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Mendocino County Voters:
Pick Your Poison on May 19

May 16, 2009

The scale of incompetence of the Democratic Party and Republican Party political machines can now be measured in billions of deficit dollars, billions of new taxes, and billions of "savings" from laying off government workers and decreasing government services.

Citizens of the state who have blindly handed over their precious votes to these two machines must also accept a great deal of the blame, as well as the pain of the current situation.

If you regularly vote for the incumbent in your Assembly or Senate district, you should vote Yes on Proposition 1A through 1F. You failed to support alternative candidates and parties in the primaries; now take your medicine.

Voting No means voting for less in taxes, but it also means voting for an economic train wreck of historic proportions. Don't expect the Republicans in the California Legislature to vote for new taxes or allow cuts to their favorite programs, like long incarceration periods for petty drug dealers and tax breaks for their favorite corporations. Don't expect Democrats to fix anything; their whole political machine could crumble if they can't protect the massive transfers of income they use to buy votes.

A No vote without follow up action to break up the two-dysfunctional-party system is simply irresponsible, no matter how emotionally appealing it is.

We need a sane California Constitution that allows centralized budget planning based on realistic future tax income. The system of interest groups carving out untouchable pieces of the pie for themselves (or their constituencies) is leading us to chaos.

Taxes are high on most income-earning Californians when you consider the entire bundle of federal, state, and local taxes. We, as a people, need to keep even our government-sponsored alms giving within reason if we are to all prosper as a people together.

We also need to work together to change Federal priorities. The Democrats and Republicans have fought expensive, useless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The budgets for these wars and for the corporate bailouts dwarf California's budget defecit, if you divide up that funding among the states on a population basis.

There are elections again in 2010. Don't just send the incumbents a message. Kick them out of office.

I believe the best course would be to vote Yes in 2009, vote the current lot out of office in 2010.

William P. Meyers