Dn't worry, I got a bunker in the South of France in the event of a market collapse. If you can make it there, you can stay.
When Black Friday comes I'll stand down by the door And catch the grey men when they Dive from the fourteenth floor
I find it very depressing that the people of Texas appear so deeply ignorant of just how badly the GOP has run this state into the ground. Tax cut after tax cut for the wealthy and big business while revenue is declining from existing revenue sources, a decline made far worse by those tax cuts. In other words, a budget shortfall created by the GOP itself and its "policies." Their solution for the problem they created themselves? MORE tax cuts and slashing state services, when state services for Texans are already among the lowest in the nation, if not the lowest. Slashing state contributions to state employee pensions to the lowest amount allowed under the state constitution, cuts already done again and again to bring it to the current low level, when this not only doesn't solve the state budget crisis, but insures an on-going and future crisis that could have been avoided had state contributions to their obligation to their employees remained at a reasonable level. Making a university education more and more difficult for the average Texas family. Slashing services for those who need them most... the elderly and children. Letting our state roads and other infrastructure crumble, while covering the state with toll roads, when the state gas tax could have been increased to cover much of the shortfall, a tax among the lowest in the country and a tax that hasn't been raised in many, many years. Really, the list of stupidity is endless. This is a crisis created in Texas by a refusal to raise state tax revenue, when logic cries out that increased revenue be demanded. All of this made worse by the national economic crisis, a crisis brought on by similar "policies" by the GOP at the national level during the Bush Junior presidency. Yet we hear the same parroted crap in this forum by, with all due respect, either the fooled or the deeply ignorant. In some respects, it is a mirror of those who bothered to vote and used that vote to keep those who created this mess with their failed "policies" in office. To say it is disgusting is far too mild a reaction. The people of Texas need to wake up to what has been done to their state. They should be enraged by the policies of the Republican Party. Instead, they drowse in what appears to be a Valium induced stupor. Reality, when it wakes them up, will stun them all.
I'll say simply that governments need to have limitations on how much money they can tax and spend, how that money can be raised, what that money can be spent on, and how the state accounts for their revenues and outlays. The people calling for spending cuts are neglecting to consider that there are people dependent on state programs. However, the people calling for tax increases aren't considering how wasteful the state often is. A good compromise on the issue would be to make cuts to wasteful programs, while slowly restructuring how other essential state programs are financed, including low-incidence tax increases (so that people dependent on those programs aren't left **** out of luck). However, to prevent these issues from occurring in the future, all governments need to get on track toward implementing the sort of limitations I mentioned above. Of course, I don't think there are any politicians with the constitution or decency to make necessary changes to the governments we have today.
