Driving from one Kenyan town to the next was not how I expected to spend my December 27, 2007. That is, until I got a call from the International Republican Institute asking me to be a part of their international election observation team to monitor the election taking place on that day.

It was my first time in sub-Saharan Africa, and I took the opportunity to continue my activities for IRI because like very election observation mission, it represented the chance to help others enjoy the benefits of democracy that we often take for granted here in America.

The international consensus reached in the aftermath of the vote was that the outcome was at least partially manipulated. Rioting broke out in Nairobi and other parts of the country shortly after I had departed.

While I went to Kenya to observe an election, it was something I incidentally observed along the way that seized my attention and prompted me to think through another aspect of society: the role of technology, and the question of whether it is beneficial to humanity.

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Appropriately, there is a lot of focus in Congress these days on Obamacare and the NSA, IRS and Benghazi scandals. But, the failings of this president and his administration are not limited to just those issues. The committees on which I sit have no jurisdiction over any of the aforementioned areas. However, that doesn’t mean we’re not doing anything. It’s just that the work we are doing doesn’t often make the news, except maybe business news like Bloomberg or CNBC.

Yesterday, we had Treasury Secretary Jack Lew testify on international monetary issues before the Financial Services Committee. He is required to do this annually. If you click HERE, you’ll find a short video of the opening statement I gave at the beginning of this hearing.

You will see that although you are not hearing anything about it, the Obama Administration wants to send $63 billion of your… Read More

If you are signing up for Obamacare, I hope you’ve already put your check in the mail. If you haven’t paid by Dec. 23, don’t count on having Obamacare insurance in January. As with all insurance coverage, the plan must be paid for before you are officially covered.

According to theU.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 365,000 Americans have signed up for health insurance through state exchanges under Obamacare, or signed up usingHealthcare.gov.

“Since October 1, 1.9 million have made it through another critical step, the eligibility process, by applying and receiving an eligibility determination, but have not yet selected a plan,” theHHS agencysaid. ”An additional 803,077 were determined or assessed eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in October and November by the Health Insurance Marketplace.”

But Healthcare.gov and state insurance exchanges are still not… Read More

The great irony of the Republican decision to bust the budget sequester is that barely two months ago, congressional roles were reversed. The Democrats insisted on funding the government according to existing law. The Republicans sought one simple change: that the individual insurance mandate under Obamacare be delayed for one year. They were trying to spare the American people the Obamacare disaster that is now unfolding, but to no avail. The American people sided overwhelmingly with the Democrats on the principle that the government should be funded according to current law without any side issues.

Why wasn’t that principle applied just two months later? Republicans were in the ideal position to hold the budget line simply by insisting on enforcing current law. Instead, the House Republican leadership pushed through a two-year budget that will allow the federal government to spend an additional $63 billion more than current law allows – money that our country does not have.

Some of the discussion has focused on how much of the spending spree will be paid with higher taxes. The answer is, “all of it.” Once government spends a dollar, it has already… Read More

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Republicans wondering if their party can recover from its current crises should find interesting Al From’s just released memoir, “The New Democrats and the Return to Power,” which tells the story of the Democrats’ recovery after Walter Mondale lost 49 states to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. Ronald Brownstein’s informative review of From’s book in the Los Angeles Times (“Are Democrats complacent?”, Op-Ed, 12/6/13) describes longtime Democratic operative From’s creation of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), which was “…dedicated to recasting the Democrats’ agenda and restoring its political competitiveness.”

That last line should ring a bell with Republicans today. Does not the GOP need to restore its “political competitiveness?” From’s and the DLC’s efforts were spectacularly effective, culminating in the ascendancy of Bill Clinton, who had chaired the DLC as Arkansas’ governor.

Democrats before the DLC and Clinton’s rise were in as bad a shape as the GOP today. As Brownstein relates: “When From organized the DLC, the… Read More

Pensions are assuming an increasingly important role in state/local public policy. From Detroit’s bankruptcy to the recent legislation signed by Illinois’ governor to alleviate a $100 billion liability, Californians are uniquely familiar with this crisis. More recently than the well-known bankruptcies from Vallejo to San Bernardino, the Sacramento Bee noted just two weeks ago that while the City of Sacramento reduced its payroll by 1,000 employees over the last five years, its annual pension obligations have increased by almost 10 percent – now at $55.4 million for the budget year.

The scenario in the capital city, illustrates a little appreciated paradigm in the public sector: while governments are getting smaller (in number of employees), they are getting more expensive. This dynamic is being demonstrated in the City of Chicago, where, as the Wall… Read More

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I came to my topic, Energizing California Republicans, while advising a Republican candidate for State Assembly, a terrific Republican a number of you may know, Catherine Baker from the East Bay area. She was the Northern California chair for last year’s Romney campaign. I told Catherine that she will have to teach her district’s voters who are plurality Democrats why they should vote for a Republican.

You see, Catherine Baker and every Republican candidate will have to win the argument against that candidate’s Democratic counterpart. As Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher explained to her Tories, they must first win the argument than they will win the votes. In my experienced opinion, Thatcher was dead on target.

Now I will try to win the argument with the skeptics and the neutrals among you so you can help our Silicon Valley Republican candidates win the votes.

Our founding party father, President Abraham Lincoln, gave us, Republicans, the key to our political victories. Lincoln said, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” That is the central theme of my speech… Read More

This is Part 2 of a series on the EDD. Part 1, an interview with Spokesman Dan Stephens, ishere.

Just after the Labor Day weekend, the California Employment Development Department released a $100 million computer upgrade. Itcrashed.

Without warning,150,000 joblessCalifornians were cut from unemployment benefits. The EDD blamed a computer glitch and said it would take weeks to fix.

November hearings in the Legislature produced promises to fix the system. In response,Henry Perea, D-Fresno, the chairman of the Insurance Committee, senta letterto EDD Director Hilliard demanding fixes by Dec. 31. Perea identified five… Read More