Our state elected representatives are at it again, producing a blizzard of new bills. Just who of everyday Joes on the streets is going to know anything about any of these? These bills are for the biggest paying supporters or the biggest attention-getters. Most of these bills are “penny dreadful” junk bills.
The basic problem is that California has a 120-member “full time” paid Senate and Assembly with expense accounts, so these fellows have nothing to do but pass bills. Each representative is allowed 40 bills, but this was increased to up to 50 bills for the Assembly in the 2019 term. But each bill passed costs the taxpayer money in taxes!
We should ask ourselves, why are our reps not telling us how much they have reduced government, and how much they have reduced our taxes? How about giving us the number of canceled old bills each year?
Don’t we care? Why don’t we give them incentives to do so? Is voting them out of office the only incentive?
There are so many bills becoming law that the everyday taxpayer has no idea what they are, and without any malice of his own he can be found guilty of one or more of them only to be told by some politically appointed activist judge that their ignorance is no excuse.
At the rate we are going we will all become criminals at some point in our lives in California by simply going outside our house. It is no wonder that California has more people in purisons than any other state and most countries, and the most highly paid prison guards in the U.S.
A certain outcome for all of these bills is to paralyze the state of California from doing anything sans committing a crime. Total dysfunction is in store for us.
To help limit this out-of-control bill-passing train wreck from continuing, let’s insist that our representatives sponsor a bill that limits the number of bills in every two-year session to one per representative. A provision of this bill will be to review and eliminate past bills every year and to notice them in public. However, even this restriction, if passed, would still result in 120 bills every two years—still more that any citizen could read.
If the governor can pass all those other bills for special interests, why not this one for the taxpayers?
Justin M. Ruhge
Concerned Taxpayers Inc.
Lompoc
This article appears in Feb 2-12, 2023.
“It is no wonder that California has more people in purisons than any other state and most countries”
Assuming you meant prisons and not “purisons,” that’s a blatant falsehood. In total numbers, Texas has 154,000 incarcerated compared to California at 122,000. When you use per capita numbers, California ranks 36th. It is true, however, that California and 35 other states incarcerate more than most countries.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-ra…
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.h…
It would be a false economy to loose thousands of convicted criminals on society, to resume their customary predation. The social and economic costs would surely far exceed any savings.
“It would be a false economy to loose thousands of convicted criminals on society, to resume their customary predation. The social and economic costs would surely far exceed any savings.”
I agree with this Mr. Donegan, but just locking people up does not seem to solve our problem. The U.S. locks up more people, by far, than any other nation. But we still have major issues with recidivism. I think our problems run much deeper than simply putting criminals away. I know the reactionariy loves simplistic solutions, but, in this case, that dog simply won’t hunt.
Which leads me back to the only real solution being a total revamping of the U.S. economy, etc, etc, ad nauseam. A great book to read on this point is Richard Wolff’s The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us.
I agree with Mr. Smith that locking criminals up only provides a temporary solution, but since the generous application of the guillotine would be politically unpalatable to many in our population, it will have to do. It is difficult for an imprisoned criminal to continue preying on society.
And my dog, who admittedly has never hunted, and only snapped at bees, is wary of revamping the American economy to suit Mr. Smith. He appreciates the fact that capitalism puts kibble in his bowl, with an occasional dollop of the wet stuff, while socialism would leave him gnawing on long-dead roadkill, and chasing cats in earnest.
“And my dog, who admittedly has never hunted, and only snapped at bees, is wary of revamping the American economy to suit Mr. Smith. He appreciates the fact that capitalism puts kibble in his bowl, with an occasional dollop of the wet stuff, while socialism would leave him gnawing on long-dead roadkill, and chasing cats in earnest”
You have a pretty wit, Mr. Donegan. But, sorry for your dog. Nothing better than to see your faithful canine grasping an annihilated duck or other water fowl swimming back to you with their prize. My Standard poodle is rapacious and blood thirsty. Grilled duck that you’ve actually shot out of the air tastes particularly sweet.
Grilled duck is tasty, at least if it has not been blasted to smithereens and left me in danger of having to schedule an emergency trip to my dentist. But my dog is of little help, and unless he stumbles into a French butcher shop and spies the remains of a horse, is unlikely to be retrieving anyone’s dinner.