California demands US taxpayers bail them out

This is what it has come to. The state of California is sending dignitaries from the state’s legislature to the east coast “early and often” to demand taxpayers give more money to the Golden State. Government sponsored theft it is I tell you!

Are any responsible adults running the state of California? More than a year ago, I wrote about California’s budget ballooning 40 percent in less than four years. They don’t give a crap about their own expansion, rather they are bitching about the “unfunded” federal mandates demanded of them by Congress. From SFGate.com.

California’s political leaders, who are facing the daunting challenge of closing an estimated $20.7 billion budget deficit this year, are looking to Washington for help. Just don’t call it a bailout.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he plans to head to the nation’s capital “early and often” seeking federal assistance. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger already has put the federal government on notice that he wants billions he says the state is owed. And outgoing Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County), said she would head east as soon as this month.

It is not just cash that California wants. Schwarzenegger is calling for permanent changes to the formula that determines the amount of money the federal government contributes to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, noting that the state is among the lowest in the country in reimbursement rates. He also wants money for the costs of providing special education in schools and incarcerating illegal immigrants, both unfunded federal mandates.

Individual states who agree to mandates in order to get billions and billions from the federal government in return for giving up their sovereignty are not getting the full picture. Maybe if all of the states simply said, “thank you, but no thank you” they would be better off. It’s just another symptom of the disease.

How is Texas dealing with the issue?