{"id":15789,"date":"2017-03-03T16:03:17","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T21:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=15789"},"modified":"2017-03-03T16:03:17","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T21:03:17","slug":"secession-could-give-california-the-reality-check-it-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/03\/03\/secession-could-give-california-the-reality-check-it-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Secession Could Give California the Reality Check it Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n


\n<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

Secession Could Give California the Reality Check it Needs<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m not a big fan of Donald Trump, mostly because I fear his populist instincts will deter him<\/a> from policies that we need (such as entitlement reform<\/a>) while luring him to support<\/a> policies that are misguided (more federal transportation spending<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"But I admit it\u2019s too early to tell. Maybe my policy predictions<\/a> on Trump will be as bad as my political predictions<\/a> about Trump.<\/p>\n

And, for what it\u2019s worth, I\u2019ll freely acknowledge that Trump\u2019s election is having a very good effect on my leftist friends. Because they fear the new occupant of the White House, they\u2019re now much more sympathetic to the notion that there should be limits on the power of the federal government<\/a> and they\u2019re acknowledging that maybe federalism<\/a> isn\u2019t such a bad idea after all.<\/p>\n

Indeed, some of them are so supportive of limiting the impact of Washington that they\u2019re considering secession! The L.A. Daily News<\/em> reports<\/a> on a growing campaign in the Golden State.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes California,\u201d a pro-secession group, filed paperwork with the state attorney general in November for a proposed 2018 ballot measure to strike language in the state constitution binding California to the United States. \u2026If its ballot measure succeeds, Yes California would pursue a 2019 vote to declare the state\u2019s independence. \u2026Talk of California secession is nothing new. But it gained momentum after Donald Trump\u2019s election. Hillary Clinton got 62 percent of California\u2019s vote in defeating Trump\u2026 According to Yes California, a path to secession exists through the U.S.-ratified United Nations charter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By the way, I thought cozying up to Moscow was a bad thing now. But since the Yes California crowd is even trying to establish relations with Putin-land, I guess coziness is in the eye of the beholder.<\/p>\n

\u2026the group announced the opening of a \u201ccultural center\u201d in Moscow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anyhow, the folks at Salon<\/em> are somewhat supportive<\/a> of \u201cCalExit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026it\u2019s time for the media to stop dismissing the idea as a zany left coast response to the newly elected Republican federal government. \u2026secession could be a reality in our lifetime. \u2026Californians could expect to initiate advanced-level progress in racial justice\u2026free of restriction an independent California could actually demonstrate the success of progressive values in action\u2026 It\u2019s difficult to say whether\u00a0California\u2019s rich Democrats in coastal enclaves would be down with\u00a0paying reparations if the independent nation were scrapping its ties to the U.S. and its colonial past.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But a column<\/a> in the L.A. Times<\/em> by Conor Friedersdorf says statist values would suffer if California became independent.<\/p>\n

Blue America would lose its biggest source of electoral votes in all future elections. The Senate would have two fewer Democrats. The House of Representatives would lose 38 Democrats and just 14 Republicans. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, among the most liberal in the nation, would be changed irrevocably. And the U.S. as a whole would suddenly be a lot less ethnically diverse than it is today. For those reasons, Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Republicans with White House ambitions, opponents of legalizing marijuana, advocates of criminalizing abortion and various white nationalist groups might all conclude \u2013\u2013 for different reasons \u2013\u2013 that they would benefit politically from a separation, even as liberals and progressives across America would correctly see it as a catastrophe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which may explain why many folks on the right are cheering for secession. Here are some excerpts from another column<\/a> in the L.A. Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2026judging by the letters we\u2019ve received from across the country on the burgeoning secessionist movement known as \u201cCalexit,\u201d some readers would be happy see us go \u2014 or at least take pleasure in watching our deep-blue state suffer\u2026 I have some advice to the sane citizens of California: Members of the middle class should start planning their own exit. When California loses all those billions from the federal government, the politicians are going to need to find money elsewhere, and you know Hollywood\u2019s millionaires aren\u2019t going to provide it. They\u2019ll move to their mountain homes in Wyoming or elsewhere. You think all those new billionaires in Silicon Valley will eagerly part with their money? Think again. They\u2019ll hide their wealth in tax shelters. The refugees and illegal immigrants on the receiving end of California\u2019s generous benefits aren\u2019t going to provide needed tax revenues, so the politicians will target the middle class.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course they\u2019ll target the middle class. That\u2019s what they want in Washington<\/a>. That\u2019s why they want a value-added tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simply stated, you can\u2019t have a cradle-to-grave welfare state unless the middle class is so over-taxed that they have to rely on government<\/a> for healthcare, education, retirement, and just about everything else.<\/p>\n

\"\"But that\u2019s an issue for another day.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s keep our focus on California secession, which I support both as a matter of self-determination<\/a> and as a matter of public policy.<\/p>\n

With regard to policy, I think it will be very interesting to see how a state with huge natural advantages (coast, weather, mineral resources, agricultural land, etc) can endure bad policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s already plenty of bad policy<\/a> in the state.<\/p>\n

A big part of the problem is that the public sector in California is wildly overcompensated. Kevin Williamson explains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State and local government spending adds up to nearly 20 percent of California\u2019s economic output, while thriftier states such as Texas and New Hampshire spend less than 15 percent. \u2026California\u2019s government, like the federal government and most other state and local governments, spends its money on salaries, benefits, pensions, and other forms of employee compensation. The numbers are contentious \u2014 for obvious political reasons \u2014 but it is estimated\u00a0that something between half and 80 percent of California\u2019s state and local spending ultimately goes to employee compensation. \u2026The first and smaller problem is that many government workers are paid too much. \u2026The second and larger problem with public-sector workers is that there are a whole lot of them. \u2026When politicians talk about \u201cinvestments,\u201d we think they mean bridges and research laboratories and canals to bring water to central California. But what they are investing in is dependency. In California, that means creating a lot of full-time jobs for Democrats.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it\u2019s not just that there are too many bureaucrats and that they are overpaid. They also become a big burden when they retire.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some additional evidence<\/a> of the mess in California.<\/p>\n

\"\"California is already\u00a0paying $5.38 billion to the California Public Employees\u2019 Retirement System this year, and in fiscal year 2018 the state will need to add at least $200 million more. By fiscal year 2024 the annual tab will increase at least $2 billion from current levels. This all comes on top of increases already scheduled under the system, according to Governor Jerry Brown\u2019s finance department. \u2026California\u2019s revenue is volatile because it draws a large share of taxes from wealthy residents whose incomes are tied closely to the stock market. The top 1 percent of earners \u2014 who tend to own shares \u2014 accounted for nearly half of the state\u2019s personal income-tax collections in 2014.<\/blockquote>\n

And the big tax hikes that will be imposed on the middle class will add to the misery they already suffer. Here\u2019s more evidence<\/a> of how the middle class is being eviscerated.<\/p>\n

\u2026the gap between what Californians pay versus the rest of the country has nearly doubled to about 50%. This translates into a staggering bill. Although California uses 2.6% less electricity annually from the power grid now than in 2008, residential and business customers together pay $6.8 billion more for power than they did then. \u2026\u201cCalifornia has this tradition of astonishingly bad decisions,\u201d said McCullough, the energy consultant. \u201cThey build and charge the ratepayers. There\u2019s nothing dishonest about it. There\u2019s nothing complicated. It\u2019s just bad planning.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Victor David Hanson bemoans<\/a> the outlook for his state.<\/p>\n

The state is currently experiencing another perfect storm of increased crime, decreased incarceration, still ongoing illegal immigration, and record poverty. All that is energized by a strapped middle class that is still fleeing the overregulated and overtaxed state, while the arriving poor take their places in hopes of generous entitlements, jobs servicing the elite, and government employment. \u2026Go to a U-Haul trailer franchise in the state. The rental-trailer-return rates of going into California are a fraction of those going out. Surely never in civilization\u2019s history have so many been so willing to leave a natural paradise. \u2026What makes the law-abiding leave California is not just the sanctimoniousness, the high taxes, or the criminality. It is always the insult added to injury. We suffer not only from the highest basket of income, sales, and gas taxes in the nation, but also from nearly the worst schools and infrastructure. We have the costliest entitlements and the most entitled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Little wonder, as Hans Bader explains<\/a>, businesses continue to flee the state.<\/p>\n

Nestl\u00e9 USA, \u201cthe maker of H\u00e4agen-Dazs, Baby Ruth, Lean Cuisine, and dozens of other mass brands,\u201d is moving its U.S. headquarters\u00a0from California to Virginia. It is among many businesses that have left California in recent years. In 2010, Northrop Grumman Corp. moved its headquarters out of California, leaving the state that gave birth to the aerospace industry without a single major military contractor based there. Last Spring, the parent company of Carl\u2019s Jr., founded in Anaheim, California, 60 years ago, relocated its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, where there is no state income tax. \u2026reported the San Jose Mercury News<\/em> in June 2016. \u201cDuring the 12 months ending June 30, the number of people leaving California for another state exceeded by 61,100 the number who moved here from elsewhere in the U.S., according to state Finance Department statistics. \u2018They are tired of the expense of living here. They are tired of the state of California and the endless taxes here,\u2019 said Scott McElfresh, a certified moving consultant. \u2018People are getting soaked every time they turn around.\u2019\u201d \u2026For businesses, the worst is yet to come. California is increasing its minimum wage over the next several years to $15 per hour.\u00a0 \u2026the increase\u00a0will ultimately cost California 700,000 jobs.\u00a0An economist at Moody\u2019s calculated that 31,000 to 160,000 California manufacturing jobs will be lost. California taxes may rise further, to deal with a rising state budget deficit over the next decade. The deficit is rising in part due to California\u2019s unusually high state welfare spending which grew about twice as fast in California in 2016 as in the U.S. as a whole. California also spends its transportation dollars very poorly, and it is wasting billions on a high-speed rail boondoggle that few people will ride.<\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, Bader\u2019s column illustrates the real reason why CalExit almost certainly will lead to disaster. People<\/a> and businesses will vote with their feet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"So unless the politicians in Sacramento decide to erect a barbed wire fence around the border (maybe we shouldn\u2019t joke<\/a>), the state\u2019s feudalistic economic system will be unsustainable.<\/p>\n

Though there is an alternative scenario. Perhaps independence will have a sobering effect on the state\u2019s kleptocrats and they\u2019ll recognize the importance of quasi-sensible policy once California is an independent nation.<\/p>\n

This is a big reason why I\u2019m sympathetic<\/a> to independence movements in place such as Sardinia<\/a>, Scotland<\/a>, and Belgium<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

When there are lots of competing jurisdictions<\/a>, there\u2019s pressure on all politicians to be rational stationary bandits rather than predatory roving bandits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republished from International Liberty<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n


\nDaniel J. Mitchell
\n<\/a><\/h5>\n

Daniel J. Mitchell is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute who specializes in fiscal policy, particularly tax reform, international tax competition, and the economic burden of government spending. He also serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secession Could Give California the Reality Check it Needs I\u2019m not a big fan of Donald Trump, mostly because I fear his populist instincts will deter him from policies that we need (such as entitlement reform) while luring him to support policies that are misguided (more federal transportation spending). But I admit it\u2019s too early to tell. Maybe my policy predictions on Trump will be as bad as my political predictions about Trump. And, for what it\u2019s worth, I\u2019ll freely acknowledge that Trump\u2019s election is having a very good effect on my leftist friends. Because they fear the new occupant of the White House, they\u2019re now much more sympathetic to the notion that there should be limits on the power of the federal government and they\u2019re acknowledging that maybe federalism isn\u2019t such a bad idea after all. Indeed, some of them are so supportive of limiting the impact of Washington that they\u2019re considering secession! The L.A. Daily News reports on a growing campaign in the Golden State. \u201cYes California,\u201d a pro-secession group, filed paperwork with the state attorney general in November for a proposed 2018 ballot measure to strike language in the state constitution binding California to the United States. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2472,371,1994],"class_list":["post-15789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-calexit","tag-california","tag-secession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}