California is an economic and technological powerhouse
Or who is the biggest moocher of Federal funding?
Mike Johnson wishes to Penalize California. According to Louisiana’s Mike Johnson, California should be penalized.
“Mike Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju that there should be “conditions” on the proposed federal aid to California in the wake of the deadly wildfires in Los Angeles County. It appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects, so that’s something that has to be factored in. I think there should probably be conditions on that aid.”
That is rich. That they are even discussing penalizing California is just plain ignorant as opposed to saying stupid. Mike Johnson’s Louisiana is the 8th Highest Per Person Among States for Federal Funding. California gives back funding to the US Government.
California is an economic and technological powerhouse; without it, America would be a lot poorer and weaker than it is.
Most narrowly, at a time when Donald Trump is making nonsensical claims that America is subsidizing Canada via our bilateral trade deficit, California is literally subsidizing the rest of the United States, red states in particular, through the federal budget.
The Rockefeller Institute regularly calculates states’ balance of payments — the difference between the amount the federal government spends in a state and the amount the state pays in federal taxes. Here’s what per capita balances looked like in 2022, the most recent year available (blue means a state receives more than it gives, orange the reverse).
How big is California in paying into the nation as a whole?
In the above map, you can see California pays more into the federal government than does, (lets say) Louisiana. The state from which the Speaker of the House Representative Mike Johnson represents as a Representative. Indeed, California pays in the Federal government twenty-one (21) times what Louisiana transfers to the Feds. Perhaps rather than penalizing California, California should just tell them “no problem.” We will just take what we need out of the funds sent to the Federal Government.
Balance of Payments Portal by State, Rockefeller Institute of Government
Louisiana,s Mike Johnson and other Republicans should shutup.
California’s Gross state product is $4.1 trillion. Compare that with Canada’s GNP of $2.4 trillion.
I think the natures of different disasters are viewed on a wide spectrum of what should have been expected of the residents. Something like a tornado is viewed as pretty impossible to prepare to mitigate. Fire is on the other end of the spectrum of expectations.
This may be a little unfair to fire victims, but by this point in time municipalities are expected to have effective fire departments, particularly when fire is a long-standing threat. No one thinks that a town should have taken steps so that an F4 tornado only was F1, but there is an expectation that small fires get put out before they are big fires, particularly in places with highly professional fire departments.
Hurricanes I think are somewhere in between: can’t do much about them, but there are growing expectations (including obvious insurance market developments) that places start limiting property development where they will occur. Maybe the wind overwhelmed best efforts in California.
A more effective early fire department response might have changed very little.
Anyway, while Johnson might mostly be grinding his axe here, the speculated more disastrous future probably would be better with significant strings attached to disaster relief. Need to pick sensible strings though.
@Eric,
“Maybe the wind overwhelmed best efforts in California.”
Maybe [sic]? LOL!
Literally *nobody* who knows anything at all about the fires believes that CA could have prepared for this one.
Hmm
Now that reads somewhat better. Those are called paragraphs. You separate portions of your commentary into independent thoughts on a particular topic. Really that is not the issue here.
Like I said in my post, Cailfornia puts more funds in the nation’s kitty. They are a surplus tax giver to the nation along with 10 or 11 other states. The rest of the states and the overall nation are helped by California. All those blues and grays are rent takers. In other words they do not pay enough for the services they get from the nation.
Why not just tell California they do not have to kick so much in this time? By themselves , California could be a nation on to itself. And Louisiana can ask for aid the next hurricane and flood that hits it. Who told them to build in flood plains and so close to the ocean?
Have you ever stopped and thought about what you say?
Johnson isn’t being ignorant or stupid. He’s being politically malicious. The usual label for such an actor is “asshole”.
Jack:
I am polite and just stating the obvious. California antes up more ($millions) than Louisiana to the Feds. Mikie and others need to shut up.
disgraceful behavior from this country’s second most powerful political leader.
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estimates provided to us by the Legislative Analyst’s Office also show that the total CAL FIRE expenditures have risen every year of Newsom’s tenure as governor — from $2.74 billion in fiscal year 2019-2020 to $4.43 billion in 2023-24. Total expenditures for 2024-25 are $4.59 billion, according to the agency. However, Ehlers noted, the 2024-25 amount “does not yet reflect additional costs being incurred for the LA fires; I expect that total will increase when updated data are available.”
factcheck.org
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Of course the funding has included steady increases in forest management. It should also go without saying that the more frequent, more intensive wild fires are a widely predicted consequence of climate change, while Ca has famously and expensively led the nation on a range of strategies that would slow the rate of our planet’s rising temperature. These strategies would be more effective if we were getting any meaningful help from Republicans.
I’m out of polite words to write.