What if you were told there is a corrupt dictatorship on the other side of the world where government officials are using US foreign aid to build palatial mansions for themselves, diverting money intended to feed poor children and spending billions with no oversight or accountability?

Unfortunately, these examples are not from a remote foreign land, but from right here in California. And you, California taxpayers, are footing the bill.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation has just released “Follow the Money 2013,” a report chronicling some of the highest profile government waste, fraud and abuse uncovered this year. Added together, the examples in this document amount to tens of billions of dollars.

There seems to be no limit on the irresponsible behavior of some politicians and bureaucrats when it comes to spending OPM (Other People’s Money). “Follow the Money 2013” shows they are paying millions to drug rehab clinics with histories of questionable billing practices, giving elected officials bonuses just for being reelected, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on outside consultants, and much, much more.

While the report profiles… Read More

Any fiscal conservative who joins a bipartisan coalition to advance a common cause needs to be wary about becoming one of the Left’s “useful idiots.” A classic example is now unfolding in Sacramento, where sports fans and corporate interests are clamoring for exceptional efforts – including a $258 million public subsidy – to retain the region’s one major league professional sports team, the Kings of the National Basketball Association.

Emotionalism and financial self-interest are overwhelming critical thinking about mundane issues such as opportunity costs, municipal debt finance, property rights, regional transportation planning, and the role of government in redistributing capital. And the selected location for the new arena was a strategic error that may send the Kings packing to more lucrative pastures.

Either by design or by default, the new arena is planned for downtown Sacramento, rather than a suburban site or even next to the current arena. As a result, the arena and anticipated development around the arena are being subjected to costly political meddling, led by downtown’s State Senator Darrell Steinberg and his political… Read More

Driving from one Kenyan town to the next was not how I expected to spend my December 27, 2007. That is, until I got a call from the International Republican Institute asking me to be a part of their international election observation team to monitor the election taking place on that day.

It was my first time in sub-Saharan Africa, and I took the opportunity to continue my activities for IRI because like very election observation mission, it represented the chance to help others enjoy the benefits of democracy that we often take for granted here in America.

The international consensus reached in the aftermath of the vote was that the outcome was at least partially manipulated. Rioting broke out in Nairobi and other parts of the country shortly after I had departed.

While I went to Kenya to observe an election, it was something I incidentally observed along the way that seized my attention and prompted me to think through another aspect of society: the role of technology, and the question of whether it is beneficial to humanity.

… Read More

Appropriately, there is a lot of focus in Congress these days on Obamacare and the NSA, IRS and Benghazi scandals. But, the failings of this president and his administration are not limited to just those issues. The committees on which I sit have no jurisdiction over any of the aforementioned areas. However, that doesn’t mean we’re not doing anything. It’s just that the work we are doing doesn’t often make the news, except maybe business news like Bloomberg or CNBC.

Yesterday, we had Treasury Secretary Jack Lew testify on international monetary issues before the Financial Services Committee. He is required to do this annually. If you click HERE, you’ll find a short video of the opening statement I gave at the beginning of this hearing.

You will see that although you are not hearing anything about it, the Obama Administration wants to send $63 billion of your… Read More

If you are signing up for Obamacare, I hope you’ve already put your check in the mail. If you haven’t paid by Dec. 23, don’t count on having Obamacare insurance in January. As with all insurance coverage, the plan must be paid for before you are officially covered.

According to theU.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 365,000 Americans have signed up for health insurance through state exchanges under Obamacare, or signed up usingHealthcare.gov.

“Since October 1, 1.9 million have made it through another critical step, the eligibility process, by applying and receiving an eligibility determination, but have not yet selected a plan,” theHHS agencysaid. ”An additional 803,077 were determined or assessed eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in October and November by the Health Insurance Marketplace.”

But Healthcare.gov and state insurance exchanges are still not… Read More

The great irony of the Republican decision to bust the budget sequester is that barely two months ago, congressional roles were reversed. The Democrats insisted on funding the government according to existing law. The Republicans sought one simple change: that the individual insurance mandate under Obamacare be delayed for one year. They were trying to spare the American people the Obamacare disaster that is now unfolding, but to no avail. The American people sided overwhelmingly with the Democrats on the principle that the government should be funded according to current law without any side issues.

Why wasn’t that principle applied just two months later? Republicans were in the ideal position to hold the budget line simply by insisting on enforcing current law. Instead, the House Republican leadership pushed through a two-year budget that will allow the federal government to spend an additional $63 billion more than current law allows – money that our country does not have.

Some of the discussion has focused on how much of the spending spree will be paid with higher taxes. The answer is, “all of it.” Once government spends a dollar, it has already… Read More

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Republicans wondering if their party can recover from its current crises should find interesting Al From’s just released memoir, “The New Democrats and the Return to Power,” which tells the story of the Democrats’ recovery after Walter Mondale lost 49 states to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. Ronald Brownstein’s informative review of From’s book in the Los Angeles Times (“Are Democrats complacent?”, Op-Ed, 12/6/13) describes longtime Democratic operative From’s creation of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), which was “…dedicated to recasting the Democrats’ agenda and restoring its political competitiveness.”

That last line should ring a bell with Republicans today. Does not the GOP need to restore its “political competitiveness?” From’s and the DLC’s efforts were spectacularly effective, culminating in the ascendancy of Bill Clinton, who had chaired the DLC as Arkansas’ governor.

Democrats before the DLC and Clinton’s rise were in as bad a shape as the GOP today. As Brownstein relates: “When From organized the DLC, the… Read More

Pensions are assuming an increasingly important role in state/local public policy. From Detroit’s bankruptcy to the recent legislation signed by Illinois’ governor to alleviate a $100 billion liability, Californians are uniquely familiar with this crisis. More recently than the well-known bankruptcies from Vallejo to San Bernardino, the Sacramento Bee noted just two weeks ago that while the City of Sacramento reduced its payroll by 1,000 employees over the last five years, its annual pension obligations have increased by almost 10 percent – now at $55.4 million for the budget year.

The scenario in the capital city, illustrates a little appreciated paradigm in the public sector: while governments are getting smaller (in number of employees), they are getting more expensive. This dynamic is being demonstrated in the City of Chicago, where, as the Wall… Read More