Obama To California: We Can't Bail You Out

Los Angeles Times:

California needs to solve its financial crisis by itself and should not expect an emergency bailout from the White House, an array of Obama administration officials said Thursday, making clear they had no appetite to step in and provide financial assistance or loan guarantees.

"Look, we're going to examine what we can do. What we need to do, however, is to treat states fairly and that means uniformly," David Axelrod, senior advisor to the president, said in an interview. "Whatever we do for one state, there will be other states who also will want to do that. And there's a limit to what the government can do."

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[risingsun4995]

White privilege and the failure of working class whites to coalesce with middle and lower class peoples of color is the main reason why nothing can be done about this obstruction. I think too many working class people of caucasian descent would rather hold on to their perception of doing or being better than those other people rather than joining together with other resource disadvantaged folk and gaining environmentally, economically and socially across the board. The people who would be out of luck would be the manipulators of wealth & power such as companies, banks, and military procurement on a massive scale. hundreds of billions of dollars on military spending is a waste because we already have the most powerful military on earth and because their is no return on military spending. At least not for the general populace

[Mildmannered]

So goes California, so goes the rest of the Country.

[economics101]

You Liberals keep pumping up Obama,and Demonizing Reagan.Obama's policies cant prove Conservatives wrong for 30 years. That's right 30 years.....When Reagan reformed the US to less gov,and more money to the people,he gave way to a 25 year burst in the Economy,1 and 1/2 years after he took office(Id say Obama will be to far behind after his hideous non stimulus plan destroys the economy deeper)

[senorlou]

Your ideology has failed. Reagan was the worst California governor of all time until Arnold topped him. Conservatives can't successfully run the government, we all know that. They break it every time, and when Democrats clean up the mess, which is an expensive undertaking after you guys rip us all off, you complain. This massive bailout after bailout is a response to a crisis created by the GOP. You can ignore this reality for a while, but soon enough you will not be able to keep it up.

[economics101]

This gotta be good......­..1982-199­9 boom Who triggered the 1999 recession

[AtheistUS]

Reagan started destruction of the country. We will be lucky if Obama will really fix this mess, if it's not too late.

[economics101]

I would bet both of you have not a clue about Economics(Obama dint care about you).Neither party can help you.(That makes Obama a liar).Republicans at least tell you the truth.Like I said above.....­..........­..See you in a few years(the people will vote republican

[Mildmannered]

reagan started the "greed as good" attitude which at least in part got us where we are today

[economics101]

Don't blame the working class....CA has been slowly transformed into a socialist state.The lawmakers like Pelosi,Barbara Lee,Maxine Walters have slowly destroyed the once great state.Price Control--Rent Control--And Government Regulation have underminded the Economy.They have stolen the money and dreams of the Californians and given to Government Officials,­Hollywood,­George Soros,The Oprah,and all the Radical Activist Groups they fund.Every State with Liberal Democrat Policies are Bankrupt.Obama will now go to grab power from the states,and will be given resistance from the American People.We will have Civil War unless Obama is stopped.

[senorlou]

How about blaming the people who actually stole the money, rather than doing your best imitation of Glen Beck? Mostly, it was energy companies from red states, btw. I hope Texas enjoys all that California money when they "succeed."

http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=270

[economics101]

Exactly...Price Control...The Government officials who set the prices are to blame...Who is Glen beck)I dont watch TV)

[economics101]

I'm sticking up for Californians(CA is a beautiful state)..The Socialist policies that favor Unions,and attempt to transfer wealth (DO NOT WORK)..Its sad ,but it is impossible for the gov. to help the poor(You have to help yourselves) We spend 50 Billion a year on Welfare,and that only gives the poor about 10,000 a year.We need more people to work,we need low taxes.

[AtheistUS]

But I thought your tea parties are over?

Seriously though, we need a governor here that would not allow repeat of California robbery by Texas.

[economics101]

Tea Parties on July 4th to claim our freedom from the statist

[LostRiverLedger]

Government by ballot initiative = mob rule & budget chaos. The people of California have voted themselves into a corner.

[economics101]

They voted with the growing TEA PARTIES.

[pterack5]

nobody ever says any thing about prisons, california either needs to cover the state with them or get a handle on the sorry situation, for union people to lobby for more prisons is just about the sickest thing i have ever witnessed. .

[KCBW]

If the goal of Obama's stimulus is to reduce job losses, then why is he asking California to cut programs/jobs?

No one on this thread knocking Cali or praising Obama have given a coherent explanation yet.

Please respond.

[economics101]

CA should cot entitlements Paying retirees 90% of their salary after 30 years is insane...We should all be funding are own retirement(Soc Sec is a failed Socialist program) People under 50 wont see a dime.Learn how to invest,learn how to keep the government out.

[AtheistUS]

"Learn how to invest,learn how to keep the government out" - that's for SNL, for comedy, that's a joke. Or, - just may be - for crooks, if they will come to power again.

[urweatherman]

California, Jersey, and others should look at Texas if they want to learn how to manage a state...Oh, thats right! Texas is conservative.....no wonder it can handle its own issues responsibl­y....progr­essives will never learn, so they best learn to accept the consequences of their irresponsible behavior! NUF SAID!

[thenorthshore]

we'll have none of that reality stuff posted here

thank you very much

[senorlou]

Oh yeah, you mean the way Texas used their energy companies like Enron and others to clean us out of at least $45 billion?

http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=270

[senorlou]

California's biggest problem, it turns out, is Arnold. He is the worst governor California (US?) has ever had.

[senorlou]

Hey guys, look I'm a Republican!

I'm just going to ignore this:
http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=270

And blame parents for sending their kids to school. That's what caused the $42 deficit. Don't get me into that fuzzy math.
I'll blame the illegals, who are the backbone of our $29 billion a year agriculture industry here in California. I'll also ignore the fact that illegal immigration has gone way down in the past 8 years, and I'll blame this mess on them anyway.
I'll talk about personal responsibility, then backpedal when my political ideology turns out to be a total failure - as well as my economic views, my ideas about war, etc.

Wow, what a downer it is to be a Republican.

[sensiblethinking]

This isn't very hard to understand. California is spending too much and taxing too much. People and businesses are fleeing to other states. The power problem was in large part caused by California refusing to build transmission lines and generation it desperately needed to relieve congestion on their grid.

Yes, the radicalized left felt good about "stopping power" but in the end, in the rolling blackouts...they decided it was more important to have power than to live without it! To blame their present crises on the power fiasco and enrons corrupt manipulation of their system is patently wrong.

California is big spending government at it's worst. And here they are, on the edge of total disaster and they still can't stand to act responsibly. So Obama just kicked them in the teeth....now they will have to do what they should have done ten years ago, cut those benefits that "everyone deserves".

Turns out that big government socialism is BAD for the economy and in the end the economy is more important than socialism. California is finally learning the hard way.

[senorlou]

It's so weird how you see it this way. Tell me, did you see Bush as being a good President? Did you see the Iraq War as being a good war to wage? At some point, you have to stand back and question your judgement.
Maybe I'm judging you too harshly. Sorry. It's as if you're wandering around with the lights off. You're in the dark. Come into the light.

California got $45 billion - probably more than that - stolen from it in the 2001 energy "crisis".
http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=270

Our deficit hole is $42 billion. Do the math. Davis was also going to raise the car tax back up to 2% where it had been before. That would have generated $30 billion by now in revenue. Add it up. We lost over $75 billion because of Arnold, Bush, and the GOP. Just like the torture, the war, the economy, and everything else - all will be revealed in time. How you deal with that is your choice.

[AtheistUS]

Lots of words, but where is "sensible thinking"? Please look at answer senorlou gave you. It is GOP/Texas who stole money from California. We just need a governor that will not allow something like this happen again.

[sensiblethinking]

The country will not support a bailout....so up front he Obama administration APPEARS to be taking the right approach. But somehow, I get the feeling that this will just become another part of the massive expansion of government we are seeing from the radicalized left. Permanent aid to support California's failed socialist state.

[senorlou]

What you are witnessing is a massive cleanup of a Republican made mess. I think you should just sit this one out, seeing how dumb your ideas are once put into practice. Stand out of the way and let the Democrats save this country from what your party has brought upon us. You guys wreck the place, and kick us while we're trying to clean up.

[cjt1957]

California is what Obama is turning the US into..... We are borrowing 50% of what we are spending at the federal level...

[senorlou]

Hey genius, you know that Iraq/ Afghanistan war on "terror?" We paid for that whole thing on credit. Bill's due, so now we have to pay for the mess your GOP made for us to clean up. Here's a question. Why do Republicans always bankrupt America?

[senorlou]

The $1.3 trillion deficit Bush laid on Obama might have something to do with it. Oh yeah, and Bush also moved the national debt from $5.7 billion to $12 billion since in office. Think that might have something to do with it?

[sensiblethinking]

Laugh. Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are making the Republicans look fiscally responsible! You can't get around the MASSIVE spending and expansion of government that those three are in the middle of and that it makes Bush PALE in comparison.

Unfortunately for the radicalized left, just as they took the reigns of power, the nation had reached the edge of what it can borrow without serious consequence. Now the massive spending spree Obama is on is causing foreign nations to slow lending. So the feds have cranked up the printing presses making funny money to support the government. They are literally spending us and printing us broke. And they can't blame it on Bush....not the stuff they are doing.

Well, I think Obama has proved he can blame Bush for everything day after day after day.....it's getting to be sort of sad. He spends and expands, pushing the far left socialist agenda and tells us day in and day out we must be socialist because of Bush.

[Dayahka]

California--and probably every other state and territory in the union--has been spending money way above their needs and income--and it's now time to clean up their act. They could start by dismantling the DEA, then releasing all prisoners in prison for soft drug crimes. After that, they could eliminate all programs for medical conditions that are due to lifestyle choices--AIDS, smoking, drugs, and so on. Next, they could get rid of the 50% of all state employees, other than police and fire people, who are totally redundant. Then they could get rid of those "golden parachute" retirement benefits giving many workers benefits of $100,000 a year, which is way above the median salary of working people. Just keep cutting and cutting until you've all cut out the $24 billion deficit, and you better add maybe another 50% ($12 billion) to some rainy day fund or in case the deficit gets bigger.

[prosha]

I live in California. Please write and call your Congress people and ask them NOT to bail out my or any other State. The insanity must end, no more borrowing at any level of government, please.

[senorlou]

Tell me, did you vote for Arnold?

[unstuffedshirt]

Well, did you? Hello? Is this thing on?

[emerywood]

You would have thought that 51 % of the State budget is a lot of money. Well, that is the amount
California spend on education every year. And the result is pretty dismal. California has one of the
highest dropout rates in the country while teachers are protesting on the streets everyday now.
What do they want ? Still smaller class size ! If politicians allow this to happen, California does
not deserved to be bailed out.

[Gasparilla]

A big part of that is due to immigration. Immigrants have larger families, therefore more kids in the schools. [don't mention it though. you will get people angry]

[dansup]

you are so right.....­.......lov­ed all the immigrants (many of them illegal) protesting and student's walking out of classes today due to cuts, gee, nothing like appreciation for all the free education, meals and healthcare they're getting thanks to the taxpayers. We have only ourselves to blame.

[senorlou]

Oh boy. Well, maybe somewhat. We Californians don't usually look at immigration as a problem. Most of us born here accept it as it has been this way for decades, if not longer. We are a border state and were once Mexico (for 300 plus years - New Spain). It's our heritage. We also rank 49th on student to teacher ratio. I'm sure it makes up for those "hefty" teacher salaries (LOL!):

http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=270

[SueInCA]

it is a rethuglican who is asking for the bailout...­..........­..........­....i live here and he needs to figure this out himself and deal with his leglislators. as usual he entered office with all his grandiose plans and has not fulfilled one. last year when they should have been working on a balanced budget, they went home for holiday. a real governor would have made them stay. consequences speak louder than anything else......chen.ey will soon find that out.

[cjt1957]

Do you support a balanced budget for the Federal Government?

[senorlou]

What do you expect? He's obviously the worst governor we ever had. Broke the state of California.

[senorlou]

Are you from California? We've got 35 million people here, and we like them to read and write. We have one of the lowest per pupil spendings in the nation. Education systems cost money. We used to have a great one up until the 70's.

[senorlou]

Here's a study that blows your whole argument out of the water. California has pretty much the most understaffed, overworked schools in the country. We are ranked 49th in student to teacher ratio. Here, look for yourself:

http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/Articles/article.asp?title=California%20comparison

Nice try.

[senorlou]

I'm probably wasting my time. It's so much easier for you to lie than to read and learn, you probably won't bother.