This is a great article from Investors Business Daily that confirms that the Tea Party Movement is having an effect. Let’s all keep up the good fight and we can have the same kind of victories here in New York and on a national level.
California Clarity
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, May 20, 2009 4:20 PM PTTax Revolt: Californians’ rejection of five tax-and-spend ballot measures on Tuesday’s ballot was the first outcome of a national tea party movement that elitists can no longer dismiss.
Long considered a deep-blue state grown tolerant of high taxes, California surprised the political class and media by easily defeating all but one of the six propositions intended to close a $21 billion deficit.
Voters saw right through the weasel words of Proposition 1A, which described a set-aside for a “rainy day fund” to balance the budget. They also brushed aside politicians’ threats to lay off police officers, teachers and firefighters (but not abundant bureaucrats), in effect making them human shields in an attempt to scare voters into going along.
It was nothing but a slyly disguised mandate for slush funds to finance new pork-barrel projects such as those that have made a mess of the state’s finances. Four other initiatives failed for the same reason.
The defeat of these measures holds politicians accountable after they’ve had a long stretch at the trough. It’s consistent with the spirit of 1978’s Prop 13 tax revolt, which carried forward to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. With similar conditions now, Californians are again standing up to a runaway tax train telling its political drivers to stop.
“Today, a blue state turned red,” an exuberant Michael Reagan told IBD at an election night celebration. From his radio perch, he helped draw attention to the issue. But he attributed the movement’s muscle to the tea parties that spread like brushfires through the state in recent months.
One of the biggest parties, held in March in Fullerton in north Orange County, drew 14,000. It too was called by talk-show hosts. It was a protest the Los Angeles Times curiously dismissed on its blog as “a radio stunt” while failing to seriously cover it.
But 1A’s 66%-34% rejection is real. And while the politicians insist spending can’t be cut, and wring their hands about a pending bankruptcy of America’s biggest state, voters are forcing them to face reality.
“You’re not going to keep taking money out of our pockets and spending to oblivion,” said Reagan.
Voters are no longer interested in legislative tricks that only add to spending. They want politicians to buy only what they can pay for. Lawmakers will have to consider better solutions than raising taxes, such as allowing offshore drilling that will bring in state royalties. Above all, voters asked the legislators to start cutting the fat.
That’s strong medicine given that the state has been hiring employees at a rate three times the population growth at lavish salaries. It’s a wakeup call to those who are chasing away business, losing billions in investment, revenue and talent. And it’s a warning to politicians who’ve coddled illegal immigrants, swelling their numbers and presenting taxpayers with the bill.
It’s also a smackdown to assemblymen who kowtowed to the public service unions that have blocked cuts.
Above all, it’s a rebuke of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He toppled a sitting governor in a 2003 recall election by promising “Things Will Change.” But he’s done little but dawdle with carbon emissions laws, stem-cell boondoggles and marijuana legalization.
All this shows why the tea party movement has more muscle than the pundits thought. Tea-party protestors became voters on Tuesday, sending a message that amounts to quite a bit more than a “radio stunt.”
