There were a couple of positive legislative developments in Washington this week. First, there was the passage of the arcanely named tax reconciliation bill. This bill extends the 2003 tax cuts.

These tax cuts include the 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividend income and an extension of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) exemption. The AMT exemption had already expired and the 15% capital gains and dividend rate was scheduled to expire in 2008. The legislation which passed in the House (244-185) and the Senate (54-44) this week extends the AMT exemption for the current year (2006) only and extends the capital gains and dividend rate through the 2010 tax year. The bill included about 30 other assorted tax provisions which are narrower in their focus.

Now, I would have preferred to, and the House could have passed a permanent extension of the 15% rate, but the Senate would not have done so. Therefore, a 2 year extension was the best that we could get. This is policy by incrementalism. Republicans have not been particularly good at this in the past. But it works. We have the tax rates through 2010 and we can always try again next year for permanence. Furthermore,… Read More

President George W. Bush will be addressing the nation Monday evening, primetime, to discuss his plan for dealing with illegal immigration. I’ve been on the phone and email all morning sort of getting a feel from folks far more connected to me, and here’s what I came up with. Speculation is part of his program will be some kind of ‘guest worker’ program that includes those illegal aliens currently in the United States. The program will fall short of amnesty, but offer a path to citizenship.

More important will be the President’s plan to deal with increasing security on the border. After all, all the plans in the world to deal with the illegal aliens that are already here don’t mean a hill of beans if several thousand more of them are allowed to cross every night. In fact, the new plan to offer amnesty or guest worker status will probably cause another increase in illegal aliens, like the last few amnesty plans did.

We’ve already been burned once, I think around the time of the last campaign, when the President talked about all the new Border Patrol agents that would be placed on the border. For the most part, they… Read More

We knew this little gem was hiding somewhere. Carla Marinucci is one of the state’s better political writers, out of the stable of good talent over at the San Francisco Chronicle. I had heard that she was making the rounds at the recent Westly/Angelides pillow fight-debate where voters really only discovered a pair of lackluster, unimpressive politicians, hopping over each other to so who could out-liberal the other (okay, those are MY words, not Carla’s).

Anyways, I had been keeping an eye out for Carla’s story, which I knew would be fun reading. She didn’t let us down (though perhaps her techies did, as this story was posted too late to make the morning summary of stories).

So, without further pitch, Carla’s take on the debate starts out:

Democrats’ dustup brightens outlook for Schwarzenegger in November

The Democratic candidates for governor didn’t… Read More

This is a huge boost to the Jeffries campaign in the 66th Assembly District. Besides his rock solid conservative credentials and decades of being involved in the local GOP (unlike one of his opponents), The Press Enterprise is correct- we don’t have enough folks in Sacramento that understand water issues.

Riverside County Press Enterprise Endorses Kevin Jeffries for Assembly66th Assembly District: Another Republican seat, this district includes Riverside, Temecula, Murrieta and Lake Elsinore. We support county GOP Chairman Kevin Jeffries. Jeffries has a strong grasp of Inland issues after 17 years in local government, including seven years on the board of the Western Municipal Water District. Jeffries in 2004 helped cut a water tax on property owners, and his expertise on water policy — in a thirsty, growing state — would be a rare commodity in Sacramento.

PS. My wife does his fundraising… Read More

One of the joys of being old political talent is discovering new political talent. I have discovered one in Dan Centinello, currently serving as the campaign coordinator for Assembly candidate Kevin Jeffries. Dan is from New York where he wasChairman of the New York State College Republicans. He found his … Read More

THE DEATH TAX HAS TO GO… One of the biggest challenges facing Republicans in Washington, D.C., is that while there is technically a Republican majority in Congress, it is a weak majority at best. Actually, you have to things working against you if you are the President, anxious to have some legislation reach your desk that will excite and motivate conservatives. The first challenge is that a number of the "Republican" United States Senators, such as Jim Jeffords, Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and Arlen Spector (there are a few others) look to themselves as ‘mavericks’ of sort — with that word being code for ‘squishy’ — or maybe I should say that these GOPers really are not committed to reducing the size and scope of the federal government. It is this group of ‘squishy’ GOP Senators that is responsible for porking up the latest appropriations bill, sent over from the House, with funding for the War on Terror and for Katrina recovery efforts.

But as if this particular group of… Read More

THE DEATH TAX HAS TO GO… One of the biggest challenges facing Republicans in Washington, D.C., is that while there is technically a Republican majority in Congress, it is a weak majority at best. Actually, you have to things working against you if you are the President, anxious to have some legislation reach your desk that will excite and motivate conservatives. The first challenge is that a number of the "Republican" United States Senators, such as Jim Jeffords, Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and Arlen Spector (there are a few others) look to themselves as ‘mavericks’ of sort — with that word being code for ‘squishy’ — or maybe I should say that these GOPers really are not committed to reducing the size and scope of the federal government. It is this group of ‘squishy’ GOP Senators that is responsible for porking up the latest appropriations bill, sent over from the House, with funding for the War on Terror and for Katrina recovery efforts.

But as if this particular group of… Read More

Dear Mr. Branstine: In 2000 you published the following letter in the Riverside Press Enterprise against my boss Congressman Darrell Issa. Now you are now complaining because I point put that you ran as a Democrat many times for Assembly. If this is not true I welcome you to sue me. You can not run from your past. Congressman Darrell Issa and I support Kevin Jeffries for the 66th Assembly District. He is the trueRepublican. Your values seem to be whateverworks for you at the moment. As a resident of Riverside County and a member of the Riverside GOP I want to keep phoney Republicans like yourself out of office. You have right to your opinion and so do I. Darrell Issa had run one time for office in the past, you had run three times, and yet you call him a career politician. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Darrell Issa never ran as a Democrat as you did. Welcome to the world of Republican politics pal. I plan to do everything I can do to make sureRINO’s like you are not the Republican Nomoinee for the 66th… Read More