No Bailout For The Golden State

One thing I agree with wholeheartedly: California must not be bailed out by the US taxpayers.

Such a bailout would set a bad and unsustainable precedent.

For one thing it would delay the time California would have to deal with its financial crisis, that being spending far more money than its taking in from tax revenues. It's not like they can raise taxes much higher as they already have the highest tax burden in the US. Instead, they have to get their spending under control even if it means laying off state workers, closing down state programs, and learning to discern between nice-to-haves and need-to-haves. Somewhere along the line the California legislature and governor(s) have forgotten how to do that.

Should California receive such a bailout, there would then be a flood of other states demanding the same thing. Instead of showing fiscal restraint by cutting spending and reining in taxes, the bailout funds would allow them to put off making the hard decisions they were elected to make. It's time for them to start earning their pay.

Will such actions be hard to take and will there be pain involved? Certainly. But it will be far less painful to do it now than waiting until they are forced into it by circumstances beyond their control, like bankruptcy.