Day: May 20, 2009

President Obama is rapidly pushing for action on regulation of finance, specifically mortgages and mutual funds; and also calling for auto emission standards to raise mileage per gallon,  lessen the need for foreign oil, and contribute to the fight against global warming.

The steps on regulation of mortgages and mutual funds are necessary, considering the abuses that have been going on in the finance industry, and the lack of regulation that has been endemic in the past thirty years.

At the same time,  the auto industry must be pushed into higher mileage standards that will promote better cars for consumers while working on the oil importation problem and the danger of global warming.

Of course, conservatives will scream and yell that Obama is promoting socialism, and if that their charge,  I say we need more of it after decades of de-regulation that have led to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  However, it is NOT socialism, but progressivism, the public interest, that is being promoted!

The voters of California, or just the small minority who took the time to vote yesterday, have rejected five ballot measures designed to lessen the budget crisis facing the state.

As a result of their refusal to understand the dire need of the state to increase taxes, the following will result: the cutting of tens of thousands of education jobs; the ending of health insurance for needy children;  cuts in firefighters and law enforcement positions statewide;  and the freeing of thousands of inmates, including illegal immigrants, who in many cases have serious criminal backgrounds.

I wonder what the taxpayers think is more important–paying higher taxes or drastically cutting education, health care, firefighting, and law enforcement.  The state already has so many problems that are massive.  For a state with so many fire problems annually, high crime statistics, and major problems in education and health care, it amazes me that the taxpayers, 60 percent of those who voted,  can have their heads in the sand like an ostrich.  While life in California is not good now, it will become far worse, and the voters will be the ones responsible for the disastrous outcome by their narrowmindedness–as if by voting these measures down, the problems will somehow, magically,  disappear.

The old saying is that people get the government they deserve.  That is certainly going to be the case in California, and it is a warning to all gubernatorial candidates in California: being Governor in the next term and beyond will not be a glorious opportunity but a burden that should make all of them stop and think:  Are you ready to take this on?   With the attitude of the voters and their apathy about reality,  one has to say that one would have to be crazy to want to be Governor of California!