We have seen the future and it is Detroit.
By: Ed Farnan | Published Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 12:20 AM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 10:08 PM
Citizens are fed up with runaway expenditures and want to rein them in, including taking back some of the power that public sector unions have over the states. Wisconsin and other states hired Governors and legislators to do just that when they elected conservatives into office.
Other states throughout the U.S. including Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Idaho, Tennessee, Kansas and others have voted and are attempting to rein in expenses including trimming the power of public employee unions. Their backs are against the wall as they are faced with cataclysmic deficits. Although the left and their political allies would have you believe it is about union busting in general, but private sector unions are not a part of this battle.
In the conservative tidal wave that rolled through the U.S., California seemed to buck that trend. This state not only returned it's very liberal legislators, the voters even decided to vote back the very person who started California's downward spiral over 30 years ago, Governor Jerry"moonbeam" Brown....Could it be to return to the "Golden State" that he mortally wounded those many years ago and give it a final bayonet thrust?
While Governor Brown was in office the first time, he set a Utopian course for California by canceling dam projects and new aqueducts. He established the California Energy Commission to block new power plants. He put the brakes on new highway construction. He established the California environmental protection agency that required bakeries to put scrubbers on their exhaust in order
to protect the public from the smell of freshly baked bread!But the most damaging was the 1978 legislation signed by then Gov. Brown allowing collective bargaining for public employees. No single act has changed California for the worse more than this one. No political faction wields more power than California's Public employee unions and the resultant 500 billion pension deficit.
California once the envy of the world with modern freeways, cheap and abundant power, plenty of clean water, a welcoming business climate and sound fiscal policies. Is now facing constant drought, power shortages, clogged/ antiquated freeways and a very unfriendly business climate, with radical environmentalism being a major theme.
Governor Brown now has a chance to redeem himself and change his legacy. He can navigate a Chris Christie-like course of tax cuts, smaller government and confront the public employee unions....Will he have the vision and sense to do this? Or will he continue to preach the "moonbeam"vision he started and the policies that will ultimately make California what Detroit has become.
Governor Brown, we have seen the future and it is Detroit.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Monsoonman | Mar 31, 2011, 11:52 AM EDT
What's wrong, don't you like the Big D? It is the epitome of every gummint and big union wet dream program ever dreamed up by the corrupt ones who dole out other peoples money...and guess what? It is an abject failure. I do know one industry that is thriving there though, raccoon hunting. Big market in pelts and meat.....and if we keep aspiring to Detroits "business model" the rest of the country is not far behind. Can anybody say Mad Max?
jimtynan | Mar 31, 2011, 09:28 AM EDT
I'm pretty convinced that you and all the right wing a-holes who post here are on the payroll of the Koch brothers. Spreading vile lies and pitting working people against each other. Blaming the countries ills on unions, teacher. While Bank of America gets 45 Billion in bailout money (Taxpayer money) and don't pay a red cent in taxes. If the rich and the corporations paid their fair share, this country wouldn't be in the hole its in. STFU!
seanomelbourne | Mar 29, 2011, 06:27 PM EDT
Your a blast maloney.
maloney | Mar 28, 2011, 08:17 PM EDT
And his name is seanorooland. LOL
seanomelbourne | Mar 28, 2011, 01:04 AM EDT
What verbal diarrhea from a self centred bleeding heart ignorant fool.
Advocate | Mar 22, 2011, 06:52 PM EDT
So much talk of California... Have no fear; the next big quake will be there, and there is not enough money in the GNP to bail out huge Sky-scrapers, Etc., etc. Much of the land itself will be underwater! I do wonder how much $$$-aid Mexico and Israel will send? Are they helping New Zeeland and Japan? (I think not!) (The "Israel" in your Bible is Jacob/Israel, the people; NOT the tiny sandbox in the Middle East)
seanomelbourne | Mar 22, 2011, 01:06 AM EDT
Careful Mman the yeast monster might attack your golf balls.Now that would be a sorry state of affairs it might bring on a suicide attack.Hope you don't blame Obama,maloney will no doubt lol.
maloney | Mar 21, 2011, 09:35 PM EDT
Help, help! somebody stole my SCRUBBERS!! The yeast monster is destroying the city!! The biscuit brigade is attacking. Someone check those scones before obama eats one. Poor liberal idiot.
Monsoonman | Mar 21, 2011, 07:45 PM EDT
Of ANY big city in the U.S., Detroit has had more government money & more union greed & has been a magnet for every liberal great society harebrained scheme. The outcome is a bankrupt city(8 billion in the hole) that can't sustain itself and will probably be taken over by the state as per your congressman dingell. Best thing for Detroit is to plow it under and return it to farmland. It will be far cheaper for the rest of the citizens of the United States.
Monsoonman | Mar 21, 2011, 07:30 PM EDT
No doubt Lad, those scrubbers have saved millions of lives, eh? Wink wink nod nod. I remember the death and destruction rained down on those poor souls who had to breathe in the polluted fragrance of baking croissants, muffins and loaves of bread, such a horrible deadly experience. Thank God for the scrubbers! The days of chronic legionnaire disease and yeast mold wreaking havoc on the population are over.
seanomelbourne | Mar 21, 2011, 06:23 PM EDT
Scrubbers are fitted on fans in bakeries to to prevent yeast mould from escaping into the atmosphere and causing lung damage.Another example is cleaning aircons to prevent legionnaires disease.We have another big fat right wing lie from ignorant Ed the talking horse(sh-it)
mocmanic | Mar 21, 2011, 04:57 PM EDT
Another cheap shot at Detroit. Unfortunate that the author apparently doesn't care to adequately research the greater Detroit community in order to provide a more accurate view. Cheap.
odonnell521 | Mar 21, 2011, 03:55 PM EDT
Too bad this Farnan doesn't seem capable of anything more than just repeating Fox News talking points. He should at least think about running a grammar check before he posts this dribble. BTW, Detroit's decline was the direct of the result of the decline of the auto and steel and industries which were negatively impacted by unfair international trade practices and incompetent corporate management(i.e., GOP donors).
peterson | Mar 21, 2011, 02:38 PM EDT
The unions were badly needed back in the 30's, but now they have outstripped their value as they use the union dues to re-elect the corrupt people who protect them.
susanna | Mar 21, 2011, 12:55 PM EDT
Farnan - you should have said "The U.S. (not CA)once the envy of the world with modern freeways, cheap and abundant power, plenty of clean water, a welcoming business climate and sound fiscal policies, is now facing constant drought, power shortages, clogged/ antiquated freeways and a very unfriendly business climate, with sensible (not radical) environmentalism being a major theme." This is the United States today, bub, or have you not read about the demise of the infrastructure in all of the United states? Maybe if Bush did not start an illegal war and we had to spend billions on them,we wouldn't be in this mess today.Also, if it weren't for the deregulation of the corporations (Reagan, who else?) and the tax breaks they received for moving companies overseas (which the Dems reversed under Obama) under Republican administrations, Detroit would still be a thriving city!
susanna | Mar 21, 2011, 12:47 PM EDT
DLW12183 & allentown - Even with the problems California has, it has the largest economy of any state in the U.S. and is the 8th largest economy in the world, jealous? Let us not forget that it was Republican idiot Schwarzenegger who drove CA into the ground. He, like Reagan should have stuck with B movies.
pugsmom | Mar 21, 2011, 12:17 PM EDT
California is the "welfare state" of the world. Want money for nothing, other than having a kid every 6 months? Move to California!
susanna | Mar 21, 2011, 11:39 AM EDT
New ABC/Washington Post Poll Shows Lack of Faith in Republicans - not Governor Brown. When it comes to dealing with issue No. 1, the economy, Obama has an advantage: 46 percent say they put more faith in the president, 34 percent say so about congressional Republicans. Obama has a similar 12-point lead on the question of who better understands the economic problems people face, and a nine-point edge on dealing with the deficit.... You should change your by line to "Americans Have Seen the Future and It Was Destroyed By the Bush Administration."
allentown | Mar 21, 2011, 11:29 AM EDT
Let's hope that when California defaults, we have a Republican administration that will not put California's burden on the taxpayers from the 49 other States.
DLW12183 | Mar 21, 2011, 09:29 AM EDT
No Way. California is a looney land all its own filed with the most liberal and illegals that its only choice is to default on its loans.