It's hard to overstate how deep a hole California is in: The state is $41 billion in debt off of a $143 billion deficit. They've laid of tens of thousands of workers and, next week, will fire 20,000 more. It has halted payments to counties, replaced income tax refunds with IOUs, and stopped work on thousands of infrastructure projects. The state's bond rating has been downgraded and it has lost access to most credit markets. It's catastrophic. And why? Well, voters keep approving costly ballot measures that mandate spending and the Republican minority refuses to accept any tax raises. You have a strong Democratic majority in the legislature, but it doesn't control the state's spending and it can't raise the state's revenues. It's a state governed by whim and obstruction, and we're learning that that's no governance theory at all. Meanwhile, even as the state faces imminent economic collapse, minority Republicans refuse to deal on revenues. Why? It's simple enough: It's good for them if the state fails on the Democrats' watch. "Years of neglect, followed by economic disaster — and with all reasonable responses blocked by a fanatical, irrational minority," comments Paul Krugman. "This could be America next."
