Plan B Forum

Jerry Brown: ‘You don’t want to mess with California’



By Katy Murphy | kmurphy@bayareanewsgroup.com |

PUBLISHED: March 27, 2017 at 9:22 am | UPDATED: March 27, 2017 at 10:22 am



President Donald Trump’s threat last month to cut off federal funding from California is not only unconstitutional, but would spell economic disaster for the whole country, Gov. Jerry Brown said in an interview that aired Sunday.

Brown’s interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” aired after the governor’s first trip since the election to Washington, where he met with Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other leaders.

I'm sure moonbeam had his begging bowl in hand

“The federal government just can’t arbitrarily for political reasons punish the State of California, that’s number one,” Brown said. “Number two, California is America. We’re 12 percent. …

“We’re the innovation capital, high tech, agriculture, 40- to 50-billion-dollar industry. You don’t want to mess with California, because you’re going to mess with the economy, and that could blow up in your face in a gigantic recession and roll the Republicans right out of this town.”

In the same interview, Brown said the state would fight hard to prevent the wall that Trump has proposed building between the U.S. and Mexico — but, he said, it would do so strategically, not through “stupid lawsuits.”

Guinevere wrote:Perhaps it is time that the blue states keep some of their tax revenue, to benefit the citizens who paid it. Rather than turning it over to the federal government, where so much of it is funneled to the red states.

https://newrepublic.com/article/140948/ ... ed-america

What I mean is that it’s time for blue states and cities to effectively abandon the American national enterprise, as it is currently constituted. Call it the New Federalism. Or Virtual Secession. Or Conscious Uncoupling—though that’s already been used. Or maybe Bluexit.

Truth is, you red states just haven’t been pulling your weight. Not for, well, forever. Red states are nearly twice as dependent on the federal government as blue states. Of the twelve states that received the least federal aid in return for each tax dollar they contribute to the U.S. Treasury, ten of them voted for Hillary Clinton—and the other two were Michigan and Wisconsin, your newest recruits. By the same count, 20 of the 26 states most dependent on federal aid went to Trump.

Take Mississippi (please!), famous for being 49th or 50th in just about everything that matters. When it comes to sucking at the federal teat, the Magnolia State is the undisputed champ. More than 40 percent of Mississippi’s state revenue comes from federal funding; one-third of its GDP comes from federal spending; for every dollar it pays out in federal taxes, it takes in $4.70 in federal aid; one in five residents are on food stamps—all national highs. You people—your phrase, not mine—liked to bash Obama for turning America into what you derisively referred to as “Food Stamp Nation.” In reality, it’s more like Food Stamp Red America—something your Trump-loving congressmen will discover if and when they fulfill their vow to gut the program.

rubato wrote:We have been propping up the conservative kakotocricy kakistocracy for generations. It's time to make them pay their own way.

yrs,
rubato

kakistocracy (English pronunciation: kak-uh-stok-ruh-see):  a state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. The word was coined by English author Thomas Love Peacock in 1829.