Word: nationalism
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States across the nation are suffering the effects of lost tax revenue in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. California's woes are similar and different in kind, played out on a grand scale in a state that boasts the world's eighth largest economy and a Hollywood star in the lead role. After voters rejected a slew of convoluted budget-balancing measures, the governor has proposed cuts to programs that would make California more like a struggling Third World state than 21st century America: welfare subsistence benefits would end, 1 million poor children would lose health care...
...California faces a $25 billion budget shortfall, which it must resolve by July 1, the state is on the brink of financial disaster, and ripples from its fiscal collapse could adversely affect both the nation's economic rebound and, potentially, the Federal Government's credit status. The Republican governor and GOP legislators say they will not raise taxes, especially after Schwarzenegger and six Republican legislators joined a budget deal with Democrats in February that combined deep cuts and $12.8 billion in higher taxes. Now the budget shortfall has spiked again as state tax receipts have dropped 27% from a year...
...fail. "A fiscal meltdown by California ... would surely destabilize the U.S., if not worldwide financial markets," state treasurer Bill Lockyer wrote U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on May 13. Yet experts say such action by the Federal Government, while not a bailout, could possibly endanger the nation's AAA credit rating. Without short-term assistance, California could plunge deeper into chaos and become a drag on the nation's economic recovery. (The Page: "California Budget Deadlock Broken...
...campaign reflects widespread disillusionment with the nation's young democracy just nine years after Mexico ended seven decades of one-party rule. Like Eastern Europeans, Mexicans hoped that opening up their political system would bring them better-paid jobs and safer streets. Instead, they have seen a wave of kidnappings, daily shoot-outs among drug gunmen and crowds of jobless; this year some analysts predict that the economy will shrink by more than 8%, the worst drop since the Great Depression. (Read about why Mexico's tourist industry seems cursed...
Amid these difficulties, elected politicians appear increasingly useless at providing any solutions. TV bulletins have even shown federal lawmakers swinging at one another in fistfights in Congress. Voters are also furious at their representatives' six-figure salaries in a nation where the minimum wage is $5 a day. And while video evidence has shown prominent politicians stacking wads of dollar bills into briefcases or extorting businessmen, the same candidates keep beating the courts and getting back on the ballot. For the voto en blanco movement, Mexico has swung from dictatorship to a kleptocracy. One YouTube video for the campaign shows...