Blogs For Victory

As exemplified by California, detailed over at Mish’s who then concludes:

If “everything” is on the table (for budget cuts), then why isn’t anyone mentioning union contracts, pensions, prisons, privatizing services, property taxes, proposition 13, state mandates, and illegal immigration?

California is in a mess because in practice “nothing” is on the table. Democrats do not want to cut services. Nor do Democrats want to address unions, pension problems, or illegal immigration.

Meanwhile Republicans do not want to raise taxes and I certainly cannot blame them on that score.

Schwarzenegger’s idea to ease mandates and minimums on social programs is a good one. It should apply to every state. However, if Obama goes along, California will only save $8 billion but the hole is $21 billion and rising every month.

Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, says “there are no easy solutions left”. Jean Ross is not phrasing the problem correctly. There are many easy solutions starting with illegal immigration, cutting pension promises, cutting union benefits, and privatizing the prison guards.

The problem is there is no political will to do what absolutely must be done.

Political will is, indeed, what is lacking – in California, in most of the rest of the States and, of course, in Washington DC. California’s crisis is acute because, unlike the federal government, California doesn’t have a Federal Reserve which can print money to buy US bonds and thus paper over the fiscal cracks. But as goes California, so goes the nation (and, as an aside, now we can see why Arnie is talking so nice about Barry lately – he’s looking for a hand out).

Everything needs to be cut – every dime which can be saved from local, State and federal budgets has to be saved. We simply must balance the budget as swiftly as possible and no matter how much it hurts. Failure to do so just means even worse pain, for a longer time, down the road.

I’m not like our liberal friends who complained about each vacation President Bush took. The President does need a significant amount of down time in order to be perpetually ready when a crisis erupts. But was it really necessary for Obama to fly the whole kit and kaboodle over to Hawaii while we’re suffering the largest deficits in our history? Something wrong with Camp David for Christmas? Why does Michelle Obama need such a large staff? Goodness, how many foreign trips has the President been on and its not even the end of his first year in office? How many Czars do we have? How much do they cost?

The party is over, good people. We lived on fiat money and usury for nearly a century and it was quite a ball – but, its over, now. We’re broke, suffering a massive hangover and the bill collectors are talking foreclosure. And when I say “everything” needs to be cut, I mean everything. Yes, even Defense – with the proviso that the troops in battle shall not lack the least thing (I’m sure there’s some new ships and planes we can delay while still retaining naval and aerial superiority). But while Defense is a big budget item, its not the only thing in there and, bank on it, there’s far more fat and fraud likely to be found in, say, the Education and Labor departments than in Defense. The main thing is to massively cut spending until spending is less than revenues – so think in terms of everyone in government having to get along with less.

One third less people (or, however you like it, one third less payroll – can keep more people if pay cuts are taken); one third less government travel; one third less staff for elected officials (take that, Czars!)…one third less of everything, except that part of Defense and law enforcement which keeps the bad guys at bay (to do other than offer full support for such is to repeat the criminal neglect shown our armed forces in the 30’s and 70’s). If we don’t do this – and do it soon – then it’ll just get worse and worse…and don’t think of it in terms of “well, its 100 worse now and we can wait until is 101 worse next year”. Next year it will be 150 worse…and then 300 worse the year after that…and 600 worse the year after that, and so on. When you’re bankrupt, as we are, piling on more debt has massively worse effects than piling on a bit of debt when you’re solvent.

Right now, we’re living in a fool’s paradise where we’re pretending that another round of fiat money and usury will fix the problems wrought by fiat money and usury. We need a complete shift in our attitudes – a complete understanding that only by living within our means can we survive.