Over the past year our country has become fully engaged in the health care reform debate. This is a debate America needed to have. But instead of a bipartisan approach that involves American public input, Democrats are trying to finagle a highly partisan bill through Congress. Twelve months on and the American people crying "foul" has fallen on deaf ears. It is trickery of the worst kind.

Let’s take a snapshot of the chaotic health care mess we have at the current time. Speaker Pelosi, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, and Presidential Senior Advisor David Axelrod attest that they have the votes to pass the widely despised government takeover of health care. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip James Clyburn both sound less confident. In truth, if Democrats had the votes to pass a bill, they would have already done so, and they would allow the bill to be voted on with a straight up or down vote. Instead, they have resorted to dangerously bending the legislative rules, to "deem" the Senate health care bill as passed by the House – without an actual vote – and move a fast-tracked reconciliation… Read More

First the good news: J. Clark Kelso wants to reduce prison health care costs.

And now the bad news: He wants to release upwards of 1,000 supposed invalid prisoners – many of whom might have committed such acts as rape, 2nd degree murder and other dangerous felonies. But does California really have a high level of invalid prisoners to warrant this legislation?

Probably not.

But painting the picture of a few comatose inmates makes for good political theatre. Though it does not tell the real story, which is: We have some incapacitated inmates AND California already has a law that deals with this issue – on a case-by-case basis.

Therefore, the Kelso-sponsored legislation (including Sen. Mark Leno’s Senate Bill 1399) does nothing to address the problem of sky-high health care costs for California prisoners, which is currently $17,000 per prisoner per year!

(Other large states spend a fraction of that: New York spends $5,800. Florida spends $4,300. The federal government spends only $4,400. It may be the opinion of a liberal federal judge that California’s prison… Read More

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may be in his last year of office, but he seems more than willing to keep scrapping it out with the Legislature.

Yesterday the Governor issued a verbal slap-down to liberal Democrat legislative leaders Steinberg and Perez, calling them out for their recent parliamentary games and demanding that they send him clean bills that will cut spending and create jobs. And he made clear that he stands by his promise to oppose any tax increases in 2010 .

The supposedly historic cuts to spending Perez and company have been boasting about? Just a drop out of the bucket, explained the Governor. Indeed, the bills the Legislature spent the last nine weeks of special sessions coming up with address just $200 million out of a projected $20 billion budget deficit—one percent. “California is still spending approximately $600 million more per month than we have in revenue,” the Governor wrote. “The two-month delay in dealing with the budget shortfall will require up to $2.2 billion in deeper spending cuts.”

Schwarzenegger and GOP legislative leaders blew the whistle on a sneaky gasoline tax maneuver Sacramento Democrats tried… Read More

I about hit the floor ten minutes ago. Assemblyman Michael Villines (R – Tax Collector) has a facebook post touting his new "Profiles in Courage" Award for raising taxes last year in the worst economy in 60 years. Here was the quote from Caroline Kennedy:

"Faced with the most difficult choices and a budget crisis of unprecedented magnitude, these legislative leaders had the courage to negotiate a compromise that they felt was in the public’s best interest,” said Caroline Kennedy, President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. “They did so knowing they would suffer the wrath of their constituents, powerful interest groups, and their own party members. The members of the Profile in Courage Award Committee chose to herald this story of political courage and bi-partisan compromise with the hope that it will inspire other elected officials facing similar challenges to stand up with courage, to cross party lines, and to do whatever is necessary to better serve the public interest.”

Yes, according to… Read More

This morning Southern California was awakened by a 4.4 magnitude earthquake. In light of the recent Haitian and Chilean earthquakes, even a minor earth rumble causes jittery nerves. Experts keep warning that it’s only a matter of time before California has another major earthquake. One of the articles I read about this morning’s earthquake mentioned California’s last destructive earthquake, the 1994 Northridge quake, a 6.7 magnitude quake that killed 72 people. The Northridge quake caused $20 billion in damage.

As I read that number, I couldn’t help but think of the current $20 billion budget deficit California is facing. Emergency preparedness is yet another reason it’s so important for the state’s government to balance its books and have emergency funds set aside. We know it’s just a matter of time before another big quake strikes, or we have another devastating fire season. Legislators are violating their fiduciary duty to their constituents by spending and wasting taxpayer money. The state’s deficit isn’t just about wasteful spending—it also means that when we need funds to deal with a disaster, the money won’t be there to help victims and… Read More

One of our debate coverage videoes — #2 (The pro-Poizner spin team) — had been set for private, not public viewing on You Tube. If go check it out now, you can see a lot of great interviews.… Read More

Quote of the week: “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a great resolve” – Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor, as attributed from the movie “Tora, Tora, Tora”.

There is no evidence that the real Admiral Yamamoto actually uttered these words his character says in the movie, although he apparently thought the attack was a mistake. But perhaps President Obama or Speaker Pelosi should be saying this about their socialized medicine bill.

I was in Northern Florida over the weekend at a classic car show that draws about 20,000 attendees. Most people were from the Southeast although there were plenty of people from all over the country. Car racing legends Richard Petty, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, and Carroll Shelby were there and held a seminar on their racing experiences and on winning. Most of the discussion was, naturally, about racing. But about one third of the discussion was about politics. The biggest cheer of the day was not about racing but when Garlits made a comment at how bad “that crowd in Washington today” was. The second biggest was when a… Read More

Last night the two Republican candidates for Governor of California squared off in what we would call a much-overdue first debate. First and foremost, I would like to thank New Majority California for generously arranging to broadcast the debate live via streaming video so that FlashReport readers could catch the debate live! You can read more about the New Majority here. If you didn’t get a chance to see the debate, or for some reason want to see it again, here it is…

The debate was held in the posh Samueli Theater which… Read More