By ,
Published May 05, 2017
No sooner had Arnold Schwarzenegger been elected, than someone made this bold prediction: He's going to have to raise taxes.
Why? You're billions in the red, so the only way out of it is billions in new taxes?
Look, I know the guy faces some stark choices. You either cut a lot of programs, or raise a lot of taxes. Why instantly assume you don't do the former, but you do do the latter?
I'm going to be very blunt here: The problem isn't the tax money going into Sacramento. It's all the spending coming out of Sacramento. The bottom line is the state spends too much. And that spending has been running triple the inflation rate.
If you and I did that, we'd go broke. The government's done it, and it is broke.
Only difference is there's no one to rescue us when we go overboard. The government likes to think we'll be there when it goes overboard. I don't think so.
Before anyone hands over another penny, look at every penny. Every program. Every subsidy. Every creature comfort residents supposedly can't live without.
I think bureaucrats would be surprised by what common folks can live without.
You don't need hundreds of different bilingual programs. Try paring some of them down.
You don't need road and highway cost construction running at double-digit increases year-in and year-out. Try trimming them down.
And you don't need to increase the number of state government workers by close to 10 percent to handle the burden. Try easing the burden and the bureaucrats.
Those who love government assume we all love it too. Maybe they're afraid once we see the numbers we won't love it too. That maybe we'll be very angry.
Government assumes we can't live with fewer buses, or fewer bridges, or fewer boondoggles. It assumes we'll gladly pay more to keep more.
I say, check with us before demanding a bigger check from us. After all, a lot of us would love to eat out more. But we don't. We'd love to travel more. But we can't. It's called living within your means. We know that. It's high time government, any government, wake up to that.
I heard one recall opponent say, cut the actor. No, you got it wrong, it's time -- high time -- you cut the act.
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https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/advice-for-the-governor-elect