Yesterday I had an opportunity to spend 30 minute on the John and Ken program on KFI radio. If you get some time, I encourage you to listen to the audio of our segment, which you can access on their website here (6/28, 3 p.m. segment), or by clicking the attachment below. We spent our time lamenting the about-face of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom we all helped in both of his election campaigns, bolstered and motivated by his fierce campaign rhetoric opposing any tax increases. Of course, the Governor is now touting a multi-billion dollar sales tax increase as a responsible solution for our state’s overspending problems. Or to put it another way, the Governor feels that taxpayers should increase the amount of money that is fleeced from California taxpayers to continue to feed the massive spending that has been largely driven by the liberal Democrats who control the state legislature. That position is irresponsible.

The Governor is on… Read More

Yesterday I had an opportunity to spend 30 minute on the John and Ken program on KFI radio. If you get some time, I encourage you to listen to the audio of our segment, which you can access on their website here (6/28, 3 p.m. segment), or by clicking the attachment below. We spent our time lamenting the about-face of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom we all helped in both of his election campaigns, bolstered and motivated by his fierce campaign rhetoric opposing any tax increases. Of course, the Governor is now touting a multi-billion dollar sales tax increase as a responsible solution for our state’s overspending problems. Or to put it another way, the Governor feels that taxpayers should increase the amount of money that is fleeced from California taxpayers to continue to feed the massive spending that has been largely driven by the liberal Democrats who control the state legislature. That position is irresponsible.

The Governor is on the road, on his… Read More

All morning long there has been a lot of drama over speculation of McCain’s pick for VEEP. Politico.com, a respected source, has declared that McCain has in-fact selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running more. Look for the latest at Politico.com.

Today’s announcement highlights the strategic advantage of having your convention be the latter one. For those who are curious, the tradition is that the party that currently holds the White House gets to have their convention last.… Read More

The Pro Tem announced a budget vote a couple of hours ago for tomorrow morning on a "compromise" budget including: the 1% sales tax with no sunset, a rainy day saving component and mid-year gubernatorial cutting authority.

The quotes from the Governor’s office and the Republican Senate Leader indicated they had not seen the final plan as yet, but Senator Cogdill stated the tax increase is a non-starter for him. We’ve been down this road before, voting on plans that were drafted in the dead of night and given to Republicans with a few hours to review complex language – and it usually doesn’t work out well for us.

So – either a couple of defectors have been plucked out of the Republican ranks, or there is a votebased on "trust us we’re from the government and here to help you" promises that pulls the necessary numbers, or there is a vote, the plan failsand the parties go back to the table.

I’ve heard of heavy special interest pressure to get it done by August 31 for various reasons, mostly having to do with November’s election. We’ll see tomorrow..… Read More

Multiple people have told me that former Speaker Fabian Nunez is having to step in and take a leadership role in the budget negotiations because Speaker Bass and her staff don’t seem capable of making it happen.

I never thought I would actually want to see Nunez as Speaker again.

It is a strange day.… Read More

I am sitting in the airport, waiting to return to the Philippines, where I hope to earn enough money to become a profit center for the state instead of a cost of doing business. On my way to the airport, I heard the Governor slam the Republican borrowing plan really hard, calling it "bad" and "how the state got into this trouble in the first place." First, he is wrong on how the state got into this trouble. This Governor got into this mess the same way the last Governor did, by refusing to stand up to a spendthrift majority in the Legislature. What is worse, he was warned, by me and by others, who saw this doom coming, and whom he dismissed as irrelevant. While it is true that we were irrelevant in those negotiations, it was only because he refused to listen to the prophets forecasting his impending doom. He now wants to shoot the messengers (to mix the metaphors), and cover up his failures and his lack of discipline by punishing the taxpayers of the state of California, instead of the tax receivers. Big government bureaucrats and government unions live off the taxpayer. They pushed the majority to enact the out-of-control spending over the… Read More

As FR readers know, KFI’s John and Ken have been extremely vocal in recent weeks, expressing dismay over Governor Schwarzenegger’s decision to do a 180 on his often-repeated no taxes pledge. We’ve been equally as vocal here. We’ve all got something in common — we all supported Governor Schwarzenegger in his elections because he made us a promise, a pledge, a commitment — that the taxpayers, "would not be punished for the mistakes of politicians." Right. We are now official chumps, I suppose.

The Governor "called out" John and Ken, and yours truly earlier in the week (read about that here) for our opposition to a tax hike as any part of dealing with the state’s overspending problem.

Well, John and Ken reached out and now I will be appearing on their show later this afternoon. If you are free during the 3… Read More

Update: The bill passed 42-33.

:With several speakers for and against AB 2747 by Asm. Patty Berg, the Assemblytook upthe Senate’s amended version of what is known as the ‘end-of life care’ bill.It did not pass on the first ballot,by a vote of 38-31. It is on call and will be taken up for another vote later today.… Read More