Los Angeles tax increase...just to give city workers raises?

[_Eric]

Well, that pretty much is Cuba, at this point, isn't it?

I figured that's where this thread was going.

I think that, most likely, the country you love (or those aspects of it) isn't the same country I love. Either that, or your concept of 'love" and mine are vastly different.

If you mean that I did not become clinically depressed after the election results were announced, or that I fail to see the re-election (of the clearly better presidential candidate) as a sign of the end of the world as we know it, you are right.

If your concept of "love" for this country is conditional on your guy winning every four years, then I guess your concept of love is much different than mine.

If it came down to a choice between Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, and Ho Chi Minh, who would you rather see as President of the United States?

I'm happy to let President Obama finish what he's started in office.

If between Mitt Romney and Ho Chi Minh, who would you vote for?

Can't you think of a living person that has a little more relevance? Mitt Romney would be a nightmarish disaster and we all should be very happy we avoided him, no doubt, but why not put him up against someone like Ralph Nader instead of an obscure Vietnamese political figure who died long before I was born.


Speaking of unions, wasn't there a now-famous, frustrated German artist who hated unions too? What was his name again? I think this was one of his: http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/artist/Cull ... _17x22.jpg

[_Brackite]

A High Sales Tax Rate is Regressive in nature, hurting mostly the Low-income earning People and Poor People. However, a lot of these Public-employee unions don't really care that much about the Low-income earning People and Poor People.

From The San Diego Tribune:

According to critics of Proposition 32 – the measure whose most important provision would ban automatic deduction of union dues from public employees’ paychecks – it is an all-out assault on the California middle class. Here’s what it actually is: a check on public employee unions, whose control of Sacramento directly stems from the vast political warchests they accumulate through automatic deduction of members’ dues. According to a state report, from 2000-2010, the California Teachers Association spent $212 million on political campaigns and lobbying – far more than any other entity. In second place was the California State Council of Service Employees, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, which spent $107 million.

What has this money bought in Sacramento since Gray Davis replaced Pete Wilson as governor? Lots.

• The union-dominated Legislature passed a measure in 1999 providing an immediate 50 percent retroactive pension increase for all state employees, a shocking giveaway matched by many local governments up and down California.

• In good times, when revenues were rolling into Sacramento from 2003-2007, the main beneficiaries were unionized teachers and prison guards. During that period, state spending on welfare and safety-net programs grew by barely the rate of inflation, while spending on schools and prisons went up by at least four times inflation.

• In bad times, when revenue went down, the main “stakeholders” being insulated from the fallout were state employees. Instead of the absolute pay freeze with layoffs that would be the difficult norm in any large organization struggling to make ends meet, state workers were required to take some unpaid days off – and even that was bitterly fought in court. Who suffered the most from budget cuts? The infirm elderly and those who rely on safety-net programs.

Link: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/oct ... acramento/

[_Brackite]

While the LA Times got it wrong on Propositions 30 and 32, they do at least get it right on Proposition A.

No on Proposition A:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/end ... 1859.story

[_Brackite]

Proposition A sales tax hike defeated by Los Angeles voters:
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22729215/untitled

[_subgenius]

Wow. When Droopy agrees with you, you know things are bad!

Maybe the OP should relocate to Utah or another state that is more inclined to make fiscal decisions he/she agrees with.

Then why don't you relocate to Cuba, Eric?

[_subgenius]

...labor leaders ...

exactly how does one "lead" labor??

[_bcspace]

Its far too late to outlaw it now

Instantly sure. But I believe it can be slowly pealed back.