I like what Donald Trump is saying. He has been blunt, “politically incorrect” and talking about issues that affect people’s lives. He has not been dissuaded by attacks coming from the left or the media. He speaks his mind, and that’s a good thing.

I make these comments with the disclosure that I have endorsed Ted Cruz for President. In fact, had I not been involved as a conservative endorsing Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor, I probably would have come out for Donald Trump. He has had the guts to say what needs to be said, just as Schwarzenegger said what needed to be said in the recall. Truth is, conservatives started the recall, and we had to win it. We really had no choice but to help Schwarzenegger become Governor. To justify our support, Schwarzenegger said all the right things, and sounded like a conservative when he was in the election mode. The moment he became Governor, however, he started thinking he “had to be effective.” He had to do things, he thought, to “make things happen.” Right off the bat, he sold us out, by proposing a “budget soluti0n.” that didn’t cut spending (as he… Read More

Yesterday, Governor Jerry Brown released his 2016-17 budget proposal to the legislature, and in that budget he anticipates approximately $7.6 billion in new spending over the previous year’s approved budget.

The fact that we have increased revenues to the state should be good news for California taxpayers, as the additional funds should take away any pressure to raise taxes.

But, that’s not how Sacramento logic works.

In addition to incorporating the… Read More

I’m pleased that the Governor continues to take a cautious approach to the budget. While California’s economy improves, it makes sense to strengthen our rainy day fund.

During this time of additional revenue, the Governor should be commended for keeping his promise to voters to end temporary tax increases on schedule.

However, I’m concerned that the boost in revenue will cause many lawmakers to clamor for more spending. The last thing we need to do is mirror past mistakes that led to prior budget crises.

Now, more than ever, lawmakers should focus on improving quality of life for Californians by prioritizing jobs, roads and education without raising taxes.… Read More

A newly introduced bill by California State Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, seeks to forbid all state agencies in California from contracting with companies “engaging in boycotts based on race, color, religion, gender or nationality,” in support of California’s long history of trading with Israel.

Anti-Semitism runs deeply in California government, including inside the taxpayer-funded University of California system, and the state retirement systems.

Allen’s bill is aimed directly at the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), and the State of Israel. AB 1551, The California-Israel Commerce Protection Act, will require the State of California to divest from companies that boycott Israel.

CalPERS and CalSTRS have boycotted Israeli investments, and University of California campuses openly supported the Palestinian boycott of Israel.

Even student governments at UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UC Irvine have endorsed divestment and sanctions of Israel.

If adopted, Assemblyman Allen said the billwould update the… Read More

In less than one weekthe U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, to determine whether unions can force public employees to fund speech through collective bargaining with which they might disagree. The case could result in a landmark decision impacting the First Amendment rights of millions of public sector workers nationwide.The California Policy Center joins hundredsof other organizations and millions of individual activists in urgingthe Supreme Court to rule in favor of the plaintiffs.

If the justices rule in favor of Friedrichs, the decision would not only take away government union’s ability to get public employees who do not pay them fired in the half of the states – most definitely including California – which do not have right-to-work, but would allow public workers to opt out of their union without needing to renew their objection every year. Here in California, the decision, which is expected in June 2016, would impact well over 1.0 million state and localpublic employees who are currently unionized.

The Friedrichs case rests on the argument that anything and everything that public… Read More

When he took the oath of office at midnight on January 3, 1967, Governor Ronald Reagan assumed a $200 million budget deficit left by his predecessor, Democrat Pat Brown, whom he beat in the election by over one million votes. $200 million was a lot of money 49 years ago. He was elected on a promise to reform California’s notorious “welfare state” and “clean up the mess at Berkeley” where student protesters were literally shutting down the campus. He had to freeze government hiring to stop runaway spending. He even had to do the unthinkable for a conservative Republican – approve some tax hikes to balance the budget, as required by law. But he transformed state government from weakness to strength, from fat to lean, and left office having achieving a budget surplus. His time as Governor helped him shape policies that would carry him into the Presidency by 1981, where he cut taxes and reduced the growth of Federal spending, ushering in the biggest peacetime expansion of the economy in history, creating countless new jobs; and he invested in America’s military and set the stage for the fall of the Berlin Wall and victory in the… Read More

The Chargers announced yesterday the team officially filed for relocation to Carson. The Dean Spanos video announcement is here.

No surprise, Twitter lit up as a result.

Leading the reaction was a series of tweets from SDUT Opinion Editor Matthew Hall, which Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Lee Jenkins touted as “the best use of Twitter” he’d ever seen.

Hall tweeted:

Dean Spanos: “We’ve had nine different proposals that we’ve made, all of them were basically rejected by the city.” OK, let’s list the nine.

1. A 2003 proposal to redevelop the Qualcomm site had drawings and a conceptual $400M financing outline: Chargers to pay half for free land.

2. An offer from National City for the team to develop 52 acres controlled by the Port and railroad that collapsed with no formal team… Read More

California State Senator Richard Pan, a Democrat representing the Sacramento suburbs, was the author of Senate Bill 277, one of the most controversial California bills of 2015.

SB 277 is supposed to result in eventual “total immunization of appropriate age groups” against ten childhood diseases and possibly other diseases to be added to the list later. Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 277 in June 2015 after it passed the Assembly 46-31-3 and the Senate 24-14-2. It is now in effect as California law.

The law eliminates a statutory exemption from immunization requirements based upon personal beliefs. Private or public elementary or secondary schools, child care centers, day nurseries, nursery schools, family day care homes, or development centers are no longer allowed to admit a pupil unconditionally unless that that pupil has been immunized for listed diseases.

Vaccines have helped modern civilizations to flourish by controlling infectious diseases. And Senator Pan repeatedly referred to “science” as justification for his bill. Nevertheless, some Californians objected vehemently to a new government mandate to inject substances… Read More