How is it possible that California gave the country Ronald Reagan, especially seen from this point in time? In 2016, Hillary’s victory margin over Trump in California was 4.3 million votes. Her nationwide popular vote bested him by 2.9 million. That means she lost by 1.4 million everywhere else. California is to the Democrats what Saudi Arabia is to the oil market. California’s blue is darkening to black – and “black” as in black hole of intergalactic fame, not race. And that means an intoxication with taxes. All that government with its programs and fashionable crusades is expensive.
The blueness has tailed off into self-flagellation. California voters this year had the opportunity to free itself of its 12 cents/gal gas tax increase but Prop. 6 failed spectacularly (51-45 early in the count) . People in the state like their high taxes. Oh, I suppose at least partly, they see it as absolutely essential in saving the planet, even though the scheme was billed as a way to pay for roads and bridges that couldn’t be paid by the state’s other astronomically high taxes.
But I don’t see how California’s 36 million population will have much sway in lowering the planet’s temps when compared to 2 billion Chinese and Indians (the subcontinent variety). The denizens of the rest of the world now know that living in the dirt isn’t the only option. Their elevation out of the hut isn’t going to happen by forsaking carbon and living according to the precepts of Marin County “sustainability” … and Zambians know it. Don’t expect such inescapable logic to penetrate the state’s semi-literate hipsters and coastal fashionistas in their wine soirées.
Evidence of tax inebriation didn’t have to wait for the 2018 midterms and Prop 6. No sooner had the Republican House and Senate blasted their tax cuts to the president’s desk for his signature in 2018 than the suzerains of the state’s ruling party went into hyper-drive to undermine them even before Trump’s ink was dry.
Bills began popping up in the state’s legislature to stick it to “corporations”, the nomenclature of virtue-signaling for today’s hip lefties. The Dems’ Kevin McCarty boasted, “It’s time for middle class tax justice”. What does “middle class tax justice” look like? Well, it means to shaft California businesses with a jump in the corporate tax rate from 21 to 35 percent. The “middle class” shtick is more virtue-signaling to the state’s real overburdened and shrinking middle class – overburdened by the likes of McCarty and his colleagues.
Getting beyond the boilerplate rhetoric, though, it’s just plain ol’ vengeance for losing in 2016.
Now, what to do about the tax-cut bill’s undeniable justice in refusing to continue to force low-tax states to bail out high-tax states with a complete federal write-off of exorbitant state and local taxes, the “state and local tax deduction” (SALT)? The puppy love of tax-happy states for nearly everything government is the well-spring for ingenious ways to hide some of their grossest taxes in other deductible categories. That other tax-drunk jurisdiction – NY – wants to disguise them in the payroll tax. Gov. Brown and his fellow lefty bootleggers in Sacramento – I’m not kidding you – want to turn their taxes into charitable giving. Yeah, it’s called the California Excellence Fund. But there’s a problem with the ploy: the IRS code declares that the giver can’t benefit for it to be genuine charity. Oh well, back to the drawing boards.
As of April 9, 2018, $269 billion in new taxes were wafting through the California state legislature. And to top it off, the midterms ushered into power more tax-happy Dems. I’m beginning to wonder if many of the state’s voters should be tested for alcohol poisoning before entering the voting booth. This goes way beyond the .06 limit. What’s holding them up as they punch the ballot?
RogerG
Bibliography:
- “It’s Official: Clinton’s Popular Vote Win Came Entirely From California”, John Merline, Investor’s Business Daily, 12/16/2016, https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/its-official-clintons-popular-vote-win-came-entirely-from-california/
- “Election results 2018: Proposition 6 gas tax repeal crashes, burns [Updated]”, Adam Brinklow, Curbed: San Francisco, 11/7/2018, https://sf.curbed.com/2018/11/7/18071282/election-night-2018-california-prop-6-gas-tax-repeal-rejected
- “High-Tax States Reach For Gimmicks”, Milton Ezrati, Forbes, 2/16/2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/miltonezrati/2018/02/16/high-tax-states-reach-for-gimmicks/#6fddec4185c5
- “$269 billion in new state taxes and fees proposed”, Dawn Hodson, Mountain Democrat, 4/9/2018, https://www.mtdemocrat.com/news/269-billion-in-new-state-taxes-and-fees-proposed/
- “‘Time for middle class tax justice’: California corporate tax bill offsets Trump cuts”, Alexei Koseff, The Sacramento Bee, 1/18/2018, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article195434569.html
- “California Bills Acknowledge Federal Tax Changes, Don’t Conform”, Laura Mahoney, Bloomberg News, 5/4/2018, https://www.bna.com/california-bills-acknowledge-n57982092512/