Welcome to the (Welfare) Hotel California

Did you know that while California has 12 percent of the nation's population, it has the dubious distinction of having 32 percent of the nation's welfare recipients?

No wonder it has budget problems.

Senate candidate Chuck DeVore goes into some detail on his website with some cool graphs and some pithy warnings for the rest of America.

It is often said that California is a window onto America's future. Well, with a heavy tax and regulatory burden, a new greenhouse gas emissions law, and rapidly growing welfare rolls, perhaps America should pay close attention to the Golden State's mistakes. This email details the extent of California's burgeoning welfare rolls.

The state's biggest problem? It never enacted welfare-to-work reform which went into effect nationwide in 1996. (Sadly Congress undid welfare reform with the stimulus bill, so the California experience may become ours.)

In other words, "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."