The federal government took a total of $255.9 billion in taxes from Californians last year, and returned $195.7 billion in spending. That means the state's relationship with Uncle Sam cost Californians a net $60.2 billion -- a deficit that far outstrips the highly publicized $38 billion state budget shortfall that this year inspired a recall election for Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
Only five states did worse than California in their relationship with the federal government: New Jersey (which got back 62 cents for every dollar it paid in federal taxes), Connecticut (65 cents), New Hampshire (66 cents), Nevada (74 cents), and Massachusetts (75 cents).
Even so, federal spending in California makes the state budget look like peanuts. The state's recently enacted budget calls for about $99 billion in spending. That is only a bit more than half of the $195.7 billion the federal government spent in California last year.
Tellingly, according to Moody's report, that $195.7 billion included $59.3 billion in federal retirement (Social Security) and disability payments and $45.2 billion in other direct payments to individuals. The federal welfare state in California is bigger than the state's indigenous budget.
This is not what the Founders intended when they crafted a constitution for a federal republic that strictly limited the powers of the central government.
California is no longer a sovereign state so much as a politician's piggybank. It is a place where both local and federal officeholders can raid the earnings of productive people to finance a welfare state that nurtures the allegiance of voters by rendering them dependent on government largesse.
What we are seeing now is a revolt by California's productive taxpaying classes. If they see their enemies clearly, they won't stop at removing Gray Davis. They will also remove the Democrats they have sent to Congress, who have squandered far more of their money than Davis could ever dream of.