Tag Archives | California

Steel: GOP Needs to Push Sacto Towards Pay-as-You-Go

By on May 22, 2009 in Uncategorized

From The OC Register by Shawn Steel:

Although White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been criticized for saying “you never want a good crisis too go to waste,” he’s right.

The Democrats are exploiting the economic crisis to expand the size and scope of the federal government. In California, Republicans should exploit the budget crisis to shrink the size and scope of state government.

The two-thirds requirement to pass a state budget gives a united GOP caucus leverage to demand real reforms. Voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected the same old tax-borrow-and-spend approach, and they are more likely than they have been in recent years to give Republican ideas a fair hearing.

We should start with the obvious – California’s government is too big, and its economy is too weak – and let our proposals flow from that reality. [Read More]

(h/t Flash Report‘s Golden Pen Award)

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Will: The California Bailout

By on May 21, 2009 in Uncategorized

From The Washington Post:

California, the sunny incubator of America’s future, has relished its role as a leading indicator of political trends. Tuesday it became what it thinks it should be, the center of attention, but not in the way it wants to be.

Its voters, at last sensible, rejected, by an average of 65 percent, five of six propositions. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the “post-partisan” Republican, and the partisan Democrats who control the legislature, promoted the propositions as efficient for and essential to eliminating the state’s budget deficit, which will now be $21 billion. So California may become the next target for the Obama administration, whose dependency agenda involves seizing every opportunity to break things — banks, insurance and automobile companies, etc. — to the saddle of its supervision. [Read More]

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CA Voters Say No Way!

By on May 20, 2009 in Uncategorized

From the LA Times’ Top of The Ticket blog:

Well, he may have had a grand day in D.C. schmoozing with the Democratic president and exchanging warm words of mutual praise about car exhausts, but Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got a different kind of message tonight from California voters.

Not that many came out to vote in local races and on six statewide propositions, as we reported earlier Tuesday. But the ones who did were resoundingly defeating the governor’s budget proposals, as opinion polls had predicted.

Which is probably why the Budgetnator was far away in Washington during the day, instead of being photographed voting locally and then sitting on a hotel room couch watching results roll in during a Sacramento photo op.

Of the day’s six fiscal propositions — the rainy day fund, education funding, lottery modernization, children’s services funding and temporary reallocation of mental health funding — all went down — and hard. The results were roughly 60-40 against. [Read More]

(h/t Tammy Bruce)

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CA: May 19th Special Election Results

By on May 19, 2009 in Uncategorized

UPDATED: 1:20 AM.

Propositions:1A-1E NO, all by over 2/3, 1F YES

Senate: SD 26: Curren D. Price (D) Wins

US Congress: 36th District: Judy Chu (D) wins Hilda Solis’ seat.

LA CITY

City Attorney: Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich wins. Villar’s puppy, Jack Weiss, is out.

5th Council District: Paul Koretz,  51-49.

Community College: Tina Park wins seat #2, Nancy Pearlman wins seat #6

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CA Election Day Tomorrow (05/19)

By on May 19, 2009 in Uncategorized

Turnout for elections that don’t involve national candidates is usually very low, you have to take some time and vote. The failure of Governor Taxinator’s props will set off a big wave of change for California, we have to kill every single one. Here’s the Dana Report voter guide:

Prop 1A: Extends Tax Increases for 1-2 years – NO

Prop 1B: Can add billions of dollars to state costs after 2010 – NO

Prop 1C: Allows for borrowing $5 Billion for lottery profits – NO

Prop 1D: Takes money from children’s health programs and gives it to politicians – NO

Prop 1E: Takes money from mental health programs and gives it to politicians – NO

Prop 1F: Prevents pay increases for elected officials when the State has a budget deficit, but does nothing to prevent deficits – NO

For voters in LA City: Vote for Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich for City Attorney, he’s a great candidate. If you need more reason than that, check out the LA Times (Really, the LA Times): “Opponent Jack Weiss is running a progressively negative campaign that underscores his unfitness for the post”

District 5:  David Vahedi over union supported Paul Koretz

Senate District 26: Rabbi Nachum Shiffren, a no-nonsense Republican looking to clean up his district.

Community College Board: #2 Tina Park, #6 Robert Nakahiro.

–There are many more races across the state, I’m focusing on LA because I live here. Please make comments if you want to add a candidate. (I will only put up the comments w/ candidates I would support, so no need to add any Dems or taxn’spenders)

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CPL: California is Liberalism’s ‘Canary in The Coal Mine’

By on May 18, 2009 in Uncategorized

From Townhall.com:

Once, California was known as the “Golden State.” No more. It’s struggling with a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. And voters are so disgusted with the ineptitude and waste of a state legislature dominated by liberal Democrats that they are poised to vote down a $16 billion tax increase and a slew of propositions allegedly intended to beat back fiscal Armageddon.

If residents of the other 49 states haven’t focused on California’s plight yet, they should. In a real sense, California has become liberalism’s “canary in the coal mine.” It is an instructive – and frightening – warning of the toll exacted by the kind of leftism now in vogue in Washington, D.C.. [Read More]

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California: May Budget Revision, Lay-offs, and More

By on May 14, 2009 in Uncategorized

You can find live video of Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget revision press conference on SacBee right now, or watch it on the Cal Channel.

Schwarzenegger is expected to announce the lay offs of 5,000 state employees, and his plans to try and sell expensive state real estate including San Quentin prison.

The Taxinator may also release 38,000 prisoners onto our streets if the May 19 propositions don’t pass.

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Obama: Thanks SEIU, California Drop Dead

By on May 12, 2009 in Uncategorized

From The San Diego Union Tribune:

California has immense fiscal problems. That’s not exactly news, but this is: President Barack Obama could soon make these problems far worse.

The background: In February, as part of overall spending cuts, the Legislature lowered – from $12.10 per hour to $10.10 – the state’s maximum contribution to the pay of 300,000 unionized In Home Supportive Services health workers. This saved $74 million.

Most state employees were also subject to pay cuts. But after an April 15 conference call involving Obama administration officials, aides to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and representatives of the Service Employees International Union, the White House threatened to withhold $6.8 billion in federal stimulus funds unless the Legislature and the governor canceled the home health workers’ pay cut before it begins on July 1.

The ostensible reason is an inventive reading of language restricting how stimulus money can be used. A more plausible reason is the SEIU’s political clout. It gave $33 million to the Obama presidential campaign.

This hardball is even more obnoxious than it first appears. The rationale under which California was allocated the $6.8 billion in stimulus funds was to help the state deal with surging Medicaid costs. But now the White House demands California back off its bid to contain such costs.

Then there is the bombshell April 13 investigation by the Los Angeles Times that found the $5.4 billion In Home Supportive Services program to be riddled by fraud. Attempts to investigate this fraud are severely limited. Why? Almost certainly because of SEIU political pressure during the drafting of bills dealing with in-home care. Whether dealing with the state or federal government, it sure is good to be the Service Employees International Union.

Beyond these specific concerns, there is a much larger issue: the appropriateness of the Obama administration’s use of stimulus funds as a tool of coercion. If it’s happening in California, it’s probably happening elsewhere. We think far fewer members of Congress would have backed the $787 billion stimulus bill in February if they knew this is how the president would use it.

For all these reasons and more, the Obama administration must drop its intervention into California politics. What’s gone on to date isn’t just disappointing and disturbing. It’s scandalous.

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Miss California Keeps Her Crown-’Same as Obama’

By on May 12, 2009 in Uncategorized

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Californians Oppose Propositions 1A-1E

By on May 8, 2009 in Uncategorized

The SacBee’s Capitol Alert reports on a recent PPIC poll, showing that Californians strongly oppose propositions 1A-1E less than two weeks out from the May 19th special election:

Proposition 1A: 52 percent no, 35 percent yes
Proposition 1B: 47 percent no, 40 percent yes
Proposition 1C: 58 percent no, 32 percent yes
Proposition 1D: 45 percent no, 43 percent yes
Proposition 1E: 48 percent no, 41 percent yes
Proposition 1F: 73 percent yes, 24 percent no

[PPIC poll]

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