Lots happened in DC this week. Here is a summary of some of the big things: Death Tax: Yesterday, the House voted to permanently reduce the death tax. The vote was 269-156. I, like a majority of the House, would prefer to permanently eliminate the death tax. But for 4 years straight, the Senate has not been able to assemble the requisite 60 votes to do this. (by a 57-43 vote, Senators voted for permanent repeal this year, but that is not enough under the Senate’s strange rules) So, we need to do something that will garner 60 votes in the Senate. Hopefully, this is it. The bill we passed will raise the exemption from death taxes to $5 million per person, and lower the rate of tax to the capital gains rate of 15% above that. Estates larger than $25 million per person will pay a tax of twice the capital gains rate on the amount greater than $25 million. This exemption is high enough, and the rate low enough, to get the death tax out of the way for 99.7% of Americans so they can make decisions based on what is best for their families and not what is worst for the tax man. I spoke on the floor in favor of … Read More

If the work product of the legislature really irks me all the way down here in Orange County, I can only imagine how the Governor feels.

One piece of legislation that is 1) totally unnecessary and 2) bad for America, is AB1778 Lieber (D). The law would make it extremely difficult for military recruiters to identify interested high school graduating seniors.

The law gets way more specific than the heavy hand of government ought to. It creates a new box on the emergency contact card all parents fill out at the time they enroll their kids in a school. The new box could be checked by parents who do not want the information shared with the military.

**There is more – click the link**

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Looks like the newly elected auditor is doing a house cleaning after a bitter elction campaign that saw the three term incumbent defeated. As a former employee of the auditor’s office I’m sure she knew was with and against her. Hell hath no fury….. See article with other Long Beach tidbits here.See original post on this race here.… Read More

If the work product of the legislature really irks me all the way down here in Orange County, I can only imagine how the Governor feels.

One piece of legislation that is 1) totally unnecessary and 2) bad for America, is AB1778 Lieber (D). The law would make it extremely difficult for military recruiters to identify interested high school graduating seniors.

The law gets way more specific than the heavy hand of government ought to. It creates a new box on the emergency contact card all parents fill out at the time they enroll their kids in a school. The new box could be checked by parents who do not want the information shared with the military.

Opponents of the legislation might argue that especially in this time of tumult–the War on Terror we should not limit recruiters in this way. That is a good point.

Republican Senator Abel Maldonado was the only GOPer to support the bill, he voted for it in the Senate Education Committee. His office says he supports all efforts to give parents more control over the affairs of their children and cites other legislation that he supports such laws that require parental notification. That is a not… Read More

Since the House passed our version of the immigration reform bill in December, our position has been to pass a bill that focuses on border security first. Today, as part of our efforts to communicate this position and ensure we don’t end up with a bill like the Kennedy-McCain bill that passed the Senate, the Republican Conference unveiled five principles that reflect our position. Our goal is to send a bill to the president that reflects these principles:

•Republicans strongly support initiatives to secure our borders and provide additional resources to federal and state authorities to strengthen border patrol efforts. •Republicans strongly support strengthening enforcement and stiffening penalties for illegal immigrants who break our immigration laws. •Republicans support enforcing the law on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and holding them accountable.

Word is that the $500 million for health care for illegal children that the Democrats added to the budget during conference committee has been dropped. Also, yesterday afternoon, Bill Bradley was reporting on his New West blog that the governor has dropped his plans to increase the Healthy Families programs by $23 million (some of this spending would have been used to provide care for illegal immigrant children).

Writers on this website, talk radio hosts and others in the grassroots rightly expressed outrage about the health care spending for illegal immigrants and effectively killed the proposals. Now it is time for the Democrats and the mainstream press to hear the same amount of outrage about the roughly $150 million the Democrats cut from public safety spending Schwarzenegger included in his May Budget Revision. Senator Chuck Poochgian has been especially vocal on this issue, but he needs support from folks inside and outside of the Capitol.

We are now one week past the… Read More

Word is that the $500 million for health care for illegal children that the Democrats added to the budget during conference committee has been dropped. Also, yesterday afternoon, Bill Bradley was reporting on his New West blog that the governor has dropped his plans to increase the Healthy Families programs by $23 million (some of this spending would have been used to provide care for illegal immigrant children).

Writers on this website, talk radio hosts and others in the grassroots rightly expressed outrage about the health care spending for illegal immigrants and effectively killed the proposals. Now it is time for the Democrats and the mainstream press to hear the same amount of outrage about the roughly $150 million the Democrats cut from public safety spending Schwarzenegger included in his May Budget Revision. Senator Chuck Poochgian has been especially vocal on this issue, but he needs support from folks inside and outside of the Capitol.

We are now one week… Read More

In case you haven’t had a chance to check out Senator Chuck Poochigian clever web ad, "Jerry Brown: Fictional Crime Fighter," do yourself a favor and click here. Unless you are a candidate that is swimming in money, it’s awfully early to start doing TV ads for the general election. But hats off to Poochigian and team for creating this web ad, which makes great points about Brown’s lousy law enforcement credentials and will drive traffic to the campaign web site.

(The only thing Jerry Brown’s got in common with the Caped Crusader is that people have raised the same questions about Brown’s relationship with is long-time aide, Jacques Barzaghi, as they have about Batman’s relationship with Robin.)… Read More