Az boycott would hurt Cal

by CalWatchdog Staff | May 1, 2010 11:23 pm

Just when you thought state politicians couldn’t harm California any more, they’ve come up with a scheme to boycott Arizona businesses and governments that do business in California. But one of the reasons America is so prosperous is because we enjoy a vast free-trade zone of 307 million people.

The federal government manages trade among the states and, despite its many idiocies, pretty much has allowed free trade to flourish. Its operations, good and bad, affect everybody the same way. It’s one of the few areas of the Constitution the feds still follow. If a state has a gripe, it doesn’t take revenge itself, but takes its gripe to the feds.

In pushing for a boycott of Arizona[1]:

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, proposed this week breaking existing contracts and allowing no new ones between California and any businesses or government entities in Arizona until leaders there repeal the recently passed anti-illegal-immigration law….

He also said he would not “do anything that would hurt the California economy,” though he would not say that any business with California ties would be exempted.

But his whole career has been to hurt the California economy: wild spending, wild debting, wild taxing. He bears a large responsibility for the departure of businesses and jobs from this state, and the high unemployment rate of 12.6 percent — almost 3 points higher than the 9.7 percent U.S. unemployment rate.

“We need to look at our economic relationships with Arizona and where we believe we can influence in any legitimate way a repeal of this law,” Steinberg said, adding, “if there is some impact on California, we will have to balance that.”

How is he possibly going to “balance that”? Invade Arizona and loot its treasury?

If this law passes and the governor signs it, it will be just another signal to the world that California is an insane state that doesn’t keep its contracts, and will retaliate if it doesn’t like your policies. So: Stay clear. And don’t come here and start a business because the crazy state government will just make your life miserable.

And get this. The Sacramento Bee article quoted above goes on:

The largest single contractor on the initial state list of Arizona companies is Lenovo Direct, a Chinese computer company with U.S. headquarters in Morrisville, N.C. In the past year, California had almost $3.4 million in contracts with the company, which used a Tempe address, according to state records.

I don’t favor any boycotts. But if there is to be one, wouldn’t it make more sense to boycott China itself, because, although it’s now capitalist economically, it continues to perpetrate many human rights abuses, such as the ongoing occupation and destruction if Tibet[2]?

Steinberg and the rest of the State Capitol Gang are so nutty that it wouldn’t surprise me if they built a wall across the Arizona border, preventing anybody from coming in or out.

They could put a bond to pay for it on the November ballot, calling it “The Jobs Creation Act of 2010” because thousands would be employed constructing it. They even could hire some of the old engineers from the construction of the Berlin Wall[3] to make sure it’s done right. And they could hire some retired Stasi [4]officers to advise the state on how to make sure no Californians cross the border into Arizona without the right papers.

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2010/05/01/az-boycott-would-hurt-cal/

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