Tenchu's Thoughts: Never Let A Serious Crisis Go To Waste
Now that the curve has been flattened and California for the most part dodged a bullet, Governor Newsom is going to use his newfound political capital to advance his liberal agenda.
I already mentioned in numerous posts how Newsom used the opportunity to empty out the state prisons and dump numerous violent criminals. He vowed that none of the inmates who are released will be violent felons or sex offenders, but that turned out to be a lie, as I have pointed out in numerous posts: Message 32733219 Message 32670116 Message 32705396 Message 32707658
Now Governor Newsom is using this crisis to elicit more federal bailout money.
It's been widely reported that the state of California, after enjoying a $5.6B surplus last year, is now facing a potential $54.3B deficit this year: cnn.com
This is being reported as California joins four other western states in requesting a total of $1T in aid from the federal government: cnn.com
Notice, however, that all of the state governors are Democrats. That in itself doesn't prove guilt, but it does prove motive, as Nancy Pelosi and the Dem-controlled House of Representatives will be more than happy to print money and send it to their loyal blue-state constituents.
But the need could be real, right? After all, it's no secret that the pandemic is hitting the economy HARD. Lockdown or not, people are fearful, and the economy is going to take a significant hit.
Not so. Take a look at this report, from CALmatters (via the San Jose Mercury News): Walters: California has a budget problem — but how big? (The article might be behind a paywall, but you might be able to find a free copy of it via Google.)
Some key points from that article:
1) The deficit estimate is based on Newsom's budget proposal made in January, before the pandemic hit. This budget assumed that the economy and resulting tax revenues would be strong, so there were a ton of proposed spending increases for new programs and expansion of existing programs.
2) The estimate also ignores already-approved federal disaster relief that would offset nearly $7B of state spending. Newsom included that spending as part of his "deficit."
3) If these two tricks weren't employed, the projected deficit would be somewhere between $18B and $31B, depending on how quickly the economy recovered. It's still a deficit, of course, but this is much more manageable. (In comparison, California faced a $26.3B deficit back in 2010.)
4) Get this: If the $3T aid package that the Democrats in the House just passed actually gets signed into law, Newsom would automatically rescind the budget cuts that were mentioned above.
Of course, that aid package doesn't have a snowball's chance in heck of passing the Senate, but then the Democrats can go to the American people and claim, "See, see? Those Republicans don't care about you! They're blocking aid! They want their big corporate donors to benefit while individuals suffer!"
That message, of course, will go viral across the media, especially social media. Any talk about bailing out irresponsible state budgets will be ignored and dismissed as Trump-level B.S.
But don't let that message go unanswered. Present the facts, then let people decide for themselves whether to believe them or remain in denial.
Never let a serious crisis go to waste.
Tenchusatsu |
