If you want to know what the nation's economy will look like a few years down the road, all you have to do is look at California. California is the world's 8th largest economy and it is tottering on the edge of oblivion.

Now of course the left wing blame Reagan's tenure as governor and Conservatives in general. They like to point to 1978's Proposition 13 as the beginning of the downfall. But there's a lot more to it than that, as Time's Kevin O'Leary points out in his left-leaning article.

Prop 13 itself simply made it harder for California's traditionally liberal politicians to raise taxes. It requires a two-thirds majority vote for taxes to be raised. And even liberal taxpayers hate to have their taxes raised as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature found out recently when their tax-laden ballot measure failed miserably. However, there is a liberal failing here--or multiple in this case--as well.

Californians love things for "free". They love water to be shipped across the desert for them and they love the freeways (although you wouldn't know it from their griping about gridlock). They love having large state grants for college students. These are liberal policies that over the years have added to a tax burden in the most populace state in the Union. And most of them have actually made the environment worse.

Californians also love direct democracy, like all Democrats, hence the name. The nation's founders knew that a direct democracy would eventually ruin the country. That's why they created a constitutional republic, with a constitution to restrict the powers of government and a representative legislature to restrict the damage that a runaway democracy would cause. It was all about checks and balances. Californians chose a direct democracy with a government that restricts freedoms instead. Talk about bass-ackwards.

One of the things that Californians are most proud of is that they are the harbingers of "change" (there's that word again) for the rest of the country. Just look at environmental legislation and make-work projects, all at the taxpayers' expense. Their senators and representatives are some of the most powerful members of congress, like Henry Waxman, coauthor of the Cap and Trade bill that just passed with nobody reading it. And then there is Nancy Pelosi who rammed through the same Cap and Trade bill so that she could go on vacation. Now they want to bring their form of liberal government to the rest of us and they have the numbers on their side in congress.

As I said in a previous post: Abandon all hope ye who live here.

SOURCE: Time article

Obama was elected partially on the promise that he would give the middle class a tax cut. What he didn't tell you was that the tax cut would be necessary just so you can make ends meet after the liberals in congress pass the "Cap and Trade" tax.

On the surface the C&T will not directly affect individuals. It is only a tax on businesses that produce greenhouse gases. However businesses cannot stay in business if their costs go up but profits don't. So naturally they will pass their new expenses on to you. So if you voted for Obama, thanks loads.

To paraphrase Dante, "Abandon all hope ye who live here"

The government is positively losing its mind trying to come up with new taxes and fees to cover lost revenue. Apparently they don't realize that one of the reasons that they have lost revenue is because people aren't making enough money to cover the taxes and runaway spending that politicians and bureaucrats keep perpetuating.

I didn't watch the State of the Union address last night. That means one down, three to go. The thing about the SOU is that you really know what the president is going to say beforehand especially in this day and age of 24-hour news and the internet. And quite frankly President Obama has nothing to say that I want to hear. The only reason anybody wants to see it is to bask in the warm glow of the Dem chosen one.

Today I was watching CNBC and I saw Rep. Spencer Bacchus from my state, Alabama. He said something that is going to become a battle cry for Conservatives for the next four years.

"The government never solved anything by throwing more money at it."

We have known this for years. Look at the government school system. Every time we get a liberal president and congress we see the budget for government education explode. And every time it's like throwing money down a bottomless hole. It makes liberals think good about themselves and it placates some voters. But when everything is said and done it's just a useless waste of time. It always will be as long as teacher's unions are allowed to set policy.

Another example is the nation's infrastructure. When tax money goes to states and local communities, ostensibly to improve roads, bridges and levees, politicians, conservative and liberal alike, spend that money on pet projects. There was the instance in New Orleans where the local government spent infrastructure money meant for the levees on a fountain. A few years later Hurricane Katrina slammed into NO and the rest is history.

Just a few years ago there was the bridge collapse that was caused by stress fatigue and age. The money that should have been spent repairing that preexisting bridge was instead spent on building new structures just so politicians could get their names placed on them. And again people died.

In other words you have to change what you are doing to improve, not just throw money at it.