North County Times, The Californian Op-Ed
by Ray Haynes
California -- Do you wonder what your Legislature is doing? I feel like I've fallen through the Looking Glass. They are doing everything but what needs to be done.
It is the last day of session, and you are hours away from being safe from the intrusive hand of government. But before they end this session, your Legislature has to inflict as much damage as possible. The last week of session is always insane, with legislators violating their own rules, breaking numerous laws, ignoring the Constitution and doing whatever it takes to get what they want, no matter what the people of this state want.
This week, the Legislature argued about what kinds of foods were natural or nutritious, whether illegal aliens should get driver's licenses, whether men could marry men, and whether or not rich movie producers should get welfare.
Of course, none of these issues had anything to do with the real problems of California. Our houses cost too much, our freeways are overcrowded, our budget is out of balance, and we are running out of water, gasoline and electricity.
Yet the Legislature has expended hundreds of hours, spent hundreds of millions of dollars and used up hundreds of thousands of pages of paper to accomplish absolutely nothing of consequence for the people of this state.
Posted by Richard at September 16, 2005