A tax tidal wave is coming to California. And almost certainly to most other states. The only questions are how soon and how big. For California, it will be sooner rather than later, and bigger rather than smaller. And if you think California taxes are high now, just wait.

One silver lining in the dark coronavirus cloud is the revival of federalism, the old-fashioned idea that not every issue has to be decided in Washington. While most every policy issue—from education to health care and beyond—has traveled a one-way road from states and local governments to Washington, the coronavirus crisis rediscovered a leadership role for state and local government.

Hoover Institution fellow Scott Atlas discusses the coronavirus’s high spread and low risk to most people is “good news” because “that means that we have a better chance of developing population immunity.” 

The payments in the response to the coronavirus mark another instance of Congress voting to deliver money directly to households. The checks are poorly targeted to the task at hand, which is not so much to stimulate the economy, impossible when business is shuttered by state mandate, but to provide households in need with the resources to pay their bills and meet essential needs until the crisis passes.