I have had a fascination with all things British since I was young. I attribute this interest in part to an English aunt with whom I spent quite a bit of time while young, and then a yearlong class in high school on the subject of British history for which my textbook was Winston Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples. Adding to this, during my business career, a British publicly-held company was a major investor in my company and, as a result, I traveled to England 2-3 times a year for nearly 10 years. At one time, I could rattle off every English monarch from William the Conqueror through Elizabeth II, including the years of their reigns.

I can’t do that anymore. But, I know the place and people pretty well, and I like all things British, except of course, the weather. I even like the food!

Because of this knowledge and interest, I was asked to Co-Chair the US-UK caucus in the House of Representatives. We now have a bipartisan membership of 90 members of Congress. I have always considered the mission of this caucus as one of preserving and expanding the “special relationship” that exists and has existed between our two… Read More

Great news for the Republican Party and Carly Fiorina fans! The accomplished former HP CEO and U.S. Senate candidate has been named a Vice Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. While California would certainly be better off with Carly serving in the Senate and not just at the NRSC, this is nonetheless excellent news for the Republican Party.

During her campaign to unseat Barbara Boxer, Carly proved herself a dedicated campaigner with a remarkable ability to connect with voters and—most… Read More

Democrats have mounted an effort in Sacramento to abolish the death penalty. Critics of capital punishment say it is too expensive – allegedly up to $184 million per year – to justify sentencing miscreants to death. Thus, a bill has been introduced calling for a referendum abolishing capital punishment in favor of life imprisonment. Soon it will be on the floor for a final vote where I expect the ruling Democrats to rubber stamp it.

Death penalty critics are right in both of their major challenges to keeping it on the books: it is too costly and too haphazardly implemented. However, those critics are wrong to say that the solution therefore is its elimination. We can fix both of those problems; indeed we have a moral obligation to fix those problems rather than abandon capital punishment.

Preliminarily, it is important to note that there are no significant legal challenges to continuance of the death penalty. Anti-death penalty activists often trot out the hoary old charge that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the United States Constitution. This argument is nonsense. The Constitution explicitly permits capital… Read More

The so-called “Amazon Tax” is now California law, and it’s already a failure. After having terminated their advertising relationships with thousands of California-based Internet affiliate businesses, leading out-of-state online sellers continue to sell into California without collecting sales tax.

Proponents of the “Amazon Tax” claimed it would “create fairness” by “leveling the playing field” between California’s brick and mortar retailers and out-of-state online sellers. They claimed it would generate $200 million in new revenues for the state this year. But they were wrong.

So far all of the following online sellers have terminated their affiliate programs (if you know of others, please let me know):

6pm.com Amazon.com Audible.com B&H Photo & Electronics Corp. Backcountry Barware.com Beach Trading Co. BeautyBar.com BedBathStore Benchmark Brands Inc. CSN Stores Diapers.com Drugstore.com Endless.com Fabric.com Gaiam GiftBaskets.com Hayneedle Higher… Read More

If you haven’t actually heard fingernails scratching a chalkboard, let me assure you it is a terrible sound that will produce a wince even from the hard of hearing. With the implementation of a no new taxes budget (aside from that illegal fire serves tax), liberal newspaper editorial boards and columnists are consumed with outrage at the fact that the redistributing of wealth by state government is decreasing and they are especially outraged at Republican legislators for not placing income, sales and car taxes on the ballot – or for just not increasing them through legislative action. Some of their screeds are the written version of the fingernails on the chalkboard, but it is to be expected, I suppose. After all, these are the same folks who have been rhetorically brow-beating Republicans, and the two-thirds vote requirement for higher taxes,… Read More

The Orange County Taxpayers Association has been a fixture in Orange County politics since its founding in 1986 by tax fighter Reed Royalty. That having been said, for the first time in nearly a quarter-century the organization has decided to start hosting an annual awards dinner where they recognize taxpayer heroes with Rose Awards, enemies of the public purse with Radish Awards, and they also created a new Royalty Award (named for the group’s founder).

I spent several hours at this first annual OC Tax Awards dinner which was held at the Disney Resort’s Grand Californian Hotel. The audience was packed with over 300 people — and by my estimate, at least a third of them were local elected officials. Besides a ton of city council members, school board members, water board members and community and business leaders — a few countywide officeholders and legislators were on hand — including Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, Treasurer Shari Freidenrich, State Senator Lou Correa and Assemblyman Allan Mansoor. The event was emceed by the Chairman of the Board of OC Tax, former Anaheim Mayor and ex-Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle.

If you want to get… Read More

A few months ago the liberal dominated election law email discussion list I subscribe to was agog that a rogue group of IRS auditors had initiated five “examinations” of contributors to Section 501 (c)(4) nonprofit advocacy groups to see if they had paid “gift tax” on the contributions. Contributions to groups like the National Rifle Association, a c4, are not deductible, and generally not taxed, but there is some funky language in the Federal tax code that could be interpreted to mean a tax would have to be paid on the amount of a gift over $13,000 to a c4. Of course, c4s are also sometimes referred to by lazy MSM reporters as “shadowy groups” that don’t have to disclose their donors and that can engage in candidate related communications just short of express advocacy near an election……

I advised my clients not to worry, I didn’t see the examinations as a full scale assault against activities such as critizing the performance of elected officials, which is protected by the First Amendment. I did not read into the examinations that the Obama Administration was launching an attack on public… Read More

The “Qualified Purchasers Program” was created by the State Legislature, when it approved Assembly Bill X4 18 in 2009. I was serving as a Senator at the time and voted against the legislation. I continue to believe this new use tax collection program is a costly mistake.

To date BOE has identified more than 500,000 businesses as “qualified purchasers” and has automatically registered many of them with a “use tax” account. A qualified purchaser is defined as a service enterprise with more than $100,000 in gross receipts per calendar year that is not already registered with the Board of Equalization.

Most people are understandably confused about ‘use tax.’” The use tax applies to all Californians when you purchase items from a retailer who is not located in California and not registered to remit tax to California. Prior to the creation of the Qualified Purchaser Program, there were already two different ways for Californians to report use tax—(1) BOE Form 79b and (2) a dedicated line on state income tax forms.

My review of this new… Read More