Over the weekend there was an article in the Orange County Register talking about how some legislators have managed to make big bucks by investing their per diem payments (for expenses associated with having to maintain two households) into real estate which then increased in value.

To this I would say… bravo! It seems to me that if we want legislators to be smart with OPM (other people’s money), we need them to be smart with their own.

We can haggle over appropriateness of per diem payments, the amount, and whether or not some of the fine lines that are walked in terms of taking the payments if you really only have one household, in Sacramento, and such.

But it should be obvious on the face of it that making prudent financial decisions with their own money is a good quality for legislators to have — since they are making important decisions about the finances of the state. I’d go back and re-read the article — and congratulate every one of those legislators who has figured… Read More

We can debate exactly what caused the near economic collapse in the fall of 2008, but clearly over leveraging and excessive risk taking by consumers, banks, and “non-banks” was a major contributor. The economy continues to have a drag caused by deleveraging and fallout from the losses incurred during that period. The U.S. Federal government prevented that collapse by putting the imprimatur of the United States Treasury on a lot of private debt in order to stop the run. It worked because the world markets had a tremendous level of trust in the full faith and credit of the United States government.

But the shoe may soon be on the other foot. Federal spending as a percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now over 25%. The last time the government represented that much of the economy, we were building B-29 bombers to drop their payloads on Japan and Germany. As a result of the economic downturn, taxes collected are only about 15% of GDP (whereas 19% has roughly been the average for the last 40 years) hence the huge deficits.

And that’s only the federal government. State and local governments now comprise (roughly) an additional 10% of GDP. So combined,… Read More

This morning I read the Governor’s Weekly Address and decided that it needed a conservative response. The whole address was a “celebration” of the one-year anniversary of the federal stimulus plan. It’s hardly an anniversary worth celebrating, but considering California’s recent proclivity to beg the feds for more aid, I guess the influx of cash would excite government bureaucrats.

Throughout the speech the Governor praises the virtues of massive government spending, taking credit for putting “40,000 young people into summer jobs,” and delivering “650,000 warm meals to seniors.” Since when is the government responsible for employing young people and doing the work performed much better by private charities? Sounds a little too much like “cradle to grave” government.

The Governor also touts the $12.8 billion “being put to work in programs to both train and fund jobs,” and $13.8 billion in “programs like MediCal and unemployment.” Again, when government “creates” jobs, it is not really a productive job because it doesn’t produce prosperity, it requires private sector jobs to fund it. And with the growing government bureaucracy,… Read More

OK, so the Governor’s office just sent out this photo of him speaking in front of the White House. Let’s have a little "caption contest" — what is Arnold saying?

You can participate by posting up your caption as a comment below or by dropping me a note!

The winning caption and runners up (if worthy) will be shared with all of our readers! If the winner is near where I live or where I travel, I’ll pick up coffee and a doughnut!… Read More

In late December I wrote that the City of San Diego has "a series of campaign laws long ripe for a challenge on First Amendment grounds," and further asked, "Yet, what candidates have ever wanted to take on those laws at the risk of being perceived in the media — and at the hands of opponents — as wanting to loosen restrictions?"

This was in response to the news that a coalition was — finally — doing just that.

In case you missed it, a Federal court last week ruled against the City of San Diego’s overly restrictive campaign laws. Jim Lacy summarized it on Wednesday in his column here on the FlashReport:

A Federal court in San Diego yesterday issued a permanent injunction against the City of San Diego’s $500 contribution limit per person to independent expenditure committees involved in City elections. The ruling quotes the recent Citizens United case we have written about, and is… Read More

The Orange County Register has an excruciatingly well-researched front page story today about how members of the California Legislature use (or abuse depending upon your outlook) so called away from home "per diem" tax-free payments that are intended to defray expenses of being away from their main homes, (presumably in their legislative districts) while tending to state business in Sacramento. One of the starkest examples provided was that of millionaire Orange County Congressman John Campbell. Campbell has a mansion in Irvine. But according to the report by reporters Brian Joseph and Molly Zisk, while in the state legislature Campbell charged the taxpayers $167,070 in addition to his salary, for away from home "per diem" expenses. In this five-year period, he purchased a home in the Sacramento suburbs for $300,000. He paid cash for the home. When he was elected to Congress, he sold the home for $665,000. The Register article claims Campbell tripled his personal investment by leveraging tax-free taxpayer supported per diem… Read More

As the Fresno Bee reported, last Friday’s sold out Lincon Club breakfast forum, featuring former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson, Current Fresno Council President Larry Westerlund, current State Senator Jeff Denham, and former member of Congress Richard Pombo was a great start to the public part of the campaign.

In promoting the forum, the Club promised hard hitting questioning, and our audience told us that we certainly met that test. Here issample of what we asked these four men:

California’s State Budget is a disaster of historical proportions, and yet you, in 2005-06 and in 2006-07, voted for State Budgets that raised the General Fund spending in California to unsustainable levels, from $81 billion to over $101 billion. The State Legislative Analyst correctly warned against the assumptions made in these budgets, and the LAO’s warnings turned out to be factually correct. We are still reeling from the fiscal disaster these budgets created. Later, in 2009, you voted to place… Read More

According to today’s Washington Post, conservative Republican Ken Cuccinelli, the Virginia Attorney General, was scared off of sharing the dias at CPAC today with prominent California-based conservative legal activist Gary Kreep, the cofounder of the United States Justice Foundation. The article cites a panel the two were to share, “Saving Freedom and Due Process from an Oppressive Justice Department” today at 12:15 p.m. Cuccinelli is a potential candidate for U.S. Senate or Governor in upcoming elections in Virginia. Gary is a director of Western CPAC well known for his accomplishments in the law for conservatives who also is a leading attorney, with two cases currently on appeal, challenging the eligibility of Barack Obama to be President on the claim he may not be a natural born citizen. The Post reports that Cuccinelli never agreed to serve on the panel, despite his name having appeared on the published agenda at www.conservative.org for months. His spokesman says he decided in the end to speak on another panel on economic issues. It looks odd to me that an Attorney General would be confused about whether to speak on legal issues, his field of… Read More