The secret to a prosperous economy actually isn’t a secret at all.

Around the world, we can see that countries with laws, regulations and cultures that respect the principles of property rights, a fair judicial system, low and predictable taxes and regulations, among a few, prosper. Countries that fail to be governed by these principles are less prosperous.

The Index of Economic Freedom, developed by our friends at The Heritage Foundation, provides a single number to understand to extent to which any country is positions its people for success through sound policy. The higher a country’s score and ranking in the Index, the more, over time, its people will prosper.

Not surprisingly, the economic basketcases of the world can be found at the low end of the index, with scores under 50. North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela round out the bottom three.

For policymakers in the United States and abroad, creating the conditions for prosperity is, literally, a matter of raising one’s score and ranking in the Index of Economic Freedom. Reduce taxes and make regulations lower and more predictable? The score goes up. Try to placate the country’s labor unions by… Read More

While the California Legislature is trying to ban reparative therapy for gays who don’t want to live a gay lifestyle, the sham sexual harassment investigations of predatory lawmakers continue en force with lawmakers still enjoying attorney-client privilege, which I have written about since November 2017.

Friday the Joint Committee on Rules Subcommittee on Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response announced policy changes in response to widespread accusations of sexual harassment/assault and gross sexual misconduct by elected legislators and senior staff. However, the committee has no information about the policy changes on its… Read More

There are two stories in every government budget, first, the smoke and mirrors of budget change proposals and staff analysis, where, through a process of reports and allegedly nonpartisan analytical papers, the press and the people are told why a budget can never get smaller than the year before. The second story is the real numbers, and the beginning of the real numbers is Schedule 6 in the Governor’s Budget. Want to look at it? Great, in today’s world, with unbelievable amounts of information available to everyone with the click of a mouse, all you need is the URL. And…the URL for Schedule 6 is:

http://ebudget.ca.gov/2018-19/pdf/BudgetSummary/BS_SCH6.pdf

Why is this important? Because no one can hide from the real numbers. Like, for instance, in 1960, California had a total population of 15.8 million people, and total general and special fund spending of $2.5 billion; (a)$1.65 billion general fund and (b) $850 million special funds. Why is this important? Because 1960 was right in the middle of huge expenditures of real (as opposed to human) infrastructure. California was building freeways and water conveyance structures (dams and… Read More

A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California claimed that crime in California has not increased, and recidivism rates decreased due to Proposition 47. “We find no evidence that violent crime increased as a result of Proposition 47,” the Executive Summary reports.

… Read More

Last weekend as my husband and I were enjoying vin rouge and fromage at one of our favorite Delta wineries in Clarksburg, CA, we discussed Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Delta Tunnels project, and how it would destroy the historical, rich agricultural region. Some of our favorite wineries, and all of the Delta agriculture could end up under water and/or the land rendered useless if Gov. Jerry Brown’s unnecessary Delta Tunnels project is actually built.

The tunnels project proponents claim it is needed to deliver significantly more, better quality water to Southern California cities and Central Valley farms, and deliver water more reliably – at an original cost estimate of more than $26 billion. When it became… Read More

Of all the stories NOT reported by most of the media in the wake of this primary election, the most significant is the recall of Senator Newman as a result of his vote on the Gas Tax. Lots of media sources were quick to report about how “foolish” Republicans were when they were pushing the repeal of the gas tax, rather than focusing on saving their members of Congress. A waste of money, it was called. “Just another example” of the bad political judgment of Republicans.

Oops.

Democrats promised the now former Senator Newman, as well as all their other members, that there would be no voter backlash from the gas tax vote. If there was, they said, they would do what it takes to save those politicians whose jobs were at stake. Proponents of the gas tax repeal wisely focused on one legislator, in one place, and showed the California and the rest of the nation, that people don’t take kindly to having their taxes raised, particularly when those who are proposing the tax increase are at once promising to waste tax money on free medical care for illegal aliens and failing to spend that same tax money on improving our transportation… Read More

Long the dream of the business community and left of center Republicans, the top two primary was the second choice of those who wanted to allow Democrats to improperly influence Republican general election candidates. I was an early target of the first “jungle primary” approach. That approach was to put all the candidates on one ballot, let everyone vote, and then only the top Republican and top Democrat would go to the general election. The hope was that Democrats would cross over in safe Republican districts, and vote for the more moderate Republican. Then Democrat Senate Leader Bill Lockyer came to my district, and worked to recruit a moderate Republican and to push the Democrats in my district to vote for that Republican. There was already a Democrat in the race, so I worked to recruit a second Democrat to run, and told the world that the second Democrat would be my spy on the Riverside County Democrat Central Committee. That set up a fight between the Sacramento Democrats, who wanted the moderate Republican to defeat me, and the local Democrats, who didn’t want my spy on their central committee. The plan worked, the Sacramento Democrat sponsored… Read More

Droughts are naturally occurring; water shortages are political and caused by corrupt and incompetent government officials.

Part l:Why Voters Need to Care About More Water Bonds on June/Nov CA Ballotsis HERE

With millions of dollars of unspent water bond money from 2006 and 2014 water bonds, why is there yet another a water bond on today’s June Primary ballot, and another on the November ballot?

The answers lie in the players behind nearly all of the water bonds.

Voters need to ask why Joseph Caves, Gerald Meral and Lester Snow have had their hands in virtually every bond measure dealing… Read More