{"id":5664,"date":"2017-04-13T14:37:16","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T21:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=5664"},"modified":"2025-11-29T14:38:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T22:38:24","slug":"commentary-can-california-be-saved-should-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2017\/04\/13\/commentary-can-california-be-saved-should-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary – Can California be saved? Should it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Frank Stephens]<\/em><\/p>\n

In less than 50 years, Democrats and Republicans ruined my state and turned it into Greece.<\/p>\n

Democrats over-taxed it, over-regulated it and bankrupted it. They strangled its vibrant economy, destroyed its education system and let its infrastructure crumble.<\/p>\n

Republicans caved in to Democrat demands for a bowl of porridge, i.e., Sen. Anthony Cannella of Ceres, was bought off for $400,000 to cast a ‘yes’ vote for the 12% increase in the state’s gas tax, the first increase in 23 years, plus a 20 cent increase in diesel.<\/p>\n

So it wasn\u2019t Big Business. Not the rich. Not millions of illegal immigrants from Juarez. No, it was career politicians in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

Their excessive lawmaking, regulations, taxing and spending have transformed California into a European welfare state with a grim future.<\/p>\n

This is not the California I grew up in and yearn for. It\u2019s hard for me to believe how things have deteriorated in California since the late 1960s. I can remember when Ronald Reagan was governor. We had a surplus. He actually gave money back to the people of California.<\/p>\n

The state once was famous for having the best education system, the best business climate, the best roads and infrastructure in America. It was a growing, dynamic paradise where people came to pursue their dreams and hopes.<\/p>\n

Now California\u2019s a wreck that people and businesses are leaving in droves. And Gov. Brown and his gang are offering us more of the same \u2014 higher income and sales taxes and a bullet train no one wants but them.<\/p>\n

To reverse its death spiral, California needs to return to a part-time legislature and turn its career politicians into part-time citizen politicians \u2014 which is what they are in 41 other states and what they were in California until 1967.<\/p>\n

Today the state\u2019s 120 legislators work year-round and their $104,115 are sweetened by as much as $50,000 in tax-free per diem allowances salaries plus gold plated benefits,. They are the highest-paid lawmakers in the country.<\/p>\n

And California\u2019s citizens just roll over and fork up the money to pay for their own destruction and to keep these thieves in their high priced lifestyle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Frank Stephens] In less than 50 years, Democrats and Republicans ruined my state and turned it into Greece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5665,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions\/5665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}