Poll of Voters: Big Hearts; Small Wallets
The recently released USC/LA Times poll says that California voters generally support services and permanent status for illegal immigrants, support government involvement in civil rights, business regulation and poverty relief programs, and want health and education programs to be well funded. The poll also said most voters don’t want to raise taxes.
So what to make of the California electorate’s pro-government, no more taxes dichotomy? Can we say that Californians have big hearts and small wallets? Or is something else going on here?
Many people believe in the California Dream. The notion of California as a place of opportunity cuts across demographics and ethnicities and is a thread that binds people in this most diverse of all states. Californians support proposals that will give people access to opportunity. I suspect that is why those polled would support avenues to citizenship and open doors at educational establishments and government programs to give people a hand up.
What I’m Thankful For: Meg’s Campaign
You’re probably like me. When you sit down at Thanksgiving dinner and think about what you’re thankful for this year, your thoughts will quickly turn to Meg Whitman.
Yes, she lost her run for governor. Tragically. But her campaign continues to benefit many people, including myself. Here are five reasons I’m thankful for Meg’s campaign.
5. It produced the most delicious political story of the year, the allegations by Meg’s former housekeeper Nicky Diaz Santillan and her attorney Gloria Allred. Yes, the story didn’t give you anyone to root for—everyone was profoundly self-interested in this tale. But it offered a glimpse into the reality of California life – both for the very rich and for the working poor – and thus provided a brief bit of honesty in a thoroughly dishonest election season.
4. The one-woman economic stimulus. As bad as the California economy is, where would be without the $160 million-plus her campaign pumped into the state economy? At least there’s one Republican politician in this state who believes in stimulus. Thanks again, Meg.
Of Quantitative Easing . . . and such things
Our federal government has nearly run out of economic tricks of late. The latest program, one of asset-buying, is known, charmingly, as Quantitative Easing. It has given conniptions to some conservatives and many other countries.
We simply cannot lower interest rates further. They are effectively at zero and this allows major banks who can shop at the Treasury window to back up and load up on huge trucks-full of dollars at virtually no interest charges, so they can lend them out or even buy T-Bills at some 3%. Some pour the dollars into credit card lending and turn that nearly free money into interest rates of 30%, or more; even more when you constantly change the due date or the credit limit and then slap on late or over-limit fees. But, even this is not working to give our nearly comatose economy a much-needed shot in the arm (as opposed to a shot in the head, delivered back in the Fall of 2008, from which we all continue to reel).
Quantitative Easing is what you try when all else has failed – literally buying up, on an enormously large-scale, our very own debt and Treasury paper. The day after our elections in early November, the Fed announced it was purchasing some $600 Billion in our own long-term Treasury securities. This came on the heels of the Fed deciding to re-invest proceeds coming from mortgage-related holdings – you guessed it – to buy Treasury debt, some $250 to $300 Billion worth. See how easy it is to get to a Trillion these days?!?