Same Old California: Wealth, Poverty and Flight-VDH Column

[Spock]

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/ ... dle-class/

I know that SSS and Bob#'s laugh at VDH,-However, nobody knows California as a whole, over time as well as he does.

Most here will understand why I spewed my morning coffee when I read this Pull Quote.

>>>"Indeed, one of the landmarks of the new California mentality is denial and self-righteousness"<<<

And to be clear-No one-least of all VDH-denies that there is vast wealth in California and he knows that side of California intimately.

But there is the other side to California that VDH knows just as intimately.

Contrary to some here; VDH is of the school that the vast wealth of California is due largely to what previous Californians built and not to what has happened in the few years since those evil Republicans no longer control more than 1/3 of the state legislature.

We all know that a Hetch Hetchy water project that serves the Bay Area would NOT be permitted in today's California.

[Bob Juch]

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/ ... dle-class/

I know that SSS and Bob#'s laugh at VDH,-However, nobody knows California as a whole, over time as well as he does.

Most here will understand why I spewed my morning coffee when I read this Pull Quote.

>>>"Indeed, one of the landmarks of the new California mentality is denial and self-righteousness"<<<

And to be clear-No one-least of all VDH-denies that there is vast wealth in California and he knows that side of California intimately.

But there is the other side to California that VDH knows just as intimately.

Contrary to some here; VDH is of the school that the vast wealth of California is due largely to what previous Californians built and not to what has happened in the few years since those evil Republicans no longer control more than 1/3 of the state legislature.

We all know that a Hetch Hetchy water project that serves the Bay Area would NOT be permitted in today's California.

It's a good thing that California has so many uneducated people, otherwise, there'd be no one who'd want to pick all the crops.

[Bob78164]

It's a little hard to take him seriously when he repeats the claim, refuted by actual evidence, that California is hostile to the formation of small businesses. In fact, California leads the nation in the per capita rate of small business formation. --Bob

[Bob78164]

There's something else I need to comment on here. Hanson also joins a lot of Republicans in criticizing California for its roads being in disrepair. This is utter hypocrisy on the part of most of them. California recently passed SB 1, an increase in the gas tax earmarked for road repair and other transportation infrastructure improvements. Republicans used that vote as the sole excuse for successfully recalling a Democratic state senator and replacing him with a Republican. (Due to a quirk in California's election laws, Senator Newman was replaced even though he received more votes to avoid recall than his successor received to replace him. I'm working with my state senator, who is interested in the issue, on proposals to fix that quirk.)

They also put a referendum on the ballot trying to repeal SB 1. Their goal was to increase conservative turnout to resist the blue wave. We all know how that turned out in California's Congressional races (California's Republican congressional delegation dropped from 14 to 7) and legislative races (Democrats enjoy a two-thirds majority in both houses with room to spare). And the referendum to repeal SB 1 also failed.

Republicans are happy to complain about the quality of our roads. They're just not willing to raise any money to fix them. Fortunately, the majority of the California electorate understands that if we want services, we have to pay for them, and that investments in ourselves pay dividends. --Bob