» The Not So Golden State: Back in January of this year, California state officials were anticipating a $9.2 billion budget shortfall for 2012 — an enormous deficit, though considerably less than the $26 billion that faced Governor Jerry Brown when he took over in 2010. Brown announced,while revealing the startling new figure, that he’ll be placing an initiative on the November ballot to raise the sales tax by .25%, and add an income tax surcharge for wealthy Californians. If the initiative fails, expect deeper than anticipated spending cuts to follow.
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neightkelly said: Not taking the money from people does not add to the government’s deficit, it’s not the government’s money. It’s like saying because you aren’t mugging that person you are now down 25 dollars.
» We say: Think about it this way. It’s like going to college. You may not like all the classes, but they still need to be paid for by the collective student body. Because, since they get all that tuition, they have room to offer a Women’s Studies program. And a wider variety of programs ensures a better experience for everyone. If money goes away, programs get cut. That’s the thing with your “mugger” analogy that doesn’t work. Even if you’re a hardcore libertarian, you’re still benefitting from that tax income whether you choose to enjoy it or not. There is a benefit to paying your taxes. You drive on those roads that the government provided the money and planning to create and maintain. You eat food made healthier by government regulation. You don’t get sick because the government put money into improving medical standards. You live in a safe country because the government did things to improve our country’s security both here and abroad. I’ve yet to meet a mugger who gave back so much after they stole your wallet. (EDIT: Now this is not to say that the government is the best at these particular jobs, but it is how they use the money.)
In case you didn’t see our comment on Rachel Maddow’s war of words with PolitiFact, we’d like to point it out again for your kids. We think that there is a lot of context worthy of your time. Above is Maddow’s clip from last night, which, while accurate in pointing out that PolitiFact isn’t always right, does the same kind of cherry-picking that PolitiFact did. From the report, they only quoted a two-second part of a clip that has much more direct context at play. Tommy Christopher at Mediaite took a swing at this whole issue, too, and you know what? He noticed the same thing we did about her surplus/deficit quote. “That passage can be read both ways, but in at least the semantic sense, Politifact is wrong. Their reading of this passage is a matter of interpretation.” In other words, while the exact quote Rachel Maddow pulled proves PolitiFact’s headline is in fact “False,” the problem is that the larger context, which claims that Walker turned a surplus into a deficit (the point of the article), is closer to the truth than Maddow’s people will like. Sorry, Rachel. source
In our judgment, the continuing opposition…in the House would undermine and damage our capacity to create jobs and expand the economy.Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner • Claiming that the GOP’s spending-cut-heavy plan threatens to severely hurt job creation. Geithner’s advice? Strengthen the economic recovery, then focus on deficit-cutting. “I am very confident that the Democrats and the Republicans will come together on a program to not just reduce spending but reduce long-term deficits,” he continued. source (via • follow)
So how many Tea Partiers went to Madison today? While these crowds look reasonably large in size, they don’t appear to hold a candle to the 40,000+ union protesters going around Madison today. These arial shots seem to suggest much smaller crowds of Tea Partiers than pro-union folks. But guess which ones CNN decided to cover today? Take a guess. (photo from Americans for Prosperity’s Flickr stream) source
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