Death Tax: When I am home in California, I get many questions about legislation relating to the Death Tax. As many of you know, the Death Tax currently kicks in at a 45% rate for estates over $3.5 million. But under current law, the tax will go away on January 1st, 2010 for 1 year. Then, it comes back on January 1st, 2011 at a 55% rate for estates over $1 million. This strange vacillation in the tax and the exemption has occurred in order to comply with arcane House rules calling for no increase in the deficit more than 10 years out from when the reduction in the death tax was passed. Obviously, the idea that the tax would go away and then come back 12 months later at its highest level in a decade is ridiculous public policy. There is universal agreement that this has to be changed.

But that’s where the agreement ends. Most Republicans, including this one, believe that the tax should be permanently eliminated. This wealth has already been taxed at least once when it was earned. Furthermore, this is a very inefficient tax. The direct costs of collection are actually over 50% of the tax collected. And many studies show that the government… Read More

This week, scandal prone Democrat San Diego City Councilwoman came under fire yet again. This time it was for forming an “Advisory Council” and having that group meet with representatives from the Mayor’s office on two very controversial topics which Emerald supports — building a downtown library and a new City Hall (controversial because the city is about broke). Then the 20 member Advisory Council voted to support both projects, and Emerald was so ‘surprised’ by the vote by these unbiased members of the community she issued a press release crowing about it.

Then the problems started. When bloggers and the press started asking who the 20 were, Emerald wouldn’t answer. Instead, she mysteriously answered that she was talking to the City Attorney about the matter. Then, under pressure, four days later on Friday night her office released the names of a larger 34 person group. On inspection on Saturday, one of the bloggers on www.sdrostra.com found some 70% of this group were Emerald contributors. Emerald still hasn’t answered exactly which of the 20 people were at the meeting… and no doubt the legitimate community… Read More

There are two new mail pieces that have dropped in the 72AD special election.

Both are attached below. Ackerman hits Norby.

Norby hits Ackerman.

Analysis will come later (I am at Western CPAC so don’t have time for that now).… Read More

Republicans made a huge mistake when they kept John Boehner in the House leadership.

I’ve pasted in below a brief from John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, outlining the disastrous support of a leftist GOP candidate in a New York House race. This is exactly why the RNC and NRCC will continue to get none of my support. It was leftist Republicans like this that prevented energy, endangered species and immigration legislation from being passed when we had majorities, and led to the anger and disgust the conservative base has with the GOP presently. We are better to lose the seat than win with this RINO.

Republicans Put on a ClinicRepublicans are set to do well in the November 3 off-year elections, but a conspicuous exception may be the special House election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, a rural area bordering Canada that covers a quarter of the state’s territory. In a wild three-way race, Republican Dede Scozzafava has fallen behind Democrat Bill Owens, largely because Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman is pulling 23% of the vote. The disastrous Scozzafava candidacy was… Read More

Two maxims about Congress: the correlation between high levels of confusing information and low levels of public interest; and if ever there were an embodiment of the law of unintended consequences, it would be many of the "great ideas" enacted by Congress.

Such is the issue of Government Sponsored Enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, and others) and the noble cause of government promoted "affordable home ownership."

Given the issue’s complexity, general public opinion might not reflect reality when it comes to causation of the mortgage meltdown over the last two years. Many in the public think it was greedy bankers and unscrupulous lenders…and to be sure there’s enough blame for all. But some in Congress would like you to think they bear no part of the burden of blame.

The risk to those concerned about policy matters is that Congress often does its worst under the veil of complexity, more than content to leave you believing someone else is the villian.

Fortunately, Peter Wallison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, today sets out in clear terms,… Read More

I love football. It’s a great sport to watch on television, but even more fun to attend in person. As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, much of my life was spent with no close-by National Football League team, once the Rams picked up and moved East. While the absence of an NFL team for Los Angeles was unfortunate, it was significantly mitigated by some great college football teams in the area. But I do get my hopes up every time I hear that someone is thinking about bringing an NFL team back to my home town. So I have been following with some interest the efforts of billionaire Ed Roski (pictured) to construct a stadium for NFL play over in East Los Angeles, and bringing a team to Los Angeles County.

Of course it is no surprise that one of th hurdles to engaging in a major construction project in California is regulatory cost. This state is one of the leaders in the nation in the unfortunate catagory of making it much more… Read More

I love football. It’s a great sport to watch on television, but even more fun to attend in person. As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, much of my life was spent with no close-by National Football League team, once the Rams picked up and moved East. While the absence of an NFL team for Los Angeles was unfortunate, it was significantly mitigated by some great college football teams in the area. But I do get my hopes up every time I hear that someone is thinking about bringing an NFL team back to my home town. So I have been following with some interest the efforts of billionaire Ed Roski (pictured) to construct a stadium for NFL play over in East Los Angeles, and bringing a team to Los Angeles County.

Of course it is no surprise that one of th hurdles to engaging in a major construction project in California is regulatory cost. This state is one of the leaders in the nation in the unfortunate category of making it much more… Read More

First, they banned our cell phones (with the exception of First Lady Shriver), now they want our GPS, satellite radio and garage door openers. The California Air Resources Boardhas approved a "Cool Cars" regulation that will require car windows to have an advanced glazing in order to block the sun’s heat, supposedly reducing the need for air conditioning. This was the same government agency that earlier this year floated the idea of banning black cars in California for the same reason.

Unfortunately, as withso many brilliant government ideas, the regulation was adopted before this window glazing technology was completely tested. Turns out the glazing can interfere with GPS, garage door openers, cell phones and satellite radios. The regulation will even be imposed on soft-top vehicles, leading to speculation Jeep may stop selling its soft-cover vehicles in the state. Sun roofs would be tinted so dark they would essentially be black (forget driving PCH with that California sunshine beaming down on you).… Read More