Productive Californians To Head for the Exits

That's what will happen if Republicans cave and vote for the massive tax hikes rumored to be coming to California later this week.

The proposed taxes -- in a recession -- are sheer insanity. California already has some of the highest taxes in the nation, and the mind boggles reading the list of new costs for living in California. And what does our family get for spending thousands more on new taxes? Nothing.

We're at a point where there are more "takers" in California, willing to vote for politicians who will give them freebies paid for by others, than there are "producers." California is reaching the tipping point where the benefits of living in this state no longer make financial sense for productive, hardworking families.

Of course, the biggest problem for many of us interested in leaving will be: who will be left in California to buy our houses? Illegal aliens? Welfare recipients? And I suppose members of state employees' unions.

We need a new car, but we'd have to be crazy to take on that kind of additional expense right now, between the tax hikes coming from both California and Washington. Why would we want to pay higher sales taxes and double the current car registration tax on a new car? And why would we want to worry about making payments when Congress and the President are set to let the "Bush tax cuts" expire soon, not to mention that they're going to be putting our nation into unprecedented debt which is going to wreak havoc with the economy?

If the power-hungry people in the state and national government had any common sense, they'd slash our taxes, which would send us out to shop for a new car and stimulate the economy. But letting us choose how to spend our money ourselves doesn't help the politicians with their power bases.

As Hugh Hewitt writes of the goings-on in California, "It isn't a budget that's being debated. It's a suicide note."