False Reality Revealed: CA's Growing Dependence on Government Jobs Threatens Long-Term Economic Stability

In the ongoing debate over government spending and its impact on job growth, the latest news from California reveals a harsh reality. While the public sector has seen an increase in jobs supported by tax dollars, the private industry — the backbone of any strong economy — has experienced a significant decline.

According to a recent analysis by the state Legislative Analyst's Office, private-sector industries in California have lost a staggering 340,000 jobs since their peak a couple of years ago. The tech and finance sectors, which were once major drivers of the state's economy, have been hit particularly hard. The information sector, home to tech giants like Google, Apple, Intuit, and Facebook, has experienced a 16 percent decline in jobs, while the financial sector has lost 8 percent of its workforce.

Meanwhile, the health care and social-service industries, which are largely funded by the government, have seen a gain of 240,000 jobs. However, as principal fiscal and policy analyst Chas Alamo points out, these industries are heavily dependent on government spending, blurring the line between public and private-sector jobs. In total, the private sector has 12.5 million jobs, while the public and publicly supported sectors have a combined total of 5.5 million jobs.

This stark contrast in job growth raises important questions for the future of California's economy. With a current unemployment rate of 5.2 percent, the highest in the nation, it is clear that the state's reliance on revenue from personal income taxes is not sustainable. As Brooke Armour, president of The California Center for Jobs and the Economy, points out, the state is losing high-wage, middle-class jobs and replacing them with low-wage hospitality and service jobs. This not only affects individuals' financial stability but also has a significant impact on the state's budget.

The California Business Roundtable, a group of top executives from the state's major employers, echoes this sentiment in their analysis of employment data. While they note the state's high costs of doing business, they also acknowledge the impact of the pandemic on the tech industry's job losses. However, the question remains: Is the trend of tech companies investing and growing outside of California a temporary correction or a more permanent shift?

With the state facing budget deficits and an increasingly dependent economy on the stock market, these job trends are concerning. And while Alamo points out that the public sector includes jobs supported by the federal government, it is unclear if this will continue to offset the state's budget challenges in the long term.

In the end, as much as we may strive for equality and job growth in all sectors, the reality is that the private industry is the engine that drives economic growth. Ignoring the decline in this sector and its impact on the state's budget and job market would be a grave mistake. As economist Thomas Sowell reminds us, "The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it." And in California's case, the scarcity of private-sector jobs may have serious consequences for its future.

Craig J. DeLuz has almost 30 years in public policy and advocacy.  He currently hosts a daily news and commentary show called The RUNDOWN. You can follow him on X at @CraigDeLuz.

 

Pelosi and Obama Are Colluding to Get Biden to Exit the Race, But There's One Problem

It shouldn’t shock anyone that top Democrats are concerned about Joe Biden. The June 27 debate obliterated the party’s hopes for a successful election season. The top of the ticket got exposed, with questions about Biden’s fitness for office permeating the national discussion. Even with an ABC News interview and Biden’s NATO presser tonight, it hasn’t wiped away most of the questions about the president's health—he referred to Donald Trump as the vice president. 

Joe Biden never had the chops to be president. Obama knew it, so he quickly backed Hillary to succeed him, a move that the Delaware liberal has resented immensely. It’s also why he hasn’t yielded advice from his former boss or those around him. Nancy Pelosi also poked the bear this week, coming right to the edge of calling on Biden to drop out. Reportedly, both Democrats are in contact with one another, colluding to find a way to get Biden to exit the race. The problem is that they don’t know how to make that happen, which is the predicament facing everyone in the ‘dump Biden’ camp. 

In a lengthy CNN piece by Jeff Zeleny and Edward Isaac-Dovere, the article delves into the Obama factor behind the scenes, where the two men have spoken less since the Biden presidency and where public displays of affection belie a cooler relationship. Obama is also aware that any further involvement besides his reported hands-off approach in sifting through this mess engulfing the Democratic Party will likely find its way into a Trump rally. The last thing Obama wants is for Trump, whom he despises, to say something along the lines of ‘even Biden’s former boss, Obama, wants him out.’ He’s also aware that he could be viewed as being the proverbial Brutus in pushing out his former VP (via CNN): 

Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi have spoken privately about Joe Biden and the future of his 2024 campaign. Both the former president and ex-speaker expressed concerns about how much harder they think it’s become for the president to beat Donald Trump. Neither is quite sure what to do. 

Democrats are desperate for the dispiriting infighting to end so they can get back to trying to beat the former president. And they’re begging either Obama or Pelosi to help them get there, aware that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer doesn’t have the trust of Biden and that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t have the depth of relationship to deliver the message. 

CNN spoke with more than a dozen members of Congress, operatives and multiple people in touch with both Obama and Pelosi, many of whom say that the end for Biden’s candidacy feels clear and at this point it’s just a matter of how it plays out, even after Thursday night’s news conference. 

[…] 

Many of Pelosi’s colleagues are hoping that she can bring an end to the turmoil that has engulfed Democrats for the last two weeks. And to a good chunk of them, that end can come if and when she tells Biden that he has to drop out. 

Pelosi has spoken to Biden since the debate, but in the time since, the California Democrat has made clear that she does not see Biden’s decision to stay in the race as final. But she, through an aide, declined to comment further. 

[…] 

But Obama’s deepening skepticism about his friend’s ability to win reelection is one of the worst kept secrets in Washington. 

[…] 

In conversations with some Democrats over the past two weeks, Obama has swatted away the notion that he could push Biden one direction or the other even if he wanted to, which underscores their long-running complicated, yet loyal, relationship. And it’s been complicated even further during their time apart: since leaving office behind – and their weekly lunches at the White House for eight years – the two have spoken far less than some of their advisers have often intimated. 

If the former president did try to steer Biden to get out, people who know Obama say, he is aware the prism through which it could be seen. Biden has written that he felt Obama was not encouraging of his jumping in late to the Democratic primaries in the months after his son Beau died in 2015. Though Obama believes that he was trying to help his then-vice president focus on his grief and not wade into what would have been an incredibly hard primary campaign against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, that may not be how another conversation would go. 

“Biden would say, ‘Well, Mr. President, you already used that chip in 2015 and it got us Donald Trump,’” speculated a longtime 2020 campaign aide. “I think it would harden him more.” 

One point of contention is the damning New York Times op-ed by George Clooney, who called on Biden to drop out, saying that the Biden we all saw on debate night was the president the nation witnessed getting demolished by Trump. Clooney was in contact with Obama before the op-ed was published. While the former president didn’t explicitly order the essay, he didn’t try to dissuade him from writing it—a pure Tony Soprano move.

Yet, the lack of action on this topic is a throwback to one of Obama’s biggest flaws, which was to become afflicted by paralysis by analysis. If Biden can’t win, and there are scores of Democrats who think it’s over, then how do they prevent going off the cliff?

Trending on Townhall Videos

 

What Concerned MSNBC's Rachel Maddow About Biden's NATO Presser

Lesbian Turkey Neck.👆

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow looked beside herself. She knows Biden is losing, but the candidate also seems incapable of grasping reality. The poll denialism reared its ugly head during the ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos, and it resurfaced again toward the end of Biden’s NATO presser. Maddow, who usually carries water for Democrats, couldn’t spin this one: it left her worried about Biden, notably this lack of understanding that he’s not doing well. 

The MSNBC host said this rattling off about polls has her wondering if the president “is being given information about his political standing that may not based in reality.” His aides often try to smooth things over in briefings to avoid angering the mentally declining president.

Since the disastrous June 27 debate, Biden has lost supporters who voted for him in 2020. They’re not heading into the Trump camp; they’re staying home, which has the same effect. Trump is veering toward an Electoral College landslide. It doesn’t matter if the national polls are close, Joe. Trump is still ahead and on target to get 270 votes much easier than you. Biden has a problem that can’t be fixed because the man can’t de-age. What polls is he looking at where he’s winning, too? That’s some grade-A Baghdad Bob material, or Joe is hitting his son’s crack pipe. 

Even Democratic pollsters are showing defeat, with the OpenLabs memo being one of the most damning post-debate surveys to leak. Six states have become friendlier to Trump, with Pennsylvania looking like the best state to flip in 2024. If that happens, it’s game over, and Trump, based on private polling from Democrats and Republicans, increased his lead over Biden from 4 to 10 points.

Trending on Townhall Videos

 

Sen. Cruz Introduces Bill Honoring Jocelyn Nungaray to Enforce Detention and Tracking of Illegals

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks at a news conference to unveil the Take It Down Act to protect victims against non-consensual intimate image abuse, on Capitol Hill on June 18, 2024 in Washington, DC. Cruz introduced the bipartisan “Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act” (TAKE IT DOWN) which would criminalize the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery and require social media sites to remove nefarious imagery if it is flagged by a victim.

A new bill introduced by Texas Senator Ted Cruz will make it much more difficult for foreign nationals to be released into the U.S. after they are processed at the southern border.

The bill is in honor of 12-year-old victim Jocelyn Nungaray, who was sexually assaulted and murdered by two illegal aliens from Venezuela.

The bill, which was introduced on Thursday and nicknamed the “Justice for Jocelyn Act,” would require Homeland Security officials to exhaust “all reasonable efforts to hold aliens in detention” by determining if “all detention beds available to the Secretary have been filled” before migrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally are released.

Additionally, if officials run out of room in a detention facility, a migrant must then be required to wear an ankle monitor until they complete their immigration court proceedings. The bill also proposes that illegal border crossers be subject to a curfew that lasts from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

If migrants violate any of the proposed rules, federal authorities could have the power to deport them. 

This comes after 12-year-old Nungaray was raped and killed by two illegal Venezuelan foreign nationals, one with criminal history in his own country, who were previously released into the U.S. with future court dates. 

Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, have now been charged with capital murder. It’s alleged that they lured Jocelyn to a bridge, assaulted her for two hours, both sexually and physically, and then finally strangled her to death and dumped her body into a Houston bayou.

Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, said in a statement that the bill “would have prevented Jocelyn’s death,” adding that “It would have prevented her two murderers from being on the street and it would have meant that Jocelyn would be here with us today.”

It was also reported that Pena Ramos, who initially crossed the border in May, was wearing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) GPS ankle monitor at the time of the attack in June, Homeland Security sources previously told the New York Post.

He was reportedly able to get rid of it by simply cutting it off while running from law enforcement. 

As for Rangel Martinez, who crossed the border on March 14^th, he was disenrolled from the tracking program only two months after entering the U.S. because he had no known criminal past and had complied with required check-ins. 

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Live Press Conference: Biden's Verbal Blunders Continue, Calls VP Harris 'Vice President Trump'

US President Joe Biden gestures as he speaks during a press conference at the close of the 75th NATO Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC on July 11, 2024.

During his much-awaited solo press appearance in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, President Joe Biden accidentally referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president [if] I think she’s not qualified to be president,” Biden stated.

As the president answered questions from reporters, he often made mistakes and seemed to lose his train of thought.

Another gaffe by Biden in the press conference occurred when he mistakenly called his chief of staff “my commander in chief” before realizing what he had done.

After his disastrous June 27^th debate performance against former President Donald Trump, Biden arrived at Thursday’s press conference with the goal of demonstrating to the public that he can take on challenging issues in an unscripted setting.

Additionally, earlier on Thursday night, during a NATO ceremony honoring Ukraine, Biden referred to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, as “President Putin.”  

“And now I want to hand it over to the President of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, before eventually correcting himself.

At another point, Biden also blurted out: “control guns, not girls!”

The president was under more pressure this time around since his chances of winning reelection are at risk, which has become exceedingly clear to nervous Democrats who previously maintained that he was fit for office.

Democrat politicians, contributors, fundraisers, and strategists have been exposing new holes in Biden’s support every day since his disastrous first debate performance.

One of Biden’s campaign staff members even informed NBC News only hours before the president’s eagerly awaited news conference that the president must withdraw because “he’ll never recover from this.” The staffer wished to remain anonymous.

Thus far, at least fourteen Democratic politicians have publicly urged Biden to withdraw.

Left-wing megadonors have also declared that they will stop financially supporting the Democrat Party until a fresh candidate for president steps forward.

Social media users quickly rushed to the X (Twitter) platform in order to mock the president’s gaffes.

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CartoonDems

 

Report: Schumer Talking With Donors About Dumping Biden

 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reportedly is signaling to donors privately that he is open to replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democrat ticket for November’s election.

Schumer, the chamber's top Dem and the staunchest of Biden allies, has publicly backed the president since his disastrous debate last month against former President Donald Trump.

A widely panned performance at the candidates' first faceoff of the election cycle stoked concerns about the 81-yea-old president's age, health and mental capacity. Was he ready to not only challenge Trump in November, but -- in the event of his win -- complete another grueling four-year term in office?

But despite his public support for Biden, Schumer has reportedly explored a different path privately. Behind the scenes over the past 12 days, he has been listening to squeamish donors about the best way forward for the party, Axios reported Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

Biden, in a letter to congressional Democrats on Monday, stood firm against calls for him to drop from the race and demanded an "end" to the intraparty drama that has torn apart Democrats since the debate. Those calls have been intensifying as more and more donors and lawmakers -- many of them from Biden's own party -- have pressed him to step aside from the campaign in favor of another, younger and more vigorous option: say, Vice President Kamala Harris or California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Among the prominent donors now voicing doubts about Biden is mega-celebrity and activist George Clooney, who has joined the chorus urging Biden to drop out of the race.

Lawmakers and donors, though, are waiting for more polling data, most of which has been negative for Biden, before making a potential move against the president. They are also watching his public performance, parsing his every appearance and utterance, and are eager to see how he performs in a post-NATO summit news conference Thursday, according to Axios.

Michael Katz ✉

Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Rich, Obnoxious California Transplants Messed With the Wrong Rancher

Neighbor disputes are the worst. It’s not like when you sue someone over a contract and the next time you see them is at a deposition, mediation, or trial. You have to live next to them. Most neighbor disputes don’t end up as lawsuits, but it happens.  

I started my career at a small law firm but I left because the partners had the ethics of the Sopranos. Fortunately, I landed a fun case right away, one that was destined for trial: A neighbor dispute, with a twist.  

My client had purchased a vacant lot for a song. The lot was on a lake. The previous owner, the seller, didn’t want the lot because the adjacent neighbors told him he could have the lot, but he couldn’t develop it, because they had “gardening easements”. The seller wasn’t into lawsuits and just wanted to get rid of the headache. My guy bought it.  

The neighbors had planted vegetables on my guy's land with the obvious intent to keep the property open for their view of the lake. I told my client the neighbors were full of it and that we would win at trial. We tried to “negotiate” but knew it was headed to trial. 

During discovery, I deposed one of the nasty owners. Slicked-back hair and designer clothes. He was a money manager with a trophy wife and he resembled a Bond villain. He told me that he had to leave by “X” time because he had a tee time. I told him I didn’t care if he had a tee time with the Pope, he wasn’t leaving until I was finished. 

He then told he was golfing with Sean Connery - he was leaving if I liked it or not. He indeed got up at "X" time and he left. No matter - I knew that him doing so would help me more than whatever he had to say. Jerks tend to overplay their hands. I let Bond villain bury himself at trial. I won. They appealed. They lost. The lot was purchased for $180,000. I looked up the property value (with the house), and as of today, it's worth $5.3 million.  

Neighbor disputes suck, but when the good guys win it's pretty sweet. A few days ago, I read a story about a neighbor dispute in Colorado that turned out to have a happy ending. A very happy ending.  

There was a narrow strip of land that California transplants had bought. It was a vacant lot where they planned to build a home. A few months after it closed, the next-door neighbor, a rancher, got a notice. The transplants informed him that they would sue him if he didn’t move his fence. The fence encroached on the new owners’ property by 3 to 6 inches. 

The rancher tried to reason with the new owners to no avail. He gave the new owners three extremely reasonable options. All were rejected. So the rancher told his neighbors – “sue me." They won, but the rancher knew that would be the result. He just wanted them to spend more money. After the judgment and order to move the fence, the rancher moved the fence. Shortly thereafter, he constructed a hog pen up against the fence near the new neighbors’ new home. He verified with the county that the pen was legal. The property was zoned “Ag." He fed his new oinkers table scraps. 

I didn’t know, but apparently feeding hogs people food makes their poop smell like death. The smell didn’t affect the rancher’s family. His home was hundreds of yards away, but the piggies were right up against the new owners’ property line.   

Winter rolled around and the smell was reduced. The jerk neighbors couldn't take the smell. They put up a “for sale” sign. When the property was sold, the rancher deconstructed the pen, cleaned up the area, and sold the hogs. His "beef" wasn’t with the people who would move in next.  

Being a jerk rarely works and I imagine it works even less against farmers and ranchers, particularly when the jerks have more money than brains.