The American Dream Come True

Another frustrating day for the monologueonian. Today the California state legislature passed a budget, but to garner the last Republican vote they eliminated the $0.12 gasoline tax. They also eliminated environmental review on a number of highway projects. Lastly, construction resumed on the $billion+ expansion of the Cache Creek Casino, expanding Californian's ability to earn money without having to work for it.

Thus I'll still continue to subsidize freeway building, not through gas taxes, but through every other tax I pay. Freeway users get a free ride. They don't even come close to paying a corrected users fee for their use, and instead rely on massive tax inputs from the general fund to pay for all those gold-plated roads. That's right, our state's and our nation's wealth has been squandered in excessive road building, and to fix our budget crisis we'll build some more.

Consider this scenario: A young couple, Clara the graphics designer and Nathan the regional sales manager have just closed on their first house in Lincoln, now that prices are down. Lincoln sure is nice, they think to themselves, nice place to raise our future family, but it sure is too bad that Nathan has to drive nine miles to get to the freeway and another fifteen to get to work in Sacramento. But the roads sure are nice, and with the 65 bypass coming by 2011 it'll be even nicer. Clara realizes that their new family will have absolutely zero tax liability this year, they won't have to pay for any of this new roadbuilding, because they'll get $15,000 in tax credits that they won't have to pay back. They feel a little bad for their neighbors Albert and Claudia who bough in 2008 and will have to pay back their measly $8,000 credit, and who also paid about 10% more because home prices are still falling. But they don't feel bad for long! Nope! In fact, they feel so good, they go out and buy Nathan a new commuter rig, a Durango, just in case they feel like taking the kids up to the snow. They saved a bundle, too, with being able to write off all the California state sales tax they paid thanks to the Obama plan. In fact, they now saved so much, and with gasoline so cheap, they're going to take a few "grown-up" trips this year, across freeways they didn't have to pay for, to the new recently built hotel forty nine miles to the west. You know, the one on former Indian Native American land, the one with the casino inside.

"Isn't life a dream?" Clara asks Nathan as they cruise the freeway to the casino. "It feels like a dream, an absolute, never ending American dream!"