Arnold was in town yesterday upbraiding our good conservative State Senator Dave Cogdill for holding out for a balanced budget. The event was your classic "sky is falling" nonsense.

Yes, the health clinic the Governor visited is in danger of not being funded. A late budget has nothing to do with this issue. Senator Denham, as has been widely reported, offered a spending bill to fund healthcare during the impasse and Senate Democrats said no.

The Governor should look in the mirror as he assigns blame for this "crisis". Hardly a fiscal conservative, he has spent all of the record increase in State tax revenues and then some. With all the new bonds being sold for infrastructure, and with spending baselines raised so dramatically under Arnold, only a slight downtick in tax revenue will create a real fiscal crisis.

The Governor has only himself to blame for this. I add my voice to those urging Senate Republicans to hold firm. It’s a game of chicken we should have been playing and winning every year since 1999.… Read More

HOW DID YOUR LOCAL MEMBER OF CONGRESS CAST THEIR VOTES ON FIFTY SEPARATE OPPORTUNITIES TO STRIP EGREGIOUS PORK OUT OF FEDERAL SPENDING BILLS?

Perhaps one of the most influential and important groups in Washington that is dedicated to market-based economic principles, and cutting government spending, is the Club for Growth. Of the handful of key websites that our FR team goes to every morning when we compile news of interest, the CfG’s site is one of the best.

The Club for Growth has compiled a RePORK Card on how all of the members of the United States House of Representatives voted on 50 anti-pork amendments that were introduced on the floor of Congress. Over the past many weeks, Democrats were moving out all of the mammoth appropriations (spending) bills that provide the annual funding to pay for the costs of the federal… Read More

HOW DID YOUR LOCAL MEMBER OF CONGRESS CAST THEIR VOTES ON FIFTY SEPARATE OPPORTUNITIES TO STRIP EGREGIOUS PORK OUT OF FEDERAL SPENDING BILLS? Perhaps one of the most influential and important groups in Washington that is dedicated to market-based economic principles, and cutting government spending, is the Club for Growth. Of the handful of key websites that our FR team goes to every morning when we compile news of interest, the CfG’s site is one of the best.

The Club for Growth has compiled a RePORK Card on how all of the members of the United States House of Representatives voted on 50 anti-pork amendments that were introduced on the floor of Congress. Over the past many weeks, Democrats were moving out all of the mammoth appropriations (spending) bills that provide… Read More

This just in exclusively for FR readers from GOP Assemblyman Ted Gaines:

Senate Republicans are standing firm, demanding that state spending be reduced even further in the budget plan currently being debated, so our fiscal problems don’t grow worse. I commend them for defending taxpayers and wish them well as they advocate for lower spending. This summer’s budget stalemate – and the divide between Democrats and Republicans on increasing spending – reinforces the need to pass common-sense legislation I have introduced to end runaway spending once and for all. … Read More

The e-mail below was forwarded on to me by two different State Senate staffers. It is the text of an "open" e-mail sent by Jim Kjol, Chief of Staff to State Senator Jeff Denham, to Mike Genest, the Governor’s Finance Director (it was cc’d to a plethora of others, including my two sources). I should note it was sent from Kjol’s personal e-mail. The e-mail speaks for itself…

Mike, I’ve got to tell you that your intentional support or unwitting assistance to the crackpots and deadbeats pushing a recall against Senator Jeff Denham is unconscionable. You walked precincts for Jeff in 2002 but now have crossed-over to join sore loser Wiley Nickel, liberal magpies Steven Maviglio and Bob Mullholland, and a washed-up Art Torres, in giving them fodder to try to remove Jeff from office . . . all because he won’t support a… Read More

In the great profile piece on the FlashReport in the Contra Costa Times yesterday, there was a factual error. While we did cover extensively the unfortunate and ill-advised appointment by the Governor of former Democratic Party Executive Director Susan Kennedy to be his Chief of Staff, that story first broke a few hours before we reported on it over at New West Notes. I have been told that this error will be fixed in other NewsMedia papers that run the profile piece, and that a correction will run in the CC Times. My sincere apology to any offended parties.

Oh yes, this is a good time to ask again for the Governor replace his Chief of Staff with a Republican. Susan Kennedy is charming, smart, and witty — and a Democrat. We believe a Republican Governor should have a Republican Chief of Staff.… Read More

Apparently earlier today in Fresno, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger responded to a reporter about Denham and pressuring his budget vote: “He (Denham) should get a lot of heat.” The Governor also told those attending the meeting and listening over the web to call Senator Denham and tell him to vote for the budget.

To this, Denham issued the following response:

Governor, let me repeat myself again, since perhaps you are not listening yet. I will not be bullied, intimidated or pressured into voting for a budget with inflated revenues, unaccounted expenses or accounting gimmickry. Stop the theatrical performances, call the Legislature into session, balance the budget, put the cuts in writing and clean up the trailer bills. Governor, playing ‘Chicken Little’ and saying the ‘sky is falling’ is not productive – instead, you should endorse my ‘Denham… Read More

We have really come full circle. When I campaigned vigorously for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2003 special recall election, I was supporting a candidate who boldly campaigned as a fiscal conservative. Heck, I remember his waving the broom in the air, to talk about "sweeping out" the special interest groups that have a firm control over California’s bureaucracy. It was true then and it is true today. Public Employee Unions and other interests have prevented any major substantive overhaul to how state government functions. The Governor’s California Performance Review is gathering cobwebs in a file cabinet somewhere. Of course, the Governor went through a rather famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) ‘reinvention’ of himself after the multiple (and important) ballot measures that he championed in 2005 fell short at the special election polls. Still, in his re-election in 2006, which I supported, again the Governor campaigned as a fiscal conservative.… Read More