Illegal Immigration: Lately, our Republican leadership has been offering amendments on the floor to a number of bills that were clearly going to pass on the subject of illegal immigration. This is not surprising. What is surprising is that they almost always pass. Last week, an amendment to a Section 8 (government) subsidized housing bill would require that applicantsfor such housing show some proof of citizenship before they can obtain a subsidy. This clearly makes sense as we should not be giving such benefits to those who are here illegally. This amendment passed by a vote of 233-186 because virtually all Republicans and nearly 50 Democrats voted for it. We’ll see whether this amendment remains in the bill through the Senate and a conference committee. But, if there is a majority in the House for such measures, might there not be that same majority for a broader enforcement-first immigration bill? The problem is that no bill even… Read More

For those legislators thinking about voting for the 2007 – 2008 budget, I could spent a lot of time listing out programs in it that simply represent the worst of centralized state planning and control.

But today I was made aware of what would have to be the worst "poison pill" of the whole bunch.

In the budget is an increase of $18.9 million in funds from the General Fund for the "Medi-Cal Minor Consent Program." This money, and I am dead serious here, is to fund abortion services for the minor children of illegal aliens. The program specifically PROHIBITS contacting parents for consent, and has never asked for verification of citizenship.

As a matter of fact, this is not a new program, but the cost of it is shifting to the state because new federal guidelines require proof of citizenship.

So as you cast a budget vote, you are funding what we are called the "Trifecta" (no documentation, no notification, for abortion). I just couldn’t cast that vote. Just the thought of the program existing, quite frankly, makes me nauseous.… Read More

This just came over from State Senator Tom McClintock, pardon any odd formatting as I am posting it up from my Blackberry….

ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS COLLAPSING ON BUDGET TONIGHT! THE VOTE IS SCHEDULED FOR 8:15 PM TONIGHT. PLEASE CONTACT ASSEMBLY AND SENATE REPUBLICAN OFFICES AND DEMAND THAT THEY HOLD FIRM FOR A BALANCED BUDGET. The Assembly is convening tonight to adopt another seriously out-of-balance state budget (SB 77). Worse, it sets in motion obligations that will cause a catastrophic shortfall for the following year. And worst of all, it plans on continuing the process of “escheat,” in which the state controller loots safe deposit boxes, retirement and college funds – any assets that are idle for just three years – to deposit in the general fund. Even though a federal court has ordered them temporarily to halt this practice, they are still counting on resuming it – or having taxpayers pick up the difference. Because it takes a 2/3 vote to adopt the budget, Republicans can hold firm to demand what they promised California – a state government that lives within its means. If this budget is adopted as it now stands, it will be due entirely to… Read More

An update for the night-owls, the Assembly Republican Caucus is now meeting and legislators are ‘locked in’ which means there is likely a budget vote immenent. We’ll see what happens..… Read More

There seems to be a little bit of confusion about the resolution passed by the CRP Board last Friday relative to GOP voters and the GOP Presidential Primary. So let me try to clarify. Back in the 2000 election cycle, when John McGraw was Chairman of the Party, the party amended its bylaws with a new system of selecting delegates to Republican National Conventions. Up to that point, since 1976, California’s GOP delegates were determined using a "winner-take-all" method where whomever got the most votes statewide was awarded all of the delegates (this was put into place in 1976 to help ensure that then-favorite son Ronald Reagan would carry the entire delegation in his primary bid against President Ford). The new rules for the GOP, which did not go into effect until after the 2000 cycle, are "winner-take-all-by-Congressional District" and they set up a system where three delegates are awarded in each House seat, to the GOP candidate who garners the plurality of the vote in each. A small number of statewide delegate positions are still awarded based on the statewide vote. This new system was rendered moot in the 2004 cycle because… Read More

Is there never a tragedy that doesn’t require a new law? It is almost funny how quickly legislators—at both the state and federal level—have to put out a press release announcing a new law after some individual tragedy. Such is the case with the death of 4-year-old Carlos Alejandro Flores at the Great America amusement park in San Jose last week. Despite the fact that Great America has announced that children shorter than 4 feet twill now be required to wear life vests in all of its 17 locations nationwide, State Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, says that she plans to introduce legislation to address the problem. Her bill would legally require children under 4 feet to were life vests at amusement parks, set a mandatory ratio of lifeguards to swimmers and require that young children not be left unattended. The key to this sad situation is that the 4-year-old boy was left unattended. We can pass a law to require parents to say with their young… Read More

There seems to be a little bit of confusion about the resolution passed by the CRP Board last Friday relative to GOP voters and the GOP Presidential Primary. So let me try to clarify. Back in the 2000 election cycle, when John McGraw was Chairman of the Party, the party amended its bylaws with a new system of selecting delegates to Republican National Conventions. Up to that point, since 1976, California’s GOP delegates were determined using a "winner-take-all" method where whomever got the most votes statewide was awarded all of the delegates (this was put into place in 1976 to help ensure that then-favorite son Ronald Reagan would carry the entire delegation in his primary bid against President Ford). The new rules for the GOP, which did not go into effect until after the 2000 cycle, are "winner-take-all-by-Congressional District" and they set up a system where three delegates are awarded in each House seat, to the GOP candidate who garners the plurality of the vote in each. A small number of statewide delegate positions are still awarded based on the statewide vote. This new system was rendered moot in the 2004 cycle because… Read More

Thanks to this great chart produced by the Senate Republican Caucus, it is really easy to visualize the significant growth in the state budget and in state spending between last year’s budget and the budget proposed by the Democrats for next year (those numbers below are in millions, so add six zeroes to each)…

It appears they have "Potomac Fever" because they once again are using double-speak. It is easy to see that Democrats want to massively increase spending, and are accusing the Republicans of wanting to cut spending. The reality is that the Republicans are simply proposing LESS OF AN INCREASE. Actually, we should have actual cuts, and a lot of them, give the largesse in the budget. But clearly, in this case, the Democrats are whores for any increased spending, and the Republicans are being very modest in their efforts to apply a degree of fiscal discipline to state finaces.… Read More