Selflessness and, well, something else
President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009:
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.
California Controller John Chiang, January 21, 2009:
Democratic State Controller John Chiang said Wednesday he will refuse to reduce state worker pay as demanded by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, possibly sparing more than 200,000 public employees from furloughs and pay cuts.
California Needs A Flat Tax to Solve its Budget Problem
Stated succinctly, California’s steeply graduated progressive tax structure is the cause of the state’s current fiscal crisis. California’s highly progressive tax code is itself to blame for i.) the great volatility in revenues, ii.) the inevitable build-up of government spending, which leads to ever-higher taxes, and iii.) the tremendous inefficiency and unfairness—hurting the prosperous is not an honorable objective, and hurting the prosperous does not help the poor, which is an honorable objective.
There is no solution to California’s crisis save redressing the fundamental premise underlying California’s progressive tax codes. Because the tax codes in California are so progressive, the state has long periods of feast followed by periods of crushing famine. Sour economic times and progressive tax codes are a surefire recipe for fiscal crisis.
A Parents Union Will Revolutionize Our Schools
Last Saturday, parents from all across Los Angeles gathered in Boyle Heights to stand up, stand together, and speak with one voice that the time is now to take back our schools from the special interests and the bureaucrats who benefit from the status quo at the expense of our own children.
We formed the Los Angeles Parents Union to declare our independence from these special interests, and to take back our schools for our parents, our children and our future. Last Saturday, the Parents Union fired the opening salvo in the Parent Revolution because we believe that all children are created equal, and that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The purpose of the Parent Revolution is to secure these rights for every child in Los Angeles.
Even though I live in Benedict Canyon on the Westside — miles away, and in some ways worlds apart, from East Los Angeles – I told the assembled parents in Boyle Heights that I stood with them on that day for one simple reason: my own daughter, Fiona. That’s because what we did on that day, in that neighbourhood, will have ripple effects across geographic boundaries, socioeconomic boundaries, racial and ethnic boundaries and all the other walls that separate us in Los Angeles. By standing together as parents, we will transform schools from Boyle Heights to Benedict Canyon to every school in every neighbourhood across Los Angeles.