TWOFER:

DENIAL AND DELAY

Several states are facing some tough fiscal times, says Byron Schlomach, director of the Center for Economic Prosperity at the Goldwater Institute.
[snip]

> California's overspending problem amounts to more than $14 billion for the 2009 fiscal year.
> [others...]
> California's gap is 14 percent of its budget.

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[Now the REST of the story - heard Newt Gingrich mention this on Fox and went looking for it:

California exodus turns to stampede
High taxes drive jobs, people from one state to another

California, which once lured Americans from near and far, is now driving out millions of the most productive residents – including high percentages of the most affluent.

"As California faces a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit, one of the major causes for the red ink is the stampede of millionaire households from the state," says a report called "Rich States, Poor States" by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. "Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounts for about half the budget hole."

[there's much data, but it all boils down to (what should be) common sense: CA is in competition with other states for people and businesses, and its been working overtime to drive away both - with the predictable results. Moral? our choices have consequences - we can't continue to do dumb things and expect nothing bad to happen. I.e., we can't afford to keep sending the same lame brains back to Sacramento time and again and not pay the price]

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