Bill Maher: Conservatives Must Come to California

[eissa]

Since then, everything Republicans say can't or won't work -- gun control, immigration reform, high-speed rail -- California is making work. And everything conservatives claim will unravel the fabric of our society -- universal healthcare, higher taxes on the rich, gay marriage, medical marijuana -- has only made California stronger. And all we had to do to accomplish that was vote out every single Republican. Without a Republican governor and without a legislature being cock-blocked by Republicans, a $27 billion deficit was turned into a surplus, continuing the proud American tradition of Republicans blowing a huge hole in the budget and then Democrats coming in and cleaning it up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/bill-maher-california_b_3999675.html


This native Californian couldn't agree more

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

1. Nice rant, Mr. Maher.

We're kinda doing a bit of the same thing here in Minnesota.

We voted out the GOP in the governor's mansion and the legislature, and lookie here: we managed to recover all the jobs we lost in the recession.

Light rail's going up everywhere in the Twin Cities. And we have marriage equality, too.

But I have friends in California who love it out there. When I visited a year ago, I loved it. I admit I was at least a bit tempted to move and find a job out there.

[Iggo]

2. .

[arcane1]

3. Well-said!

[Brother Buzz]

4. This native Californian suggests we send a postcards instead

[phantom power]

5. "We said put cilantro in food, and dammit, you did"

[Starry Messenger]

6. K&R

That glow you see is our smugness. LOL.

[DGeorge]

7. So true. Clinton took the huge Reagan/Bush deficit and turned it into a surplus in 6 years.

It took the shrub one year to turn that surplus into a record deficit. Conservative party my ass.

[valerief]

17. They conserve wealth for the rich. nt

[tclambert]

32. But they really don't.

The Bush recession cost rich people a fortune, too. And a lost decade cost, well, ten years of progress. The number of billionaires went from 1,100 in 2008 to 800 from in 2009.

They think they conserve wealth for the rich because they give the rich whatever sparkly whim that catches their attention. Yet the fortunes that could have been with a decade of real progress dwarfs any that existed before.

They act like the economy follows the rules of a zero-sum game, where winners get a fixed-size prize, and losers get nothing. They forget that a well-run economy can grow and increase everyone's wealth.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. One of the finest essays I've read on the realities of Liberal government. nt

[byronius]

9. Yes, this Sacaramento dweller heartily endorses his statement.

Makes you feel sorry for the Red Staters. A little. Well, for the BlueHearts in the Red States.

[dickthegrouch]

10. I will never understand

Why the DCCC isn't absolutely hammering the GOP at every turn on their fiscal irresponsibility.
Show the wasted lives, resources, lives, time, lives, opportunities, lives in every speech. Bury them in their incontrovertible legacy.

[Initech]

12. If we could only vote out the GOP on a national level.

And I mean completely. Get the religious nuts, traditional values assholes, and gun enthusiasts out. Period.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

13. That was classic.

The thing about cilantro had me killed.

[grantcart]

38. Also the Almond milk line was priceless.

Almond milk? We just had some extra almonds and thought we'd fuck with you.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

42. LMAO ... yeah, that gave me a good laugh, too.

Great New Rules.

[toby jo]

14. Oh get over yourselves and spread it to your bordering states, would ya?

Then they can take it up & it'll get here to Ohio in a minute or two. A little problem with the hillbilly stupid needs mopped up here.

[upaloopa]

30. I left OH in 1982. Moved to Los Angeles and never

looked back. I saw the writing on the wall and got the hell out before conservatives came and fucked up the place.

[Robbins]

15. California

This Is model for the nation what can happen when you give democrats complete control. California has a surplus now. They raised taxes on rich and economy Is thraving. By 2016 they will have a 10 dollor a hour minuem wage.

Some people runb for governor promising to turn things around. Well Jerry Brown did it big time.Other states need to follow the california example.

[SunSeeker]

16. Proud to be a Californian. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. Actually, things that the Republicans claim are impossible work in MOST OF THE WESTERN WORLD

Minnesota dumped its Republican governor and legislature in the last election, and while I'm not entirely happy with Mark Dayton, Forbes ranked Minnesota 8th best in the nation for business. This was despite right-wing whining that a DFL governor and legislature would drive businesses out of state.

[AllyCat]

55. I wanna move to MN. Walker has destroyed WI and you all

look pretty good right now. Even better without Bachmann.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

59. Alas, we now have two banksters trying to destroy the Minnesota Orchestra

having locked out the musicians for literally a year.

[Luminous Animal]

19. Universal healthcare? I can only dream.

[zappaman]

20. Big REC!!!!

Jerry Brown has turned this state around.
We should be a model for the rest of the country.
See what happens when Republicans have no say...?

[xchrom]

21. Du rec

[robbob]

22. I love this comment

this was a posted comment:

Sir Guest-a-Lot
3
213 Fans
It's great that California Democrats realized that the only way to reverse their growing deficit was to enact sharp spending cuts. If only the Democrats in Washington could come to that same understanding.


...I wanted to point out to this ass how GW and 8 years of Rethug rule took a huge surplus and turned it into a record deficit in, what? One year?

Unfortunately it seems you need to be on Facebook to log onto that site. Someone else want to straighten that guy out? I wish those nuts would just ACKNOWLEDGE what a financial disaster GW was for the country...

[JDPriestly]

53. We didn't just cut costs. We raised revenue by raising our taxes, especially those on the wealthy.

Rich people come here to enjoy life in the sun. They don't want to pay for anything. They just enjoy paying a lot for properties and driving up housing costs for the people who actually work and make life possible here.

So, in spite of all the propaganda against raising taxes, Californians voted in a referendum, mind you, to raise the taxes especially on the rich.

That is what has made the difference. Raising taxes.

After so many years of Republican governors, our state owed more money than we ever thought we could repay. The cuts are minimal compared to the debts the Republicans ran up.

God bless Jerry Brown. And the Democratic majority in California's legislature.

[Hekate]

23. Thank God. Now if only the idiot part of our population had not enacted term limits....

... we might stand a chance of keeping a seasoned Democratic majority in Sacramento instead of continually churning freshmen through.

[Yavin4]

24. I remember when Republican Presidential candidates use to win CA regularly

Now, they're extinct in the state. Keep hope alive Texas Duers. Keep hope alive.

[Half-Century Man]

25. Oh Yeah? Well here in Wisconsin we're doing.......something different

We let our AG block freedom of information requests to state legislators, cause we have to protect the secrets of our state government....For instance, how much we know about the invasion plans of Iowa.

You'll never get to understand the feeling of security when you and your grand daughter get sharing a Lube Pros waiting room with a glowering guy muttering to himself while wearing a Glock 19 on his hip.

If you stand on your head, we're near the top of those best state lists. And standing on your head is yoga and good for you.

You have to admire our "get music to inmates" initiative. We are trying it out in the capital.

We have greatly reduced the amount of red tape bureaucracy here by eliminating state unions. No more, arbitration hearings.

Your government lacks passion, when was the last time your President of the State house was moved to nearly have a screaming stoke and break his gavel, as he gently admonished an assemblyman from the opposing party? And now due to his diligence, we have protected all our women from the living hell that is the self determination of reproductive rights.

How many of your governors have earned so much respect from the Justice Department that they get a personalized inquest into their past, to get an accurate biography written?

Our governor is so respected we decided to vote for him twice in a single election cycle. When was the last time you got to do that? California and Minnesota got nothing on us.

[AllyCat]

57. I like the way you put things. Makes it sort of "less bad" for about

two seconds. Keep on fighting HCM. We'll get him out of here...but it ain't gonna be easy.

[NuttyFluffers]

26. almond milk?

we just had some extra almonds and decided to fuck with you.

[Uncle Joe]

27. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, eissa.

[eissa]

34. My pleasure

Now go enjoy some guacamole (with extra cilantro) and a glass of almond milk

[Uncle Joe]

37. That sounds like a good recommendation,

I drink a lot of vanilla and dark chocalate almond milk, its' loaded with anti-oxidants.

I also love fajitas with lots of gaucamole.

[yuiyoshida]

28. Oh Yes!

Proud Californian Democrat!

[upaloopa]

29. We still have Fresno Bakersfield and Orange County.

There's enough knuckle draggers in those places to take us backward if ever we stop fighting their influence.

[eissa]

33. I live among those knuckle draggers

And you're correct - we can never take our blue state status for granted, or let our guard down. Because in my neck of the woods the teabaggers are all over the city councils and school boards. And once they gain a foothold they usually propel upwards.

[upaloopa]

35. I used to live in the mountains east of Bakersfield.

I can remember the glee about going to war in Iraq.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

44. Orange County is a self-fulfilling prophecy

Most of the elected Republicans here are extremely weak and extremely out of step with where the conservatives around here are actually at. The mega-churchers vote in primaries but they don't raise much money. We just run candidates here that are terrible. So rather than aggressive candidates we get bored millionaires taking one for the team and the Republican losers triumph over an even weaker candidate.

[Heathen57]

31. K&R

As I love telling my teabagging relatives, we've seen that every Repub that gets into office blows up the deficit, and when the Dems come in they give us a surplus.

They then grumble and call Obama a Kenyan.

[okieinpain]

36. cali is out of debt. why isn't that national news. wtf? n/t.

[emsimon33]

40. Not only are we out of debt but we are investing in education and infrastructure!

Bite me, Republicans!

[JDPriestly]

41. We raised our taxes, raising those on the highest incomes first.

That was done by the people, not by the legislature. It was the result of a referendum, not something imposed by one party or the other.

A lot of rich people settle in California especially on the coasts. Remember, for them, if they hold on to their properties, the property taxes are relatively low, so raising income taxes is fair.

The rich in California outside of Silicon Valley do far too little for our state in terms of employing and paying members of the middle class well. Taxing their incomes is about our only means of evening the playing field. Even in Hollywood, the rich do an increasing amount of their taxable business out of our area. Yet they live here, drive the housing prices out of the roof, send their kids to private schools (thus showing little interest in supporting public schools).

Fortunately, the beaches are public even if rich people own the houses edging them.

The income disparity in California is something you can really feel if you live in Los Angeles or East Los Angeles.

[CANDO]

46. Out of debt, or just running a surplus?

I'm curious, because you can't get out of debt until you run a surplus. Then, you focus the surplus on paying down debt. The Republicans piss away surpluses with tax cuts for the rich.

[emsimon33]

39. Yep. I moved to CA from Virginia and I am still so embarrassed by Virginia's Republicans

I am glad to be out of there. I hope that Terry wins the governorship and I hope that a Democratic majority is put in the General Assembly; however, I do not think that Terry will roll over and play dead if he has a Republican legislature. I think he will make them look like the selfish, ignorant, lying jackasses that they are.

Go, Terry!

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

43. I always say the same thing when faced by some redstate douchebag

"In basements and garages all over California people are inventing the future, in your state they're just cooking crystal meth, and even that was invented in California."

[zappaman]

47. Gonna have to steal that....

dude.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

54. Be careful, it almost got me stabbed in Arizona

[SaveAmerica]

45. And thus a nation-wide Democratic Party political plan is born

VOTE OUT EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN!!

[AlbertCat]

48. My dream....

.... is that my state of NC gets so tired of these Art Pope assholes that it goes majorly blue, and becomes the "California of the South." leaving all the other dumb ass Southern states behind.

But that's a dream.

I'd be satisfied with 40% of that.

[dotymed]

56. In the South and Mid West

they gerrymander so bad it is impossible to get actual representatives.

We need national referendums on money in politics, gerrymandering, so many things.
We can safely bank on-line, the voting machines are easily hackable, but if we voted (w a receipt as evidence) on-line, I think the results would be much more accurate.

[SheilaT]

49. No, no, no, no, no, no.

I don't live in California, and probably never will, but why would you want conservatives to go there and fuck everything up? Unless you're thinking that then all the other states will benefit, and so thank you for sacrificing your wonderful selves and your great state to the betterment of the rest of the country.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

50. Perhaps they could just watch Bill Maher and learn about it!

[tblue]

51. That's my state!!!

Gov. Brown is doing a bang-up job!

[Tx4obama]

52. Maher changed it quite a bit when he did it on his show tonight - VIDEO link below

VIDEO here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maher-california-booming-because-we-dont-care-about-nonsense-that-keeps-fox-news-up-at-night/

He left a lot of what's up in the OP out and added some new funny bits into the video.

[Zorra]

58. This is why I am in favor of dividing the country. Conservatives are reponsible for all the human

made problems on the planet. I'm sick and tired of dealing with their ignorance, selfishness, and stupidity. I'm sick and tired of having to work to keep conservatives from getting power and authority. I'm sick and tired of having to clean up the huge messes conservatives make, like a parent cleaning up after toddler quintuplets in the throes of the absolute worst case of the "terrible twos".

Give them their own country so they can establish the doomed, superstitious, repressive authoritarian Idiocracy they continually clamor for.

We would start evolving at the speed of light without conservatives to obstruct us with their constant and incurable childishness.