There’s been a lot of talk about how Arnold Schwarzenegger failed to fix California’s deficit, but very little about why. How liberal voters, unions, and activist judges fought, opposed, and attacked him at every turn; how 80 cents of every government dollar were spent on employee salaries and benefits; and how hyper-environmentalist, anti-business regulations, and a refusal to secure the borders has stymied education, driven firms away, and forced more than 70 hospitals to close their doors.
Last November, 27 states elected conservative governors to try to stem their economic tsunamis, while California’s so-called progressive thinkers remained loyal to their one constant: a delusional addiction to spending other people’s money on social justice and welfare giveaways.
Make no mistake, liberal bureaucracy, economic illiteracy, political correctness, and misplaced compassion, not the Governator, killed the golden goose that was once California—a process so devastating for the rest of us to watch because we know that while almost anything can be fixed, you simply can’t fix stupid.
This article appears in Jan 20-27, 2011.