The time to vote on the budget is coming up, and the drumbeat for Republicans to vote for taxes is getting louder. We cannot, Republicans are told, balance this budget without a “balanced” approach (a euphemism for increasing taxes). I find the word “balanced” somewhat amusing, because when revenues were pouring in, there was not balance between spending increases and tax rate reductions. Nope, it is just spend and spend, and then when we run out of money, it’s “oops, now we need tax rate increases.” That, of course, is the Democrats concept of “balance.”

That being said, lest any Republicans be tempted to take the tax rate increase road, let me tell a story. If there is any problem with term limits, it is that these stories get lost in the perennial turnover of personnel, and history gets revised by the ruling class, while the lessons of the past are lost in the memories of legislators long gone from the political scene.

My first year in the Legislature was an interesting one. We were the first class to get elected knowing we were subject to term limits, and there were a number of legislative… Read More

There is a saying, “politics makes for strange bedfellows.”

No where is that saying more appropriate than in reference to a floor speech that conservative icon and United States Congressman Tom McClintock, earlier in the week delivered to the House of Representatives. It was a speech in support of a resolution authored by hard-line leftist Dennis Kucinich regarding President Obama’s Libya policy, and the blatant violation of the War Powers Act and the Constitution as the President did not seek prior approval from Congress before a de facto declaration of war on Libya, and the commitment of significant United States resources towards military action in that country.

There is another saying, that if left goes left, and right goes right, there is a circle and eventually you meet on the other side of it… McClintock’s American Conservate Union rating is a perfect 100, while Kucinich scores a perfect 0.

Here are Tom McClintock’s remarks, that I believe are 100% on the mark…… Read More

The liberal Campaign Legal Center says former Democrat Vice-Presidential nominee and former U.S. Senator John Edward’s indictment on corruption charges “paints a troubling picture,” that raises the “specter of political influence peddling in the form of ‘gifts’ to candidates in high stakes campaigns.” Edward’s friends helped pay-off the mother of his secret out-of-wedlock love child while he was running in the presidential primaries, and federal prosecutors see that as secret and excessive and therefore illegal contributions to his failed campaign for President. There are other related claims of criminality. But even then the Campaign center complains of delays in prosecution, a feeble FEC enforcement posture, and urges broader actions including against former U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who is alleged to have arranged employment in exchange for silence in connection with a sex scandal.

Reports in the New York press and from Europe suggest that friends of the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the “champagne socialist” who was on his way to what might… Read More

Things are not so good out there. The unemployment rate, already stubbornly high, climbed even higher in May. Economists are revising economic growth predictions downward. Housing prices continue to drop, thereby further reducing household wealth. Real returns on bank deposits and Treasury Bills are negative. The dollar is dropping. Gas prices are up, inflation is up. There are some bright spots, certainly, but the overall picture is that of stagnation. Unfortunately, none of this is a great surprise given what the government has been doing of late. We are printing money and artificially holding down interest rates to try and spur recovery. But, this is creating those negative real (after inflation) interest rates, which are distorting capital flows. Most of the country’s tax policies expire in 18 months, so no one can do any long-term investment planning about taxes with any certainty. The government is retarding the development of almost all forms of economical energy (oil, gas, coal, nuclear), while subsidizing expensive wind and solar. We continue to run record deficits, which divert capital from other more productive uses and create the massive public debt overhang… Read More

A new PPIC poll confirms what many of us have suspected all along – Democrats don’t want to gather signatures for a special election to extend taxes because the idea is terribly unpopular in overtaxed California.

It is far easier to falsely accuse the GOP of being obstructionist (for simply disagreeing with Democrats) than it is to actually face voters and explain why an ineffective, dysfunctional government needs stable funding to do a lousy job.

PPIC confirms it. Democrats want to simply find and use weak Republicans to walk the plank – again, so that the blame for high taxes can be bipartisan. So far the GOP isn’t being stupid – which is a first for us since 2000.… Read More

The Public Policy Institute of California today has released a poll that shows 77 percent of Californians want a say in the state’s taxing and spending decisions, while 68 percent think a special election is a “good idea.” The PPIC spun this as support for Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to hold a special election for the sole purpose of placing a tax increase on the ballot to help cover the state’s $11 billion budget gap.

The PPIC goes on to report that it found poll respondents a bit schizophrenic regarding support for a special election and actual tax increases. While a majority like the idea of increased voter input in the budget situation and seem to favor a special election, only 41 percent would support Brown’s plan to increase vehicle and sales taxes.

Brown and his legislative cohorts have presented the tax hike as merely an extension of the 2009 Schwarzenegger Administration-era taxes, not a tax increase. But that’s simply a matter of public spin and semantics. In reality, the taxes are set to expire on July 1. Any “extension” would require increasing rates that are supposed to decrease.

Given their choice of areas to cut in… Read More

Be sure to check out my video located below this column…

“The formula for releasing prisoners and cutting cops is not a smart one.” Attorney General Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2009.

I agree, and I trust that now-Governor Brown will stand behinds those words. For without a doubt, the principle responsibility of government is to protect its citizens from those who would do us harm.

Yet, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that California must somehow reduce its prison population by approximately 33,000 inmates, and the first question becomes: Which ones?

Felons convicted of murder, manslaughter, violent or serious crimes against the person total 63,500. There are 19,000 inmates that are in prison for kidnapping and/or sex-related crimes. Property and theft related offenses account for 30,000 inmates. For drug related crimes, of the 23,000 serving time, 15,000 have been convicted of manufacturing or dealing drugs. Other offenses include arson, felons found in possession of firearms and driving the under influence.

Almost 60 percent of all inmates were on… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: With all of the growing controversy around the situation where a lewd picture was sent using the Twitter account of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), and the serious missteps of the Congressman in dealing with the situation, we reached out to one of California’s most respected crisis-communications experts to provide some analysis. Julie Soderlund is a partner with Wilson Miller Communications. She recently served as an advisor to the Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate campaign – Flash]

“Weinergate” – Creating Your Own Media Crisis by Julie Soderlund

This is crisis communications 101 and today’s lesson: What not to do. Case study: Congressman Weiner and well…his Twitter issues.

Yes, I realize this is a complete sideshow compared to the things that really matter, like say the debt ceiling debate, the 2012 presidential primary, Republicans meeting with the President yesterday, starving children in Haiti, etc. But let’s be honest catnip is to cats what… Read More