- We want to draw the attention of all FR readers to the great profile of our site by Mike Zapler of MediaNews. It tops the main news page today, and we penned some additional thoughts on it here.
- Today, Jon Coupal pens an outstanding piece for us on the state budget impasse. It is important for everyone to read, and to forward along. The liberals will try to spin the state budget holdup as being about "obstructionist Republicans" when this is really a battle for meaningful, structural reform in how California spends money. I spoke with State Senator Bob Margett last night, and he reminded me that it is about budget forecasts for future years, and the need to make important changes now to lower the projected deficits in outlying years.
- On that note, we’d like to commend State Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman for standing tall, leading his caucus to a place of relevancy in state budget negotiations. Those who are advocates of maintaining the big-government, big-spending status quo in Sacramento would prefer to have a budget passed that does not make structural reforms. The Governor proposed a budget that shied away from tackling these issues, and Assembly Republicans made a judgment call that shaving off spending and getting some tax relief was the best they could get and they put up 9 votes to pass the current budget. Of course, two things are different now — Assembly Republicans now know their tax relief package was killed in the liberal State Senate, and they now know the resolve of Senate Republicans. I’d bank on Assembly Republicans returning to Sacramento in a week ready to stand tall with their Senate brethren.
- The scourge of the pork-barrel mentality of the House of Representatives has helped to plummet the public’s sentiments about Congress to a dramatic low. And who can blame them? It’s not just Democrats but Republicans as well that have embraced a terrible system where Members of Congress all push for these massive "earmark" projects that in so many cases are egregious and clearly a waste of taxpayer dollars. Our dual Golden Pen winners today, on the main page, are John Fund from the Wall Street Journal and Townhall.com’s Bob Novak — who both write about this terrible malaise that has infected Congress. Once upon a time, there were appropriate requests from Congress to augment the budget with additional items — but now it has become such an epidemic that it is overshadowing everything else that is happening on Capitol Hill. The Club for Growth has their new "RePORK" card out looking at how all of the House Members voted on 50 specific opportunities to cut egregious pieces of pork from spending bills. We’ll be highlighting California’s four top scoring Congressmen, and more, as we publish a California look at the results of this report (look for that tomorrow or Wednesday).
Have a great day!
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