HEY, BIG SPENDERS

California

Hand it to Democrats, particularly those in California. One of the great bits of political jujitsu in recent years was to portray Republicans, not themselves, as the party of tax-and-spend. Now, with control of both Congress and California's state house, they're showing their true colors, says Investor's Business Daily.

• Democrats have boosted general spending 32 percent in just four years to $103 billion, or 8 percent a year.
• This increase occurred despite going through the worst financial crisis in its history only 4 years ago.
• Revenues, though growing rapidly, haven't kept pace; if spending had grown just half as much -- at a still-healthy 4 percent -- the budget today would be in balance.

Democrats were warned about spending so much, especially with the state's finances so dependent on just a handful of affluent taxpayers, says IBD. They didn't listen. They gave lavish contracts to state employee unions and padded retiree benefits. They even tried to hand out benefits to millions of illegal aliens.

This has been a fiscal disaster. Over the next year and a half, California's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst predicts the state will have an unprecedented $16 billion budget shortfall. Pretty nasty, considering just last summer the state predicted a surplus.

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