Animal Farm: A Modern Parody

The swine that politicians are, has led to a resurgence of an infectious disease they carry and unleash on the public from time to time. 

Known as the”Washington Monument Syndrome,” it has cycles, like many pandemics, rising and falling with the economic tides.

As the economy slips, and tax revenues decline, the pigs in government start nervously pawing the barn floor. They know they are beholden to their Farmers, the Union Bosses. They know it is their job to protect the Farmer’s income. Any oinking the Farmer overhears that includes cuts to firefighters, police, teachers or any other unionized government worker enrages the Farmer and he forces the pigs to watch him sharpen his axe in preparation for the slaughter.

This sends the pigs into a squealing panic, their fear of falling under the axe is too great and they all agree to work together to protect the Farmer’s income. The Farmer takes so much of their income though that the only way to continue paying him is to raise taxes on the Humans. They know the Humans will be angered by this and might rise against the pigs, bringing their own axes to the Farm.

The pigs meet at the trough, and agree that they must incite fear in the population. They release their plague.

The Washington Monument Syndrome

The Washington Monument Syndrome is the name of a political tactic used by bureaucrats when faced with reductions in the rate of projected increases in budget or actual budget cuts. The most visible and most appreciated service that is provided by that entity is the first to be put on the chopping block. The name derives from the National Park Service’s habit of saying that any cuts to its projected increases would lead to an immediate closure of the wildly popular (and not very expensive to maintain) Washington Monument. ~Wikipedia

• May of 2009, Schwarzenegger threatened to close 220 parks. This would save $143 million in a $24 billion budget gap, or roughly close only 0.6% of the gap.
• October of 2009, the very popular Orange County Fairgrounds are officially put up for sale by the state. In January, an outlet mall developer wins the highest bid of $56.5 million, closing only 0.3% of the current $20 billion budget gap. This sale is not yet final, voice your opinion by contacting Sacramento to stop the sale.

Closing parks? Selling off popular public lands? Why are politicians so spiteful of their constituents? Why do they work so hard to please the Unions? What’s next? The only thing worse they could do is close the prisons and let the prisoners run free…at least they would never do that…right?

• January of 2008, Schwarzenegger proposes to close the budget gap by releasing 22,000 inmates from prison and making cuts to the state prison budget system, threatening a “politically powerful” union where 1 in 10 union members make over $100,000 a year, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA).
• August of 2009, the federal government orders California to release 40,000 individuals from prison due to overcrowding, based on a nine-year old class-action lawsuit from 2001. It’s not a coincidence that a threatened cut to a powerful union’s budget suddenly led to the enforcement of a nine-year old lawsuit adding pressure to the politicians to raise taxes and build more prisons and hire more guards rather than release tens of thousands of prisoners into the public, or reduce the wages and benefits of the CCPOA?
  • One of the first prisoners released committed an attempted rape within hours of gaining his freedom.

The politicians use this tactic to bring the public to its knees and agree to increased taxes. New taxes to keep our parks open, new taxes to prevent the sale of cherished public properties, new taxes to keep criminals from being released to walk among us.

The reality is, the new taxes are to keep the unions intact, to ensure that their bloated salaries, healthcare and guaranteed retirement benefits remain unaffected. As I have said in prior posts, the Unions will spend millions of dollars and fight like a cornered racoon to prevent even the threat of any cuts in their quality of life.

If that means closing your parks, selling your public properties and letting violent prisoners free to commit new crimes on your family…to the unions, that’s okay.

Categories: Gov't Workers & Unions

Tags: animal farm, California budget, CCPOA, mount rushmore syndrome, pensions, sacramento, taxes, unions, washington monument syndrome