A time-tested Christmas joke describes the four stages of life: First, you believe in Santa Clause. Second, you don’t believe in Santa Clause. Third, you are Santa Claus. Fourth, you look like Santa Claus.

As they look down from their lofty perches in the State Capitol, members of the political ruling class see taxpayers as perpetually being in the third stage, supplying a never ending supply of goodies (i.e., tax revenue) to be collected by lawmakers and bureaucrats, and kept, or redistributed, as they see fit. When taxpayers look back at the politicians, they see them in the juvenile first stage, naively believing in Santa Taxpayer who can effortlessly fulfill their every desire and whim.

Of course, taxpayers can best be described as being in the cynical second stage. They don’t believe in Santa Claus, they work hard, they understand there is no free lunch and they are wary of politicians who try to buy voter support with the money they have extracted from our wallets and pocketbooks. However, if Santa Claus does exist, here is a list of requests that taxpayers might send to the North Pole.

To read the entire column click here… Read More

The left keeps lamenting the shrinking middle class. And the middle class IS shrinking as a percentage of Americans. But here’s the the catch: Turns out that2/3 of the middle class losses are because they moved to “rich”!

Kudos to the REASON Foundation and Professor Mark Perry (who assembled the updated piece below) for sharing this insight. ——– http://www.aei.org/publication/yes-americas-middle-class-has-been-disappearing-into-higher-income-groups/ AEI

House Amendment 1 to HR 2029, Omnibus Spending Act,is the 2,000-plus page $1.15 trillion spending act to fund the government through September 30, 2016. Congressman Tom McClintock voted NO, and explains why.

“A bill of this complexity always has good and bad provisions, and the question comes down to whether in balance it moves the government in the right direction,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-CA posted on his Congressional website Friday.

McClintock explains:

On the plus side: • It stops bailouts of insurance companies required by Obamacare. • It ends the oil-export ban on American petroleum. (Although it should be noted that the president has the authority to do so on his own, and in 13 months we are likely to have a president who will anyway). • It blocks the proposed IRS rule that would formalize the… Read More

The latest one year California population figures have been published (through 1 July, 2015). Some trends and facts are worth noting. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/dec/16/californias-population-grows-to-nearly-391-million/

California’s population is now about 39,100,000 million, an increase of 350,000 people — about a 0.9% increase for the 12 months.

The number of births was 507,000. We peaked at about 612,000 births in 1990, and have been gradually trending downward ever since — a trend all the more notable given that our state population was a tad under 30,000,000 in 1990. http://www.dof.ca.gov/research/demographic/reports/projections/births/documents/2014BirthProj-Final.xlsx

The number of deaths (all ages) in that time period totaled 245,000. Given that the CA deaths in 2005 totaled 236,220, it appears that, even with an aging population, our death rate has slowed… Read More

With California dominated by irreverent liberals at every level of government, saying ‘Merry Christmas’ is so awkward. Christmas carols are no longer allowed sung in public schools. Christmas plays have been cancelled, and gift exchanges must be generic.

To accommodate this brave new world thinking, may I present the Twelve Days of California’s Generic Holiday, sung to the antiquated Twelve Days of Christmas:

On the first day of HOLIDAY

my partner sent to me:

A condor on protected… Read More

With the holidays in full swing and the New Year approaching, it’s a time to reflect on the past and set goals for the future. Thirteen Republicans, myself included, will return to the Senate and Assembly chambers as alumni of the California Trailblazers program this January. We embark on a new year, with the same resolve: to make California the golden land of promise it once was. In order to strengthen job creation and protect taxpayers, we remain committed to stopping tax increase proposals and burdensome regulation. Equally important is removing barriers to high-quality education for California’s children, who are the future of our state.

California Trailblazers made significant contributions in 2015. Through the Trailblazers program we studied policy, identified priorities and received the training and preparation needed to define, shape and control debate on important issues once elected. And that is why, as freshmen legislators; we were positioned to make such strong strides to protect hardworking Californians.

There are a few successes I would like to recognize, as we work to build on them in 2016.

Providing transparency in government operations… Read More

How overpaid is the Escondido City Attorney? You decide.

The Escondido City Attorney employs 7 attorneys (counting himself) and 6 staff.

https://www.escondido.org/Data/Sites/1/media/PDFs/Finance/PreliminaryOperatingBudget1516.pdf page 14

The San Diego City Attorney has 155 attorneys working under his management, and 355 employees total.

http://www.sandiego.gov/fm/annual/pdf/fy16/vol2/v2cityattorney.pdf

San Diego runs a big misdemeanor department, handling FAR more issues and cases than the backwater Escondido City Attorney department. The county handles Escondido’s misdemeanor load.

San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s 2014 salary was $202,000.… Read More

The recent Paris World Climate Summit, a gigantic diversion, allowed cowardly world leaders, and the cowardly mainstream media to avoid dealing with the skunk on the table – Islamist Terrorism.The cowardly Obama administration led the way to consensus of an international climate change treaty at the Paris Summit, which will do little or nothing to reduce carbon (also known as plant food).

This World Climate Summit took place in Paris, almost immediately following the November 13 murders of 140 people in Paris, by Islamic terrorists.

The response following the Paris attack, and more recent San Bernardino attack, from the mainstream media, clearly synchronized with the Democratic National Committee, has been woefully ho-hum, demonstrating contemptible levels of cowardice.

And instead of hunkering down and reassuring Americans that our government and military will protect us, Obama shifted his fourth-grade attention span to climate change.

This faux-Treaty will only serve to decrease fossil fuel use in developed countries, while extorting billions more from the pockets of U.S. and European taxpayers, for redistribution to developing… Read More