House Chamber, Washington, D.C. January 10, 2020

Mr. Speaker:

Throughout the debate yesterday on the so-called war powers resolution, some fundamental misunderstandings surfaced that I feel need to be addressed.

The first misunderstanding is that the justification for the attack that killed Soleimani was that he was an evil terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. There are a lot of evil terrorists out there, but that doesn’t give the President authority to launch attacks on foreign countries to kill them.

What DID give the President that authority in this case was the fact that Soleimani was acting as an armed combatant against U.S. forces in a war zone in which Congress had authorized the President to take military action when it adopted the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq in 2002. I hate to shock my woke colleagues but killing active enemy combatants is what war is all about. And it is a war that Congress started with that act.

That act provides “The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to… Read More

Californians don’t realize that since 2012, our state’s NET highest state income tax rate has more than DOUBLED.WAYmore.

First in 2012 the top THREE CA income tax rates went from 10.9% to as high as 13.3%. Retroactively, I might add. This “gouge the wealthy” tax was passed by California voters in November 2012, and was retroactive to the first of the year. I don’t know why that was legal, but it withstood a court challenge.

Then with the SALT 2017 tax reform clause, top earners cannot write off their state income taxes on their federal returns. This is a BIG deal for the wealthy.

The combination of this double-barreled tax blast raised theNETmarginal income tax rate for top California earners from about 5.6% to 13.3%. That’s a 138% increase in the CA net income tax!

If liberals… Read More

An observant Christian friend of mine asked me recently why there have been so many anti-Semitic acts recently. I could have asked him why there were so many anti-Christian acts though those are really occurring more in Middle East and African countries. Having been on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council (USHMC), he likely supposed my thinking would come with a certain imprimatur.

I told him I had been reading everything around about the recent escalation to understand what others think is at the root of the current rash of attacks. I then spoke with my close friend, Fred Zeidman, formerly the Chair of the USHMC. We shared our thoughts and he told me he had a column coming out that he authored with Steve Israel, a former congressman. Fred encouraged me to write a column. I told him it had to abide by my number one rule about my columns – it could not just be a “Me Too” column that reiterates what others had already written. I don’t think you need to read anything from the amen chorus. Here is a different view of what is going on.

It is hard to say that anti-Semitic actions have a unique flavor to them since they have been going on just about as long as… Read More

Over the last 47 years, nothing has been more sacrosanct to Democrats than the decision that nationalized the right to abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Jane Roe et al V Henry Wade, District Attorney of Dallas County, is of course known as Roe v. Wade. Recently Democrats have made a prima facie argument for overturning the ruling and returning control of the issue of abortion to the states.

When the U.S. Constitution was drafted, it delineated certain rights for the U.S. government. To balance that, ten original amendments were added to protect the rights of individuals. In the final and 10th Amendment, it is stated “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Otherwise, unless it is in black and white in the Constitution stating the Federal government has control over the issue, then the issue has to be determined at the state level or it is the divine right of the people.

The states, particularly of recent, have been the incubators of what laws either work or don’t work for the people. For example, the marijuana laws have… Read More

In recent years, our nation’s population growth rate has slowed.The 2019 U.S. Census population growth figures are now out. The national population’s growth rate was only 0.5%. That growth rate has been dropping annually for the last 5 years. Indeed, it’s the slowest annual U.S. growth rate in decades, and perhaps since the founding of the country.

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2019/popest-nation.html

But California — arguably the most physically attractive state in which to live — finds its population growth rate slowing even quicker. In 2018 the rest of the nation grew over 50% faster than our Golden State.

Now our CA 2019 growth rate is 0.35%. That means that, slow as it was, the nation grew about 43% faster than California.

But remember, that national average growth INCLUDES the huge population of moribund California with its 39,960,000 people. Comparing CA withjustthe other 49 states, those states grew about 52% faster than our tarnished Golden State.… Read More

No one over the age of 50 (and certainly a lot that are younger) can hear the name “Vietnam” and not react in some way. The war consumed our national psyche for so many years. When people found out a visit to the country was part of our vacation, some communicated they could not or would not go. The feeling is akin the Jews not wanting to visit Germany. Nevertheless, we forged on to confront our past.

Landing in Hanoi alone brought back memories. Hanoi was formerly the capital of North Vietnam — now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. We did not get far before we saw the first conical hat, which is called a “leaf hat” by the locals. That struck home, conjuring up thoughts of the Viet Cong that we fought for all those years.

Once we drove 40 minutes on the new highway from the recently expanded airport, we began to get a sense of the city. We drove through the commercial area to our new home for three days in Hanoi – the Metropole Hotel where Trump and Kim met. We asked around upon arrival, but no one had seen Trump because of the heavy security.

When you start to move around the city, you see why the meeting was here as this is a country… Read More

I was sitting in our family room one recent morning when my wife says she just saw something horrible on social media. Apparently, my colleague’s daughter had died. I was hearing the most dreaded words in the English language: someone’s child had died, and his life would be changed forever. Just thinking about it brought me to tears.

She had died of an overdose. She was about to be admitted for a year to a wonderful non–profit program that would hopefully rid her of the cycle of relapse/rehab. She had taken heroin one last time. As her father characterized it: “one for the road.” It had been delivered to her by a “friend.” That is a bastardization of the word, to say the least.

I am thankful every day that my two children have never involved themselves in drugs. Most of us did drugs back in the day. Many of my friends still use marijuana. They love it. Life keeps me too busy to even ponder that. Barely drink wine – only at a dinner with friends.

Drugs were kids’ games compared to what people are doing now. No one we know would ever touch heroin. That was way too far. Now it is commonplace throughout all economic classes and educational… Read More

President Trump has done a laundry list of public acts that benefit the Jewish people. These acts have an emphasis on attacking anti-Semitism and supporting Israel. Despite that, many in the organized Jewish community let their other religion (Liberalism/Leftism) ignore his good deeds because he doesn’t support their other policies. Those are mainline Left-wing politics.

A recent example is his executive order (EO) to restrict a college’s federal funding due to anti-Semitism on college campuses. Every involved Jew knows that colleges have become a hotbed of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic rhetoric and acts. Not shocking since many professors’ favor Palestinians despite the rampant anti-gay, anti-woman mindset in the Arab world. It is as if many Jewish organizations were mimicking Jackie Mason saying Trump is “Too Jewish.”

The New York Times jumped on Trump and said his EO establishes Jews as a race or nationality. The Left followed suit by attacking on Twitter and Jewish organizations fell in line. Then VOX, a left-of-center publication, called a halt to the groundswell, saying the claim is false – the EO does no such thing. The material aspects of the… Read More