It would appear that the Governor is prepared to draw a line in the sand over whether the payroll and income tax increases that he proposes as part of his government-mandated healthcare proposal are, in fact, taxes!

The plan, in an of itself, is a repudiation of a lot of rhetoric that we have heard from Arnold Schwarzenegger going back to well before his election as Governor, as he has touted himself as a strong advocate of the free-market system. You can ask any of the centers of free-market thought from around the United States — the Cato Institute, the Foundation on Economic Education, the Heritage Foundation, the Reason Foundation, the Pacific Research Institute, the Claremont Foundation, and even our friends at the Wall Street Journal — I have personally spoken with or corresponded with folks from all of these bastions of free-market thought — and they are consistent with their opposition to the Governor’s proposal.

That said, the Governor apparently seems intent to refuse to allow the tax increases that would pull in billions of dollars in coerced revenue into state coffers to actually be called taxes. Governor, we have news for… Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court has just announced it has decided to accept the appeal in Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC and John McCain this term and it has established a briefing schedule. The case involves review of a lower Federal Court case that emasculates regulation of issue-oriented speech during pre-election periods in Federal elections that mentions candidate’s names, but does not contain "express advocacy." If the Supreme Court upholds the lower Federal court decision, the so-called "McCain-Feingold" law regulating Section 527 political committees will largely be gutted.… Read More

It would appear that the Governor is prepared to draw a line in the sand over whether the payroll and income tax increases that he proposes as part of his government-mandated healthcare proposal are, in fact, taxes!

The plan, in an of itself, is a repudiation of a lot of rhetoric that we have heard from Arnold Schwarzenegger going back to well before his election as Governor, as he has touted himself as a strong advocate of the free-market system. You can ask any of the centers of free-market thought from around the United States — the Cato Institute, the Foundation on Economic Education, the Heritage Foundation, the Reason Foundation, the Pacific Research Institute, the Claremont Foundation, and even our friends at the Wall Street Journal — I have personally spoken with or corresponded with folks from all of these bastions of free-market thought — and they are consistent with their opposition to the Governor’s proposal.

That said, the Governor apparently seems intent to refuse to allow the tax increases that would pull in billions of dollars in coerced revenue into state coffers to actually be called taxes. Governor, we have news for… Read More

My friend Grover Norquist passes this on from the White House office of Public Liaison:

Please join a special White House Conference Call on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 4:30 P.M.

We are pleased to announce that Monday’s call will feature Karl Rove who will give a preview of the President’s State of the Union Address. The call-in information is as follows:

Phone Number: 888-552-8613

Participant Code: 7759471

Leader Name: Tim Phelps… Read More

FR friend Ron Nehring (pictured to the right), the incoming Chairman of the California Republican Party in just a few weeks, is out in Washington, D.C. for the Winter meeting of the Republican National Committee. There, the RNC members are gathered to elect new officers for the 2007-2008 term. Here is Ron’s "live" report, received literally moments ago: California’s Tim Morgan, Republican National Committeeman and CRP Rules Committee Chairman, was moments ago elected Treasurer of the Republican National Committee by acclamation here in Washington, D.C. The RNC is meeting here at the Grand Hyatt for its bi-annual organizational meeting. Among the… Read More

Today the Governor made21 more appointments into State Government — 12 Republicans,5 Democrats and4 Decline-To-State (we hope this ismore of a trend…):

Assemblyman Todd Sptizer, when accepting the Legislator of the Year Award from the Orange County Republican Party last Monday night, gave a heartfelt speech. In it, he recounted to the hundreds present about his disappointment over the Governor’s Inaugural address. Click here to hop over to Red County/OC Blog, where Matt Cunningham has posted the video. It’s worth taking the two minutes to watch. To Spitzer I say, "Here, here."… Read More

If you are a denizen of the State Capitol and happen to come across State Senator Tom Harman, I’m quite certain there will be a broad smile on his face. Today, Dana Point City Councilwoman Diane Harkey threw her hat into the ring for the 73rd State Assembly District GOP primary, in a bid to succeed Assemblywoman Mimi Walters in this safe Republican legislative district in south Orange County. Harkey ran a valiant and conservative campaign against then Assemblyman Tom Harman in a special election when former State Senator John Campbell was elected to Congress in a special election to replace Christopher Cox, who was tapped by the President to head up the Securities and Exchange Commission (whew, that was a long sentence). Harman, who also ran on conservative themes won that special election, though it is clear to those of us who follow such things that Harman benefited (as he did in his first legislative election) from the ‘open primary’ nature of the election, where Democrats… Read More