A Higher Tax on All Your Houses

Proposition 13 must be changed because it mainly benefits the rich -- most of whom are now running for governor, it would seem. The proposition was sold as salvation for poor widows, but the law makes no distinction between commercial and residential properties, thereby artificially lowering the tax on profitable enterprises. Leave the tax break for homeowners with low and fixed incomes, but Buffett is right -- guys like him should pay more taxes than they do.

Hard-line ideological Republicans have tried for three decades to strangle the money supplies of states and municipalities to force cuts in services: public schools open to every child, even the disabled; public transit and roads; clean air and water; public safety and health; emergency preparedness; a functioning judicial system; recreation areas and parks.

Buffett is apparently smart enough to know he is only able to enjoy life in Laguna Beach because massive government expenditures over the last century brought water, electricity and freeways to the parched semi-desert of Orange County.

Last week's blackout in the Northeast and Canada showed us what happens when we cheat on public expenditures. From the brownouts endured by California at the hands of manipulative corporations like Enron to the Third World state of the nation's power grids, we are witnessing a meltdown of our underfunded and deregulated infrastructure.

The White House continues to throw billions into fixing Iraq's power and water infrastructure but ignores the U.S.' own massive problems. Perhaps the U.S. should consider invading itself. At home, the GOP mantra has long been that if you can get government out of the energy business, everything will be hunky-dory. That is a false view that dominates Bush's ideology.

We don't need to recall Davis, who is not the problem. We do need to re-create a political culture where the role of government is respected and properly funded.