How to build a monster, or, How California Government feeds on itself.

Dan Walters, in the Sacramento Bee points out the obvious about government, and the impacts of it’s intrusion into the lives of it’s citizens:

Every new regulatory or taxation policy immediately spawns an array of financial stakeholders who then hire lobbyists and political consultants, distribute money to political policymakers, and seek self-serving applications of government power.

They may be a subsidy from a local government redevelopment agency, a tax loophole, a regulatory crackdown on a competitor, a change in the coastal zone’s regulatory boundaries, or monopoly licensing status, to name but a few examples.

It is so obvious, the buying of votes with the voters’ own money, the pointed pandering at the expense of the people, the naked quest for power, it should make one ill.

The Capitol’s chief activity is, in fact, directly or indirectly taking money from someone and giving it to someone else. And one of its dirty little secrets is that the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on lobbying, contributions and other tools of persuasion pale in comparison to the many billions of dollars that politicians can dispense.

Walters concludes with an example of one of the laws where the Legislature attempts to give exemptions to those who have curried political favor:

If CEQA is a good law, it should be good for everyone, not just those who lack the political clout to gain some relief from its restrictions and requirements.

And if CEQA is too onerous, it should be changed, not merely riddled with special-interest loopholes.


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One response to “How to build a monster, or, How California Government feeds on itself.”

  1. theCork Avatar
    theCork

    Selective enforcement is nothing but thuggery. More and more that’s the pattern at every level of goverenment: Pass preposterous, onerous rules… then issue waivers to the favored.

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