California has a budget. Too bad.

I’m delighted to know that I will not be getting my California tax refund in the form of an IOU.  California has a budget.

My only issue with the entire empasse is a simple one.   It’s not really a “Budget” problem.  It’s a “Spending” problem.  Even before the current economic problems, the California legislature was growing expenses by 5 times inflation.

The 2008-2009 budget is 35% larger than the 2004-2005 budget.  Accumulated inflation over that time period accounts for only 7%, leading to an increase in real dollars of over 25%.  So despite the fact that revenues have grown by 22%, more than three times inflation, we’re still faced with the problem.

The problem is we can’t stop bribing ourselves with our own money.

The state deficit is only part of the bigger self-bribery picture.  More on the Federal Debt later, but suffice it to say that it currently stands at $37,851 for every man, woman, and child in America as of February 19th, 2009.  It’s also over 75% of GDP.

But to make it more real, the average household has 2.59 members, making the Federal Debt per Household $98,034.  Hey, let’s just say you owe $100,000.  Your average yearly income per household is $50,233.  So, you owe twice as much as you make in a year.  Just send it in over the next two years, please.  Because the latest stimulus package is going to add another $10,000 to your bill.