Commentary
California
Gov. Brown’s decent pension plan is a long shot
Despite some encouraging details in Gov. Jerry Brown’s recently announced pension-reform proposal, there’s virtually no chance the state will seriously reform — or even seriously attempt to reform — a system creaking under the weight of about $500 billion in unfunded liabilities. The proposal isn’t bad. It doesn’t go far ...
California
Jobs killed by unendangered species
It’s been 20 years since biologist Jonathan L. Atwood authored a study declaring the California gnatcatcher a distinct subspecies. Based on Atwood’s conclusion, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1993 listed the small blue-gray songbird as “threatened,” restricting land use on nearly 200,000 acres across six Southern California counties, ...
Commentary
Health Care Freedom: 2 Out of 3 Ain’t Bad
[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Yesterday’s victory in Arixona (55% to 45%) “upgrades” the previously passed statute to a constitutional amendment. Yesterday’s victory in Oklahoma (65% to 35%) overrides the incumbent governor’s previous veto. The measure was defeated in Colorado, but by a narrower margin of 47% to ...
Commentary
Perry’s Texas: Creating jobs, not Medicaid dependents
In a crowded field for the Republican presidential nomination, only two candidates have real records of achievement on healthcare reform: Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney fell for the conventional wisdom that Americans believe it is the government’s responsibility to ensure “universal” coverage. This resulted in ...
Commentary
Health Spending and the “Supercommittee”: Seven Items from President Obama that Republicans And Democrats Should Embrace
Key Points: Congress has a unique opportunity to make a clean cut in government health spending by Christmas. President Obama’s deficit-reducing proposal contains seven items that shift Medicare and Medicaid spending closer to the people. Although these items represent a small fraction of President Obama’s deficit-reducing proposal, they offer the ...
Commentary
Mitt Romney’s Health Care Defenses Still Don’t Cut It
Its no secret that President Barack Obama based his costly, mandate-driven health care overhaul on Massachusetts 2006 reform experiment despite former Bay State Governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romneys claims to the contrary. Ironclad proof surfaced a few weeks ago, when the White House released visitor logs ...
Agriculture
Rural rebellion brewing
The nearly five-hour drive from the Sacramento area to Yreka, in Siskiyou County by the Oregon border, was a reminder not just of the immense size and beauty of California, but of the vast regional and cultural differences one finds within our 37-million-population state. Sacramento is Government Central, a land ...
California
California’s costly green subsidies
If there was any doubt about the economic success of state-mandated green programs, it was erased this week after a state Senate hearing about the future of alternate fuels. By the end of the four-hour session, it was clear that environmental special interests are thriving in California. At the hearing, ...
Business & Economics
Honesty, No More Subsidies
President Obama’s plan to change federal lending rules so people who are under water in their mortgages can refinance will make a political point about Republican intransigence on his jobs package but won’t sway many voters. The truth: the housing market will not rebound until the banks get their backlog ...
Agriculture
California global warming law choking food processors
As California’s unemployment rate hovers above 12 percent, even the state’s Democratic leaders – notorious for regulating, taxing and complaining about California’s business community – are talking about jobs. They are championing the occasional job expansion in Silicon Valley (i.e., a new Dell research and development center) and proposing their ...
Gov. Brown’s decent pension plan is a long shot
Despite some encouraging details in Gov. Jerry Brown’s recently announced pension-reform proposal, there’s virtually no chance the state will seriously reform — or even seriously attempt to reform — a system creaking under the weight of about $500 billion in unfunded liabilities. The proposal isn’t bad. It doesn’t go far ...
Jobs killed by unendangered species
It’s been 20 years since biologist Jonathan L. Atwood authored a study declaring the California gnatcatcher a distinct subspecies. Based on Atwood’s conclusion, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1993 listed the small blue-gray songbird as “threatened,” restricting land use on nearly 200,000 acres across six Southern California counties, ...
Health Care Freedom: 2 Out of 3 Ain’t Bad
[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Yesterday’s victory in Arixona (55% to 45%) “upgrades” the previously passed statute to a constitutional amendment. Yesterday’s victory in Oklahoma (65% to 35%) overrides the incumbent governor’s previous veto. The measure was defeated in Colorado, but by a narrower margin of 47% to ...
Perry’s Texas: Creating jobs, not Medicaid dependents
In a crowded field for the Republican presidential nomination, only two candidates have real records of achievement on healthcare reform: Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney fell for the conventional wisdom that Americans believe it is the government’s responsibility to ensure “universal” coverage. This resulted in ...
Health Spending and the “Supercommittee”: Seven Items from President Obama that Republicans And Democrats Should Embrace
Key Points: Congress has a unique opportunity to make a clean cut in government health spending by Christmas. President Obama’s deficit-reducing proposal contains seven items that shift Medicare and Medicaid spending closer to the people. Although these items represent a small fraction of President Obama’s deficit-reducing proposal, they offer the ...
Mitt Romney’s Health Care Defenses Still Don’t Cut It
Its no secret that President Barack Obama based his costly, mandate-driven health care overhaul on Massachusetts 2006 reform experiment despite former Bay State Governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romneys claims to the contrary. Ironclad proof surfaced a few weeks ago, when the White House released visitor logs ...
Rural rebellion brewing
The nearly five-hour drive from the Sacramento area to Yreka, in Siskiyou County by the Oregon border, was a reminder not just of the immense size and beauty of California, but of the vast regional and cultural differences one finds within our 37-million-population state. Sacramento is Government Central, a land ...
California’s costly green subsidies
If there was any doubt about the economic success of state-mandated green programs, it was erased this week after a state Senate hearing about the future of alternate fuels. By the end of the four-hour session, it was clear that environmental special interests are thriving in California. At the hearing, ...
Honesty, No More Subsidies
President Obama’s plan to change federal lending rules so people who are under water in their mortgages can refinance will make a political point about Republican intransigence on his jobs package but won’t sway many voters. The truth: the housing market will not rebound until the banks get their backlog ...
California global warming law choking food processors
As California’s unemployment rate hovers above 12 percent, even the state’s Democratic leaders – notorious for regulating, taxing and complaining about California’s business community – are talking about jobs. They are championing the occasional job expansion in Silicon Valley (i.e., a new Dell research and development center) and proposing their ...
