As the federal government continues to determine winners and losers in its growing appetite to control more sectors of the US economy it bears noting that the California vote last night may be a harbinger of things to come and a reminder of things past.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is headed back to the state capitol for closed-door meetings with legislators this afternoon after voters resoundingly snubbed five of the six ballot measures — a combination of tax increases, borrowing and earmarks for education — in Tuesday’s special election. Most of them received more than a 65 percent “no” vote…
One element of the Tea Party movement that has never been understood or acknowledged by the Left (but covered extensively by Wizbang) is that there is a large swath of voters in both parties that have no more patience for government “fixes” that involve more taxes, more spending and more business as usual. The approximate 60/40 rejection by California voters yesterday of the above noted initiatives carried with it the mathematical certainty that many of those voters saying “no” were Obama voters in 2008. Add to this the recent abject failure of liberal Obama campaign planks such as the closure of Guantánamo Bay, the end of military tribunals, the use of rendition and the backlash on the release of torture memos and a person could find a failure of policy in general.
However, when these repudiations are added to the mix of repetitive 600,000+ monthly job loss reports, falling consumption, increasing interest rates and political graft masquerading as federal takeovers of major industry then you have the recipe for an interesting political dynamic going into 2010 and 2012. The wild card in this scenario is rising energy prices, which recently have seen oil trading above $60 a barrel. Another metric that bears watching is the price of coal (which powers 50% of electricity production in the US) which is seeing increased pricing for 2010 deliveries. All of this means more strain on consumer budgets at the same time state and local governments are trying to justify continued higher spending.
When state governments head to Washington demanding to be bailed out for their poor choices what do you think voters in balanced budget mandated/no income tax states will have to say? What makes me think the response will make yesterday’s California referendum look somewhat timid? For those who thought Obama permanently redrew the electoral map I would suggest caution. There is a healthy state’s rights coalition just waiting for an issue around which they can coalesce and State budget bailouts look very inviting to them. Obama can’t say he wasn’t warned about this….one of his most highly touted advisors predicted it:
Moreover, major industries have become dependent on Federal assistance, and they will be followed by cities
and states bearing mind-boggling requests. Weaning these entities from the public teat will be a political
challenge. They won’t leave willingly.
California, as big as it is, is just the tip of the iceberg.
CWCID Rush Limbaugh
