In recent years, several states have become so beholden and controlled by radical leftists that they’ve been run into the ground by their leadership. The prime example of this is the once great California, which is dominated at every level of government by radicals.
The California state government is so detached from reality that it’s proudly declared itself a sanctuary state in defiance of federal law. While the immigration issues with the state are bad enough, economically speaking, it’s not doing too hot either. In fact, a recent report about poverty in American was just released and to no one’s surprise, the Golden State took the top spot.
As reported at PJ Media, according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities, and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income. Essentially, 1 in 5 Californians are impoverished.
What’s particularly strange about this report is that despite the job growth since Trump took office, and the fact that the state’s GDP was twice the national average over the last 5 years (12.5 percent vs 6.27 percent), the average person isn’t better off.
Predictably, the leftist’s solution to this ongoing problem has been to throw loads of tax dollars at it, which, of course, hasn’t worked at all.
The state has been incredibly loose with taxpayer money, handing out assistance to folks with incomes 200 percent above the poverty line. Between 1992 and 2015, the state spent nearly $958 billion on public welfare programs.
Making matters worse is the fact that 1 of 3 American welfare recipients come from California, despite the state being home to only 12 percent of the nation’s population.
So it seems that decades of lavish welfare spending has done nothing to prevent Californians from falling into poverty. In fact, the state’s handouts only encourage more folks to come seeking the easy money, including the millions of illegals the state has gladly welcomed with open arms.
Of course, the leftists in control of the state are all too aware that more welfare spending won’t solve the problem. But that would only matter if they actually cared about alleviating it, which they don’t. With less poverty, the handouts they trade for votes would be diminished, which is something they don’t want.
Keeping a permanent underclass is what leftists are all about, as they exercise a modicum of control over those that are dependent upon the government, and when they “graciously” lend a helping hand, despite being the reason the person needs it in the first place, it translates into votes.
No matter what leftists say, there’s no one to blame for the California disaster but them. They control every level of government and ignore federal law whenever they like, so there’s no excusing the failure of their left-wing policies. If anyone ever wanted an example of what the US would be like if leftists gained even more control than they already have, look no further than the trainwreck that is the Not-So-Golden State.
Source: PJ Media