According to CalTax’s annual Tax and Fee Report, despite a record state budget surplus of $97 billion, and having the highest income taxes in the nation, the state Legislature is considering 64 new tax proposals that total nearly $195 billion in state revenue.
Apparently residents of California – who already suffer from excessive taxes and costs of living – haven’t been taxed enough in the eyes of Sacramento Democrats.
Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said the report shows that “Democrats remain vastly out of touch with the effects of inflation and the cost of living with their proposals. California is already one of the most unaffordable states in the country, we need to stop trying to tax our way out of our financial problems and start spending more responsibly.”
Hey, Gov. Newsom, we’re still waiting for you to lower the gas tax or give us those vouchers you promised. What are you waiting for? Timing this with the November election?
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You gotta love grandstanding politicians like Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, a Woodland Hills Democrat. His office issued a press release on June 1 announcing a photo op gathering to recognize National Gun Violence Awareness Day to “demand federal action from Congress to end the gun violence epidemic.”
Apparently Gabriel in 2022 thinks there is a way to end gun violence.
Let’s see how we might do that. Oh I know, suspend the Second Amendment and force everyone to turn in their guns. Okay, if you were successive in trashing the Constitution for a mandatory gun surrender, now how well do you suppose that will work? Let’s say every law-abiding citizen turns in their guns. Care to lay any bets on how well the criminal thugs on the street comply? And since only criminals have the guns, look for every family to be subjected to said armed thugs who will have a field day breaking into our homes since we only have the protection of a baseball bat.
As long as we have folks with defective brains walking around plotting their evil deeds, you won’t be able to end gun violence.
Those just are the facts.
California has the nation’s most restrictive gun laws but they have failed to stem the increase in gun ownership, the availability of illegal guns by criminals or gun violence.
It is misguided for any lawmaker to attack the weapon and not the person misusing it. It would be just as nonsensical to go after guns as it would to go after knife manufacturers after a stabbing.
Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, school shootings were so rare I can’t remember one other than the University of Texas tower shooter of Aug. 1, 1966. Charles Whitman killed 14 and shot 31 others.
What was Salvador Rolando Ramos’ problem that day in Uvalde, Texas? He was full of hate but we don’t know why. I suspect that someone so full of hate was mistreated as a child but I’d just be taking an educated guess.
Ramos spewed a lot of alarming and disturbing messages but apparently nobody bothered to report this deranged psychopath. Researchers have documented that a history of violence or threats toward women is a common trait among gunmen in mass shootings.
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Democrats seem to be intent to take away the gun rights of law-abiding citizens who just want to protect their families because they think they will prevent deaths by guns. But they are in favor of legalizing drugs, which is killing far more people than guns.
State Senator Scott Wiener – that wacky liberal from San Francisco – has introduced SB 57 to allow cities and counties to operate programs that allow the use of illegal drugs under supervision for the purpose of avoiding fatal overdoses, sometimes known as “safe injection sites.” While drugs are just as deadly as guns, Democrats facilitate drugs and try to stifle gun ownership.
Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher had it right when he stated: “I cannot believe the Legislature is considering a proposal that would encourage the use of open air drug markets in cities that have some of the worst rates of overdoses and criminal activity in the entire country.
“This kind of enablement mentality is what is making the homelessness and crime problem worse in California. When there is no accountability for drug addiction and crime, and, in fact, policies that encourage or promote it, common sense dictates you get more of it, not less.”
Gallagher believes that the drug problems will only worsen if Democratic policies like this continue to pass. He cites Sacramento Police Department’s annual statistics that showed a 31 percent increase in reported rapes, a 26 percent increase in motor vehicle thefts, and a 27 percent increase in robberies last year.”
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Alarming new data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows 42,915 people were killed in traffic accidents last year, so the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today suggested a crackdown on automobiles.
“Maybe we should ban cars,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, sarcastically. “After the CDC reported more than 19,000 gun-related homicides in 2020, there was a renewed push to ban certain types of firearms as the solution. No sensible person could honestly believe that placing new restrictions on cars, or guns, would result in a dramatic reduction in tragedy.”
According to the NHTSA, last year’s traffic fatalities were up 10.5 percent over 2020 when 38,824 people were killed and even more over the 2019 count of 36,096. Gottlieb noted far more people died in car crashes than were murdered with firearms in 2020, and it is likely the pattern will continue for 2021. FBI crime data for 2021 will be released in September.
This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com
