When I was small I used to watch a sitcom called “The Pruitts of Southampton” starring Phyllis Diller as a bankrupt socialite who tries to keep up the appearance of affluence despite being broke. I contend that America today is a giant, real life version of this comedy, but nobody’s laughing this time. This post is the first of no doubt many installments of what I am calling “The Pruitt Chronicles,” the saga of life in America gone bust.
Let’s start with California. The deepening recession/depression is playing havoc with state finances. The state’s budget deficit is now $11.2 billion dollars and counting. What does Governor Schwarzenegger propose to do? To begin with, he wants $4.5 billion in various cuts. OK, so far so good, but what about the $6.7 billion you still want to spend, Arnold? Where are you going to get it? A bright idea occurs to the governor: since we want to spend more money, we must raise taxes! Problem solved. Yes, indeed, the governor wants to raise $4.4 billion in new taxes so California can keep up the appearance of affluence even though California taxpayers will be going broke in the recession. And still that wizard of finance is $2.3 billion short! Where will that money come from? Borrowing? Begging? MasterCard? Renting rooms in the governor’s mansion? Says the governor: other “revenue generators.” Oh, I get it, counterfeiting.
Needless to say, the not-a-dime-in-new-taxes crowd is armed and ready to do battle with the equally well armed not-a-dime-in-new-cuts crowd. They will fight it out in a special session of the legislature. I imagine that the legislators will jigger a fix that fools nobody and fixes nothing but buys a bit of time until festering financial problems force them to jigger yet another fix. The eventual winner will be the Specter of Insolvency. But for a while longer, Californians can pretend that they are still affluent and that the person knocking on the front door isn’t the repo man or the sheriff with an eviction notice.
And isn’t playing make-believe what life in these United States is all about now? That’s a right guaranteed somewhere in the Constitution, isn’t it?
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