Sign of the Times: Arthur Laffer Reverses Jed Clampett’s Trek

California legislators were slapping themselves on the back last week for having passed a $35 billion infrastructure bond measure that will go before the voters in November. Predictions filled the air that all the building would spur job creation. Aides to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger say his success in pushing the bond package may help seal his re-election this year.

But one of the 16 members of Mr. Schwarzenegger’s council of economic advisers isn’t nearly as optimistic. Supply-side economist Arthur Laffer says the biggest threat to the national economy — which… Read More

Woodie Guthrie’s communistic song must be sung by the planning czars on the West ide of Los Angeles. They recently had to back down on a permit granted to a Christian School thatlimited the school toonly secular educations during the week. See the article here.But there is a catch. You have to read it to believe it. the city may require a reduction in enrollment if the school can’t get the carpool ratio of 2.5 children per driver.

My solution: The school should rent some Hummers and tell the carpool goons they have 6-8 in a car.… Read More

I was talking with a friend of mine — a very educated, articulate conservative — a couple of weeks ago about Governor Schwarzenegger‘s re-election. The topic: why should we care if the Governor returns for another four years?

Now, this is an odd conversation for two politically active conservatives to have. I want to care. I want to want to support the Governor‘s re-election.

It‘s more than the standard divide between conservative and moderate Republicans. Governor Pete Wilson always managed to bridge that divide somehow, even in the wake of Ron Unz‘s 1994 primary challenge. Wilson‘s people could ultimately boil it down to, "Hey, we know conservative don‘t like that the Governor‘s pro-choice and he signed a huge tax increase, but he‘s… Read More

Circulation of the Los Angeles Times continues to drop! Except for an editorial they ran by me on Feb. 14. See it here. I don’t read the Times like I used too. I stopped paying for the paper after they went after the Boy Scouts.

Below is the a post from LA ObservedThe funny part is the Times spin that they aren’t spending as much on students. They wouldn’t want young people to get hookes on the Times at an early age. That may help circulation! Beside you have to be 21 to drink alcohol.

Circulation drops again * The Los Angeles Times lost another 5.4% of its print readers in the March-to-March comparison, falling to 851,832 daily copies sold. Other local papers are not included in today’s media coverage so far. USA Today, the New York Times and even the Chicago Tribune were up slightly, but most of the country’s big metro papers shed readers—the national circulation erosion is being put at 2.2%. For the Times, at… Read More

This morning I spoke with Eric Roach, the top-vote getting conservative in last month’s special election in the 50th Congressional District. So let me be the first to share some unfortunate news (unless you are a big-spending Republican).

It is with great sadness that I share with you the news that after much consideration, Eric Roach has decided not to actively campaign for Congress in the regular GOP primary in the 50th Congressional District. Eric would have been an outstanding candidate who I personally think could have cleaned liberal/moderate GOPer Brian Bilbray’s clock in that GOP only primary and gone on to win election to the full two-year term in November. (Bilbray was the top GOP vote-getting in the special election to fulfill the rest of Duke Cunningham’s term, but his margin of victory was so slight that it is a foregone conclusion that he won with the votes of non-Republicans).

I believe that Eric Roach knew he could win that primary, which is what makes it that much more frustrating and unfortunate that he has decided not to run.

In addition to having a private conversation with Roach this morning, I also spoke to Roach’s… Read More

In his Saturday commentary, Jon Fleischman shared the fact that he is struggling to be enthusiastic about Congress when as he writes, “our record is presiding over the growth of government.”I know the conservative base shares these same concerns.Well as the newest member of Congress and the newest fiscal conservative in Congress, I am not happy about the way Congress spends your money either.I won’t attempt to defend the recent growth in government, but I can tell you one thing: we absolutely cannot afford the alternative. I am a member of the Budget Committee, and at this year’s committee mark up of the budget 18 out of 19 Democratic amendments offered would have increased spending.Did you see would-be Speaker Pelosi’s performance on Meet the Press yesterday morning?Did it sound like her party was going to be the one to slow down spending and keep taxes low?If you need a reason to get enthusiastic, just spend a little time thinking about what a Democratic Congress really would look like. … Read More

That’s right. I got the calls informing methat deep pocketedBill Hauf will run for the 50th Congressional District in the primary against liberal lobbyist Brian Bilbray. Hauf came in6th on the GOP side, so there isroom for improvement.How does this shake things up?… Read More

It’s 3 days later after the bonds were approved for the November ballot and we still don’t know what the language is that will be in them. But I’m sure further ‘tweaking’ will make them just right, that all the dollars for levees will go to levees and transportation moneywill go for roads. The silver lining of the whole event in the early Friday hours was the element of Pay-As-You-Go that made it through, concerning levees. This will be controlled by the Governor through DWR and I’m confident that this 1/2 Billion dollar appropriation will go well under their oversight, unlike the unknown that will occur when the flood bond dollars will have to be appropriated by this Legislature asprojects move along. I can only imagine the priorities besides actual levee work This Body will spend it on.

We all know there is a bunch of money, unexpected ‘new revenue’ under this current budget cycle,[due to things like holding the line on taxes and regulations, improved workers… Read More