Bankruptcy? No Worries! California Is “Going Green!”

by Austin Hill - December 5th, 2010 - Townhall.com

California currently suffers with its’ self-inflicted $6 billion shortfall in this fiscal year’s budget (a wound that is supposed to swell to $24.5 billion over the next 18 months). 2 weeks ago outgoing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a “special legislative session” so the state Senate and Assembly can “fix” the budget crisis, but then quickly announced his legislative priority for the special session: a law to “ban” plastic grocery bags.

I still have a large number of friends from my over two decades of life in California. It used to be a special place. Right now I feel sorry for them.

One of the last things I worked on before I moved back to North Carolina was the Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign for Governor. In learning about Arnold during the campaign, I came to admire him as a man. I thought he had promise as a politician too. However the last few years have caused me to lose most of my respect for him. He was always a man who needed admiration. I am sorry to see that he has allowed that need for personal admiration to destroy his values about hard work and the need for government to stay out of people's lives. I cannot believe that he thinks making his legacy about banning plastic bags is a smart move. This sounds more like his wife Maria than Arnold. She was always the rich limousine liberal from the Kennedy clan.

Looking back I cannot see that Arnold made much difference in slowing down the rush to socialism and redistribution of wealth that has nearly destroyed this former special place called California. I think you have to rate his period as Governor as a failure if you want to be honest. Having a Republican like Arnold as Governor did more to smear the image of Republicans than it did to fix the problems.