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America is a lifeboat and, like any lifeboat, if you try to jam too many people in, it's going to flip over.

Let me explain by using California as an example, because, as the 8th largest economy in the world, as goes California, so goes America.

Unfortunately, in this analogy, that means we're all heading straight for an iceberg. Once we hit it, panic will ensue and there will be a rush for the lifeboats. Remember that scene from "Titanic"?

It's not easy to turn people away, but if you don't, everyone could die. Unfortunately, California hasn't gotten that message yet. They're not turning anyone away; in fact, they're doing the opposite.

First, you've got illegal immigrants. There are about 3 million illegals in California, which is a quarter of all the unauthorized immigrants in the entire U.S.

That costs the state between $5 and 10 billion a year — including $775 million on health care, a cost that is only going to rise.

Considering their budget deficit, California could save almost 25 cents on the dollar just by keeping people out of the lifeboat who shouldn't even have gotten onto the ship in the first place!

Next, is the out-of-control spending — things like $100 million for movie studio tax breaks and $6 million for a hydrogen highway program.

It's completely out of control and the result, according to The Wall Street Journal, is that California is now close to selling $200 million worth of municipal bonds to a San Francisco agency.

That has never happened before and for good reason. It's like pretending you can solve your financial issues with a loan from your wife. You're both broke; you live in the same house.

And the final passenger trying to climb onto the lifeboat is anti-business policies. The government seems to only know one way to make money: raise taxes. So California is hoping to raise the sales tax by an extra percent, add a 12-cent gas tax and up the cost of licensing vehicles.

Really revolutionary ideas there, Arnold. No, I mean it; ideas that lead to revolution.

Don't be surprised when Hollywood and Silicon Valley start relocating to Texas. You're on your own, Texas.

Like California, America can't fit everyone in our lifeboat. I know it is tragic, but it needs to leave some people behind or we're all going to drown.

So what should our country keep and what should it leave behind?

What do you think? Send your comments to: glennbeck@foxnews.com

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