Texans, Co-Ops and Socialists - The Daily Californian:
"Crushing entitlements, sweetheart deals for co-ops and unsolicited political advice: all on the menu at Chez Roman this Wednesday. Make sure to fill yourself up before you go on the big hunger strike this week to protest Mark Yudof eating puppies. Or something.
The Roots of Our Ills
We like to make fun of Texas here. The people there speak funny. And Dubya was from Texas. What is there to like?"
Well, a lot, it seems, at least judging by the fact that Texas is one of the states that people are moving to, in the aggregate, while they're moving out of California. The California dream is dying under the weight of its own short sightedness. Despite having similar demographics to the Golden State, and thus similar challenges, Texas's public services have improved tremendously in the last fifteen or twenty years. It would be wishful thinking to suggest the same about California.
Texas has an unemployment rate 4 percent below ours, showing its low-tax, low-regulation, limited-government aid agenda works. California's schools and roads are falling apart, and our state's credit rating has gone out the window. (All the whining aside, the UC system, with its autonomy and strong ability to attract private funding, does a lot better than many other public services which lack similar capacity.) In these rainiest of days, the Texas Senate unanimously passed a budget that actually sets aside money into a rainy-day fund. Let's not even mention what happens in Sacramento with the budget. The Economist has done a good job covering this dichotomy between these states.
As is to be expected, the Lone Star State's public services do lag behind California's in many areas. But it spends a significantly larger portion of its budget on items that serve society at large--transportation and education being prime examples--not special interests. What do they spend less on?
"Crushing entitlements, sweetheart deals for co-ops and unsolicited political advice: all on the menu at Chez Roman this Wednesday. Make sure to fill yourself up before you go on the big hunger strike this week to protest Mark Yudof eating puppies. Or something.
The Roots of Our Ills
We like to make fun of Texas here. The people there speak funny. And Dubya was from Texas. What is there to like?"
Well, a lot, it seems, at least judging by the fact that Texas is one of the states that people are moving to, in the aggregate, while they're moving out of California. The California dream is dying under the weight of its own short sightedness. Despite having similar demographics to the Golden State, and thus similar challenges, Texas's public services have improved tremendously in the last fifteen or twenty years. It would be wishful thinking to suggest the same about California.
Texas has an unemployment rate 4 percent below ours, showing its low-tax, low-regulation, limited-government aid agenda works. California's schools and roads are falling apart, and our state's credit rating has gone out the window. (All the whining aside, the UC system, with its autonomy and strong ability to attract private funding, does a lot better than many other public services which lack similar capacity.) In these rainiest of days, the Texas Senate unanimously passed a budget that actually sets aside money into a rainy-day fund. Let's not even mention what happens in Sacramento with the budget. The Economist has done a good job covering this dichotomy between these states.
As is to be expected, the Lone Star State's public services do lag behind California's in many areas. But it spends a significantly larger portion of its budget on items that serve society at large--transportation and education being prime examples--not special interests. What do they spend less on?