More Political Class Insanity - California Style

Yesterday I thought we had caught up on all of the recent national and international political class insanity. However, I log on this morning and another great example of political class insanity and waste is staring me in the face, this one concerning the state legislature in California. Before we go to the insanity itself, let's review the financial and economic state of California today, according to a Reuters report and a few other news websites that I came across in less than five minutes of searching online:

• According to Reuters, California currently has about a $2o billion budget shortfall.
• This shortfall occurred despite billions of dollars in budget cuts in 2009.
• Unemployment in the state is over 12% compared to national unemployment rate of less than 10%.
• State employees are given unpaid furlough days every month to reduce state salary expenses.
• in 2009, the state treasury could not pay bills for a short period of time and had to issue IOUs because the state government did not have enough funds to cover the expenses.
• It takes a two thirds majority to pass a budget in the state so fundamental economic/financial reform reform has been difficult, requiring short term and one time budget tricks to balance the recent budgets.
• The state credit worthiness ratings of its bonds was downgraded in 2009, resulting in higher borrowing costs, deepening the current budget shortfall.
• To make up for their state reduction in support of public college education, college costs at the state universities were raised over 30%.

Pretty serious stuff affecting every single California resident and taxpayer. One would assume that the state level political class would be focused on cleaning up this mess and getting the California state financial house in order. However, that may not be the case, according to an Associated Press report today. Rather than focusing on budget matters, the state Assembly is scheduled to take up and vote on a resolution calling for a state wide "Cuss Free Week."

Stop and think about this one for a little while. This resolution would officially designate the first week of March, every year, as Cuss Free Week. If the Assembly passes it today, the measure would go to the California state Senate for a vote next week. Thus, if both the state Assembly and Senate are addressing this non-issue, you can safely assume that hundreds, if not thousands, of man hours have been spend by both the politicians and their staffs on this effort. These are valuable hours that might have been better spent working on the massive budget issues instead.

And it gets even better. Its not like this is a big problem in the state legislature. The AP article explains that "cussing" is very rare on the floor of the Assembly and Senate and that politicians try to "maintain a sense of decorum even if they engage in heated arguments over legislation." In 2007, a lawmaker used the word "hell" in the Senate, after which Senators took time out to discuss whether that word was appropriate for use on the Senate floor.

Thus, not only is this a waste of time and a stupid idea, deflecting focus away from real problems, it is NOT EVEN A PROBLEM in the legislature. Nobody is dropping f-bombs during debate or profanely ripping other lawmakers. It does not get any worse than solving a non-problem with a inane idea while the financial foundations of your government are collapsing. It is behavior like this that cries out for term limits for the political class, as outlined in Step 39 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" and also for accountability and removal of politicians from committees and subcommittees that work on such stupid ideas (Step 34).

Remember, you can end a lot of this insanity by removing all incumbents for office by voting against their re-election in November.


Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.