California leads the way to big government and bankruptcy - just as Obama is doing to the country

The similarities are amazing. Is Schwarzenegger trying to implement the president’s agenda in California?

Some of President Obama’s critics say he wants to turn America toward European-style socialism but Arnold has been trying to do that for years. California, once had robust capitalism, economic growth and a sunny optimism to match the weather, but it has become a pitiful giant state with a population and budget greater than a lot of countries – it is being destroyed by the same kind of big government that Obama envisions for the country.

In the real world California, like the country, is moving toward bankruptcy after years of out-of-control state government spending. It is no surprise that California leads the country in spending on government employees and is relying on a federal bailout to "reduce" its deficit. Its extreme "green" environmentalism and continual flirting with universal health care (including free health care for illegal immigrants) poses the question: "who will get to socialized medicine first, California or the United States?"

As the national unemployment rate rises, California leads with the country’s fourth highest unemployment rate (10.2%) and ranks 48 out of 50 states in K-12 education despite spending twice the national average on education. A tolerant attitude toward illegal immigration, which Obama would emulate, overwhelms its social services and welfare system.

As Fortune magazine points out:

[In California] "In the past year more people have lost jobs . . . than in any other state. More homes have gone into foreclosure. More banks have failed . . . businesses are moving out at an alarming rate, most often citing excessive regulation and intolerable taxes. For top earners, California’s taxes are the highest in the U.S. And to what end? California’s credit rating is the lowest in the nation."

"California here we come" has become "California here we go." (In 2008 144,000 more people left California than entered it; that’s the worst out-migration in the nation).

The reasons are clear:

- According to The Milken Institute, "California is the costliest place in America to do business

- It has the second highest tax rates in the country

- It is a trial lawyer’s paradise where there may be more nuisance suits than bathing suits."

"For public employee unions, California is truly the Golden State. Its teachers and prison guards are the highest paid in the nation."

According to Investor’s Business Daily, California long ago "granted recognition to unions on a card-check basis, without a requirement for secret-ballot elections. Not surprisingly, California’s public-sector work force is now much more unionized than the nation as a whole."

Democrats control California government and the RINO governor - Arnold Schwarzenegger – allows the state government to expand and go steadily to the left while the California government balloons into an "intrusive bully on steroids, kicking sand in the faces of taxpayers."

In short, California is over-taxing, over-spending, over-regulating and over-suing its citizens to challenge propositions approved by the voters. It continues unsustainable debt, soaring deficit, Democratic Party domination and dependency on big government – Obama is surely proud of the example set by California for his socialist agenda.