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In a little noticed pronouncement, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors created an entirely new application process for taxpayer advocates. As a result, taxpayers will be punished in the name of good government, especially the taxpayers least able to afford it. The problem is that this process creates a new bureaucracy without getting near solving the perceived problem.

You may have missed that Los Angeles County had a discernible problem with the person overseeing the collection process for its single largest source of revenue – property taxes. The County Assessor, John Noguez, has been charged with multiple counts of accepting bribes. He and an aide were charged with accepting bribes from a tax consultant, Ramin Salari, that resulted in a cumulative reduction of tax collections for the County of $10 million.

The County Supervisors reacted by first trying to change the law so the assessor position from being one that is elected to being appointed. Their rationale was that because this is an elected position, it was more subject to influence peddling. Did the five omnipotent supervisors ever think of the irony of that position?… Read More

One of the biggest reasons for ushering in Obamacare, are the thousands of groups around the country which will be making money off of the government health system. Many in these groups are Washington D.C. insiders, and the politically well-connected, who had access ahead of passage of the Obamacare Affordable Care Act, and seized the opportunity for a little wealth-building.

One such group appears to be Young Invincibles, “a national organization representing 18- to 34-year-old Americans on the issues of affordable health care, employment and college affordability.”

Read the fine print, and the Young Invincibles website also says, “Young Invincibles is a national organization committed to mobilizing and expanding opportunities for young adults between 18 and 34 years of age on issues like higher education, health care, and jobs.”

Its website, Healthy Young America, claims to be part of the group’s outreach. “In some places, Young Invincibles will… Read More

Suppose you are offered a bargain on a pair of well-made shoes. You can have the new footwear at half price. The catch? They don’t fit and the discount is partially paid for through your tax dollars.

This is the kind of deal the public is being offered on some alternative energy vehicles. It is estimated that the Chevy Volt costs General Motors as much as $89,000 to manufacture, while it sells for $39,995. But the actual cost to the consumer is further reduced after a $7,500 federal income tax credit, and for California residents, another rebate of $2,500 from the state.

The Volt was introduced in 2010, with much ballyhoo, as the first plug-in U.S. hybrid. But Chevy has sold barely 20,000 vehicles. The public remains skeptical about this and other plug-in vehicles that take hours to charge, have short range and are served by few public charging stations. These cars don’t look… Read More

The impressive victory of conservative rancher Andy Vidak in the recent State Senate special election in the Central Valley’s 16th District gives the State Capitol’s other 36 Republican legislators a reason to be unified, focused and determined as they return to Sacramento for the five week or so final sprint to the end of the 2013 session. Come the next session in January, Democrats should go into the year with full super-majority complements of 28 State Senators and 55 Assemblymembers. But for the rest of this session, Democrats will barely have a two-thirds majority in the Senate, and will not have it at all in the Assembly.

In the State Senate, due to the election of Curren Price to the Los Angeles City Council, there will be a vacancy that won’t be filled until September 17. In the State Assembly there are two vacancies. With the election of Norma Torres to the State Senate, her Assembly seat will not be filled until a special election, also on September 17. Also, with the election of Bob Blumenfield to the L.A. City Council, his Assembly seat will not be filled until November 17. None of these vacancies will be filled before this… Read More

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Conservatives are conservatives because they want to conserve cultural, social, and political things. The last thing they want to hear, when their movement is at a low point, is someone suggesting a new idea, particularly if the idea is perceived as moderating conservatism. The typical response is, “We don’t need something new, we must stick to the rock solid core principles of conservatism.”

They should heed the words of Walt Whitman who, after America was founded, wrote, “The architects of These States laid their foundations, and passed to further spheres. What they laid is a work done; as much more remains. Now are needed other architects, whose duty is not less difficult, but perhaps more difficult…..America is not finished, perhaps never will be; now America is a divine true sketch.”

Conservatives in America don’t need a new idea; they need a new architect to render a new plan for America and usher in a new American era based on conservative principles cast in new light. This light will reveal the next steps in the long historical march to freedom that America has been privileged to be a part.

The new plan must be enlightened and built… Read More

Despite Gov. Brown’s bold claims about a balanced budget, California still has yet to address the questions surrounding the state’s unfunded pension liabilities. As of the end of 2010, California’s state and local pension obligations in the Golden State were estimated at a soul-crushing half-trillion dollars and steadily increasing each day. However, despite the best attempts of Sacramento lawmakers to avoid dealing with the state’s enormous unfunded pension liability, the public is about to get a better sense of just how dire the situation really is thanks to increased transparency.

… Read More

Apparently the Obamacare legislation signed by it’s namesake says that Members of Congress and their staff have to obtain their health care coverage through the same state-level health-care exchanges and anyone participating in the program. (See the article.) I would love to see Congress try to get by passing a law somehow eliminating or mitigating this requirement and explain to the American people why what’s good for everyone else isn’t good for those working under the Capitol Dome.… Read More

Last week yet another missive on the lessons to be learned from Detroit’s bankruptcy was published, this time in Forbes Magazine by Jeffrey Dorfman, an economist at the University of Georgia. Dorfman’s article, “Detroit’s Bankruptcy Should Be A Warning To Every Worker Expecting A Pension, Or Social Security,” clearly implies that future Social Security benefits are as financially imperiled as public sector pensions.

This is patently false, and spreading this falsehood has dangerous consequences.

Not only are the financial adjustments necessary to fix Social Security far easier to implement than what it’s going to take to rescue public sector pensions, but the sheer size of the public sector pension liability is actually bigger than the total liability for the entire Social Security fund. It is imperative that American voters understand this fact.

In the United States today about 20% of workers are employed by the government (or public utilities that offer benefits on par with… Read More