The impending Christmas holiday, which cannot be waived even with a 2/3rds vote of Congress, has motivated lots of deal making, and Congress will adjourn for the year sometime tonight. Here are some of the things, in addition to the energy bill and the budget which I told you about yesterday, that are on their way to the President’s desk:

•TRIA: A 7 year extension with some positive modifications to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act which was put in place after the attacks of 9/11. This provides federal government reinsurance so that the private market can profitably offer terrorism risk insurance on major commercial properties around the country. This compromise was more than the no extension that some wanted and less than the subsidies that others wanted. •SCHIP: After a year long and often bitter fight over whether to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan to cover adults and middle class children (basically a step to socialized medicine), the Democratic leadership backed down and relented to a 16 month extension of the current program with some program revisions. This bill passed with a vote of 411-3. The floor speeches from… Read More

December 18th is a special day in the Buck household: it’s my youngest child’s birthday! (It’s also the end of the "Birthday Season" in my house…my other two children have birthdays on Dec. 12th and 13th…we always breathe a sigh of relief when the youngest opens her gifts, and we’ve survived another year of mayhemand merriment.)

But each year when I open my youngest’s baby book to add new things to commemorate her special day, I see the newspaper from the day she was born. (Even in labor and delivery I asked that 2-3 newspapers be delivered to my hospital room…)

Nine years ago today, I was holding a precious new life in my arms, and feeling unspeakable joy.

Nine years ago today,newspapers around the world announced America’s shame: President Clinton was impeached. I wonder what Senator Clinton was doingnine years ago today…… Read More

Why does it feel like the Ghost of Governors Past is haunting the Governor’s Office? It is painful to think of how much time, energy and money was spent replacing the failed Gray Davis with the hope of a freedom-loving, pro-free market Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it is even more painful to experience the current governor’s complete sell out for the sake of good press and popularity with the opposition party.

Ooops…there I go again, sounding all partisan again. Isn’t this the era of post-partisanship? I guess post partisanship is when the Republicans have more hope of Senator Don Perata of doing the right thing (insisting that the state budget crisis be dealt with before any health reform plan is passed) than their “Republican” governor.

Back to the Davis-Schwarzenegger contrast—I’m certainly not the fir… Read More

A nod to Joe Justin on the song title inspiration.

As a lobbysist asked me today, "Can you believe this stuff. You have a Republican governor promoting massive tax increases and the Democratic Senate leader talking about fiscal responsibility. What’s next?"

I’m taking guesses on what’s next, New Year’s predictions if you will. What is the Shape of Things to come?

Post them below or email me here.… Read More

There is finally a budget deal. The Democrats agreed to only spend the total budget amount that the President had asked for. That saves you nearly $150 billion over the next 5 years (because the base for future increases is lower) which is enough to avoid the increases in the Alternative Minimum Tax that many want to see. I feel particularly happy about this because this all really started with the letter I circulated this spring on which 147 members of Congress agreed to uphold the president’s veto of any spending bill over his requested amount. Bills went to the president, he vetoed them and the vetoes were upheld which is why majority Democrats had to make a deal. That all worked out quite well. However, I still voted against the spending bill, and here’s why:

•First of all, I actually thought the President’s spending number was too high also. We cannot continue to increase spending by, or in excess of, the growth in the economy or we will never get to a balanced budget. •Secondly, the deal included $11 billion in one-time new spending. •Third, it has at least 8000 earmarks in it for nearly $20 billion. Much of this… Read More

Today,as reported in the Sacramento Bee (here and here), the Sacramento City Council voted to moveahead with a threatened eminent domain proceeding to be commenced on property downtown, just 2 blocks from where the Legislature tramples the rights of the rest of California, the State Capitol.

Under previous eminent domain threatby the city, Mr Moe Mohanna had agreed to swap land and buildingswith adjacent lands that the city had bought up and allow the city redevelopment gang to do their thing. But the properties the city wanted to deal him caught fire, were ordered demolished, and of course suffered a great loss of value due to its "material adverse change" thereby rejecting the swap without some greater consideration. The city claims to not have money lying around [good, it should be going to pay for cops, fire fighters and fixing streets] to sweeten the threat/deal for Mr Mohanna.

… Read More

AB 1X [technically known as AB 1 X1] passes right on time to the floor for our scheduled 1PM session on a party line vote from Assembly Appropriations Committee, all Reps voting "no" on this 239 page document, still warm off the press.… Read More

Last week was a bit crazy, so I am playing a little bit of catch up.

We linked to a story by Nancy Vogel in the Los Angeles Times where, after much controversy swirled about Fabian Nunez buying thousands of dollars in french wines on a European junket, it turns out that Nunez foisted the wine on the California Democratic Party.

Well, last Friday the fine folks at the No on 93 campaign gave a gift to Speaker Nunez. They had delivered to his office a bottle of Charles Shaw Chardonnay. Those in the know refer to Shaw as "Two Buck Chuck" because that’s all it costs. It’s thrifty, its American, and I am sure it ended up in the Speaker’s sterling silver trash can.

The No on 93 folks say that, "Admittedly, the bottle of Two Buck Chuck was purchased at a Trader… Read More