California is in a quandary. We cannot afford to raise taxes and yet we cannot afford to fund all our present programs. Perhaps we need to cut some of the excess salaries off the top. Too many boards of directors, too much recompense to CEOs, and too much graft to friends and family of those in power.
Our legislators are supposed to represent us, and those from our area seem to do that very well, but many others seem to be feathering their own nests. Someone needs to crack down, regardless of party affiliation. California cannot afford to be a nepotism run state, anymore. I know that is how it is done everywhere, but we just cannot afford it any longer.
Politicians buying their office by purchasing television time and inundating the airwaves with their name and picture, making political promises, are running jokes to those who follow politics. Nobody can promise anything in a state where the checks and balances work.
Democrats have traditionally controlled the Legislature, but Republicans are not serving as a check on spending, their nominal job. There needs to be a compromise between compassionate programs and expediency. Commonsense has long been uncommon, and we need to reconsider what brings the “most bang for the buck.”
I realize these decisions are subjective, that someone”s idea of conservative and progressive may be different or the same, but labels are not as important as results. Calling universal health care socialized medicine is counterproductive, but the actual program works in most other industrialized nations. Labels are not important except when one is trying to defeat a measure, then one uses psychological strategies to influence voters to vote against their best interest. Madison Avenue techniques work all the time. Misdirection, misnomers and just labeling make good people convinced that bad policies for them, are indeed good.
Dave Gebhard
Lakeport
