Arnie Why Did You Pick Buffet ?

[Craig Read]

Arnie made a big mistake naming Stock Picker Buffet to his economic team. Buffet is a democrat and is against all tax cuts and spending cuts. In fact Buffet's brain wave is to raise Cali's taxes - precisely the opposite of what needs to be done.

The $38 billion budget deficit is merely a symptom of the fact that the state's liberal political culture is driving entrepreneurs and job-creating businesses out of the state. A new Census report says that were it not for Latino immigration, California's population would be falling. Between 1995 and 2000, more than 600,000 of its residents moved out of what was once America's promised land.

The Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento compiles a list of the new job-killing burdens on business and ultimately on worker/taxpayers: an eight-hour workday overtime rule unique to California that is far less flexible than federal law and opens employers to lawsuits; paid family leave of up to six weeks, the first such law in the country; and limits on greenhouse gas emissions, also the first in the country, that will raise prices on cars.

High workers' compensation premiums are also a huge disincentive for start-ups and business expansion. A recent study of 12 large states found the average cost of a worker's claim in California to be 33% above the median. The report by the Workers' Compensation Research Institute also noted that the "Average per-claim expenses for medical cost containment services, defense attorneys, and medical-legal expenses are higher [in California] than in most study states."

And don't forget the state's steeply progressive tax code, a major cause of its current fiscal woes. The state is overly dependent on rich folk for tax revenues. In 2000, Californians paid $40 billion in income taxes, and 54% of that came from taxpayers who earned $300,000 or more. Almost 38% was paid by millionaires, who file less than one-third of 1% of tax returns. It's no surprise that when the stock bubble burst so did California's tax coffers.

Picking Stocks is one thing, solving a large economy another.

Arnie do yourself and Cali a favor - send Buffett back to Omaha.

[Neal.F.]

Now that the initial Schwarzenegger splash is wearing off, polls re now showing him neck & neck with Democratic Lieut. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (Who looks like an aging Cheech Marin , of Cheech & Chong fame)

I think his cozying up with Dumbocruds whose policies have virtually destroyed California has cost him the support of true blue Republicans. Tom McClintock is in a respectable third place right now, withing range of arnie, and would make it a three way deadlock if his support was combined with that of Peter Ueberroth.

he also had the stupidity of bringing on board Pete Wilson, who not counting Gray Davis is probably the most loathed politician in California.

Sooner or alater something has to give, and the Republicans will need to decide who their candidate will be, and will have to line up behind one, or Bustamante will be the next governor, and the real winner of the election will be Arizona and New Mexico.

[Neal.F.]

Arnie has just brought another Dumbocrud on board his campaign train (Train wreck dead ahead!) who is none other than "West Wing" Star Rob Lowe.

He sounds alot like his Dumbocrud friends.... pro-choice, pro gay rights.... for tax hikes....

His bubble will burst (Seems it already has. Terminator 3 is a box office flop) and hopefully a real conseravtive like Tom McClintock will move into the lead.

Otherwise, California is doomed. A nice slum on the beach.