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California Will Be Bankrupt Before General Motors
Even with failing automakers, Michigan's economy looks pretty strong compared to the Golden State's.
That’s why despite Michigan’s troubles it’s not nearly in as bad fiscal shape as most other states. Twenty-nine states have worse projected 2009 budget shortfalls. Budget gap as a percentage of the general fund finds Michigan in 43rd place. Things are projected to get worse in 2010 when Michigan will be $1.6 billion in the red, but that will still be no worse than 35th as a percentage of the budget. Things may be bad here economically, but in general the state government is fiscally responsible. While there are structural, political, and economic issues facing Michigan, the state is nowhere near the crises faced by California and dozens of other states. California is looking at a $36 billion shortfall in 2009 and New York state an estimated $15 billion, an estimate that keeps rising every day as the layoffs on Wall Street start impacting state revenues. Twenty percent of Americans live in those two states. It’s not just the large states. Arizona faces a $3.1 billion budget shortfall, a 30% gap, and similar situations can be found across the country. Perhaps pointing their fingers at the domestic automakers’ problems or tsk-tsking about Michigan allows other Americans to avoid facing their own states’ financial irresponsibility.
Michiganders aren’t stupid or incompetent, and while our businesses and unions may have made mistakes, at least the state government has been managed well. Our state tax dollars may not have had the best return on investment but because of the balanced budget requirement, for 45 years through good times and bad, Democrats and Republicans have had to keep the state’s books in order. Unlike many states Michigan unfortunately has had a lot of experience dealing with economic downturns. There have been four major national economic recessions since 1963. When the country is in recession people buy fewer cars. That impacts Michigan’s major employers, their workers, and the state budget. In every recession that budget has been adjusted and balanced accordingly. Though the current recession is perhaps the worst since the Great Depression, I’m convinced that while painful cuts will be made, Michigan will get through this downturn better than many other states.
Californians buy mostly foreign-branded cars. When they say “nobody buys American cars,” from their perspective it’s mostly true. Their politicians complain that the Detroit car companies are litigating California’s stricter state emissions standards. There is little love for the Wolverine State on the west coast. Through their state government, though, the people of California have almost as much debt as General Motors. The state government isn’t the only irresponsible party there. Cities large and small are starting to declare bankruptcy, unable to meet obligations for overly generous public employee pensions. California residents are not much better money managers than their elected officials, with one of every 218 households in foreclosure, 30% higher than Michigan’s foreclosure rate. With four times the number of Michigan homeowners in foreclosure it’s quite possible that California’s total debt, public and private, exceeds that of Michigan, including the automakers.
General Motors owes billions of dollars. If GM fails and is liquidated, those creditors will end up with pennies on the dollar, but at least the automaker has assets that can be sold to fund those payouts. If California and its cities default on their obligations will they sell off the Golden Gate Bridge or Big Sur to satisfy holders of municipal and state bonds? The first installment of the loan package for GM and Chrysler crafted by the Bush administration will tide them over until March. Interestingly, March is also when California will run out of money if Sacramento can’t agree on tax hikes and spending cuts. It’s entirely possible that California will go bankrupt before GM.
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Ronnie Schreiber opines about cars at Motorobilia and other automotive web sites.
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54 Comments
1. Smokey:Question: If you lose your job, who will bail you out?
Joseph Schumpeter’s creative destruction should be allowed to work its magic. Without a bailout, new and stronger companies will rise from the Big-3’s ashes, providing more employment.
Just like when the Luddites smashed the spinning jennys, thinking they would be made unemployed for life. Instead, more people were employed to work and maintain the jennys, with higher pay, and the world was better clothed. Win-win!
But a government bailout is a lose-lose. Taxpayers in the other 49 States should not have to bail out Detroit. After all, nobody is going to bail you out if you lose your job. You’re on your own — as Detroit should be.
Jan 3, 2009 - 4:34 am 2. vivo:“Interestingly, March is also when California will run out of money if Sacramento can’t agree on tax hikes and spending cuts.”
So, are those the solutions?
Looks like California will survive pretty well. Real Californians love the State.
Jan 3, 2009 - 4:39 am 3. Flighterdoc:Bad analogy – if the feds (ie, the US Taxpayers) hadn’t already bailed out GM, GM (which is already bankrupt) would be in receivership right now.
I look at the problems with a medical aspect: Michigan is the skinny, formerly hardworking smoker with emphysema and COPD, just barely able to hold on. All of his problems are of his own doing, however.
California (my home most of my life, where I did my medical training and where I worked as a physician most of my life) is an obese patient with heart failure. They’ve gorged themselves to near death, and even there can’t stop from reaching for one more twinky from the table. In this case, they’re asking the US taxpayers (again) to pay for the twinkies. Even having the governator as coach-in-chief couldn’t stop their feeding frenzy.
The end result is the same: both patients will die from their self-inflicted diseases.
Jan 3, 2009 - 6:11 am 4. Craig:“California Will Be Bankrupt Before General Motors”
And the loons in Sacramento deserve all the credit. This state generates more revenue than most countries. And they can’t pay their bills? What a cesspool of liberal economics.
Jan 3, 2009 - 6:26 am 5. Cybergeezer:Bailouts have to stop somewhere, and bankruptcy’s (financial restructuring) have to start sometime. Some one has to be the victim (model) for restructuring; Let it be California. California has been a pioneer in much of the countries innovation. Let’s not deprive them of that privilege. As far as California or any other company or organization, there are sources, such as The World Bank, that make loans. Any government lending or grants or gifts come with conditions whether obviously implied or not. The political party in power, whom considers itself the benefactor, expects, and shall recover, political favors and contributions.
Jan 3, 2009 - 6:52 am 6. syn:“We The People” are the victims of this criminal activity.
“Californians buy mostly foreign-branded cars. When they say “nobody buys American cars,” from their perspective it’s mostly true.”
Yes, California’s environmental imperialists must drive a Prius.
The sick irony here is that California via it’s fraudulent environmental imperialism will not only bankrupt California, their sick and twisted hypochondriac paranoia will bankrupt the entire country leaving us all to rot in misery.
How many useful idiot environmental imperialist movies made in California killed off the US Auto Industry? Everyone of those evil propagandists.
Jan 3, 2009 - 7:17 am 7. Denali_Dragon:California, one of the most liberal states in the nation, has squandered money for years on programs that would supposedly help “disenfranchised” residents. In the end, these programs helped no one but the politicians who proposed and backed them and now everyone in the state gets to pay the tab. Unfortunately, California’s economic woes may be a preview of what will be played out on the national stage if Obama and our new Congress are allowed to spend as if there is no tomorrow.
Jan 3, 2009 - 7:23 am 8. Roger Godby:I don’t know whether to cry or cheer.
Jan 3, 2009 - 7:26 am 9. Bilgeman:Flighterdoc:
“GM (which is already bankrupt) would be in receivership right now.”
I keep hearing how the Big 3 are bankrupt, but I’m sure seeing a lot of their commercials being aired during the BCS College Bowl games.
Did they start giving those time slots away for free?
Jan 3, 2009 - 8:22 am 10. V the K:Dude, you’re dreaming. Michigan is not a well-run state. It may have less of a fiscal crisis than other states, but structurally, it’s still hostile to business, and far too friendly to unions, especially public employee unions. In fact, the public sector has been the only growth industry in Michigan for quite some time.
Jan 3, 2009 - 9:12 am 11. Donna V.:California, like Russia, is a place which has been blessed with natural resources galore (and California, unlike Russia, has great weather to boot). It took California much longer to get there and yet Californians can now say, with the Russians, that they’ve managed to make nothing out of everything. (In contrast to Singapore and Hong Kong, which made everything out of nothing.)
A young woman I know is a native San Francisian and yet when she graduated from the UW system a couple of years ago she opted to stay in icy Wisconsin rather than return to sunny California. She tells me she just can’t afford to live in her hometown. I have mixed feelings about that, because although she is a nice, rather naive young person, she is California nutty when it comes to politics. California has long been known as the state America’s fruits and nuts roll to; we in the other states really would prefer if they stayed there rather than rolling to other parts of the country. We have enough native leftists around her without having to import the Left Coast variety.
Interesting – SF has become a city for the rich and the the poor, while the middle class can’t afford the place anymore. And yet none of the middle class liberal Californians I’ve ever met make the connection between their crappy politics and why they can’t afford to live there any more.
Jan 3, 2009 - 9:42 am 12. Bill Perron:Lived in California all my 68 years and have no idea why the people of this state keep voting the Demoncrats into power, just wish an intelligence test was a requirement before being allowed to vote, then we might get a better class of candidates.
Jan 3, 2009 - 10:21 am 13. ExRat:I like Fighterdoc’s analysis. As one who lives in California but who has old connections with, if not roots in Michigan, I agree that both states (to follow Fighterdoc’s analogy) should be in the ICU, but Michigan just might follow doctor’s orders, while California is still in denial.
There are actually a lot of similarities between the two states, chiefly the dichotomy of the urban industrial and the rural agricultural, with the latter actually producing more value. I have long said that Los Angeles is Detroit with palm trees, and I believe that California is headed for a “payless payday” as happened in Michigan in 1959, and which led directly to the revised state Constitution in 1963 that Ronnie refers to.
The real problem in California is due to gerrymandered safe seats in the legislature, which has allowed the development of a political class that is anything but answerable to the voters, and instead is beholden to special interests such as the teachers’ union and the prison guards’ union. California has been an eager participant in the Nation’s credit binge which led to the economic collapse of last fall, but unlike most of us, the state of California continues to live beyond its means. Even now, with the fiscal crisis in the state coming rapidly to a head, the legislature will not consider reducing spending or laying off a single state employee. Term limits didn’t help, because each legislator leaving office due to term limits is replaced by a clone who is owned by the same special interests and holds the same political philosophy.
I believe that raising taxes in an already high-tax state is not the answer, because in response companies and people will relocate to more economically friendly states like next-door Nevada and Arizona, and even Texas and Idaho. Cutting spending and removing restrictions on how existing funds are spent is the only answer, and the people of California will have to get by with fewer State services. Unfortunately, the politicians’ mindset is to extort higher taxes from the populace by first cutting things like police and fire protection rather than paring back unnecessary pet projects and easing stifling regulation.
Just watch folks — in a couple years California will no longer be known as the Golden State, but rather as the New Jersey of the West. Or maybe the Mexico of the North. (Cross posted to my blog.)
Jan 3, 2009 - 10:28 am 14. don:California’s structural problem is spending can be approved by referendum or simple majority vote–and of course, democrats dominate the spending. Revenue to pay for that spending can only be raised by a two thirds vote–minority republicans refuse to go along with the tax hikes. So California has been borrowing big time to bridge that structural problem–until the credit markets froze up. Now California is looking to a Federal bail out. One might reasonably ask, “What’s the point to having federalism, if state and local governments refuse to govern?” Why should Joe the plumber in Paduka have to pay for Josephine the tansvestite’s sex change operation while doing time in San Quentin?
Jan 3, 2009 - 11:14 am 15. geoffgo:As noted on another blog here at PJM, since 1993 all the employment growth in NJ has been in government.
Jan 3, 2009 - 11:15 am 16. elfman:It would be fascinating to see a California government department by department comparison of employees and budgets for 1997 and 2007 along with their justification of why each can’t cut expenses.
I suppose CA can sell $36 billion in real estate. Good time to pick up some deals… Ha!
I’d love to see how much of a “new republican model” Arnaldo would be after CA’s financial collapse. Too bad it won’t be allowed to fail.
Jan 3, 2009 - 11:18 am 17. PClark:As a native Californian of 68 years, I have seen this once-wonderful place degenerate to what it is today. We have allowed liberal trash to take over and the results are there for all to see. Personally, I am hopeful that California WILL GO BANKRUPT! The continuing schemes cooked up by Worthless Arnold and the Demorats are only going to prolong the inevitable. the City of Vallejo just went bankrupt. Their municipal budget was 85% police and fire (who can retire at 50 with full retirement). A police captain with benefits and overtime has been making over $300,000! Californians need to get real and get back to the basics of not spending more that they put into their government
Jan 3, 2009 - 11:27 am 18. nadadhimmi:This whole “crisis” will be solved if I, and millions like me, will stop being greedy and give the govt all my money. Why do I need to keep the money I earn, that is simply greedy and non-progressive of me, comrade. It’s much more progressive to re-distribute my money to those “less fortunate”, than to get up at 6AM and work my balls off.
Jan 3, 2009 - 12:42 pm 19. nadadhimmi:Really, California has become a turd world shit hole! We can all learn from them. Decades of unreconstructed Liberalism at work there. But, like Orwells “Animal Farm”, the Pigs still are in control and running things for their own benefit. TIME FOR A BARBECUE my friends.
Jan 3, 2009 - 12:47 pm 20. poul:california has silicon valley, which generates trillions of dollars in wealth and serves as a world economy catalyst. michigan has already dead industries on life support, producing mostly useless crap (with notable exception of some ford subsidiaries). there is no comparison – michingan is deadly and hopelessly sick, and california just needs a little reality check and some diet.
Jan 3, 2009 - 12:48 pm 21. Pam:Note to Californians: PLEASE DO NOT MOVE TO TEXAS. We like it the way it is here.
Jan 3, 2009 - 1:16 pm 22. Flighterdoc:Bilgeman: The debts of GM exceed the market capitalization of the company – especially when one considers their ongoing health insurance commitments. They may have cash that they don’t have to commit to someone right now, but they don’t have enough to pay their bills. After all, GM is a health insurance provider that coincidentally makes a few cars.
Nowhere but DC would someone consider giving $25-billion to companies whos total market capitalization is around $6-billion!
Jan 3, 2009 - 1:19 pm 23. Boyd:My daughters were 5th generation Californians. There won’t be a 6th as I moved them to Nevada 20 years ago. The point made here that, “California’s structural problem is spending can be approved by referendum or simple majority vote” is the reason. Nothing made sense in staying in a business climate where the people felt so entitled to other peoples money. Even in the middle of their housing meltdown and the clear signs that their spending habits were not sustainable they voted in a high speed rail system as a new toy to satisfy their adolescent desires.
And now they are going to follow me here to Nevada to take some more from me – and you. No, I didn’t vote for any politician who supports this nonsense but so many did there really is little hope left of turning this coming depression around.
Jan 3, 2009 - 2:22 pm 24. Boyd:Or as Robert Heinlein said, “when the plebs (voters) discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader”
Looks to me that the voters, both State and National, have made that discovery with the predictable outcome. For further signs of our slide into oblivion just think about Corzine’s statement a couple days ago justifying the size of the next Trillion dollar robbery for “investment” in the States who have spent themselves into disaster, “In light of the $700 billion provided to bail out the financial industry, “It’s not shockingly large,” he said.“ Maybe so but hey, a trillion here, a trillion there and pretty soon your talking some real money!
Jan 3, 2009 - 3:02 pm 25. Roy:On a trip to Montana, I asked a local why everybody was so biased against Californians. His response was that Californians flee to Montana to avoid what they created back home — Then, after they arrive, they vote for the same type of idiots and legislation that caused the problems in California.
Jan 3, 2009 - 4:07 pm 26. kadazalu:I have the solution for California. There are a lot of wealthy types out there, especially the Hollyweird libs. If they are so in for ’spreading the wealth’, then so be it. They could solve their problem in a day if they spread the wealth equally among all in the state. Case solved.
Jan 3, 2009 - 4:18 pm 27. Jarhead:V the K is right – Michigan a well-run state? Please.
Michigan, California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and most of New England are no-go states for businesses. High taxes, forced-unions, corruption, over-regulation – no thanks. Nobody in their right mind would start or move a business there.
Jan 3, 2009 - 7:00 pm 28. seven:Michigan could remove detroit like Israel did the Gaza strip. Michigan is a fine state and prosperous. Except for the wasteland of detroit, and it’s crime and ghettos, it is ok.
Jan 3, 2009 - 8:25 pm 29. mac:California has badgered, harassed, insulted, and overtaxed its productive citizens since the 1960’s. The state has opened its welcoming arms wide to losers, leftists, illegals, criminals, and the nonproductive. As a consequence, economic sanity has abandoned the place with little chance of a return visit. Californians will soon undoubtedly be looking around for a scapegoat to blame for their ruination. I can tell them exactly where the culprit is to be found:
LOOK IN THE MIRROR! YOU DID IT TO YOURSELVES!
One more thing: don’t come looking to me to help you out, either. Let your fruits and nuts pay the bill they ran up.
Jan 3, 2009 - 9:38 pm 30. cubanbob:California needs to go bankrupt for its own sake. Its the only way to end this incredible nonsense that goes on at the local and state level. The pensions have to be reduced to manageable levels and the retirement age for collection That and a constitutional amendment to eliminate the state income tax along with banning civil service unions. There really is no other way. Otherwise at some point even Silicon Valley will drift away elsewhere.
Jan 4, 2009 - 12:38 am 31. Cybergeezer:California has been wasting billions of dollars annually on illegal immigrant entitlements; Cutting this flow will enable these funds for the necessary infrastructure. The federal government is mandated to control the borders and it is the federal governments expense. Responsible actions can create available funds. Not enforcing the laws now on the books, and asking for help, is totally irresponsible.
Jan 4, 2009 - 6:03 am 32. Ann:If they go bankrupt, isn’t that a good thing? It may mean they finally stop spending money they don’t have. Idiots.
Jan 4, 2009 - 6:09 am 33. Flighterdoc:Mac: Thats fine, let ALL the nuts fend for themselves….including the automakers, the bankers, etc.
Jan 4, 2009 - 6:27 am 34. Ronnie Schreiber:california has silicon valley, which generates trillions of dollars in wealth and serves as a world economy catalyst. michigan has already dead industries on life support, producing mostly useless crap (with notable exception of some ford subsidiaries)
That “dead” industry in Michigan is one of Silicon Valley’s best customers. Part of the problem is that so few Americans are involved in manufacturing that they have no clue what’s involved in building cars. A modern car, yes, Virginia, even one made by Detroit, has electronic devices used in almost every major component of the car.
As for Michigan being a well run state, as I said, one can discuss ROI and other aspects of state policy but fiscally it’s better run than all but 6 states.
Jan 4, 2009 - 8:48 am 35. Ronnie Schreiber:I have long said that Los Angeles is Detroit with palm trees,
Ex Rat,
That’s gonna leave a mark. When I first visited Los Angeles I told my Angeleno friends that LA was like NYC only with palm trees and they were offended. I can only imagine how they’ll react to analogies to the Motor City. The gap between the very poor and the very rick in the LA area is much greater than that in Detroit. Also, Californians have lost much more equity, in dollar value, in their homes than Michiganders.
Speaking of the Motor City, Detroit recorded its fewest number of murders since 1967, with the number of killings dropping 14% and the murder rate 16%. Apparently the DPD has had some success in overcoming the “don’t snitch” meme and has also managed to arrest and prosecute some professional killers who were skewing the figures up.
It may be small progress but it’s progress.
Jan 4, 2009 - 8:55 am 36. AL from CA:From Pam: “Note to Californians: PLEASE DO NOT MOVE TO TEXAS. We like it the way it is here.”
Pam, I had to laugh. I have enough accounting classes and the 150 semester units to sit for the CPA exam, so I’m going to study for the next several months to prepare for the CPA exam here. Then I plan to interview with the Big 4 accounting firms for a job outside California. I’ve live here in the SF Bay Area since 1977, and I’ve seen this place degenerate to its current state, especially San Francisco. The environmentalists and the gay activists have made this place unwelcome to Christian conservatives.
Several reasons I stayed this long are my church, the Oakland Raiders and the A’s. I know the Raiders suck so no one needs to tell jokes about them since I heard them all, but I’m maybe past the point were even my church won’t be able to keep me and my family here.
One of the states I’m thinking of moving to is Texas. I spent one week in Houston in 2000, and I did my Air Force basic training in San Antonio in the 1980. I enjoyed my time there both times, well maybe not the basic training. I’m looking to other states as well. I like to go to a red state where there’s plenty of jobs and the taxes are not high. I figure any red state will have lower taxes than California. Any one has any suggestions?
Jan 4, 2009 - 12:42 pm 37. Mike T:AL from CA,
I would recommend my home state, Virginia, but the last thing we need is to take a risk with more people moving from liberal states
Jan 4, 2009 - 2:50 pm 38. Ronnie Schreiber:I keep hearing how the Big 3 are bankrupt, but I’m sure seeing a lot of their commercials being aired during the BCS College Bowl games.
Did they start giving those time slots away for free?
If GM & Chrysler hadn’t gotten loans from the gov’t, they would have had to declare some form of bankruptcy, probably Ch. 11 reorganization. Airlines in Ch. 11 advertise all the time. The domestic car companies need to advertise to sell cars. Those ad buys were already budgeted, and possibly already paid for.
Jan 4, 2009 - 3:08 pm 39. slade:I figure any red state will have lower taxes than California. Any one has any suggestions?
North to Alaska
Jan 4, 2009 - 4:28 pm 40. Bilgeman:Mr. Schreiber:
“If GM & Chrysler hadn’t gotten loans from the gov’t, they would have had to declare some form of bankruptcy, probably Ch. 11 reorganization. Airlines in Ch. 11 advertise all the time.”
This is so, but they don’t do it while getting a taxpayer-subsidized bailout, do they?
Why is Chrylser today more important than Eastern Airlines or Pan-Am were in 1990?
I submit that it’s because they never advertised in Big Media to the extent that the Big 3 do.
And in that light, we can’t really trust the MSM news divisions,(I know…you’re SHOCKED!), to be unbiased in their reporting on this issue, since Big 3 advertising revenues makes up a significant portion of their “rice bowl”.
“Give these guys a loan, you chumps…(they owe us money!)”.
Jan 5, 2009 - 3:53 am 41. AL from CA:Mike T,
I’ve heard good things about Virginia so I might look into it, but the state turned blue for Obama last Nov. Any chance it will go back to the Republicans in 2012? Also I’m partial to warmer states so I have to think seriously about the weather in Virginia in winter time.
slade,
Palin in 2012! I don’t know, see the above about warm weather.
Thanks for the suggestions to both of you.
Jan 5, 2009 - 10:03 am 42. Ronnie Schreiber:Bilgeman,
You don’t get it. Whether normally operating, in Ch. 11 reorganization, or using loans from the government, the fact remains that they are in the business of selling cars and if you don’t advertise or otherwise market your products you’re going to have a hard time selling anything.
The loans to GM & Chrysler are a done deal. Do you want those loans paid back or not? If you want them paid back, they’re going to have to market their products. That means they’ll be spending some money on advertising.
The airlines, btw, got about $15 billion after Sept. 11th. They didn’t stop advertising.
Jan 5, 2009 - 11:56 am 43. Sven:#13 ExRat Said: “Just watch folks — in a couple years California will no longer be known as the Golden State, but rather as the New Jersey of the West”
Comparing California to New Jersey is an insult to New Jersey. Having lived in both states for several years, I would pick New Jersey as the better place to live by any measure.
Jan 5, 2009 - 4:11 pm 44. Bilgeman:Mr. Schreiber:
“You don’t get it.”
Oh, I’m gettin’ it alright…right in the neck!
“the fact remains that they are in the business of selling cars and if you don’t advertise or otherwise market your products you’re going to have a hard time selling anything.”
That’s an odd thing to say. I’ve never seen a commercial for marijuana or cocaine,(Cheech & Chong movies notwithstanding), and yet THEY seem to sell their products just fine, thanks!
Do you really mean to insinuate that if someone needs a new car or truck that they do not know where to go to purchase one?
If this is so, then there are folks out there to whom all those bright and shiny new vehicles parked row upon row under lights and banners on car-lots along America’s scenic motorways are as mystifying a phenomena as crop circles and Stonehenge?
I ask you…should folks supposedly that obtuse REALLY be allowed to drive?
Let’s be honest here, television automobile advertising isn’t exactly a research tool that empowers the consumer with a wealth of factual knowledge, is it?
The current Dodge Truck commercial features their vehicles being driven through flames and floods and suchlike.
Well, if that’s what YOUR daily commute is like, I’d offer that you’re more in need of a new house or a new job than a new vehicle.
Now they COULD take up advertising on the internet as opposed to throwing their cash away on the MSM…cheaper, too. Then they spend more on engineering and quality control.
(Are YOU beginning to get it, now? These clowns in Detroit are in large portion subsidizing the print and electronic “BS Factory”. Why in the world you’d want to save them in their present form is beyond me…)
“The airlines, btw, got about $15 billion after Sept. 11th. They didn’t stop advertising.”
Well that WAS rather a different, and (God willing), singular case was it not?
“The loans to GM & Chrysler are a done deal. Do you want those loans paid back or not?”
Yep…I’m “getting it” alright, just like every other taxpayer…the V-8 powered 5 speed overdrive, steel-belted radial Shaft.
Jan 5, 2009 - 4:17 pm 45. Ronnie Schreiber:Now they COULD take up advertising on the internet as opposed to throwing their cash away on the MSM…cheaper, too. Then they spend more on engineering and quality control.
Actually, the domestic automakers have been shifting advertising resources away from broadcast and cable towards “new media” for a while. As for the Dodge truck ads, I agree they’re silly and have criticized Detroit’s car ads myself. Still, you need to have some kind of marketing.
Jan 5, 2009 - 7:26 pm 46. Michael Canzano:California’s PC attitude holds back the truth about why the deficit is so huge. At least 50% of the deficit can be attributed to the coddling of “ILLEGAL ALIENS”. That amounts to 18 Billion dollars. Pathetic ! The California Legislation should be given a one-way ticket to San Quentin.
Jan 6, 2009 - 7:55 am 47. Follow me!:American Christian Infidel
The bile against California! Most of it misguided.
True our public employee unions are first rate moochers like those in every other state. The UAW has nothing on these guys. True our state legislators never saw tax they didn’t want to pass. And yes San Francisco is becoming a “manhattanized” city for only those with big bank accounts. Yes SF’s mayor is a real oddball.
But you are missing huge parts of the problem.
One is the inability of our state republicans to focus on things other than gay marriage: elected to control the Aseembly in the 90’s they imemdiately put an anti-gay marrigae bill in the hopper. But no one had elected them for that. They pursued a social agenda and soon lost control and have been in decline ever since.
Money? We send more money to D.C. than many states and perhaps if we had some of it back instead of supporting bridges to nowhere, we wouldn’t be running a deficit.
What do we spend it on? Well, we are funding the expense of millions of illegals that we howled about in the 80’s while none of you though it was important. We passed prop 209 barring benefits to illegals while many of your state newspapers clucked over our insensibility and then we were deprived of it by a federal judge.
Now there are just too many illegals here to “cut” spending to them. In many LA School Districts over 90% of the kids in elementary and middle schools speak spanish as the first language. 90%! Want to help us pay for those translators? Their medical care?
The drain on trauma centers, schools and other public funds by illegals is enormous Even if you have some illegals,the number is dwarfed by the number here.
There is now no choice but to send hundreds of thousands of illegals to school and to pay for their medical care. The feds are not sending them home and they’ll be 21 one day, looking for jobs, driving on the streets, having kids who are US citizens and walking down our streets as adults. Many of those kids, by the way, are now in the military doing a terrific job.
Unlike Paris with its mobs of angry disenfranchised “youths,” we will do our best to assure that the illegals that stay here (because the feds allowed it) will become peacefully integrated people, not angry, uneducated malcontents with transmissible diseases. The time to “send them back” passed decades ago.
The cost of this is easily in the billions. Its killing us. But it cannot be shut off and its naive to suggest otherwise. We are paying for the failure of the federal governemnt to control illegal imigration. So send us some money for a change!
Jan 6, 2009 - 12:28 pm 48. Stuck in San Diego:Part of the reason California is in such bad shape is that we have been screwed by the Fed’s failure to seal the border, which has resulted in massive illegal immigration, which in turn has resulted in massive welfare payments which the states are required to pay as a result of unfunded FEDERAL mandates. California SHOULD file for bankruptcy, and stop the damn welfare payments, for starters.
The state and local govts. here are openly corrupt, the gerrymandering is just one example. They will continue to get away with it because the people here are too busy entertaining themselves to death. A shallower, more vacuous population you will never see, than the people in Southern Cali.
Jan 6, 2009 - 1:23 pm 49. deguello:New York and California:basketcases today,to be joined by the entire USA post-Obama!Keep voting Democrat folks!
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:27 am 50. Jim Baker:It is easy! The government secretly prints a whole bunch of new money and piles it up until it can distribute it to all the states on the same day. That way, the states can pay for what they already bought before the money becomes worthless due to the inevitable out of control inflation. Then, when inflation destroys what is left of the private sector economy, the politicians can once again blame CEOs for the economic chaos. Plus, since the media will never understand, the people will never know. I say “Git ‘er done, boys!”
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:29 am 51. Brent:What a mess. The freight train is in the proverbial tunnel and you know what they said when they cut the tail off the monkey, “Well, it won’t be long now”.
CA could be out of the hole tomorrow if the gov. would sell all the land it owns and put it back into the hands of ranchers and farmers who know how to make it productive, Henry Coe Park for example, and park all the gov. vehicles for a month.
Of course, the gov. couldn’t possibly sell assets nor account for all the vehicles it has on the road, etc. etc. etc. into eternity.
I realized how stupid I was when I was part of the 11% of Californians who voted to cut services instead of passing bond measures back in 2000. Silly me to think dealing with the pain back then was a good idea. Let’s pass more bond measures, increase taxes, snub our noses at the rest of the world cuz we’re so much better than everyone else… blah, blah, blah.
California – Land of Colossal Failure!
Feb 6, 2009 - 9:36 pm 52. GTT:Born and raised in Cali, but had to leave due to lack of sanity in society. You’ve been voting for idiots since the 60’s. You deserve everything that happens to you. Just keep voting for progressive/liberal whack-a-doodles! You are children, incapable of facing the realites of life. Now, the adults in other states are going to have to bail you out,thanks to the Democrats in Congress. I left at the end of ‘05 and moved to Texas. Now I am being asked to pay for you again! There is no escape from you morons, is there? Do us all a favor and start voting for true conservatives, instead of RINO’s and kool-aid drinkers.
Feb 15, 2009 - 8:51 am 53. LarryOldtimer:I moved to Los Angeles, CA in 1958, when I separated from the USAF. Lovely place back then. Stayed for 40 years. By then, a whole lot of So Cal resembled a 3rd world country. Leftist would be do-gooders doing significant harm where ever they go. Still a very nice climate, but the company you are stuck with sucks. Not a grain of common sense in the great majority of them.
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:59 pm 54. AcaliNutjob:Having been born and raised in Cali for 18yrs i got out of there just in time i should say. I left in Sep 2001(joined the Navy) and have lived in nothing but red states ever since. My family still lives there but I have told them I’ll only come back once every 2 yrs to visit, thats all i can take of the place anymore. It is a complete and utter liberal disaster and if not for the corruption in government and the environmental wachos it would be a nice place. Still cant stand it anymore, was there last month for a visit and the total cost for a 6 day vacation was 3G+. Rediculous!
Oct 5, 2009 - 7:31 pm