Water in the Bathtub...

Northern California is a land of forests. Much of our forest land, old growth forest, has been cut down. Historical maps show startling evidence of massive clear cutting over the past 100 years.

As clear cut forests grew back, the fire proof nature of the old growth forests were lost. Fire is part of the natural process of ecological forest maintenance. But, old growth forests develop naturally, fire cleanses the underbrush; and those forests are gone.

New growth forests have more undergrowth, more foreign plant species, and burn faster and hotter than old growth forests.

Add to that, the ravages of climate change, and our forests are now like atomic bombs; they don't just burn, they blow up!

The Ponderosa Fire figures to be one of the most destructive in Northern California history. Dozens of homes have burned, thousands of acres have literally exploded.

We have a state rural fire fee of $150 per year. If you have a local fire district the fee is $120 per year; $10 per month; which is about two six packs!

But, Oh My Gawd, the Howard Jarvis Tax Association, is fighting the fee in court, as California's forests burn down. Jarvis is rushing to the taxpayers defense (and destruction) once again.

Over and over again, conservative anti-tax groups have successfully stopped tax replacement revenue attempts. California, and the United States, has cut tax continuously over the past forty years. Meanwhile, California and the United States have kept spending.

In California this has meant adding millions to our prison population as part of the "war on crime/drugs" effort pushed by conservatives who opposed "bleeding heart liberals" who were "soft on crime". Conservatives were able to use scare tactics to convince voters that the best way to treat a heroin addict is to throw them in jail forever (three strikes).

So, California has spend billions on incarcerating everyone they can for as long as possible. This costs money, lots of it. We now spend more money on prisons than on colleges! And crime still is rising!

Meanwhile, in California, any taxes that were cut, to stimulate whatever segment of the economy that was targeted, can NEVER be re instituted. It takes a simple majority to cut a tax, it takes a 2/3 majority to add or even re institute a tax.

California even recalled a governor because he sought to re institute the vehicle license fee, a legally mandated thing to do. That 9 Billion Dollar hit, that got us the governator (one of the worst governors ever) is at the core of the budget deficit today.

An anti-tax pledge has been taken by EVERY Republican in the legislature, pledging to NEVER raise taxes, even if those taxes were previously reduced "temporarily". So, no 2/3 majority....EVER! As a result, state revenues have been steadily declining for at least a decade, while the population, fires, college enrollments, school enrollments;etc., have increased.

Nationally, the Bush Tax Cuts are a perfect example. The Bush Tax Cuts were meant to temporarily stimulate the economy because of the 9/11 Recession, and to spend down the "budget surplus" (that didn't exist for another 10 years), from the Clinton Budget of 2000. Of course, two wars, Homeland Security, additions to Medicare; etc, made the Bush Presidency one of the most spendy in history.

This coupled with the tax cuts created a huge......deficit.

Same nonsense in California, excessive spending in "social criminal engineering" by conservatives, were coupled with incessant tax reductions creating a.......deficit.

So now, the state, which is literally broke, must seek a rural fire fee. Moreover, a small tax increase (actually re institution) is on the ballot to basically forestall massive cuts in state services and education.

And of course, the revenue hawks are on the prowl, screaming that the state has plenty of money, the state is "anti-business" and needs to guess what; cut taxes even more.

So, infrastructure improvements are stalled, colleges are starved, fires are fought but with borrowed money; in fact if the fire fee is stopped, I have no idea how we fight the fires.

Oh, I know, one of conservative friends told me, the local citizens can band together, like in the old days, to fight the fires; thousand acre monsters, burning with the same energy of Hiroshima!? Sure...right!

And the ordinary voter, from a middle class that has been decimated by all this nonsense, STILL believes it is the government's fault, that there is plenty of revenue, that tax cuts are good for them. The middle class in this country stopped trusting the Democratic Party after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Reagan presidency, with disastrous consequences for itself; a classic example of self destruction!

TAX CUTS ARE KILLING THE MIDDLE CLASS. TAX CUTS HURT THE ECONOMY. TAX CUTS DO NOT WORK TO STIMULATE ANYTHING...except a rich person's Swiss Bank Account: see Mitt Romney economic personal stimulus plan #2.

And, guess who doesn't believe any of these facts; what is left of America's white, (especially male high school graduate) middle class.

I predict that Orville Norquist will succeed, government will indeed be drowned in the bathtub. But the water it took to drown government, will be needed to put out the damn fires; and with no water, we will all burn in hell.

It's the revenue.