This morning, Congressman Kevin McCarthy sent over a link to a new video created by House Republican Whip Eric Cantor — McCarthy serves as Chief Deputy Whip. Here is an intro to the piece by McCarthy, followed by the video…

FROM CONGRESSMAN KEVIN MCCARTHYAs unemployment climbs, Speaker Pelosi’s top priority is passing a cap and trade bill, which imposes a national energy tax (aka “cap and tax”) that is predicted by economic experts to result in more American job losses and cost all Americans more in utility and energy bills. Now is the time to focus on job creation and cutting spending. There is also a better energy approach called the American Energy Act that does not impose a burdensome national energy tax on American families and small businesses, helps create American jobs, and puts America on a path towards energy independence by producing more American… Read More

Today the Democrats will put up some bills calling for cuts in state government spending — but cuts that are far short of what is needed to get us through the 2009 – 2010 fiscal year. Or put another way, if we approve only these cuts, this Spring will find us back in a crisis. But, of course, in the Spring, the ability to make cuts to resolve the shortfall will be significantly more difficult — it takes some time to realize the savings from reductions — time we will have with cuts adopted now, but necessarily in the Spring.

There are a lot of cuts that literally need to take place by the end of this fiscal year (such as cuts to education) or else it would mandate even more spending due to funding formulas set in the State Constitution. I get that. But the top priority of Senate and Assembly Republicans, like by a factor of ten, is to avoid a short-term fix that will have us all staring down the barrel of tax increases this Spring.

The politics of the State Capitol is confusing to me. And I have to admit that perhaps my advice to GOP legislators would be different on this subject if I hadn’t, to my disbelief, watched… Read More

My apologies — I am running around a bit today and not by the computer much. A quick data-download. The Senate and Assembly passed out two bills today, on votes of 54-0 in the Senate, and 69-0 in the Assembly, which include a few billion in cuts. No where near the $24 billion that needs to be cut to see California State government not end up back in a crisis-mode sometime in the upcoming fiscal year.

The argument that Assembly Republicans make in supporting these particular bills is that they represent cuts that need to be made in the current fiscal year budget (so within the next five days). Cuts made to some areas, such as education, have extra impact as the required levels of funding for some areas in next year’s budget are based on what those areas received this year.

The argument against these bills made by the Governor (who has pledged to veto the bills) and State Senate Republicans (except for a couple who bolted the caucus to vote with the Dems) is that it is imperative that we pass a comprehensive solution only, and nothing that allows Democrats to push out the tough cuts until later — when it is harder to have the impact of… Read More

It has been some time since we here at the FlashReport have bestowed the infamous “Golden Trashcan” award. As long time readers know, it takes a particularly onerous piece of legislation, or in this case a regulation, to “get the can” – but the dubious honor goes to the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) proposal to ban big screen televisions.

If you are like me, you may have heard a rumor about this, and dismissed it as being nonsensical. That’s what I did after I read a brief item written about this by Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut back in March. In his posting, Greenhut cited a statistic that under the proposal, as many as 25% of big screen televisions today would no longer… Read More

The session has ended. The vote on the Democratic budget failed to get a 2/3rds vote. The vote was 48-29. Of course today was political theater. The Governor had promised to veto the bills. For those interested, Democrat turned Independent Juan Arambuladid not vote.… Read More

Today legislative Democrats will apparently bring forward their budget amendment plans in a series of votes today. Republican legislators should prepare to vote no – no, no, no, no…

Here are a few key reasons why this plan, being put forward by Democrats, should be rejected in its entirety.

No Transparency Or Notice: No one is really sure what is actually being voted on today. In principle, GOPers (and frankly, Democrats, too) should reject any legislative proposals being put up for a vote that have not been in print for 72 hours and all of the legislators have had time to read the actual language, and get input from whatever sources they deem helpful. See the note from Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries below, on this particular topic. Billions In New Taxes: Despite numerous and repeated statements from Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass that the rejection of 1A would lead to an “all cuts” process of squaring the state’s finances, that is not what we have … Read More

At a time that common-sense legislators and a philosophy of full accountability are calling for opening up the budget process to the eyes of the public, the powers that be still can’t even find a way to open it up to those being asked to vote.

If you haven’t read Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries’ press release about the lack of openness, it pretty much provides a dose of reality on the subject (see Jon’s commentary this morning, four posts below, for the Jeffries release).

An update from Jeffries’ office this morning:

"Assembly just got the information on the 2009-10 State Budget at 10:25 am; almost an hour and a half after floor session started."

It would be comical, if it weren’t so typically status-quo.… Read More

It has been some time since we here at the FlashReport have bestowed the infamous “Golden Trashcan” award. As long time readers know, it takes a particularly onerous piece of legislation, or in this case a regulation, to “get the can” – but the dubious honor goes to the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) proposal to ban big screen televisions.

If you are like me, you may have heard a rumor about this, and dismissed it as being nonsensical. That’s what I did after I read a brief item written about this by Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut back in March. In his posting, Greenhut cited a statistic that under the proposal, as many as 25% of big screen televisions today would no longer… Read More