Disaster in Washington: Last week was a disastrous one in Washington, DC. No, there was not a tsunami or a hurricane or another earthquake. But, the effects of last week will be felt much farther, longer and wider than would have been the case in any of those natural disasters. Everyone of every political stripe understands that our debt and deficits stand as the largest threat to the prosperity and hegemony of the United States in the years and decades ahead. But, in spite of this acknowledged reality, actions in Washington last week served to make this situation dramatically worse, not better. However, almost disturbing is how this happened. The same political dynamics that led to these deficits in the first place have been left unchanged and are currently causing the deficit to increase rather than shrink. Let me explain what happened, and more importantly, how and why it happened:

President’s Budget: The President’s campaign slogan of late is an “economy built to last”. Well, this is a “budget built to collapse”. It astoundingly increases spending, taxes and the deficit, both in the coming year and… Read More

Over the a last month, I kept hearing from different people about a new candidate in the race against Dianne Feinstein to represent California in the United States Senate – a businessman hailing from Oceanside in San Diego County. The people to whom I spoke with very impressed with him, and before I had a chance to track him down, I actually heard from him. His name is Dan Hughes and he’s a small business owner who has the potential to emerge as a real contender to be the GOP candidate against Feinstein.

Elizabeth Emken got out of the gate earlier, and up to now had been running the only visible campaign on the Republican side. I have written about her candidacy here. But I don’t think it was ever expected that anyone was going to “clear the field” for a run at DiFi – no, the GOP mantle must be earned in the June election.

I met with Dan Hughes recently and found him to be an intelligent, articulate, energetic and passionate life-long conservative. In fact, Dan tells the story of making a Reagan ’84 T-shirt when he was… Read More

Notice: Undefined index: file in /srv/www/blog.flashreport.org/releases/20130218155602/wp-includes/media.php on line 1676

The California State Senate is scheduled today to bring up the confirmation vote of Herbert Carter to the California State University Board of Trustees. Originally an appointee of former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carter has been nominated to a second term by Governor Jerry Brown. Since 2009 Carter has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Carter’s “clock” is running out — his reappointment must be confirmed by the Senate within one calendar year, which would be the end of this month. Carter’s reappointment came before the State Senate Rules Committee where he was approved by the three Democrats who make up the majority of the committee, was opposed by one of the Republican Senators, and the remaining GOP Senator abstained.

It’s worth taking a moment, if you haven’t to read John Hrabe’s analysis of Carter’s reappointment situation that ran over on the CalWatchdog website yesterday.

This afternoon newly minted State Senate Republican Leader threw down the proverbial gauntlet, putting out a strong… Read More

Flash Report’s Jon Fleischman, Big Government’s Andrew Brietbart and Multiplicity Media’s Jonathan Wilcox participated in a panel discussion at the University of Southern California.

Road to the White House 2012: Politics, Media & Technology is presented in partnership with USC Dornsife College’s Unruh Institute of Politics and USC Price School of Public Policy’s Bedrosian Center on Governance and Public Enterprise and USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP).

Road to the White House 2012: Republican Primaries & The News Media 2-15-2012 from Take One Productions, Inc. on Vimeo.… Read More

Reports just published that a $1 billion showcase solar energy project under construction may be threatened by old bones and sick foxes.

Taxpayers will get stuck with this Obama Stimulus monster. The 250 megawatt plant, being built by the Federal Bureau of Land Management is backed with an $825-million Department of Energy loan guarantee.

“Native” Indians from a nearby reservation are trying to muscle in to get their piece, claiming they have some relationship with the pre-historic settlement. When it was likely their ancestors were responsible for the ancient settlement’s—violent demise.

The article didn’t explain who was representing… Read More

A New Year: It has been over a month since you last heard from me. I have not disappeared nor have I lost interest. This gap in communication was caused by a combination of holidays, work volume, some writer’s block, and a nasty cold that had me flat for nearly a week. Some have speculated that the latter was caused by the Obama Administration trying to dim my effectiveness by slipping something into my Jack Daniels. I think that is a low probability explanation. I think it’s more likely that I succumbed to the Petri dish that is winter time in the Longworth Building in Washington.

CBO Truth Serum: OK, enough insignificant jabber. Last week, I had the opportunity in the Budget Committee to question the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Doug Elemendorf, about several things. He confirmed for me that repealing the Bush tax cuts only on the “rich”, defined by the Obama Administration as people making $250,000 or more, only represents about 15% of revenue “lost” from all the tax cuts enacted since 2001. And, it would only raise enough money to cover about 10% of the deficit over the next… Read More

This morning veteran political columnist George Skelton of the Los Angeles Times has a column, Commit A Crime, Collect a Pension, in which he spotlights the fact that current law in California allows people convicted of felonies with a nexus to their government jobs to continue to collect their pensions. He cites the accused teachers in the sex abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District as just one example.

In the piece, Skelton refers to the fact that one of Jerry Brown’s pension reform proposals would end this unfortunate status quo. Also in the column, Skelton quotes Senate President Darrell Steinberg as saying he does not a problem with Brown’s proposal in this regard.

Nowhere in Skelton’s piece, however, does it mention that last year Republican Tony Strickland actually authored legislation, Senate Bill 115, that was a modest proposal that said that a public employee convicted of any of the following… Read More

In a scene right out of the Keystone Cops, it is quite entertaining to see California Democrats so exuberant to raise taxes that there are at least four different major tax increase proposals that appear to he headed for the crowded November ballot.

Governor Brown of course is proceeding forward with a proposal for billions of dollars in increases in state income and sales taxes. Independently wealthy Molly Munger is personally funding the signature gathering effort for a massive $10 billion hike in state income taxes. A couple of the state’s most influential unions are pushing what’s is dubbed the millionaire’s tax — another multi-billion dollar hike in state income taxes. Wealthy investor Tom Steyer is funding a ballot measure to change the way some business taxes are computed, a de facto multi-billion dollar tax increase.

It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that while the Democrats and their union bosses are busy dividing their resources and squabbling amongst themselves, there is an opportunity for those who want fiscal sanity to come forth in state government. To use… Read More