California wants my Dart...

Actually.............
The whole issue began in California because the state couldn't keep up the numbers.
The federal gov wanted California to repay and when they refused the Pentagon wanted payback.
So..................
California caused this mess and the rest of this country had to clean it up.
BTW, not all of those bonus' were forgiven. There are still 600 pending.
I'm not even going to get into the fairness of the bonus' in the first place.
California is a beautiful state, for the most part, but you couldn't get me to live there if you gave me the property.
Too many people there with sticks up their butts. The same stick they got hit in the head with prior to being staved up said butt.

"California" didn't cause the mess. Primarily one person in the California National Guard did, and that person went to prison. Not only that, but California wasn't the only state where the overpayments happened. It just has one of the larger National Guard rosters, so, it had more people in the program and a larger total to splash on the news headlines.
Pentagon Halts Effort To Take Back Signing Bonuses Paid To National Guard Members