Fraud and abuse is alive and kicking in Los Angeles County. The District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against more than 20 people who defrauded an in-home care agency of $2 million. According to the Los Angeles Times (July 25, 2008),“Charges have been filed against 21 people accused of defrauding more than $2 million in benefits from a state-funded program designed to help the disabled and the elderly receive in-home care, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. announced.” “In one case, a man from Granada Hills claimed he was schizophrenic and…needed constant care, prosecutors said. The government paid his wife through the program to take care of him, giving her [an astronomical] $257,000 in [fraudulent] welfare benefits.” What’s worse is that prosecutors said her husband was rarely… Read More

Congress has passed no meaningful energy legislation to move us towards lower gas prices and more American energy and now has recessed for a 5 week break. Republicans, including yours truly, wanted to speak more about that on the floor of the House this afternoon. The Pelosi majority took the unusual step of calling for immediate adjournment to prevent these speeches from going forward and turned off the cameras and microphones on the House floor.

It’s one thing to not allow a vote on more energy production. It’s another to not even allow people to speak about it. I, and several dozen others are speaking on the House floor right now to a gallery full of cheering people to demand that Speaker Pelosi allow a vote on more American energy production. No TVs. No microphones.

You can turn off the lights, but you cannot silence the will of the American people.… Read More

Today I want to take a moment and honor one of the world’s most preeminent advocate for free markets and personal liberty, Milton Friedman. Over his lifetime, Friedman helped shape fiscal policy across the world. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Brian Mulroney all sought his advice.

Milton Friedman did not invent free markets, but he proved that laissez-faire policies must be at the foundation of any free society. Friedman was a statistician, economist, and public servant who advanced the idea of freedom based on minimizing government involvement to achieve economic, social, and political freedom.

Friedman received his Bachelor’s degree in 1932 from Rutgers University, a Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago in 1933, and a PhD from Columbia University in 1946. Friedman is a Nobel Laureate, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Medal of Science.

The Nobel Laureate redefined the way we approach government regulation and economic structures, and has done more to diminish Keynesian, big government approach to economic theory more than any other economist. His ideas and writings have not only reshaped… Read More

It’s the hot topic on political talk shows and it’s discussed ad nauseum in Republican circles: where is the GOP headed? Recent public setbacks, including the loss of Congressional majority, have many Republicans questioning the direction the party should take in order to rebuild.

Monday evening I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The topic of the evening was—you guessed it—“The Future of the Republican Party.” Fellow panelists Congressman Devin Nunes (R-21) and Nicholas Romero, California Young Americans for Freedom communications director, and I discussed our opinions on the subject. Many insights were shared, mostly regarding Republicans’ need to articulate conservative principles and then execute once in power. This is the crux of the problem for current Republicans, but when it comes to the party’s future, the focus should be recruiting young people—future voters.

Fox News Channel recently aired a special called “The Y Factor” that reported on the potential impact the Millennial generation could have on the November election. Millennials, age 14-28, are approximately 80… Read More

It’s the hot topic on political talk shows and it’s discussed ad nauseum in Republican circles: where is the GOP headed? Recent public setbacks, including the loss of Congressional majority, have many Republicans questioning the direction the party should take in order to rebuild.

Monday evening I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The topic of the evening was—you guessed it—“The Future of the Republican Party.” Fellow panelists Congressman Devin Nunes (R-21) and Nicholas Romero, California Young Americans for Freedom communications director, and I discussed our opinions on the subject. Many insights were shared, mostly regarding Republicans’ need to articulate conservative principles and then execute once in power. This is the crux of the problem for current Republicans, but when it comes to the party’s future, the focus should be recruiting young people—future voters.

Fox News Channel recently aired a special called “The Y Factor” that reported on the potential impact the Millennial generation could have on the November election. Millennials, age 14-28, are approximately 80… Read More

That hissing you hear is more air leaking from anti-241 Toll Road arguments advanced by the Surfrider Foundation, one of the formations of the Environmental Left leading the charge against completing this Orange County tollway.

Transportation Corridor Agencies hired Scripps Institution of Oceanography research engineer Richard Seymour to examine TCA and 241 opponents’ studies on whether and how the proposed route would effect surfing at Trestles. A primary quiver in 241 opponents efforts is their argument that completing the 241 will destroy surfing at Trestles.

Seymour’s report eviscerates the Surfrider studies. You can read the report here.

The Surfrider Foundation, of course, lamely accuses Seymour of being off-base, but it’s obviously the latest in a series of actions that are chipping away at the anti-241 forces various bogus arguments against completing the road.… Read More

They say that only in the face of adversity can you take full measure of someone’s performance. Well, the multi-year overspending crisis that has created such a chasm between state spending and available tax revenues has really given State Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines an opportunity to demonstrate that they are great leaders.

Republican and anti-tax leaders and activists up and down the Golden State have taken note of this “GOP Dynamic Duo” – their leadership has the two Republican Caucuses working in tandem in a way that hasn’t been seen in many years.

Let’s remember that Cogdill and Villines are politicians in a Capitol that is overflowing with special interests and consumers of government — yet they are able to keep their grounding, and understand that their job is to represent all Californians. They have both demonstrated an understanding that growth in state government flies in the face of an American tradition of a truly limited role for the central state. They have also repeatedly made it clear that from a pragmatic point of view that increasing the… Read More

I really like the State of Nebraska. Great people. Great sense of community.

Every time I watch US Senator Chuck Hagel on one of the national news shows I am thankful he does not represent me. I just watched Face the Nation from this past Sunday. This guy is the Paul Horcher of the US Senate.

This two term United States Senator would not even answer the question of the candidate he would vote for for President of the United States. He has served with Senator McCain and Senator Obama for years. He has dealt with national policy for decades and he can’t decide or doesn’t have the guts to say who he is going to support for President?

This may be the first time I appreciate Senators Boxer and Feinstein. At least they are willing to tell people the candidate they support for President — even if it the wrong candidate they will at least answer the question.

This guy was actually thinking about running for President of the United States of American. What a joke.… Read More