CA budget crunch

Bill Maher mock folks who want something for nothing:

Obama should solve global warming by working a little harder in his secret White House lab and coming up with a car that runs on seawater and emits gold doubloons.... This is why our founders wanted a representative democracy, because they knew that if you give the average guy the chance, he'll vote for a fantasy world with no taxes and free beer.

Whether representative democracy is any better than direct democracy is an open question---see, e.g., Medicare Part D, the prescription-drug benefit that was added in 2003 without any funding source.