Everything’s Just Grand!
January 9, 2015
On January 6, 2015, the Los Angeles Times top story was headlined “[Gov.] Brown keeps aim high for 4th term.” The story reported the California governor’s inaugural address and quoted his reference to “the budget carefully balanced …” But it’s not balanced in reality because huge unfunded liabilities are simply moved off the books and basically hidden in non-budget accounts.
So a mere seventy-two hours later, the same paper featured a related top story in the same place on the front page titled “Health costs imperil the state budget.” This story debunks the previous article by explaining that staggering healthcare costs “for the poor [meaning illegal aliens] and for retired state workers [whose unions virtually own state government]” have left the budget badly out of balance. But have no fear, because we then read that “the governor … has repeatedly pledged to keep a tight leash on spending.” Except the previous story says the governor also, in his inaugural, “touted … [his] 68-billion-dollar bullet train project,” which taxpayers will inevitably end up funding despite laughable bureaucratic denials. Some leash, eh? Not so tight after all.
Between those two stories, the Times published a January 8 piece headlined “Obama points to economic news.” The president implausibly takes credit for the improved job market and consumer confidence, both of which are attributable to the long anticipated Republican takeover of Congress and resultant return to fiscal sanity. Falling energy prices also encouraged hiring and purchasing. But Mr. Obama has blocked an oil pipeline across America because Democrats hate fossil fuel. The president is ignoring a 17-trillion-dollar national debt as assiduously as Mr. Brown ignores a California debt burden that is driving businesses and taxpayers out of state in droves. Lies, lies and more lies.
Which brings us to a Wall Street Journal story titled “Greek ex-leader sets new party before vote.” The subject is a cautionary tale for California and America because it describes Greeks spending vastly more money than they had, borrowing still more from the European Union’s more prudent countries, and now apparently refusing to make good on the debt because repaying requires unpleasant lifestyle sacrifices.
Unpleasant lifestyle sacrifices are exactly what mothers and fathers seek to avoid when they kill their unborn baby. The irresponsible choice is made more tolerable when the terrible truth is obscured. So parents lie to themselves about the humanity of their baby and the inhumanity of their abortion – as politicians lie to taxpayers about the state of the economy. I thank God for newspapers willing to force voters to face the truth about hidden government deficits and debts, and I thank God for CBR’s willingness to confront the public with the hidden horror of abortion. Now if only the press were as devoted to prenatal justice as to exposing government corruption.