>Why should I agree to abolish taxes on business so that when you buy a new car, I'm directly absorbing some of your tax burden? I suppose you could do it all as a sales tax, but what about business to business sales. Should there be a tax on that?

Actually, you don't subsidize any tax burden if you don't buy the car. The tax is paid by those who do. I repeat, business' do not pay tax. It is an operating expense passed on to the consumer. It is a hidden tax for those who consume.

>Interestingly enough, Pennsylvania also has deregulated

It wasn't really deregulation. The price utility companies must pay for power are not regulated, but retail rates to the consumer are regulated. Therefore, power companies cannot adjust rates to market conditions. When power companies must pay more for power than they can charge the customer, a problem (now being experienced in California) arises.

>Based on that, I'd say the problem is that the for-profit power companies didn't plan well...

They were unable to plan, because the government prevented them from building new power plants, and prevented them from negotiating long-term rates from other suppliers. The government forced them to buy at ongoing spot-market prices, which fluctuate. The power companies have noo control over that aspect of the problem. Now the state government wants to do what it would not allow the power companies to do.

This is all factual information. No political ideology or finger-pointing will help. Californians must pay like everybody else, or sit in the dark.