Paradise Lost

What remains of the California Dream has taken a few more hits recently:

1. A public hearing of the school board in Modesto was interrupted due to parents concern over deep budget cuts in local schools. The parents loudly requested rescheduling of the meeting to a larger facility. The fire marshal was called to clear the room as attendance exceeded capacity.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/216651.html

2. In the next fiscal year, Sacramento faces a $55 million budget deficit, a situation caused in part by a marked slowdown in property, utility users and sales tax revenues. At the same time, the city's expenses will be increasing as new contractual pay raises are enacted.

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/693812.html

3. The City of Vallejo, in what might be a first for a California city, is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. 20 police and fire employees in the past three days have submitted their retirement papers and more are expected to follow, officials reported.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_8294421?source=most_emailed

4. In a scene likely to be played out in states and municipalities nationwide, things are starting to implode in California at the state level, the county level, and the city level. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered additional cuts across the state bureaucracy that will slow down state hiring and nonessential service contracts - a move he said could save the cash-strapped state $100 million by June 30. Schwarzenegger issued the order on the heels of a $2 billion midyear budget reduction to deal with the state's projected $14.5 billion deficit.

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/15978

5. A bill requiring that public school students learn about global warming has passed the State Senate and heads to the State Assembly.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/environment/archives/132221.asp

Is there a causal relationship between onerous State educational and other mandates imposed on localities, which seldom come with associated state financing, and the deterioration of local services? Earth to State Legislature - Your state is already in a deep financial crisis. Why do you continue to pass obliviously authoritarian measures that no one can pay for? Wake up! Businesses and working people are leaving your state only to be replaced, when replacements occur, by undocumented workers (that would be illegal aliens).

Queer as a Three Dollar Bill

One thing Democrats don’t and Republicans hardly ever do is identify wasteful, inefficient or just wrong-headed government programs which should be eliminated. To encourage dialog in this area, let’s start relatively small and rather obvious.

Like a literal bad penny that keeps turning up, the U.S. Mint attempts to foist what I call “funny money” on the American public. These efforts (Eisenhower Dollar, Susan B. Anthony Dollar, Sacagawea Dollar – notice a trend here?) usually end up proving that the government has its own twist on the old saying by continuing to throw bad money after bad.

These coins end up confusing the American public. They stay away from them in droves. If anyone gains from the Mint’s efforts, it is after-market opportunists who stylize themselves as serious numismatists. Others, in the spirit of full disclosure, who benefit include people like me who occasionally receive the latest fad dollar in error instead of receiving a quarter. I promptly redeem the funny money at a bank for real money. Let them deal with it. That extra 75 cents is a real boon in today’s economy.

Of course past practice has not deterred your government for continuing to be incompetent. The latest funny money is the Presidential One Dollar coin. If a government initiative was ever doomed to fail this is it. The Presidential One Dollar coin as was the Susan B. Anthony Dollar is just a little larger than a standard quarter. What better way to remind people of the shrinking value of the dollar? And of course with the current state of open borders and historical knowledge imparted by public schools people will be confused. Which “Father of his country” is that coin depicting anyway? George Washington or Simon Bolivar?

It is obvious the Mint has learned nothing from similar previously failed attempts at modifying how Americans use currency. There seems to be no limit to the ideas on how government can waste its time and your money. Perhaps the next “big thing” will be to have a famous Directors of the Federal Reserve Series where a picture of previous directors will be printed on savings bonds thus helping remind us about how large is the public debt and how little government does to rein it in.

If there was a way to prevent the Presidential Dollar from ending up on the “trash heap of history” perhaps the coins should depict how each President relates to a specific American myth. George Washington could be shown chopping down a cherry tree. William Jefferson Clinton could be shown fondling a student intern. Oops, I guess that really wasn’t a myth. Sometime in the future when the Clinton coin is inevitably minted, the Mint will face a challenge. How will they make a coin that, when flipped, will always land on its edge?

As if all of this is not enough Congress has gotten involved with the Presidential One Dollar coin. According to the Patriot Post, this coin was part of a recent appropriations bill passed by Congress and signed by the President. It seems that the Mint either had no room on the front or back of the coin to include the words “In God We Trust”. Whether this was merely a misguided marketing ploy or a serious attempt to exclude religion from the public square I leave to conspiracy theorists. Either could be inferred from the Mints web site. Regardless, Congress settled the matter by mandating the words appear on the face of the coins starting in 2008. Bipartisan cooperation: It’s fantastic.

By becoming involved, Congress has probably increased the value of those Presidential Dollars already in circulation. Why? Because as an “agent of change” Congress has mandated that all subsequent Presidential Dollars are to be different from the original. If you are a “serious numismatist” you have to love it when incompetence leads to changes in currency. If you are a buyer from these folks you are being seriously overcharged as examples of government incompetence can literally be had at a dime a dozen. Even at today’s prices.

Congress should have instead mandated that the Mint only print currency that people actually use. When government agencies get creative on their own or are mandated by Congress to get creative is when things get expensive for the American taxpayer.