When Biden took office, one of his first acts was the elimination of our border security. Like a power-hungry dictator, Biden simply decided to ignore our immigration laws. His catastrophic border policy resulted in untold millions of unidentified foreign citizens from around the world pouring into our country. Its impact is now being felt in cities across the country. The worst is yet to come. PETER LEMISKA - AND WE'RE ALREADY THERE!!!
Saturday, November 3, 2018
SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN - THE FACE OF EVIL AND CORRUPTION IN AMERICA
NO ONE HAS GOTTEN RICHER OFF ELECTED OFFICE THAN DIANNE FEINSTEIN!
Dianne Feinstein used to support corporate bailouts and restrictions on union organizing. As mayor of San Francisco, she vetoed domestic partner legislation and refused to march in a gay rights parade. Now she is firmly in the LGBTQ corner and strongly supports labor unions. This is typical of the left. As long as leftists can keep themselves seated in the U.S. Capitol, they will take any stance whatever, as long as it looks as if it aligns with the loudest voices.
As we approach the midterm elections, the "leaders" of the Democratic Party sign on to a variety of hard-left proposals, including "Medicare for All." The fact that many of the proposals are brutally expensive and would lead us into a brave new Venezuela seem completely lost in the woods. One must also wonder at the ludicrous speed at which previously "rational" Democrats have swung from working across the aisle to become feet-in-stone resisters. What is the source of the rage that turned mere humans into Green Hulks?
One might look at the occupants of senatorial and congressional seats for the answer. After all, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer are all members of "congressional leadership." With varying degrees of extremism and volume, they all espouse pretty much the same rhetorical territory staked out by Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and the oblivious (to facts and history) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
We should have Medicare for All and a "living wage," regardless of work skills or industriousness, and we should relegate the police and prisons to the dustbin of the history of "justice." Only Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has gone that far to date, and the Pittsburgh massacre has led to that rhetoric being momentarily shelved.
To say these proposals are scary to Republicans would be an understatement. As Peggy Noonan notes regarding the Kavanaugh cabaret, Republican senators are "amazed" and "terrified" that “seemingly, and without very much thought, nearly half the United States Senate has abandoned the presumption of innocence in this country, all to achieve a political goal.”
This isn't happening in a vacuum.
To any thoughtful observer, it is painfully clear that there are two distinct parts of the Democrat plantation: the D.C. swamp and the useful idiots in the streets. The relationship between the two is intuitively obvious but seldom exposed. The swamp exists because it has enough vocal support, both on the streets and in the press. The very air it breathes is on the pages of the New York Times and commentary on CNN, fed by cameras in Berkeley and on the steps of the Supreme Court.
That brings us to the key question. Which came first: the useful idiots, or the swamp?
No politician can survive without votes. To get those votes, he takes positions he thinks will attract the maximum number of voters. His problem is to identify just what those voters want and put on political clothes that make him look like a member of their movement, whatever that might be. Thus, the joke that you can tell when a politician is lying when his lips are moving is usually a close representation of truth.
Today, a loud youth movement rebels against norms. That's what juveniles do. They push boundaries. They haven't developed either an accurate vocabulary or an effective BS-detector. In a solid family, they'd get called out for misbehaving like "Young Sheldon." But when kids don't have firm parents (like Ben Carson's mother), they act out, searching for boundaries. If parents enforce rules, children learn that they are safe inside those rules. If there are no limits, kids push farther and farther looking for them.
In a mollycoddling society, where success is not rewarded and failure isn't punished, there are no safe spaces. This creates fear. No one is safe, because no one knows quite how far you can stray without lions and tigers and bears coming for you.
You can be a boy today, and a girl tomorrow. No one can call you out on it, because that might somehow harm your psyche. So now we have large numbers of completely confused young adults pushing boundaries, looking for limits, not realizing that their movement has declared limits to be off limits. The safety they crave has been completely destroyed by the unfettered license they've been granted. The result is chaos.
We should not be surprised when this mob of self-absorbed lemmings uses language badly while wielding batons against otherwise inoffensive adults. These people have been trained to do this by their minimally more mature peer group, who is holding down claw-footed chairs inside the stone walls of academia. That group has been certified in underwater basket-weaving and social activism as a reward for its own rebellion. And its checks are signed by barely more mature administrators, whose own rudderless lives create total fear of that uncontained critical mass of effluvium called a student body.
In short, we have a huge mass of people who have, as Pat Paulsen noted, "a right to go to high school and end up with a third grade education." Their "enthusiasm is exceeded only by their extreme lack of judgment." And they vote. Or at least enough of them voted to help elect Barack Obama. Pat Paulsen was right.
Because of this uncritical mass of low-hanging fruit, the Political Pandas of the Left imagine an easy electoral win if they can convince the great unwashed that the Democrats are their saviors. So instead of standing on any principle, they listen to the dumb masses and their echo chambers in the press. Perceiving that the wind is blowing in a particular direction, they declare that they are, and have always been, totally in tune with them. That's the very definition of Panda-ing. If the masses don't wake up and Walk Away, those votes are in the bag.
Paul Joseph Watson puts it this way. "Hello fellow humans. I am celebrity No. 2932, I believe in everything that is safe and popular with people aged 18-35. You may now praise me on the social media platform of your choice..." "I agree. Our agreement with each other's views means we are right and the other side's evil hatred must be stopped!" In short, the Democrat "leaders" are in fact NPCs – Non Player Characters in video games, controlled by the program, with no vestige of real humanity. The masses are equally NPCs. "Well, I got all of the accounts suspended, but why do I still feel so empty and pathetic?" You have to ask?
Dianne Feinstein used to support corporate bailouts and restrictions on union organizing. As mayor of San Francisco, she vetoed domestic partner legislation and refused to march in a gay rights parade. Now she is firmly in the LGBTQ corner and strongly supports labor unions. This is typical of the left. As long as leftists can keep themselves seated in the U.S. Capitol, they will take any stance whatever, as long as it looks as if it aligns with the loudest voices.
We can easily add example after example, but it's clear that the "leaders" of the left are no such thing. A leader stands up for principles and propositions. He defends them and works to achieve results consistent with them. With the possible exception of Bernie Sanders, the left's "leaders" are NPCs.
Those "leaders" are people who, whether by accident of circumstance or political skill, have managed to position themselves to surf the current wave of loud emotion. With rare exceptions, they have no established positions of their own. So when all the rage is "against," they become "The Resistance." When Ocasio-Cortez pushes for "Medicare for All," the other "leaders" follow the sound of the shouting.
The number of actual leaders on the left is small. Bernie Sanders took a (misguided) position in favor of outright socialism long ago and has stuck with it. He had little charisma to attract followers nationally, but when his longstanding convictions came in sync with the street, he came within an eyelash of winning the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.
The Schumers and Pelosis of the Democratic Party are leaders, but not of the party. Rather, they are organizational leaders of the Democrat caucus in D.C. To have a voice in that caucus, you must toe the line they establish. But even they shift their stances when the wind changes. So they are followers of the mob. They are the ultimate groupies, willing to surrender all principle in order to keep their positions of power in the halls of Congress.
"Where are they? What are they doing? I must find them! I am their leader!"
In 2013, California lawmakers passed legislation that allowed illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses if they can prove to the Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) their identity and state residency. The plan was one of the largest victories to date by the open borders lobby.… JOHN BINDER – BREITBART.com
WAR ON THE AMERICA WORKER: FEINSTEIN, PELOSI, OBAMA, and the CLINTON CRIME DUAL
“Senator Dianne Feinstein warned, at the time, they had to solve this crisis now—of immigrants coming in illegally and getting these jobs.”
“The Democrats had abandoned their working-class base to chase what they pretended was a racial group when what they were actually chasing was the momentum of unlimited migration”. DANIEL GREENFIELD / FRONT PAGE MAGAZINE
BLOG: FEINSTEIN IS AN ADVOCATE OF AMNESTY, OPEN BORDERS AND NO E-VERIFY TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED. THERE ARE 15 MILLION LOOTING MEXICANS IN HER STATE OF CA.
THIS IS WHAT THE DEMOCRAT PARTY OF CORRUPTION AND OPEN BORDERS HAS DONE TO ONE CITY!
SANCTUARY CITY SAN FRANSICO
AMERICA’S DUMPSTER CITY OF FILTH AND DRUG DEALERS
HOME TO SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS, REP. NANCY PELOSI and GAVEN NEWSOM
“It’s almost impossible to get convicted in this city,” said [Sgt. Kevin] Healy, who works in the Police Department’s narcotics division. “The message needs to be sent that it’s not OK to be selling drugs. It’s not allowed anywhere else. Where else can you walk up to someone you don’t know and purchase crack and heroin? Is there such a place?”…
Police say drug dealers from the East Bay ride BART into San Francisco every day to prey on the addicts slumped on our sidewalks, and yet the city that claims to so desperately want to help those addicts often looks the other way.
Steinle’s murderer, Jose Zarate and been deported 5xs!
"While walking with her father on a pier in San Francisco in 2015, Steinle was shot by the illegal alien. Steinle pleaded with her father to not let her die, but she soon passed in her father’s arms."
MICHELLE MALKIN
THE CORRUPT AND EVIIL DEMOCRAT PARTY’S WRECKING MACHINE.
FEINSTEIN, BRIBES BOXER, KAMALA HARRIS, MAXINE WATERS, ELIZABETH WARREN, NANCY PELOSI ……SHOULD THESE WITCHES OF KAVANAUGH BE BURNED AT THE STAKE AND THEN BOILED IN GREASE?
It is my contention that this grand unearth-and-destroy spectacle was planned, coordinated and facilitated by (Sen. Dianne Feinstein) Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats and their staffers.
BUT WHAT DID WE EVER HEAR FROM THEIR MASSIVE FOUL AND CORRUPT MOUTHS ABOUT THE CRIMES OF OBOMB AND THE CLINTON CRIME DUAL???
But what the Clintons do is criminal because they do it wholly at the expense of the American people. And they feel thoroughly entitled to do it: gain power, use it to enrich themselves and their friends. They are amoral, immoral, and venal. Hillary has no core beliefs beyond power and money. That should be clear to every person on the planet by now."----Patricia McCarthy - AMERICANTHINKER.com
FEINSTEIN HAS SPENT HER ENTIRE POLITICAL LIFE STALKING THE HALL OF CONGRESS SNIFFING OUT DEALS THAT HAVE PUT MILLIONS IN HER HUSBAND, RICHARD BLUM’S BOTTOMLESS POCKETS!
IN THE November 2006 election, the voters demanded congressional ethics reform. And so, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is now duly in charge of regulating the ethical behavior of her colleagues. But for many years, Feinstein has been beset by her own ethical conflict of interest, say congressional ethics experts.
“All in all, it was an incredible victory for the Chinese government. Feinstein has done more for Red China than other any serving U.S. politician. “ Trevor Loudon
$ERVANT OF RED CHINA FOR RAW CA$H, $ENATOR FEIN$TEIN’S DRIVER IS A $PY FOR HER CHINE$E PAYMA$TER$!
“All in all, it was an incredible victory for the Chinese government. Feinstein has done more for Red China than other any serving U.S. politician. “ Trevor Loudon
WAR PROFITEERS!
SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN AND PARASITE HUSBAND RICHARD “BRIBSTERS” BLUM
Blum has long handed out bribes in the form of “campaign contributions” to other corrupt Democrat politicians so they keep their mouths shut about the staggering corruption that has profitably followed Feinstein from day one!
*
“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan THEAMERICAN THINKER.com
WAR ON THE AMERICA WORKER: FEINSTEIN, PELOSI, OBAMA, and the CLINTON CRIME DUAL
“Senator Dianne Feinstein warned, at the time, they had to solve this crisis now—of immigrants coming in illegally and getting these jobs.”
“The Democrats had abandoned their working-class base to chase what they pretended was a racial group when what they were actually chasing was the momentum of unlimited migration”. DANIEL GREENFIELD / FRONT PAGE MAGAZINE California Audit: $4 Billion Paid to Cover Medi-Cal for Ineligible People
A California state audit has found the state government paid $4 billion to provide Medi-Cal coverage for almost a half million potentially ineligible people between 2014 and 2017.
California State Auditor Elaine Howle released an audit on October 30 that revealed “pervasive discrepancies between the state and county systems when we compared Medi-Cal beneficiary eligibility data—more than 453,000 beneficiaries were marked as eligible in the State’s system but were not listed as eligible in county systems.”
In addition, the audit found 54,000 people who were marked eligible in the county systems but not the state, which may have delayed access for entitled services.
The audit, prepared for the California legislature, documented that over half the state enrollment “discrepancies” that were not in the county systems had lasted for more than two years. As a result, $3 billion in managed care premiums and $1 billion in fee-for-service claims may have been improperly paid.
To qualify for Medi-Cal under federal rules, a single adult must earn less than $16,754 a year. Although California only has about 12 percent of America’s population, it accounts for 18.5 percent of all Medicaid participants. The latest enrollment figures for the joint federal- and state-funded Medi-Cal program as of May 2018 were 13,171,041, or over 33 percent of the state’s population and about half of its youth.
The California audit follows a February U.S. Health and Human Services Inspector General report that estimated that the state enrolled 366,078 ineligible persons through the Obamacare Medicaid expansion at a cost of $738.2 million. The Inspector General also found that California spent another $416.5 million for 79,055 expansion enrollees who were “potentially” ineligible.
The most egregious example cited in the California audit was a resident of Los Angeles County that died in December 2013, yet the state continued to make regular monthly payments to the beneficiary’s Medi-Cal health plan until August of this year. The estimated payments for an individual that the state “should have known was no longer in need of services” amounted to $383,000.
The Democratic candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, backs universal health care for California — though he does not have a plan to pay for it.
SAN FRANCISCO TREATS ILLEGALS, TRICKS CITIZENS
California’s “motor voter” scheme may be sending one million illegals to the polls.
On Tuesday, San Francisco will become the largest city in the nation to allow noncitizens to vote, and the city has spent $310,000 on a “new registration system” specifically aimed at illegals. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the plan is the first in the state and follows Proposition N, a 2016 ballot measure allowing votes by noncitizens over the age of 18, reside in the city, and have children under age 19.
By the count of the Chronicle, only 49 noncitizens have signed up to vote on Tuesday, which works out to $6,326 for every illegal voter, but there’s more to the story. City officials are worried that voting could expose illegals to ICE, who might come looking and possibly deport somebody. So supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, a backer of Proposition N, urged the city to spend $500,000 to warn the illegals.
Whatever San Francisco spends, their effort pales in comparison with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV’s 2015, “motor voter” law allowed the DMV automatically to register as voters those who get driver’s licenses. Secretary of State Alex Padilla claimed that protocols and “firewalls” would keep ineligibles from voting, but there was room for reasonable doubt.
After the 2016 election, Padilla refused to release any information to a federal probe of voter fraud, which he called a “false and debunked” claim. In 2015, on the other hand, Padilla told the Los Angeles Times, “at the latest, for the 2018 election cycle, I expect millions of new voters on the rolls in the state of California.” True to form, by March, 2018, the DMV had given licenses to more than one million illegals.
In September, the DMV announced 23,000 “erroneous” registrations, but it quickly emerged that from April to August, the DMV had registered 182,000 “new voters.” Some legislators pushed for an audit but that is being handled by the department of finance, under the control of governor Jerry Brown, who supports the state’s sanctuary legislation.
Californians could be forgiven for believing that the “erroneous” registrations are a dodge and that one million or more illegals will be going to the polls on Tuesday. That could tip the scales in several key races.
In June, Democrat Ammar Yasser Najjar changed his name to Ammar Joseph Campa-Najjar. He is the grandson of Palestinian terrorist Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar, of the 1972 Munich massacre, and seeking to unseat Rep. Duncan Hunter in San Diego. The Democrat’s father, Yasser al-Najjar, has served as a de-facto ambassador for the Palestinian Authority. His son Ammar worked for the reelection of POTUS 44 in 2012 and at this writing the race with Hunter is tight. Illegal votes could make the difference.
In Orange County, Democrat Gil Cisneros vies with Republican Young Kim for the seat of retiring Ed Royce. Navy veteran Cisneros won $266 million in the California lottery in 2010 and decided to go into politics. The lucky guy supports DACA and opposes President Trump’s immigration policies. Kim holds a slight edge but “new voters,” code for illegals, could tip the race.
The noncitizens will be allowed to vote only for school board members, but that limitation is temporary. As school commissioner Shamann Walton told the Los Angeles Times, “Trump will not always be president,” and “hopefully we’ll have leaders who are inclusive and really believe that if you are a resident of this country, you should have the same rights as other people.”
Those “other people,” as it happens, are legitimate citizens and legal immigrants. As they might note, California gives illegals welfare, driver’s licenses, and in-state tuition. In college admissions California even prefers illegals over out-of-state American students, a violation of state law, the 1996 Proposition 209.
California’s sanctuary state law gives protection to violent criminal illegals such as racist Mexican Luis Bracamontes, who in 2014 gunned down police officers Danny Oliver and Michael Davis in Sacramento. In 2014 San Francisco released criminal illegal Garcia Zarate, or whatever his real name is, rather than hand him over to federal immigration authorities. In short order, the repeatedly deported Mexican national gunned down Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier. Governor Jerry Brown was rather quiet about that.
In Mendota, near Fresno, the criminal illegals of MS-13 have imposed a reign of terror, hacking people to death, as ruling Democrats look the other way. That’s the way it is in California, where Democrats have made false-documented illegals a privileged, protected class. Those “other people” should not be surprised if more than a million illegals return the favor by showing up at the polls on Tuesday.
Steinle’s murderer, Jose Zarate and been deported 5xs!
"While walking with her father on a pier in San Francisco in 2015, Steinle was shot by the illegal alien. Steinle pleaded with her father to not let her die, but she soon passed in her father’s arms."
JOHN BINDER
CALIFORNIA, HOME TO NANCY PELOSI, DIANNE FEINSTEIN, KAMALA HARRIS, MAXINE WATERS and GAVIN NEWSOM….
MOVES CLOSER TO FINAL ANNEXATION BY MEXICO
DE FACTO CITIZENSHIP PER LA RAZA:
NO TEST, NO BACKGROUND CHECKS ON CRIMINALITY, NO BACK TAXES, NO
FINES.... JUST JUMP STRAIGHT TO VOTING BOOTHS! AND VOTE OFTEN!!!
In 2013, California lawmakers passed legislation that allowed illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses if they can prove to the Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) their identity and state residency. The plan was one of the largest victories to date by the open borders lobby.… JOHN BINDER – BREITBART.com
THE STAGGERING COST OF THE WELFARE STATE MEXICO AND THE LA RAZA SUPREMACY DEMOCRAT PARTY HAVE BUILT BORDER to OPEN BORDER’
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s 2017 report, illegal immigrants, and their children, cost American taxpayers a net $116 billion annually -- roughly $7,000 per alien annually. While high, this number is not an outlier: a recent study by the Heritage Foundation found that low-skilled immigrants (including those here illegally) cost Americans trillions over the course of their lifetimes, and a study from the National Economics Editorial found that illegal immigration costs America over $140 billion annually. As it stands, illegal immigrants are a massive burden on American taxpayers.
Adios, Sanctuary La Raza Welfare State of California A fifth-generation Californian laments his state’s ongoing economic collapse. By Steve Baldwin American Spectator, October 19, 2017 What’s clear is that the producers are leaving the state and the takers are coming in. Many of the takers are illegal aliens, now estimated to number over 2.6 million. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education, Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs.
BLOG: MANY DISPUTE CALIFORNIA’S EXPENDITURES FOR THE LA RAZA WELFARE STATE IN MEXIFORNIA JUST AS THEY DISPUTE THE NUMBER OF ILLEGALS. APPROXIMATELY HALF THE POPULATION OF CA IS NOW MEXICAN AND BREEDING ANCHOR BABIES FOR WELFARE LIKE BUNNIES. THE $22 BILLION IS STATE EXPENDITURE ONLY. COUNTIES PAY OUT MORE WITH LOS ANGELES COUNTY LEADING AT OVER A BILLION DOLLARS PAID OUT YEARLY TO MEXICO’S ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS. NOW MULTIPLY THAT BY THE NUMBER OF COUNTIES IN CA AND YOU START TO GET AN IDEA OF THE STAGGERING WELFARE STATE MEXICO AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HAVE ERECTED SANS ANY LEGALS VOTES. ADD TO THIS THE FREE ENTERPRISE HOSPITAL AND CLINIC COST FOR LA RAZA’S “FREE” MEDICAL WHICH IS ESTIMATED TO BE ABOUT $1.5 BILLION PER YEAR.
Liberals claim they more than make that up with taxes paid, but that’s simply not true. It’s not even close. FAIR estimates illegal aliens in California contribute only $1.21 billion in tax revenue, which means they cost California $20.6 billion, or at least $1,800 per household. Nonetheless, open border advocates, such as Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg, claim illegal aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to support such an assertion. As the Center for Immigration Studies has documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor, uneducated, and with few skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens and then granting them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit California’s economy? If illegal aliens were contributing to the economy in any meaningful way, California, with its 2.6 million illegal aliens, would be booming. Furthermore, the complexion of illegal aliens has changed with far more on welfare and committing crimes than those who entered the country in the 1980s. Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. Granted, those statistics are old, but if you talk to any California law enforcement officer, they will tell you it’s much worse today. The problem is that the Brown administration will not release any statewide data on illegal alien crimes. That would be insensitive. And now that California has declared itself a “sanctuary state,” there is little doubt this sends a message south of the border that will further escalate illegal immigration into the state.
"If the racist "Sensenbrenner Legislation" passes the US Senate, there is no doubt that a massive civil disobedience movement will emerge. Eventually labor union power can merge with the immigrant civil rights and "Immigrant Sanctuary" movements to enable us to either form a new political party or to do heavy duty reforming of the existing Democratic Party. The next and final steps would follow and that is to elect our own governors of all the states within Aztlan." Indeed, California goes out of its way to attract illegal aliens. The state has even created government programs that cater exclusively to illegal aliens. For example, the State Department of Motor Vehicles has offices that only process driver licenses for illegal aliens. With over a million illegal aliens now driving in California, the state felt compelled to help them avoid the long lines the rest of us must endure at the DMV. And just recently, the state-funded University of California system announced it will spend $27 million on financial aid for illegal aliens. They’ve even taken out radio spots on stations all along the border, just to make sure other potential illegal border crossers hear about this program. I can’t afford college education for all my four sons, but my taxes will pay for illegals to get a college education.
California used to be home to America's largest and most affluent middle class. Today, it is America's poverty capital. What went wrong? In a word: immigration.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Official Poverty Measure, California's poverty rate hovers around 15 percent. But this figure is misleading: the Census Bureau measures poverty relative to a uniform national standard, which doesn't account for differences in living costs between states – the cost of taxes, housing, and health care are higher in California than in Oklahoma, for example. Accounting for these differences reveals that California's real poverty rate is 20.6 percent – the highest in America, and nearly twice the national average of 12.7 percent.
Likewise, income inequality in California is the second-highest in America, behind only New York. In fact, if California were an independent country, it would be the 17th most unequal country on Earth, nestled comfortably between Honduras and Guatemala. Mexico is slightly more egalitarian. California is far more unequal than the "social democracies" it emulates: Canada is the 111th most unequal nation, while Norway is far down the list at number 153 (out of 176 countries). In terms of income inequality, California has more in common with banana republics than other "social democracies."
More Government, More Poverty
High taxes, excessive regulations, and a lavish welfare state – these are the standard explanations for California's poverty epidemic. They have some merit. For example, California has both the highest personal income tax rate and the highest sales tax in America, according to Politifact.
Not only are California's taxes high, but successive "progressive" governments have swamped the state in a sea of red tape. Onerous regulations cripple small businesses and retard economic growth. Kerry Jackson, a fellow with the Pacific Research Institute, gives a few specific examples of how excessive government regulation hurts California's poor. He writes in a recent op-ed for the Los Angeles Times:
Extensive environmental regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions make energy more expensive, also hurting the poor. By some estimates, California energy costs are as much as 50% higher than the national average. Jonathan A. Lesser of Continental Economics ... found that "in 2012, nearly 1 million California households faced ... energy expenditures exceeding 10% of household income."
Some government regulation is necessary and desirable, but most of California's is not. There is virtue in governing with a "light touch."
Finally, California's welfare state is, perhaps paradoxically, a source of poverty in the state. The Orange Country Register reports that California's social safety net is comparable in scale to those found in Europe:
In California a mother with two children under the age of 5 who participates in these major welfare programs – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), housing assistance, home energy assistance, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children – would receive a benefits package worth $30,828 per year.
... [Similar] benefits in Europe ranged from $38,588 per year in Denmark to just $1,112 in Romania. The California benefits package is higher than in well-known welfare states as France ($17,324), Germany ($23,257) and even Sweden ($22,111).
Although welfare states ideally help the poor, reality is messy. There are three main problems with the welfare state. First, it incentivizes poverty by rewardingthe poor with government handouts that are often far more valuable than a job. This can be ameliorated to some degree by imposing work requirements on welfare recipients, but in practice, such requirements are rarely imposed. Second, welfare states are expensive. This means higher taxes and therefore slower economic growth and fewer job opportunities for everyone – including the poor.
Finally, welfare states are magnets for the poor. Whether through domestic migration or foreign immigration, poor people flock to places with generous welfare states. This is logical from the immigrant's perspective, but it makes little sense from the taxpayer's. This fact is why socialism and open borders arefundamentally incompatible.
Why Big Government?
Since 1960, California's population exploded from 15.9 to 39 million people. The growth was almost entirely due to immigration – many people came from other states, but the majority came from abroad. The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that 10 million immigrants currently reside in California. This works out to 26 percent of the state's population.
This figure includes 2.4 million illegal aliens, although a recent study from Yale University suggests that the true number of aliens is at least double that. Modifying the initial figure implies that nearly one in three Californians is an immigrant. This is not to disparage California's immigrant population, but it is madness to deny that such a large influx of people has changed California's society and economy.
Importantly, immigrants vote Democrat by a ratio higher than 2:1, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies. In California, immigration has increased the pool of likely Democrat voters by nearly 5 million people, compared to just 2.4 million additional likely Republican voters. Not only does this almost guarantee Democratic victories, but it also shifts California's political midpoint to the left. This means that to remain competitive in elections, the Republicans must abandon or soften many conservative positions so as to cater to the center.
California became a Democratic stronghold not because Californians became socialists, but because millions of socialists moved there. Immigration turned California blue, and immigration is ultimately to blame for California's high poverty level.
Today, a loud youth movement rebels against norms. That's what juveniles do. They push boundaries. They haven't developed either an accurate vocabulary or an effective BS-detector. In a solid family, they'd get called out for misbehaving like "Young Sheldon." But when kids don't have firm parents (like Ben Carson's mother), they act out, searching for boundaries. If parents enforce rules, children learn that they are safe inside those rules. If there are no limits, kids push farther and farther looking for them.
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