A few moments ago the Assembly approved AB 2123 (Lieu), which establishes the “California Financial Literacy Initiative.” This initiative will create a government program “for the purpose of providing resources and instruction to Californians” about how to be financially literate. The program will be overseen by the state controller, who, according to the bill, “has the experience and duty to lead an initiative to grow the state’s economy by bettering Californians’ financial literacy.”

Does it strike anyone else as hypocritical that our state controller and state lawmakers want to teach Californians “financial literacy”? I can’t speak to the “experience” of all state controllers past and future, but do we really want John Chiang teaching us about financial literacy? He’s currently defying the governor’s attempt to curtail government spending during the budget crunch. And lawmakers are 46 days past their constitutional budget deadline. If average citizens were 46 dayspast due on their bills, creditors wouldn’t be very… Read More

Now I’m not one to review movies, nor will I make it a habit here, lest I invite an E-towel snap from our FR leader, however I would recommend the new release "Swing Vote". It stars Kevin Costner and although the premise may be a stretch, it is a lot of fun and takes a good poke at what elections and politics can become. It does us the favor of not being preachy nor taking a partisan position, it just keeps it fun and a bit serious too. And hey, it has appearances by Richard Petty and Willie Nelson!… Read More

We are pleased to present this exclusive commentary from State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard…

Tax Increases are Doses for the Addict By Bill Leonard

My heart goes out to the current Legislative Republican members as the cave-ins, compromises, squishes, and treasons of the past have all come home. California’s on-going structural financial problems have not been solved by postponing decisions and by papering over the excess in spending over revenue. This has been the solution that has been regularly adopted, usually by picking off a few Republicans with political promises. Even if it might work again, it will not solve the problem. The spending levels are not… Read More

The Assembly is presently scheduled to convene Sunday at 3PM for a budget vote. We are supposed to have language in Saturday afternoon sometime, not much time before the vote on a document we haven’t seen yet. Right now, the Assembly Budget Committee is meeting in Room 4202 to hear ACA 19, the measure backed by our entire causus. This is the amendment that contains the spending limit that would be placed on the legislative budget process. Dems have been fiercely opposed to a limit. We hope that we can turn the corner on this issue as their is no self discipline in this legislature to limit spending and we cannot keep digging out of these budget holes. Of course the rainy day fund which, should be called the drought fund, is part of the discussion, but it means little by itself as without spending limits, only rarely would there be ‘excess’ funds to place in a drought fund.

Later, ACA 19 was defeated in committee on a party line vote.… Read More

We are pleased to present this exclusive commentary from State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard…

Tax Increases are Doses for the Addict By Bill Leonard My heart goes out to the current Legislative Republican members as the cave-ins, compromises, squishes, and treasons of the past have all come home. California’s on-going structural financial problems have not been solved by postponing decisions and by papering over the excess in spending over revenue. This has been the solution that has been regularly adopted, usually by picking off… Read More

Yesterday Assemblyman Mike Feuer was the floor jockey for Jack Scott’s SB 1171. SB 1171 prohibits carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle in unincorporated parts of California.

Several GOP Assemblyman (Keene, Benoit, Anderson, Berryhill and others) pointed out flaws in applying a city rule to very rural parts of California.

At the end of debate Mike Feuer complained about speakers talking about the lack of news stories about people driving around with loaded guns robbing banks, committing crimes in rural areas.

Mike Feuer than cited two cases of deputies, one from Yolo, the other Sacramento killed in the line of duty. Somehow this law would have protected them.

The truth is a little different. The Yolo County Sheriff was killed by a law-abiding citizen that was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon. I’m sure this new law would have factored into his thinking.

The Sacramento Sheriff pulled at 3:30 a.m. and was killed after a struggle with HIS OWN gun. The still haven’t caught the person responsible.

How would this law have saved them?… Read More

Grover Norquist is widely respected as one of the nation’s leading taxpayer advocates. As President of Americans for Tax Reform, he has been leading the charge in Washington, D.C., and in the states against new taxes. He has penned this exclusive column for FlashReport readers in light of the current over-spending crisis in Sacramento…

IN TAX TALK, TEMPORARY MEANS PERMANENT; BUT IN CALIFORNIA THE GOP CAN STOP ANY TAX INCREASE By Grover Norquist

The History of Americans for Tax Reform’s No Tax Hike Pledge In 1985 president Reagan asked me to run Americans for Tax Reform — to be the grassroots lobby for what became the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that lowered marginal tax rates… Read More

California Republican Party Chairman has "live blogged" from the chambers of the United States House of Representatives, sending in the following report…

House Republicans are recapturing the spirit of 1994 in their ongoing confrontation with Speaker Pelosi and her House Democrats for refusing to even allow a vote on a bill to bring some energy price relief to Americans. Instead, the Speaker is on a book tour and the House is in "recess" (or as we call it in the real world, on vacation). While in Washington today I wanted to support the House Republicans in their efforts to draw public attention to the issue by keeping active on the floor even while the Speaker is selling books (which isn’t going all that well either, according to the ranking on Amazon.).… Read More