California Voters Reject Robin Hood in Reverse in Tuesday's Election on budget propositions

The Land of Budget Shortfalls, Deception and Low education ratings!

California Voters Reject Robin Hood in Reverse in Tuesday's Election on budget propositions (+)
by: Karita Hummer
Fri May 22, 2009 at 03:02:44 AM EDT

Cross-Posted from Progressive Blue

http://www.eenrblog.com/diary/3890/california-voters-reject-robin-hood-in-reverse-in-tuesdays-election-on-budget-propositions
http://www.ca.gov/images/gov.jpg


So what does the Goverrnator say after his deceptive and tricky propositions got defeated. He says, "The people have spoken, and they want drastic cuts in the State budget." Foul play! That is not why I voted "no" on Prop 1D and Prop 1E. I voted against these measures because they were raiding funds that were set aside for the very young, especially from low-income families and the mentally ill.

California voters rejected the Governor's and the State Assembly's Robin Hood in reverse propositions, and it is time the Governor and the State Assembly recognize that fact. We were not condoning the draconian cuts being proposed for us out here in health care, education and law enforcement. All pretty basic needs. Does it make sense for Gov. Schwarznegger and his Republican cohorts and Democratic collaborators to believe that voters who rejected cuts to young children and the mentally ill would want to see the draconian cuts they propose for the disasabled, those in need of health care and education. No, it doesn't! But, will they do the difficult job of finding a solution instead, as they refused to do earlier in the year when they were confronted with the dilemma they have now. What is obvious is that if California wants to keep ranking near the bottom in public education and other critical services, the Governor and his erstwhile colleagues and collaborators will continue to proceed as they have: refuse to raise necessary taxes to address budget shortfalls and refuse to address the highly undemocratic requirement that 2/3 of the Assembly approve of any budget. The latter is the real reason California is in the mess that it is in, and how Republicans continually hold the democrats hostage to their Conservative agenda.

Though the San Jose Mercury News refers to us voters as uncompromising and perhaps uninformed, the height of insult, the paper did have a dissenting view by Larry Gerston, political scientist, from San Jose State University today, entitled, "FIVE DEFENSIBLE SOURCES OF NEW MONEY FOR CALIFORNIA:, San Jose Mercury News

With Tuesday's election decided, California's economic condition is more precarious than ever.
Two facts make this moment extraordinary. First, the new deficit appears just weeks after the governor and Legislature "closed" a $42 billion gap, including $15 billion in new taxes and $16 billion of cuts in programs and services. Second, California now ranks near the bottom in per capita commitments to critical areas such as public education (47th), highways (50th), and number of state employees (49th). Additional cuts will render the state into developing nation status, a tragic distinction for the world's eighth-largest economy.

Yet cuts are the heart of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest proposal.

Some suggest that the voters' rejections of Propositions 1A-1E underscore that point. Rather, it's likely that the voters spurned misleading reform propositions that simply targeted vulnerable constituencies such as children and the mentally ill with one-time solutions. So how then can California become whole again? The five suggestions below suggest new revenues without increasing traditional tax rates.

(box) Broaden the sales tax. Currently, the state applies sales taxes to only 21 of a possible 168 areas, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators. Nine states tax fewer areas, while 40 tax more. Taxing phone service alone would generate $3 billion annually, while sales taxes on entertainment would add $1 billion. Sales taxes could also be applied to professional services, storage, repairs and agricultural services. Twenty years ago, sales taxes and income taxes each represented about 40 percent of the state's revenues; today income taxes constitute 55 percent, compared with 25 percent for sales taxes. Broadening this tax could easily add $5 billion annually to state coffers without touching basic necessities such as food.

(box) Restoration of the vehicle license fee. Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now regrets eliminating it in 2004. Then the loss accounted for $4 billion annually. With higher new car prices, the fee over the past five years would have netted the state about $25 billion. In today's dollars, the annual fee would total about $6 billion. Why should drivers pay next to nothing for the privilege of operating their cars, given the costs of maintaining roads? This would not be a new fee, but rather restoration of an abandoned fee.

(box) Alcohol fee. The state alcohol tax has not changed in nearly 20 years. Recently, San Jose Assembly member Jim Beall introduced a bill that would add 10 cents to each alcoholic drink. The money would be used to treat alcoholism, mental health and victims affected by alcoholism. This user tax would be paid only by alcohol consumers and bring in $1.5 billion annually.

(box) Oil severance fee. California is the only oil-producing state without a severance tax. It produces more than 215 million barrels of oil each year. A fee of $2 per barrel (5 cents per gallon) would yield $400 million annually.

(box) Cancellation of recent corporate tax breaks. In the recent budget agreement, the governor and Legislature gave nearly $1 billion in tax breaks to corporations and entertainment companies. Think of it -- as schools were losing teachers and the disabled were doing without health-care workers, the state relinquished $1 billion dollars. The Legislature should rescind this giveaway as soon as possible.

Combined, these suggestions amount to $14 billion in annual revenues. They are neither one-time gimmicks nor overly painful to any one target. They represent a start. To be sure, every recommendation will be ridiculed by the group effected as unnecessary or unfair. But if we believe that California must stop the bleeding, then now is the time to show leadership.Larry Gerston, "FIVE DEFENSIBLE SOURCES OF NEW MONEY FOR CALIFORNIA:, San Jose Mercury News, May 20, 2009

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-sear...

The people showed wisdom and expect more from their leaders than a draconian punishment response, as in "There! Take your cuts, folks"

Karita Hummer
San Jose, CA

FDR warned about Economic Royalists -- Guess What, They're Back! by jamess receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award

jamess receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award for a great piece on the kind of corporatists about which FDR warned us.

Karita Hummer

FDR warned about Economic Royalists -- Guess What, They're Back! (+)
by: jamess
Tue May 12, 2009 at 22:10:15 PM EDT

[subscribe]
(power and profits... - promoted by poligirl)


Economic Royalists:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his speech accepting the Democratic nomination for a second term, delivered at Philadelphia on 27 June 1936, said, "The economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power."

(emphasis added)
http://www.answers.com/topic/e...
jamess :: FDR warned about Economic Royalists -- Guess What, They're Back!
Huh, Royalists? we have no "Royalty" in America, unless you count Celebrities and Sports Stars. What is FDR talking about? Who are the Kings and Queens of our Economy?

Franklin D. Roosevelt Speeches
Democratic National Convention (June 27, 1936)
link to Audio

For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital--all undreamed of by the fathers--the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.

There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small business men and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even honest and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware of their obligation to their generation, could never know just where they fitted into this dynastic scheme of things.

It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction.
[...]
For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor--other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.

Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of Government. The collapse of 1929 showed up the despotism for what it was. The election of 1932 was the people's mandate to end it. Under that mandate it is being ended.
[...]
Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

(emphasis added)
http://www.oldamericancentury....


So what do Economic Royalists look like? Do they where capes and masks? Or is it, the suit of Respectability and Credibility that they are more likely to don.

"Shocked" (with Rick Scott)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Who is Rick Scott?
By Jessica Kutch - May 4, 2009

Recently, Mr. Scott bought ads for his group "Conservatives for Patients' Rights" on CNN and FOX News networks. The ads were created by the same firm behind the now discredited "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ads from the 2004 presidential campaign.

Rick Scott's anti-health care reform ad is chock-full of misinformation. SEIU has requested that the ads be pulled

(emphasis added)
http://www.seiu.org/2009/05/wh...

So Here we go again! Those Economist Royalist are spending Big Bucks to get their way. Whether or Not, the Truth is the Victim, in their Charades of mis-direction. Why should the Health Insurance Industry bother to let Facts get in the way, when they can hire smooth talking spokemen, to muddy the waters?

U.S. health care lies about Canada
Greed, U.S. Politics, dysfunction
May 12, 2009, 8:40 AM by Diane Francis

Just who is this jerk, Rick Scott of propaganda-mongering Conservatives for Patients' Rights? He and his group are fabricating negatives about Canada's health care system and I resent this. I am an American who has lived in Canada for more than 35 years. I can vouch that the system is more than adequate and is not run by civil servants but by doctors who are able to treat everyone, rich or poor.
[...]
4. Canada's health care system enhances economic productivity. Workers diagnosed with illnesses can still change employers and be employable because they are not rejected by employers with health benefits due to pre-conditions.
[...]
6. Outcomes with major illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease, are better than in the United States.
[...]
10. No one in Canada goes broke because of medical bills whereas ARP estimates half of personal bankruptcies are due to unpaid, high medical bills.

(emphasis added)
http://network.nationalpost.co...


Economic Royalists care about one thing, keeping their Power, and keeping their Profits (oops, that's 2 things).

So much so, that the Royalists in the Health Denial business, have sparked a war of sorts, with the Doctors and Nurses just trying to care for their Patients:

Denial Management Industry Grows Amid Debate Between Health Insurers, Physicians Over Claims
16 Feb 2007 - Health Insurance / Medical Insurance News

"[T]ension" between insurers and physicians over claims payments "has spawned a booming industry of intermediaries" known as denial management, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some doctors, clinics and hospitals are investing in software systems that help navigate insurers' payment systems and prevent denials

[...] medical group Paluxy Valley Physicians, which four years ago was trying to recover more than $500,000 in denied or unpaid claims from insurers [...] Shari Reynolds, the administrator at Paluxy Valley, said, "The insurers outcode us, they outsmart us and they have more manpower. Now, at least we have a fighting chance."

(emphasis added)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.co...

The high stakes of the "Business of No"

from Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP)


When Profits matter more than People -- perhaps the Royalists (aka Elites) have too much Power and too much control. (Monopolies and Oligopolies, tend to do that.)

When our lives are frittered away in an insane system of endless Payments, that steals our Freedom, and steals our Health, and in some say our Economic Security -- well those "excising" those endless Payments, could indeed have TOO MUCH Power.


So what does an Economic Royalist look like? Do they wear capes and masks? Or is it, the Cloak of Impartiality, when conducting the People's business. Sadly it seems that all Voices, are indeed NOT welcome in some chambers -- be they the Voices of Doctors or Nurses, or not -- No Seat for you!

Protesters Disrupt Senate Hearing on Health Care

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Sooner or later the People must Demand the Representation, that is pledged through our Votes. Those Seats should NOT be for sale to the highest Bidder! (aka Lobbyists, the agents of Royalty.)

Sooner or later a truly Progressive-People's party must stand up and be heard.