Is it unfair to say that elected Democrats have been hostile to high earners? Those who occupy the highest tax brackets in California, typically earning $1 million or more per year, have begun a great march out of this state that demonizes and ostracizes them for their abilities, their successes, and their achievements.

We are witnessing many who are fleeing to states with reasonable tax policies or no state tax income tax at all. Texas and Florida come to mind, as well as Tennessee. The march—no, the stampede—out of the state has become deafening in the halls of the California State Legislature. Mainstream media tells us that the top 1% of California’s earners contribute approximately 40% of all state income taxes collected.

So what are the state’s elected officials going to do when they realize that far more than the current 25% drop in personal income tax collection for 2023 is on the horizon? What state programs will be scaled back or eliminated because of a severe decline in tax receipts?

We will no doubt hear a chorus of representatives blaming the greedy rich for inflicting such pain on the less fortunate.

Case in point: I’m told that over a thousand pizza delivery jobs will be eliminated in California before January 1, 2024, since the state’s new fast-food minimum wage law mandates a minimum hourly wage of $20 per hour for workers. I suspect the number is much higher, but for now, those are the headlines I read. No wonder the franchisees who own the restaurants are eliminating the jobs that will kill their profits. It seems that these owners are the only ones who realize that getting in a car and driving a pizza from point A to point B is not worth $20 per hour. The politicians are clueless beyond their mantra that everyone deserves a living wage.

Here’s an idea. Look at the folks working two to three jobs. They embody the spirit of going after the living wage and personal responsibility.

Business owners are not at the mercy of leftist politicians who seek to claw more and more money out of businesses and into state coffers. They simply shrug, change their business models to account for a hostile regulatory environment, or in extreme cases sell their businesses and move across state lines, giving the silent middle finger to the politicians who destroyed their profit incentive.

The politicians refuse to understand that a business owner’s capital is at risk every day their business is operating, and when profits are threatened, those owners will assess whether or not it makes sense to remain in their current business or take action to mitigate the risk. Like John Galt in Ayn Rand’s monumental work Atlas Shrugged, the brains and businesses are being drained from California due to its hostile tax and regulatory policies. Once the state government understands that it has driven away the best and the brightest and has left behind all those of modest achievement, it will wonder what happened. The legislators brought it on themselves. The outcome is not rocket science.

We deeply regret our actions

Have you ever noticed that when a governmental agency or member of Congress gets caught doing something they know they had no authority to do or was plainly illegal, unconstitutional, or immoral, they pull out their old standby defense: We deeply regret our actions. Well, I regret that they don’t face jail time.

Whether it is an agency head speaking for the FDA, the FTC, the SEC, or a member of Congress, playing the regret card is akin to a get-out-of-jail-free card. We often hear that “we take this lapse very seriously, we lacked the internal controls necessary to detect . . .” or “I didn’t realize I had crossed a line that should never be crossed.” The outcomes are always the same; we promise to do better in the future, or we will strive to prevent similar lapses in the future.

HOGWASH! Misconduct is unacceptable or improper behavior, and regretting it means nothing. They regret that they were caught.

If these individuals were regular people, they would be subject to a very public and humiliating trial, asset forfeiture, fines, or jail time (that’s my favorite, by the way). Often they would lose their jobs and any accrued benefits. Police officers would lose their pensions, and those in the military would face loss of benefits and a dishonorable discharge. The “I deeply regret my actions” card doesn’t work for these folks.

Before we put this discussion to bed, I want you to think back to all the corruption we have read about with elections, tampering of evidence, made-up lies, and so on. Would you care to consider how many of these perps are in jail? My guess is that they regretted their actions, were given a slap on the wrist, and went on their merry ways to reap hundreds of thousands in consulting fees in this grand land of different rules for different people.

Expanding medical coverage for illegal aliens

Here is a December 30, 2023, headline from Newsmax:

As California grapples with a looming $68 billion deficit in the upcoming fiscal year, the state is set to usher in the new year by extending free healthcare coverage to undocumented immigrants eligible for its government-operated health insurance initiative.

The article, written by Jim Thomas, goes on to say, “This expansion is expected to provide complete coverage under the program to approximately 700,000 undocumented immigrants between the ages of 26 and 49.” Mr. Thomas indicated that the expected expense of the program would top $2.6 billion annually.

If I lived in California, I would need a sedative after learning this. What I don’t understand is how seemingly intelligent people—you know, the 1% of high-earning Californians who contribute 40% of the state’s personal income tax revenue—stand by and actually bend over to be paddled on the butt like in the frat house scene from a popular movie and say, “Thank you, sir. May I have another?”

Is it wrong for these taxpayers to expect their elected officials to use reason and intelligence in allocating scarce resources for the benefit of the state’s citizens?

Would it be wrong for the state to eject all these illegals and send them back across the border?

Would it be wrong to elect conservatives to high public office who would get the state’s fiscal house in order and attempt to meaningfully lower its $68 billion budget deficit?

Okay. I’m done—for now.

US exporting taxpayer dollars to support transgenderism in South America

Jim Thomas, the Newsmax reporter, must have been on a roll when he wrote this headline:

Biden WH Funds Dance Program to Support Peru’s LGBTQIA+ Youth.

The story, published on December 29, 2023, tells that American taxpayer dollars are being funneled through the State Department to provide grants for ballroom dancing for gender- diverse and transgender Latinos and blacks in Peru. I surmise that blacks and Latinos are NOT minorities in Peru. Yet the Biden Administration is keeping with its stated policy of exporting its transgender policies to the rest of the world. And yes, your federal income taxes will rise to support this and many more initiatives deemed important to the progressive socialists running our country.

’Til next time, this is Rodger Friedman, the Equal Opportunity Critic.

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To provoke thought, discussion, and the occasional rant; to satirize and be entertaining, raw, informative, and provocative; to elicit a giggle. To memorialize much of the insanity we see from our nation’s leaders. To remind those who pay attention that our liberties and way of life are not to be taken for granted.