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Tax Increase = Bullet Train Funding
Ready for a tax fight? Appended to Katy Grimes’ story, “2012 Voters Face Tax Increases Galore,” is a new comment by Richard Rider, the great San Diego tax fighter: One strong argument we tax fighters will make against all the many CA statewide tax increases is that each is “a High Speed Rail tax.” Brown has made clear that he wants to go ahead with this HSR madness, regardless of facts. IF voters approve the tax, he and the other HSR folks will continue down this track. Stated differently, if the voters do NOT approve these tax increases, there simply is no way for the HSR train to depart the station. More pressing needs preclude the state spending more money on HSR. Unfortunately (for our tax fighting efforts), I suspect the Big Spenders will recognize that they’ll have to defend HSR in in the upcoming tax campaign, and that’s a sure loser. So I am pretty confident that the Governor will “suspend” further funding of HSR. Unstated is the fact that if the tax passes, they Governor and crew will “revisit” this suspension. And we all know how that would go. Rider then references a column by Daren Borenstein. Here’s part of it: Building the California high-speed rail system won’t be a free ride. It will require spending money that could otherwise fund education and health care. Perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of bond financing is that it’s a loan. It must be paid back. When the state borrows, the repayment usually comes from the general fund. While the legislative analyst warns that balancing the state budget in coming years presents daunting fiscal challenges, high-speed rail advocates want us to take on more obligations. Think about it: If you were struggling to cover your mortgage, pay bills and feed the family, would you borrow to buy a boat? Or, in this case, to jump-start construction of a highly speculative train system? Fortunately, when voters in 2008 approved bonds for high-speed rail, they also provided the Legislature the authority to stop it. Any members who approve the borrowing must explain why they support funding a rail plan we now know will likely never be completed rather than our K-12 schools, colleges and universities, or desperately needed care for the poor and elderly. That’s the trade-off. And that’s one thing we’ll be debating in 2012. Dec. 23, 2011
Tags: California High-Speed Rail Authority, Daniel Borenstein, high-speed rail, Jerry Brown, Richard Rider, Taxes Comments(10) |
May 23, 2013
“So I am pretty confident that the Governor will “suspend” further funding of HSR.”
Yup and even if the tax increases don’t pass Criminal Clown Crusty Brown and his DemoNcrats will simply revoke the suspension when they raise taxes after the election when they get their two-thirds majority thanks to their re-gerrymandering.
New Statewide Field Poll Dec. 2011 Results here proving that the MAJORITY OF CALIFORNIANS DO NOT WANT ANY KIND OF HIGH SPEED RAIL IN CALIFORNIA – COMPLETELY OPPOSITE OF WHAT RAY LAHOOD SAYS – DECEMBER 9, 2011 POLL HERE:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/state-voters-would-reject-… andhttp://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19484490 andhttp://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/12/solid-majo…
This new statewide Field Poll confirms that 9/29/2011 statewide poll that confirms CA voters would overwhelmingly vote to spend limited state money on education/tuition, mentally ill, water, environment (75%) over a “high-speed-train” between SF LA (11%). 63% vote to end the HSR boondoggle now & 61% say they would never take a HSR train. Due to CA’s bad budget, in 2011 we saw: protests at UC/CSU from 26% tuition increases, lawsuits from cities/non-profits from CA taking their money but releasing convicted felons into our communities, senior centers/state parks closing, CA taking redevelopment funds, cutbacks in social services, etc. In contrast, HSR costs rose to $117 billion but feds only provide $3 billion & CA liable for $97 billion and additional cost overruns. Call Governor at (916) 445-2841 and Treasurer Lockyer at(916) 653-2995to kill the boondoggle now.
Poll here: http://www.probolskyresearch.com/california-voters-on-state-spending-and… ans http://www.probolskyresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Probolsky-Re…
Look at the seniors who will be evicted from their homes by the California HSR Board/Authority in the Central Valley. Good, honest, hard working folks who have lived their whole lives in peace, about to be evicted for a union-fed boondoggle that will never be built, but WILL RESULT IN THEIR EVICTIONS FROM THEIR HOMES. What a waste, and cause of human misery, for a useless train that is slower and more expensive than a cheap Southwest/Virgin/Jet Blue ticket from SFO to LAX:
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/40/MnZKNr6WhBU (Rose Olivera, 75 years old senior about to be evicted from home by CAHSRA, pleading with the CA High Speed Rail Authority to not take her land, “We love this land, we feel betrayed by what you intend to do to it. To date we have received no notice from you that you intend to plunder our land, are you gonna provide notice? Your maps indicate you will plunder my land, but you provide no notice? You have no concept of the value of human life and productive land. The state of California is in deep financial trouble, so we cannot afford to pay you, but we will take you land. In the business world this is felt to be inconsiderate, arrogant, insulting. Will you arrive on my doorstep the day before you take my land, after the time has expired to object?!” All this because the federal government has determined that Kings County is the area of “least resistance.”)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/14/ZwXqIpViy1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHOPzKH0kxo (CAHSR ignoring CA farmers, destroying vital farmland) -
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/1/DOfh7Xf7Tqo
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/0/JVlSWmW0tV0 (Senate votes to end CAHSRA 6/1/2011)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/6/ZwXqIpViy1U
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/16/zmZAxjudOxo
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/4/zmZAxjudOxo (Chairman Pringle – a little sassy, isn’t he?)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/10/ts1ybBrYhDk (Senator Simitian – you don’t want to upset this guy, for sure)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/28/UHOPzKH0kxo
(CAHSR upsetting Big Agriculture, ignoring residents, as usual)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/47/ojh2qYa2fmU
(Simitian, Lowenthal, all California legislators are “concerned” about the CAHSRA…)
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/48/hnI4CYF0NK8
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/49/y0_b3hkbgls
http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/44/UzxfY28uZlQ
Hell, even Mother Jones – the most environmentally “green”, socialist, left leaning, magazine/periodical in the world says that the California High Speed Rail Boondoggle Should BE KILLED TODAY: http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/08/californias-hsr-boondoggle-now… and http://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/as-seen-on/NewsConference___Californ… andhttp://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Budget_Boondoggle_Award-traintonow…
We will become Hawaii with a more rotten school system and a large population of chronic drunks and welfare hustlerers…
A good job will be manager of a fruit stand at a hippy flea market.
In the iconic Christmas film, It’s a Wonderful Life, an angel offers the beleaguered main character, George Bailey, the stark choice between a hometown named for a cruel banker or one created by and for the middle class.
The banker’s town, Pottersville, is filled with bars, gambling dens and despair. The people’s town of Bedford Falls is made of hope, hard working middle class families, and their homes financed by the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan.
The film’s happy ending is the people of Bedford Falls banding together to rescue George Bailey and the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan that had given so many of them a leg up over the years. Republicans seek a different conclusion. They find middle class cooperation and community intolerable. They want the banker, Henry Potter, with his “every man for himself” philosophy to triumph. In the spirit of their self-centered mentor Ayn Rand, Republicans are trying to disfigure America so she resembles Pottersville.
A building and loan association, like the Bailey Brothers’, uses the savings of its members to provide mortgages to the depositors. Members essentially pool their money to give each other the opportunity to buy cars and homes. At one point in the film, George Bailey explains this concept to frightened depositors who are trying to withdraw their savings during the panic that led to bank runs in 1929.
Bailey urges the townspeople who had crowded into the building and loan office to withdraw only what they need, not empty their accounts. “We have got to stick together,” he tells them, “We have to do this together.” A building and loan doesn’t function without trust and cooperation.
It works well for Bedford Falls. The mortgages it provides help working people move out of the Potters Field slums and into Bailey Park, where homes well kept by their owners increase in value. Despite the success, Potter condemned this practice, saying it was based on “high ideals without common sense.” He criticized the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan for granting a taxi driver a mortgage after Potter’s bank had rejected his application. Potter scoffed at such practices, asking if the building and loan was a “business or a charity ward.”
This is exactly what Republicans do. They describe beloved American programs like Medicare and Social Security as charities — using the euphemism “entitlements.” Like mortgages from the Bailey Building & Loan, Medicare and Social Security are not charities. They’re the American people depositing and pooling their money for the benefit of the American community.
The GOP tries to destroy programs like these that aid the middle class, the vast majority of Americans — the 99 percent — while Republicans protect tax breaks and special perks for the rich — the one percent, the Henry Potters.
This time last year, Republicans demanded extension of tax breaks for the 1 percent, contending tax breaks stimulate the economy.
For the past three months, however, Republicans have fought extension of payroll tax cuts, contending a break benefiting 160 million middle class Americans did not stimulate the economy.
All year, Republicans have demanded an end to programs the middle class created to aid the majority, the 99 percent. The GOP wants to reverse the new banking regulations that were passed in an attempt to prevent another economic collapse caused by risky Wall Street practices. The GOP tried to to rescind the healthcare reform law that prevents insurance companies from terminating coverage when beneficiaries get sick and prohibits the practice of refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Influential Republicans this year have called for repealing laws forbidding child labor, laws guaranteeing minimum wage and laws protecting the environment. They’ve demanded elimination of federal funding for organizations like the Public Broadcasting System that educates preschoolers, Head Start, which provides opportunity to poor children, and Planned Parenthood, which uses 97 percent of its funds to provide general, obstetrical and gynecological medical care to women, many of whom are rural and poor.
Republicans have decided to be the party of Henry Potter, the “meanest man in the county,” a man about whom George Bailey’s father said: “he’s a sick man, frustrated. Sick in his mind, sick in his soul, if he has one.”
Like Potter, Republicans deride compassion and community as character defects.
In the Republican world, where greed is good, it was appropriate for Henry Potter to keep the $8,000 in Bailey Building & Loan money that George Bailey’s uncle, Billy Bailey, accidentally handed him.
Republicans are attempting to impose that selfish belief system on the selfless American people, people like the citizens of Bedford Falls who rush to the rescue of neighbors.
It won’t work, just like it didn’t in It’s a Wonderful Life. Republicans will fail in their attempt to make America Pottersville because the 99 percent believe avarice is a sin, not a value. The GOP will fail because greed is not the American way.
Steveo, what’s this got to do with the Cawleefornia bullet train to nowhere?
Remember, Bill, Steve from Sacto is a professional union hack: just as a gnat buzzing around your head is unlikely to force you to leave the picnic, his off-topic commentary at Cal Watchdog is not intended to seriously engage small gov’t/low tax arguments. His contributions to Cal Watchdog’s comments sections are part of what the IHSS work force gets for their dues. Just be grateful your tax dollars indirectly support his work.
Old Man Potter, today, has his hand in profits from the Bullet Train Boondoggle to Nowhere. He funded ads for the $9.9 billion bond. He’s getting a piece of the $3.5 billion Obama is spending on the train to “stimulate” the economy. And if that $9.9 billion is spent, Potter will get a big chunk of it. Potter is a crony capitalist, and it’s crony capitalists who are the only ones who benefit from the Bullet Train.
Old Man Potter also is profiting from the carbon trading scheme imposed by AB 32. He’s an expert at “private-public partnerships,” as Arnold called them. He has his hand in everything. He’s bought the politicians.
You haven’t. But you have an essential role: You pay for all the public-private projects Profits profits from. Your taxes are so high you only can live in a hovel, forced to your kids to horrible, violent schools.
Welcome to Potterville 2012.
Steve
In the real world George Bailey would likely be a Republican.
It must be nice living in your world where all people with R after their name are evil and all people with D are good. What childlike simplicity.
Many (most?) of the 1% are not Republicans. They are liberal Democrats. The most egregious examples of conspicuous consumption are all liberals.
But, OK, you want taxes:
How about a 90% on all profits from any project that receives government funding and loan guarantees?
How about a 90% tax on earnings of people who trade on their previous government experience?
How about a 90% tax on all earnings of class-action lawyers? After all, lawsuits don’t take money from the 1% they just raise prices for the 99%.
How about a 90% tax on all pay for acting above $250K? What do actors contribute? How many jobs do they create? New technologies?
I am suspicious your liberal icons will all object vociferously.
In the real world George Bailey would likely be a Republican.
In real life George Baily (Jimmy Stweart) was a dyed in the wool republican, well known fact. Jimmy was also-unfortunately- a racist.