I’m a free market guy. Government regulation generally fails to protect the consumer, and more often benefits market actors by eliminating competition, current or potential. This article is about how a set of market actors are using government regulation to eliminate competition, and actually hurt consumers.

In the last several years, we have seen the rise of small dollar loans, usually made by lenders who are not banks, and who loan to people with less than perfect credit, people who need a small bridge loan to take care of some important reason. The consumer needs the money, the lender has the money, and the lender charges a high rate of interest, a rate of interest the borrower is willing to pay because of the need to the borrower. The fast growth of these businesses shows that there is a great need for such loans, and plenty of businesses who are willing to meet that need.

I have no problem with such loans, which can have interest rates of 40% to 100%, as long as everybody knows the terms and knows what they are paying for. AB 536 attempts to limit the interest rates on these types of loans to 36%. A noble cause you would think. 100% interest on a… Read More

This will be the last in the series on why the Republicans in California are the real enemies of Republicans in California. I have talked about our party, consultant, and political issues, and what to do to correct them. What follows in what I believe it will take to fix it.

We lost an unprecedented number of offices in 2018. The question is why? Some of my Republican colleagues here in California wish to blame Trump. The problem is: It’s not Trump. In fact, when Trump was on the ballot in 2016, in a non-battleground state, Republicans in California saw unprecedented turnout. Rank and file Republicans like Trump (this coming from someone who didn’t support Trump in the 2016 primary). It is “establishment” Republicans, that is, either Republicans who are too sophisticated for a rough and tumble candidate, or Republicans who have spent too much time in the Washington swamp (and who really do need to be drained with the rest of the swamp things), who don’t like Trump. I am neither. Trump is the most conservative president I have seen in many years, and he has converted me. I like his policies, and I like his rough and tumble style.… Read More

Issues seem to explode onto our radar out of nowhere these days and then become very consuming. Yesterday thinking I had survived Mueller week, I received alerts that the Dems were considering multiple anti-Israel resolutions at their California convention this weekend. With all the sizzle of having a slew of presidential candidates at the convention, who would have thought that attacking the Jews would become a hot topic?

For those of you who have never attended a party’s state convention, they serve many purposes. One is to establish the political philosophy of the party through resolutions that address hot-button issues. With the rise of anti-Semitism in the world, it is not shocking that… Read More

Here’s a crucial survey concerning San Diego County transportation and spending. Not surprisingly, most people OPPOSE the very nut-ball mass transit plan that SANDAG bureaucrats are desperately trying to get their board of directors (all local politicians) to approve.

Summed up, SANDAG wants to spend about 50% of their HUGE funding (billions and billions of dollars) on mass transit to urban AND rural county areas — and bike lanes. Public transit and bike lanes serve 3% of commuters. SANDAG wants to limit future spending on roads for the other 97% — and congestion fee pricing for those who have the audacity to still use hated cars.

Indeed, as the survey reveals, the opposition to this insane mass transit boondoggle constitutes a SUPERmajority of San Diego city voters. The results not even close. See the press release below with the questions and response percentages.

One other point. The survey is of the CITY voters — who are more urban and Democrat than the county as a whole. As the news has reported, the opposition to the SANDAG proposals are most concentrated in north and east San Diego County — Poway, the north… Read More

During the Los Angeles teachers strike earlier this year,an articlein the ultra-left publicationThe Nationoffered an excellent glimpse into the mentality of strikers and their supporters. The article begins by describing a scene in front of an LAUSD middle school on day three of the strike. A truck driver has arrived to make a delivery to the school, and the picket line won’t budge. Police have been called.

What happens next? According toThe Nation, “The line holds. The police don’t make good on their threats to cite or arrest teachers, and the truck and police cars drive off. One of the officers even gets on his radio before he leaves and says, ‘Don’t let them come between us. We support you!’”

It would take an expert to determine whether this conduct falls within the boundaries of normal police discretion or constitutes a minor act of civil disobedience in solidarity with the strikers, but it doesn’t take an expert to determine whose side this officer was on. “We support you.”

Police, along with the… Read More

The subpoena issued by the Judiciary Committee puts the Attorney General in a legal Catch-22: To comply with the subpoena, he must break the law. If he obeys the law, he must disobey the subpoena.

Every person on the committee knows that the law forbids release of grand jury testimony. Congress is the law-making branch. If the committee feels it is so important to see the grand jury testimony, it can change the law. But it cannot order the highest-ranking law enforcement official in our country to break the law to please the whims of the majority…

Remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock Regarding the Resolution Holding William Barr in Contempt of Congress House Judiciary Committee May 8, 2019

Mr. Chairman:

The subpoena issued by this committee puts the Attorney General in a legal Catch-22: To comply with the subpoena, he must break the law. If he obeys the law, he must disobey the subpoena.

Every person on this committee knows that the law forbids release of grand jury testimony. Congress is the law-making branch. If the committee feels it is so important to see the grand jury testimony, it can change the law.… Read More

Oxnard has got a problem. The city’s contributions to CalPERS, which totaled $23 million in their fiscal year 2016-17, are going to increase to $45 million by 2024-25.

Where is this money going to come from? Asreported last week, the “skyrocketing pension costs” have already led Oxnard’s Mayor to call for “painful cuts.” But if pension payments are set to double in just the next six years, where will all these cuts come from?

Meanwhile, in Oxnard, a small group of local activists, led by Aaron Starr, a local executive with a financial background including a CPA, are working to qualify five reform initiatives. If they gather the signatures required for each initiative, residents of the City of Oxnard will vote on them in November 2020.

The process of filing a citizens initiative is relatively straightforward. One reference is Ballotpedia, which provides a good summary oflaws governing the local ballot measuresin… Read More

As reported by the Ventura County Star, the City of Oxnard faces budget headwinds.Quoted in the article, Mayor Tim Flynn had this to say:

“We’re making decisions that should have been made 10, 20 years ago to put the city on a sustainable path,” Flynn said. “These are very painful cuts, but we have to live within our means. The city historically has not lived within our means.”

City Manager Alex Nguyen was more specific:

“Skyrocketing pension costs and spikes in health care are some of the reasons for the budget shortfall. With projected expenditures approximately $10 million more than anticipated revenue, there is no choice but to recommend programmatic cuts to the City Council.”

Skyrocketing pension costs. You can say that again. Depicted on the chart below is a summary of what’s happening to Oxnard, thanks to “skyrocketing pension costs.” The biggest takeaway from this chart is the fact that Oxnard’s pensions have just begun to “skyrocket.” If you want to skip the details and cut to the… Read More