Welcome back from your July 4th holiday! On Monday, I returned from my outstanding three-week journey from Great Britain, just in time to celebrate our country’s 230th anniversary of throwing off the oppressive tyranny of that nasty King George III and the British! Hooray!
The day after a holiday is almost as always quiet, politically, as the holiday itself. Reporters like to take time off, too, and while holidays that are closer to elections are typically exceptions to this rule, Independence Day is far from the November elections (well, to normal people who aren’t hip-deep in campaigns).
Today we feature a column penned by FR friend Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis 
Taxpayers Association (pictured). Jon has given due credit to the Governor for drawing a firm line in the sand against tax and fee increases. This is an important position of the Governor, and will help to draw a sharp contrast between Schwarzenegger and liberal Phil Angelides, who we can count on to massively increase taxes as soon as he is in office (starting with an Executive Order to jack up the state car tax within moments of being sworn-in). That said, Coupal pens a cautionary piece about the dangers of a state budget that has seen a massive growth in spending and deficit spending. On this website we saw columns from the Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia and from law enforcement leaders praising the budget. Coupal sets what I think is a more realistic and sober look at the spending package, and makes it clear why most Republican representatives in Sacramento opposed the package.
**There is more – click the link**
