When I say "they" I am talking about government bureaucrats. In California, the Democrat-led legislature is just DYING to increase taxes. It wants to be like New York with these iPod taxes and massage taxes .. anything that they can do to get their hands on more of your money. And for months, the Republicans in California have blocked efforts to increase taxes.

Until now... the Democrats in the California legislature have decided that since they can't have their tax increases, they will just call them something else: "fees." By calling them "fees" rather than "taxes", there is a loophole in the law that will let the legislature increase "fees" with a simple majority vote - rather than the typical two-thirds. This is straight from the Barack Obama play book .. let's not call it "welfare" we'll call them "tax cuts"! You get the idea.

So these Democrats will be able to increase the state sales tax by three-fourths of a cent. Gas taxes will increase by 13.5 cents a gallon. There will be a 2.5% surcharge added to income taxes. New taxes will be aimed at the oil companies.

All of this .. because the Democrats can just change the language.