While different people have certain things in their minds they view as paramount, I have made my own decision as to the most important. It is clearly the biggest challenge we face because it goes to the underlying character of the people in our country. Those are our principles regarding stealing, and what we formerly thought of as right and wrong. Proposition 47, which California passed in 2014, was the first of many laws passed enabling this trend. The ballot issue (which garnered almost 60% of the public’s support) decreased the penalty to a misdemeanor for shoplifting, forgery, grand theft, fraud, and writing a bad check if the amount involved was less than $950. This gradually caused an explosion in low-level crime for which the police did not have the personnel to enforce. During a number of recent lunches with various people, I asked them a question about which they were kind of taken aback. I asked them if they had recently been to a CVS or Walgreen’s. Nearly everyone had. I then asked them if they had paid for their purchases before leaving. They looked at me quizzically and said various forms of YES. I then asked them why. No… Read More

The Harris campaign put forward an 82-page plan, A New Way Forward For the Middle Class, following numerous charges that she had no proposals. Let’s take a look. In the introduction, she states, “It’s time to finally turn the page on Trump and chart a new way forward.” If you just came from Mars, you would think Donald Trump is the current president and that the Harris/Biden Administration has not been in charge the last four years. It is a nice try, but as the saying goes, no cigar. Any economic conditions where you seek to turn the page are in the hands of you and your prior running mate.

The next four pages talk about the folks who support her plan and prefer it to Mr. Trump’s. We are beginning to get a sense that the report will state: “I am wonderful, and Trump is stinky.” The beginning of the actual financial plan finally begins on page 11, where Harris again besmirches herself in the first paragraph by attacking Trump. She says his “Project 2025 agenda would raise taxes on the middle class.” Let us repeat another time. Donald Trump and his people had nothing to do with Project 2025 and he has publicly… Read More

Yesterday, I read Bruce Bialosky’s article on Professor Jonathan Turley’s book on the state of free speech in America. This is such an important topic, I thought I would add a line or two about my experience in politics on the importance of free speech and free markets.

This topic has increased importance over the last week, in light of the recent decision by the California Coastal Commission to deny a permit to Elon Musk to allow him to launch rockets from Vandenburg Air Force Base. The Air Force has been launching from their location there for years, so there’s not a lot of issues about the effects of those launches on the coast or the environment. That leads to the question as to why the Coastal Commission would deny that permit. Interestingly enough, they denied it because Musk supports Donald Trump. On what planet where the protection of freedom of speech and association is an important value can such a decision be appropriate?

I will relate one short story about my political activities before I held office (an experience that drove me to seek office). I lived in a town I lived where I opposed the local mayor on a regular basis.… Read More

Some of my neighbors have put up yard signs for Harris/Walz. I find it quite humorous, but I highly encourage it. It provides a good chuckle that the campaign is spending money on yard signs in California. One of the neighbors added an alteration stating not voting for Trump would shut down the liar. Lying certainly is in the eye of the beholder, but suppression of free speech is largely coming from one side, and it isn’t Trump. I decided to read Jonathan Turley’s new book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage. Turley is one of the real voices of reasons in our culture today. A long-time law professor at George Washington University, he has a significant distaste for Mr. Trump, and he is a lifelong Democrat. Yet he often comments in Mr. Trump’s favor because of the appalling actions of his opposition. He is what used to be called a “straight shooter.” His book is a fascinating history on the issue of free speech which he thinks is at the center of the freedom established by our Constitution. He ably shifts from law professor to historian to educate his readers on the fascinating development of free speech… Read More

There were two reasons I became a CPA. First, I wanted to be able to support myself and a future family. Second, I was always involved in politics and our public policy is run through the tax code. At this point, I think I am fairly qualified to analyze any proposals by the candidates. For overview purposes, Mr. Trump wants to allow people to keep their own money and spend it how they judge fit. This is very much in line with what he did in his first term. Ms. Harris wants to direct her public policy interests through collecting more taxes and then providing targeted tax credits for government to accomplish what she believes are the “desired” goals of the government. Let’s look at some of the proposals. Most have been outlined in broad strokes by the candidates. First, the proposal for no tax on tips. This was proposed by Trump and promptly joined by Harris. In fact, there was even a proposal to pass something through the current Congress which quickly died. Here is how I see it. Tips were initially taxed in the first Reagan Tax Act in 1982. There is some clear logic in that tips are an established means of compensation. Over the… Read More

You might read that headline and wonder how it was narrowed down to one? It is not her flip-flopping, because anyone with a modicum of common sense knows she doesn’t believe them. She told us so when she said her values have not changed. And it is not the terrible economic decisions with which she was intimately involved nor her/their failure to keep out millions of people who illegally entered our country. Those are all top drawer. No, it was the abrupt Afghanistan withdrawal leading to a cascade of foreign policy debacles. No one really wanted to stay in Afghanistan at the time, but that doesn’t mean they wanted to withdraw. When the recent report from Congress was released, the Democrats’ main talking point for the withdrawal was about the long war and the many dead. That counts in regard to the history of Americans lost and immense costs but had nothing to do with the situation at the time. Not one American had died there in over a year. Yes, it costs to be there, but one had balance that to the cost of withdrawal – similar to staying in Japan and Germany. We were in Afghanistan with 2,500 Americans of a force of 10,000 counting our allies.… Read More

During the Harris/Biden years the price of housing has increased significantly. To say it has exploded would be a fair statement. There are two principal reasons. Interest rates went up at a precipitous rate from 2.78% at the end of 2020 to 7.22% three years later. The cost of building materials during that period went up over 20%. Harris has presented a plan to counter this by adding 3,000,000 new homes over the time of her planned first term. Let’s take a look at this proposal. There is a significant housing shortage in the United States. Allowing an estimated 10 million migrants into the country during the last four years has not been particularly helpful in dealing with the problem. In 2023, 1.54 million dwellings were built in America with about 1 million of those being single family residences. Despite that, Zillow estimated there is a housing shortage of 4.5 million in mid-2024. One can only suppose that Harris’ proposal is to increase production above the current levels. That has not been defined by her. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) would be delighted to build those homes but has been stymied from doing such. If you go… Read More

Over the years I have received many comments from readers. They are largely from people right of center. Not because I write for them. It is because whenever I have tried to entice left-of-center readers, they promptly depart not wanting to hear anything other than views that validate their existing perceptions. The few that I recently engaged confirmed Mr. Trump’s belief the Left has created a danger level for him. As you know, this issue came to the forefront with the second assassination attempt on the former President. Yes, Trump is guilty of saying things I and many others would never say. Calling someone by a distasteful nickname is different from oft-repeated statements such as Trump is a “danger to democracy,” a “tyrant,” “Mussolini” or worse — the most reviled person in history, Hitler. My recent experiences substantiate this vile commentary regarding Trump. I sent out my column entitled “The Joy Campaign.” As I try to do, I stuck to addressing Ms. Harris’ policies and experience as an elected official. I received the following from one reader. This is a college educated person who doesn’t generally delve into… Read More