[Morrigoon]

I think you could get away with increasing taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. It'll cause an outcry, but not a strong enough one to stop it. I know I'm a jerk for suggesting it, but there you go.

Junk food, on the other hand, is in many cases the cheapest food available, so raise the prices on that and you've just made food for the poor more expensive. While execs can afford to lunch in sit-down restaurants that serve soups and lovely salads, the poor often run to McDonald's, etc.

I do wonder what the method behind this madness is. Are they trying to soften us up for approving something, or are they trying to get special interests riled up to help them get funds on a federal level? The optimist in me wants to think that's what's behind it. I don't know that it is, but I hope so. It'd be nice if the nation could toss us a freaking bone, since their closures of the bases sent CA into troubles that pretty much never left us, even in the good times.