Democrats and the California Drought

Enjoying the drought, Californians? If so, be sure to show your gratitude by continuing to support Democrats. Dianne Feinstein temporarily went wobbly on imposing the worst effects of the drought, but hardcore moonbats like Obama and Barbara Boxer have her back in line:

On Monday House Republicans debated a bill crafted in part by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and supported by Rep. Jim Costa that would provide a short-term salve to Californians south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The White House has threatened to veto the bill, which will be voted on Tuesday.

Ms. Feinstein disowned her ideas after environmental groups and Sen. Barbara Boxer expressed outrage at negotiating with Republicans.

No moderation is allowed in today’s Democrat Party. Only pedal to the metal leftism is permitted, no matter how disastrous the consequences for constituents.

According to a study in an American Geophysical Union journal, California is in the throes of the most severe drought in 12 centuries. Portable showers and jugs of water have been delivered to communities in the parched Central Valley, where more than 400,000 acres of farmland this year were left fallow.

When allowed to by leftist politicians, California’s Central Valley produces an outsized percentage of food for the whole country.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported that fresh fruit prices have increased 6.6% since October 2013 in part because of the drought. By the estimates of the University of California, Davis, the drought will cost the state $2.2 billion in economic output and 17,100 jobs. In September the unemployment rate was 9.7% in San Joaquin County and 9.5% in Fresno County.

Well done, Obama and Boxer! The higher the unemployment rate, the greater the government dependence. Why should all the Democrats in California live on the coast?

Here’s how Democrats make the drought so much worse than it needs to be:

Federal regulators are limiting water pumping south from the delta to protect salmon and smelt. This last winter, 1.8 million acre feet of water—enough to sustain 1.8 million families and irrigate about 450,000 acres of farmland—was flushed into San Francisco Bay. That’s in addition to 4.4 million acre-feet that are diverted annually to environmental uses including salmon restoration.

Water pumping is largely limited by federal agency “biological opinions” protecting endangered species, but regulators retain some discretion. Yet the Department of Interior is the rare Obama agency that refuses to use it.

That’s because under Obama, discretion is always used to tighten the ligature of Big Government around our necks, never to loosen it.

Thus the House legislation would require regulators to operate the delta’s pumps toward the maximum range allowed by law “unless current scientific data indicate” that less “is necessary to avoid a negative impact on the long-term survival of the listed species.” Regulators then must cite data and explain the “connection between those data and the choice” to restrict pumping.

No destroying livelihoods and depriving people of water and therefore food on behalf of fish unless you can prove it is actually helping the fish. But that is far too reasonable for Democrats to agree to. So instead the Central Valley will be reduced to a dustbowl.

If terrorists deprived California of water in service to Allah, everyone would recognize it as an act of war. But when comparably malevolent Democrats do it in service to radical environmentalists, people shrug and go along with it. Yet the result is the same.

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The future of the Central Valley under liberal rule.

On a tip from Varla. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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