With the national economy set to go in the toilet (if Wall Street is a good indicator), the state of California once again faces a budget crisis in the billions of dollars. But this time we won't be hearing the naysayers blame Governor Schwarzenegger, as they did Gray Davis, when the national economy hit the skids back then.
This time we do recognize that the problem doesn't fall just at the feet of one person--it is the failed policies of an administration that insists on privatizing everything it can and letting the profiteers take as much as they can get their hands on until they're caught.
In this case, though, the fault lies with a variety of folks---starting with the Friends of Dick Cheney, the oilees who continue to jack up the price of gas at the pump so their profits can remain in the stratosphere as working famillies have less and less disposable income as a result.
Or take the housing boom. If there was ever a house of cards, this was it: Encouraging people to borrow, borrow, borrow---either for their downpayments, mortgages, or second mortgages on property at interest rates that fluctuate. And how they've fluctuated. Now, people who bought homes they couldn't afford, or who were propping up this fragile economy by borrowing against their homes, see it all coming home to roost--complete with foreclosure documents and pink slips.
And the prognosticators are warning that California is in for a big hit because of it all: the failing housing market, bad credit consequences, job instability and just a good old but hearty down-turn in the American market because of ridiculous economic policies advanced by the Bush Administration.
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