“Look, we’re pro-condiment, we’re pro-fruit, but the focus needs to be on the budget crisis”

This is what it’s come to in California, where years and years of outrageous spending and taxing have driven the state into the ground. Some legislators apparently are unphased by the massive debacle and continue to act as if it’s business as usual. From CBS 13:

“The governor is not against condiments. The governor’s not against fruits of any kind,” said spokesman Aaron McLear. “But he believes we ought to be focused on solving our budget crisis first and foremost.”

Assembly bill 606 creates a commission to serve the marketing interests of the blueberry industry. Another bill defines “honey” to mean the natural food product resulting from the harvest of nectar by honey bees, and a third bill adopts regulations establishing definitions and standards for 100-percent pomegranate juice.

“Look, we’re pro-condiment, we’re pro-fruit, but the focus needs to be on the budget crisis,” McLear said.

Meantime, here in North Carolina, making statutes gender-neutral is considered by some to be important work even as the governor and legislative budget writers prepare to impose onerous, misguided tax hikes on a state that may see 13 percent unemployment by first quarter 2010.

In this interview, JLF’s Joe Coletti explains why Gov. Perdue’s most recent tax hike proposal is a very, very bad idea.