying to convince state-level Republicans to view bipartisanship as akin to "rape." I imagine he would be quite pleased with the way the California Republicans are holding out for . . . what? How far does Grover want them to go? Bankruptcy?

It would be interesting to ask Republicans in Congress if they approve of the way that their colleagues in California are handling that state's fiscal crisis. Is this their role model? What does Newt have to say? Indeed, why isn't the national press doing more to interview these Republican lawmakers?

The recall that put Arnold in power was over a budget crisis much less severe. Why aren't the citizenry demanding dramatic change in a process than is clearly beyond dysfunctional?

I grew up in California during a time when its legislature was considered one of the best in the country. When I entered college one of my professors argued that the US had become too big to be governable. Perhaps the same could be said of California.

I think the lyrics you're looking for are:

"And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill"

Desperadoes Under The Eaves
-- Warren Zevon

Flat-out insane is only partially correct. The crux of the matter is that 1/3 of the state Senate and Assembly are fucking insane. Rabid (and I mean rabid!) anti-tax repukes -- even, as you say, holding to their death-grip on the process as our state plunges into the abyss.
(and don't even get me started ranting on their asinine stance re seismic projects!)

Pardon my profanity, but I fucking despise these people! I am dead serious when I say the time has come for this country to seriously consider a discussion as to how best to go about managing a Left/Right separation. The fuckers who insist on not paying taxes? Dandy. But you have to go live in the shithole of your dreams. Leave me and my progeny out of it!

Where's the effing Terminator when you need him. I need our girly-man governor to grow a pair and slap his Republican bitches silly until they vote for the budget.

*sigh* Michael Miller beat me to it. As I was finishing the article, the only words that came to mind were "fucking insane."

I feel awful for everyone in California who is affected by this, and how this will affect other Americans, but I also have to start to worry about the ripple effect on the rest of us.

I live in Toronto. Canada is starting to feel the worst of the recession, despite our relatively more cautious banking system, somewhat saner mortgages, and higher savings rate. I've been debating whether or not I should sell my house ASAP rather than wait this out.

I think I just made up my mind.

I'm not from California and don't know its political system. But one would think enough signatures could be gathered to place the 2/3 question up for a vote, using the proposition process. It seems hard to believe that Californians would not vote to change this law that's causing them such grief. And, unless I'm mistaken, a proposition only requires a simple majority to pass.

Is it possible to hold a special election in California to vote on a proposition?

Being Russian born and loving California deeply I have to say that 2/3 majority reminds me of Socialist days when everybody have to agree. Hard to imagine that in the state where Orange county conservatives, Hollywood bunch, numerous minorities or Northern Californians can agree on anything accept that they all want to live good but.... Each sees it different way.. Crazy times we are living in..

The fuckers who insist on not paying taxes? Dandy. But you have to go live in the shithole of your dreams. Leave me and my progeny out of it!

It's those goddamn molly-coddled Reaganites and "small-government" libertarians who refuse to leave their warm and fuzzy storyland and face reality. Their whole lives are spent in pathetic pursuit of a kind of perpetual spoilt-childhood, a land where "freedom" means "no responsibilities", where public goods are free, and you shouldn't have to pay taxes if you don't feel like it.

It's the grown-ups who get tired of the ever-worsening tantrums and breath-holding displays that accompany this stunted infantilism.

@DevilDog: There's that and about a dozen other Constitutional reforms that we need NOW.

What we need to do is start a general recall. The Governor and the whole Legislature. That's 121 people. Now.

The worst of the Howard Jarvis Republican party all grew up in Orange County just when a speculative development bubble and massive defense waste & largess (siphoned from the rest of the country, of course) were funding a welfare-state level of services on an Okie level of taxation. (Very similar to that petrostate to the north.)

They're whiny trust fund babies. Of course they're still infantile.

This is all very chilling. The rest of the country can look at California and know that what the GOP has planned for the entire country if we let them. This crisis is exactly what Norquistism intends to bring about. California is being murdered by the fanatics.

Along with the system that was set up to cause just such a destructive situation, there needs to be a revolt against the voters who support these legislative jokers. California is being held hostage by a few extremist voters. Your cranky Republican uncle isn't so harmless, after all, is he?

Don't be too hasty to blame the Republicans though--at least so directly. Remember the story about the frog and the scorpion: the Republicans are just being true to their self-destructive nature. The true blame must rest with the Californian electorate (the frog), they have supported the 2/3rds rule, not only by approving the original initiative, but by rejecting subsequent attempts to modify it.

An interesting addendum:

A few years ago (2004 I believe), there was an initiative to reduce the 2/3rds requirement to 55%. A gay, ostensibly liberal, colleague of mine voted against it because he didn't want Sacramento taking more of his tax dollars (he's a highly paid software developer as I am). This anecdote illustrates the degree to which taxation paranoia dominates much of the American psyche (notice that even the Democrats are using the term 'tax relief').

Hey, I would love to have more of my tax dollars back in my own pocket, but I also want good roads, good schools, honest cops, safe foods, etc. And, dammit, those don't come free!

I missed that part about how private sector corporations can have massive layoffs but state governments cannot.

If massive layoffs and restructuring are the norm, then they will be the norm for government also, for we do not yet have evidence that government is immune from the laws of economics.

Totally agree with the above. 2/3 is nuts... govt by referendum is crazy. Multimillionaires, heaven forbid taxes be raised on them... and then we have unions so strong that if you're a state employee, you get medical care FOR LIFE after 5 years, along with your spouse....huge pensions... 401K, for starters.

From top to bottom, unsustainable.

California should be two states, if not three.

Democrats, who had already given into Republicans’ long-held dreams of large tax cuts for small businesses and for some of the entertainment industry and a proposed $10,000 tax break for first-time home buyers, balked at Mr. Maldonado’s request that the Legislature tuck a bill into the package that would allow voters to cross party lines in primaries.

“I think with an open primary, we would have good government that would do the people’s work,� Mr. Maldonado said.

So undermining the party structure so Republicans can vote in Democratic primaries is next on the list?

Sounds like a plan.

When California goes bankrupt will they come to Washington looking for bailout money?

Maybe Republicans need to see what a failed state really looks like. It won't be pretty.

Ahh, for the good old days of Enron-manipulated energy blackouts.

"all in the name of fiscal responsibility"

says Hilzoy.

Perhaps we should make fiscal responsibility illegal?

There are no words that shall remove the intransigent tyrant from the comfort of his throne; even at the end of ends, when he has lost all prestige and justification for his pure insanity, only the weighty action fomented by the peoples of a truly desperate nation can serve to pry the viper from its den, and destroy it, thus freeing both the peoples and the nation from the horror of that tyrant's rule....

California is run by idiots.

1) They allow any fascist in CA (and there are a LOT of fascists in CA) to propose, promote, and pass any initiative about anything. Result: The CA code is filled with very expensive stupid requirements.

2) "3 strikes" fills the prisons with bicycle thieves with life sentences.

3) Prop 13 has resulted in people with houses would millions paying $125/year in property tax.

4) The "2/3" rule is truly stupid.

This is all the fault of the luxurious state employee pension system.

California used to be a pretty good place to live before it filled up with liberal castoffs from other states. People who couldn't make a living in the states where grownups live came here to suck on the California state teat. And now you children can't figure out why the productive ones refuse to keep paying taxes to raise your immigrant babies and cover your yoga classes.

Not my problem. I'm off to live in Arizona where people are still sane and they finally got rid of that endomorphic governor with the deep voice. Global warming is mostly left-wing hysteria, but just in case it's true, Colorado used to be a sensible state and we can probably convince its legislators to give us more of their water.

CA's voter initiatives are crazy, and screw everything up.

Add a propensity for doing anything to make your political opponent look bad (goes both ways), and you're in screw-up territory, up and down the coast.

From the article:
The roots of California's inability to address its budget woes are statutory and political. The state, unlike most others, requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Legislature to pass budgets and tax increases. And its process for creating voter initiatives hamstrings the budget process by directing money for some programs while depriving others of cash.

Fix that. Having the voters second-guessing everything during the legislative period is insanity. Requiring a 2/3 majority doesn't have to be madness, but in a US more bent on obstructionism than on being constructive, it becomes madness, as it ensures nothing happens.

The Governator is probably not happy. And he won't be back.

I like this part: "The state, nearly out of cash, has...stopped issuing income tax refunds...". Huh--I wonder what would happen if I, short of cash, were to stop paying my income tax? I'm sure the state would understand, right?

Basically, what California is experiencing is the tyranny of a minority. By instituting the two-thirds rule, you allow a committed bloc of folks to paralyze the process. It doesn't matter which side of a fence that group resides on, the minority is going to be able to paralyze the work of the majority. This is not democracy at its best. It is the result of an ideology of the "true believer." These folks are dangerous.

When I was a child, California led America in pretty much everything.

Best roads. Best schools. Most generous social services. It was truly a beacon, showing the rest of the country what enlightened state government could accomplish.

Then came Howard Jarvis and Prop 13.

That many measures California now ranks with Arkansas and Mississippi and Alabama is utterly mind-boggling.

California will fix itself only when it reforms how state government operates. The 2/3 rule for budgets and taxes has to go. So does the too-easy-to-qualify ballot initiatives.

Democracy fails when a very small minority of freaks and wackos can hold everyone else hostage to their retarded demands.

shutting down the government will mean spending nearly $400 million of taxpayers' money for nothing, and all in the name of fiscal responsibility

I rarely disagree with you, hilzoy, but this statement strikes me as wrong. The GOP is pursuing this reckless and costly action all in the name of not raising taxes.

It's fiscal responsibile to spend if you can afford to pay for it. For a large state, that means a robust tax base. Especially given its large numbers of voter mandates, it's the GOP's anti-tax jihadists who are being fiscally irresponsible.

What I find insane is the news coverage of this issue.

The reality is that Republicans want to take down government. Crashing the state isn't the result of failed negotiation, or political gridlock, it's the conscious decision of the California Republican Party.

That anyone could read an article on this and walk away thinking, "Jeez, politicians just don't know how to make a deal," are fundamentally misinformed.

Low taxes mean that the Corporations and Banks will have access to all that money. Since rethugs support Corporations and Banks, it's clear why they would like to see California go bankrupt. The Corporations and Banks could buy the whole place, pennies on the dollar. There's your Grover plan.

You've got to laugh at a place that allows a slim majority of bigots to strip a group of people of their civil rights but requires an almost impossible 2/3 majority to pay the bills.

If electing Gov. Terminator wasn't proof enough, this past year has shown us exactly why CA and the people there are fucking insane.

Apart from Lindsay Graham, who has been very vocal about the subject, and possibly McConnell. Can anyone list the states who are declining the bailout funds? I'm sure Cantor does not want them for his state either, could some of the $$'s go to help California.
Related subject - apparently Cantor's wife's bank got payout bigtime from the bank rescue - of course she did not know she got money from the govt!!!

California already has some of the highest taxes in the nation. As reported on NPR recently, many of the successful companies located in California are considering moving to other, less expensive states, such as Colorado. Why is California not able to pay its bills with the high taxes it already collects? I agree that the proposition system is a significant culprit, but at the end of the day, I think large cutbacks in state spending ought to be higher in priority than tax increases. It's easy to point to the minority Republicans as obstructionist, but it's equally true that the majority Democrats evidently lack the will to make the kinds of aggressive spending cuts that this situation demands.

I agree that the proposition system is a significant culprit, but at the end of the day, I think large cutbacks in state spending ought to be higher in priority than tax increases.

This statement makes no sense. If memory serves me right, the spending required by the proposition system can't be cut back.

The fact of the matter is that Californians demand high levels of government service at low tax rate, and that system simply isn't sustainable. Given the anti-tax jihadists' recalcitrance, Democrats already have cut back on spending, but the people whose will they're elected to enact still demand, and deserve, government service.

it's equally true that the majority Democrats evidently lack the will to make the kinds of aggressive spending cuts that this situation demands.

That's funny...hilzoy just documented them making several kinds of deep cuts, including many that make no sense at all. The Republicans' ant-tax jihadism is well documented, but it's falacious to simply presume that because they're well documented as being intransigent, the Democrats must be too.

What specific spending cuts do you propose?

Funny thing about California - Great schools, roads, libraries, Supreme Court, social services under, not only under the Republican (when you could still place a B in that word) Northern California Knight era, but, the Democratic days of Brown's administration. Then, came the Walter Knott Birchers of Orange County, the switching to the RepuGs by the Southern Democrats from Oklahoma and Texas transplanted to the San Joaquin Valley, the Kitchen Cabinet of the Mega Bucks supporting their mouthpiece Ronny and Howard Jarvis. However, what is ironic is that many of those who voted for their nefarious schemes have left the state and now, reside, in other Western states. So, the mess was created by so many who no longer have to correct the problems. But, they will always have "transplanted liberals" and "illegals" to blame for the misdeeds of the ones who changed the Republican Party into the RepuGlican Party.

I'm a Californian, and I agree with Johnny's statement above that this is tyranny of the minority. We have no one to blame but ourselves for approving the 2/3 majority requirement back in the heady days of the anti-tax revolution.

Xenos: "This is all very chilling. The rest of the country can look at California and know that what the GOP has planned for the entire country if we let them. This crisis is exactly what Norquistism intends to bring about. California is being murdered by the fanatics."

As a SoCal native, I agree with you completely. But consider this: it may also become the spark point for a voter revolution. California is generally on the forefront of most national issues, and I don't see anything different here.

"How far does Grover want them to go? Bankruptcy?"

You've nailed it. Remember, Grover is the guy who wants to drown the Federal Gov't in the bathtub, and that attitude also extends to state government. To people like Grover, there is no level of government activity that he wants to pay for, because his most fervent wish is for Gov't to outsource everything to private corporations. That's his real motivation. He can dress it up in all the prettiest ideological language, but at bottom it's nothing other than economic self-interest. Have you heard Grover utter one word of criticism of the horrendous fraud, waste, and abuse by the private contractors in Iraq? Of course not.

When cracked streets aren't re-paved after minor earthquakes, when baseball scholarships to UCLA and UC Davis are rescinded and the state teams start losing to Wyoming community colleges, when the fire department shows up two hours late to put out your house fire, when the LA Coliseum crumbles and isn't renovated, when high school SAT scores plummet to the levels of Georgia schools, when the buses run every other day, when the retirees line up for bread and soup because their pension fund is bankrupt, when babies die in the emergency rooms of county hospitals waiting for treatment because of staff layoffs -- will Republicans then be satisfied that taxes are low enough?

Probably not.

The California situation is horrible, but the fault can't really be laid at the feet of the GOP—however stupidly I think they might be acting. The 2/3 requirement is the issue, and for that, like all of the idiotic propositions that litter the state's constitution, you have to lay the blame squarely on the California voters. They are the ones who voted for the system. Those propositions are, in a real sense, a representation of the California people's will (even if they didn't realize what they were doing at the time) and really only they can change it. Maybe this is the crisis that will convince voters that it's time to change. We can hope.

"fire department shows up two hours late to put out your house fire"

I track house fires in Fresno CA, and we have about 4 serious house fires a year. I do not track smaller fires.

Fresno has a stock of about 100,000 houses, each paying about $400/year in fire insurance, or an income of 40 million. About 39/40 of that becomes net!

I live here. Add to this fiasco the fact that at any moment, we could have a greater than 9.0 earthquake and everything that's teetering, will come tumbling down. And not into the ocean as you all secretly wish, but at the feet of the rest of the nation.

In my county, San Bernardino, our tax assessor (Bill Postmus - Republican) has just been busted on meth charges. Meth!! And suddenly out of nowhere, we all get supplemental property tax increases. My house purchased last summer has already dropped some 30k so I'm not sure how the fuck they revalued this. Another friend of mine was delivered a supplemental which reevaluated his 4 years back.

Remember that scene from "Apocalypse Now" where the come upon a dark outpost above the DMZ and Willard asks, "Hey Soldier? Who's in charge here?" and the soldier says, "Ain't you?"

That's what it feels like.

As a former citizen of CA - IMHO the only thing that will right California's problems is a state constitutional convention. There is no other way to get around all the constitutional amendments added by the ballot initiative process.

lose the 2/3 budget requirement.

end term limits - non-elected "experts" (read, lobbyists and the players amongst the rabid bases of the respective parties) have too much sway over newbie pols. Seasoned veterans just don't exist in either house of the legislature, and deal making is done by the veterans with enough personal political capital to cut deals the base or lobbyists don't agree with.

end, or severely curtail, the ballot prop system. CA clearly demonstrates why direct democracy was not favored by the US constitutional framers.

a convention would also allow them to scrap all the existing ballot props that have become law so far- from the unfunded mandates to the loony prop 13.

If there was any doubt that Cantor was kidding (it was Cantor, yes?) when he likened himself and his brethren to the Taliban, I think these kinds of behaviors make it crystal clear: he was dead serious. Modern conservatism is a terrorist movement, willing to hold a people hostage and let the world fall apart for the sole purpose of destroying ANY progressive/liberal success whatsoever. End timers, indeed.

My wife and I lived in Santa Clara county for two and a half years in the mid-eighties. Then we came to our senses and moved back to Wisconsin. That place is whacked. Even then the schools were shitty, the infrastructure (read- road system) grossly over-stressed and housing was absurdly expensive. In short, not a good place to raise a family if you have a choice.
The Californio mentality struck me as an odd mix of libertarianism (one logical extension of which is a screw-everybody-but-me-and-mine mentality which provided the foundation for the so-called tax revolution)and environmentalism. I hesitate to label much of that world view "liberal" because the fundamental aspect of American liberalism is altruism, something I found generally lacking.
I too would have to lay blame for the present prdicament at the feet of the idiots who vote-- or don't-- in that state. Unfortunately, as was pointed out above, if The Big One hits any time in the near future, the rest of the country will have to foot the bill for a clean-up that will be several times worse than Katrina.
Maybe the President could decalre martial law and relace the governor and legislature of California with a military governor and start raising some taxes?

A major part of the problem here is that Governor Ventura, excuse me, Schwartznegger, is supported by neither side -- the GOP does not trust him, and the Democrats dislike him for ousting Gray Davis.

Somehow, I'm having a hard time accepting the idea that a constitutional convention would restore political sanity to California. I don't know. Maybe it could be a calm, deliberative process with good faith participation by all parties. Kind of like the recall of Gray Davis.

But one would think enough signatures could be gathered to place the 2/3 question up for a vote, using the proposition process. It seems hard to believe that Californians would not vote to change this law that's causing them such grief

Californians have been fed a line for 30 years that (A) Our taxes are too high and (B) Schools, bridges and roads are magically created by the Infrastructure Fairy, so any taxes that you do pay just get thrown into a furnace in Sacramento.

After all, the top income tax rate in California is a whopping 9 percent, with an extra 1% added if you make more than $1 million! No wonder people are running around screaming about how high their income taxes are!
/snark

(For comparison's sake, the LA County sales tax rate is 8.25%. So you probably pay in sales tax every year than you do in income tax at the end of the year.)

I remember some of the Southern California Republicans being a little on the nutty side. But this is flat-out insane.

You obviously haven't been watching "The Real Housewives of Orange County", have you?

As someone involved in California politics for 40 years, the Southern California Republicans have always been batshit insane. Remember the John Birch Society? Remember B-1 Bob??

And of course, these were the people who thought if they elected an "action hero" they'd get Action. Arnold may be one of the smartest guys I ever met in Hollywood, but as a political novice there's nothing he's done right since he got there.

Of course, the real culprit in all this is California's would-be Retread Governor, Jerry Brown, the ignorant moron who had the chance to set all this right back in 1976 when he had a legislative majority waiting for him to reform the budget process and property taxes so that homeowners were protected and corporations paid what they should, but instead we got the reverse, while Governor Moonbeam sat there in the full lotus on his mattress in the gubernatorial apartment chanting "Ommmmmmmmm" with the gaggle of idiots he thought were the intellectual cutting edge. And of course we just might be stupid enough to follow up the Governator with the Retread Moronator.

Myke K: thanks for demonstrating the moron stupidity of the typical California Republican drooler. You can move to Arizona, but you won't be getting any more water. In fact, you're going to get less water. That's because the Colorado River Compact was written back in the 1920s, and apportioned water rights according to the water flows of the highest water availability in the basin in 500 years. And now the Southwest is moving into a drought similar to that which ended the pre-Pueblo civilization symbolized by Mesa Verde.

But of course, confusing someone like you with facts is mostly an exercise in futility.

Hopefully, Arizona will dry up and you dumbass Republicans there will blow away along with the dust. One can only pray.

The roots of California's inability to address its budget woes are statutory and political. The state, unlike most others, requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Legislature to pass budgets and tax increases.

No, if they were statutory, they could be waved away by a majority of the legislature; they are Constitutional, which is why they are so resistant to change.

But one would think enough signatures could be gathered to place the 2/3 question up for a vote, using the proposition process.

It's been done, just a couple years ago; the proposition got on the ballot and then failed. OTOH, it didn't happen right after any budget problem on the scale of the present one, so it might be more viable now.

The California situation is horrible, but the fault can't really be laid at the feet of the GOP—however stupidly I think they might be acting. The 2/3 requirement is the issue

The 2/3 requirement enables a minority to block any action, but it doesn't require them to; you can't blame the provision that enables destructive action and simultaneously absolve the people taking the destructive action that is enabled.

Myke K: thanks for demonstrating the moron stupidity of the typical California Republican drooler.

But naturally -- Myke K is a parody, and a remarkably successful one at that -- you'd have to go back to the fake tbrosz to get a more eerily accurate capture of wingnut delusion.

Mike K is the genuine Republican drooler, who usually parodies himself.

I have always wanted to live in SF, but I think I may wait a few years. "California- A great Place to Visit, But You Would Be Nuts to Live Here!"

I never read answers. Just complaints, or the lone answer from the left...raise taxes. I've also never read anything that says government is exempt from economics. When the private sector has to cut costs and balance their revenue with their spending, it's the business cycle. When government is asked to follow the same business cycle it acts as the crybaby and say's it's not "fair". Suck it up left coast losers. You've developed a champagne appetite and now you have a beer income. Switch drinks and learn to live within your means, and not some unsupportable lifestyle. Maybe those 3 holdouts understand the concept of "tough love". Grow up California and quit "dreamin".

Just complaints, or the lone answer from the left...raise taxes.

Then you aren't listening.

I've also never read anything that says government is exempt from economics.

Its not "exempt from economics". OTOH, if you don't want positive feedback that turns downturn into disaster, you want government to act countercyclically.

When the private sector has to cut costs and balance their revenue with their spending, it's the business cycle.

Well, no, when the private sector sees declining revenue, its time, says the private sector, for a government bailout, either in the forms of special tax cuts or special direct aid.

When government is asked to follow the same business cycle it acts as the crybaby and say's it's not "fair".

Er, no, it doesn't. "Government" doesn't exist as a thing with a coherent interest. Government exists to serve the common interest of individuals in society. Sure, decision makers in government will complain that it is incoherent when, in a downturn, people both expect more support from government and expect government to use less to do it.

Ideally, what you'd want to meet the needs of crises is for government to deficit spend through crises, and pay down (or grow out of) the debt burden during expansions; specifically, you'd expect outstanding debt as a share of the economy (GDP for the nation, GSP for a state) to grow during a downturn as government acted to fill the gap created by declining private activity and to cushion the effects on the most vulnerable, and that share to decline again during expansions.

When the ability to deficit spend is constrained (usually, the federal government doesn't face this problem, because a downturn makes federal debt, perceived as risk free, a more attractive investment; states, however, often face this problem, both because of credit markets and state constitutions having procedural barriers to borrowing that make it difficult to do, especially as a rapid response to an emerging crisis), it is generally more practical to impose carefully targetted new taxes that will put minimal drag on the economy than it is to cut spending, even in a carefully targetted manner, without negative economic impacts. So, to avoid compounding the downturn, its often best for do most of the work of closing the gap by selectively raising taxes.

But the Calif. republicans must be the envy of republicans everywhere since they have accomplished the conservative goal of destroying government.

Another example of wanting government to fail so they can point to government failing.

One wonders why anyone follows the party anymore. Cutting your nose off to spite your face is NOT any way to run a government - even one you want to fail so you can score political points.

When the private sector has to cut costs and balance their revenue with their spending, it's the business cycle. When government is asked to follow the same business cycle it acts as the crybaby and say's it's not "fair".

You may be shocked to hear this, but the government is not a business. They are not run to gain a profit. They do not produce goods or services that they expect people to purchase on an open marketplace. If a business goes bankrupt and shuts down, at most a few thousand people are put out of work. If a government goes bankrupt and shuts down, several million people (at least) have no roads, no schools, no health care, no fire department, no police department, no disaster assistance, no National Guard, no parks ... shall I go on?

We're now looking at the consequences of 30 years of trying to pretend you can run government the same way you can run a business, and what's your answer? We just didn't try clap loud enough, apparently, and now it's our fault that Tinker Bell didn't magically fix everything.

Part of the state needs to secede and set up its own constitution, just to escape the ghost of Howard Jarvis. Problem is, what geographic portion of the state would have the unity to do it? Not southern California, thnks to the Birchers who still dominate Orange County and now the northern LA exurbs. Rural northern Californians won't align with the Bay Area.

Whomever does it, just do it and teach us in northern Virginia how to do likewise, so we can liberate ourselves from these backward southerners in Richmond.

I can't decide whether this has been a plan to destroy the Initiative initiative so ordinary people will finally turn against Initiatives and lose their direct voice in government or if it is mostly a plan to destroy California. Either way it shows amazing stupidity that they won't (or can't) get together on overturning a lot of bad law.

Let's make George W. Bush the governor of California and then at least the outcome will make sense. /s

Interesting. I wonder if it'll come down to blue and red counties.

Since the GOP is effectively shutting down state services, counties will need to pick up the slack.

If California mirrors the nation, we'll get polluted, ignorant, low-taxed red counties and prosperous, educated, but highly taxed counties.

It may not work as similarly. Wealthy people can move to low tax counties and commute to the jobs in the blue counties. The whole model may collapse.

Break out the popcorn. I'll be watching from behind my hand with my fingers spread just enough to peek.

Tthe wizards of economic brilliance, the GOP: hard at work crushing local economies now that they've pooched the nation.

Since Californians got themselves into their own budget mess, I will assume that they will receive no more than one fiftieth of the States' Recovery money.