Crossposted on City Journal After the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, the Obama administration slapped a moratorium
It’s not easy getting your approval rating into the single digits, but the California Legislature may just pull it off. Back in January, before the budget impasse had reached the point where the state was forced to issue IOUs, the California Public Policy Institute polled state residents and found that only 21% thought the lawmakers were doing a decent job.
This is what happens to a Legislature that’s designed for failure. In ordinary times, California’s Senate and Assembly are structurally incapable of acting with foresight. In times of crisis, like the present, they are paralyzed by partisan stalemate. It’s not that the legislators, as individuals, are less intelligent or more venal than the rest of us. They’re they usual mix of political people. Their real problem is constitutional. They operate under rules that were meant to protect the taxpayers but end up producing bad budgets and a lot of public debt.