In a speech in Orange County last week Brown responded to criticism over a new $52 billion tax hike that was hastily rammed through Sacramento by the Democrat supermajority over the objections of taxpayers across the state.California taxpayers are outraged, although I assume none of the angry ones are Democrats. After all, if they keep electing legislators and governors whose philosophy it is to tax and spend they hardly have room to complain when that's what their elected officials do.
The new taxes include a 12 cent increase in the gas tax (which is already one of the highest in the nation) and an increase in car registration fees averaging $50 per car owner. Some will see their annual registration increase by as much as $180.
In any case, Governor Jerry Brown wasn't sympathetic to the complaints. He called the beleaguered taxpayers of his state "freeloaders," of all things:
“The freeloaders — I’ve had enough of them,” Brown said, adding that the approved tax and fee hikes bring those charges to the level they were 30 years ago if adjusted for inflation. “They have a president that doesn’t tell the truth and they’re following suit.”
Davis deconstructs Brown's declaration of contempt for the peasants who have had their fill of paying ever more taxes to pay for California's welfare state: Let’s review this statement, in case you’re having trouble interpreting his meaning. If you work and pay taxes, if you struggle to pay your most basic bills while “owing” the California government a third of your paycheck (or more), Jerry Brown thinks you’re a freeloader.Davis isn't done. She turns her pen to summarizing the hypocrisy of California's political leadership, including its governor:
The 1,000,000 citizens in Los Angeles county alone who collect food stamps provided by taxpayers are not freeloaders. The millions of illegal immigrants being harbored in California’s sanctuary cities to the cost of taxpayers are not freeloaders. Illegal immigrants being provided “free” legal help by the state on the backs of taxpayers are not freeloaders. The bloodsuckers in the Sacramento legislature who get paid $178 a day in per diem funds on top of their bloated salaries just for walking in the door to their job every day are not freeloaders.
No, you – the burdened, law-abiding taxpayer are the freeloader for simply asking the government of California be more fiscally responsible with the money they already have instead of stealing more of your money without your consent to pay for programs that are already funded but have been raided for pet projects and personal enrichment. This is like the man who thrashed the goose that laid golden eggs because it only laid one a day. California's state government is going to drive anyone who can to leave the state for more hospitable climes and the only people left will be those too poor to move.
Brown scolds the people who make this state work, asking them if they’d rather pay double for borrowing money, as if that isn’t exactly what we’re doing right now after approving borrowing money for vague “drought control” programs and the bottomless black hole of public school funding.JazzShaw at Hot Air wades into the fray with this bit of commentary:
The Governor asking if we should take money from the universities is especially outrageous given that the President of the University of California school system Janet Napolitano is currently embroiled in a massive scandal after it was discovered they deliberately hid $175 million from the state government auditing office even as they requested more state funding for social justice programs and events.
California has become increasingly hostile towards the people who make this state work, and to hear the man who holds the highest office in the state address us with derision and disdain as “freeloaders” is disgusting and deeply insulting (alliteration is my number one symptom of outrage). Instead of thanking us for the work we put in every day to pay for his benefits and the benefits of others who don’t work at all, he chooses to treat us like garbage simply because we dare to demand our hard-earned money be used more wisely.
Brown thinks you’re a freeloader for demanding accountability, but he’s perfectly willing to use taxpayer money to fight against the citizen-led recall of a senator who sold his vote and his soul for a seat at Sacramento’s perpetual, tax-funded lunch table.
Congratulations, California. You keep electing these same Democrats over and over again and then you act surprised when they make you one of the most heavily taxed populations in the country....Unfortunately, California is a microcosm of the United States itself. The people on the receiving end of the goodies vote, and their numbers have grown to the point where they have at least as much political clout as those who pay the bills, maybe more. Given the math it's hard to be optimistic about California's future, nor, for that matter, that of the United States.
How much more of this are you going to put up with? .... [A]t this point California’s voters appear to be in the political equivalent of an abusive relationship. The Democrats continue to beat you up and then insult and berate you if you dare to complain about it. It’s time to break the cycle of abuse and get yourself a new paramour who treats you right. Nobody else can save you unless you’re willing to take the first steps to help yourselves.