A common canard is that government doesn’t work. It DOES work — just often not the way intended.

If we pay people not to work (including SSI and SSDI), fewer people opt to work. It works EXACTLY as any honest economist would predict.

With SSI, one has to PROVE that one can’t work in order to receive the benefits. Ignoring the fact that the system has become too corrupt — dispensing such status far too easily — it’s an incredible anti-work incentive program. Sadly, such programs work all too well.

Salient opening paragraph of article below: Paul Hippolitus, the director of the UC Berkeley Disabled Students’ Program, recalls that when he entered the disability employment field in 1971, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated 33% of adults with disabilities worked either full or part time. In September 2015 that estimated rate was down to 20%. “After 44 years of laws, education efforts with employers, tax credits, accessibility efforts, education access—how can this possibly be?”, he asks.

How indeed.… Read More

Following an unsuccessful bid for Congress in November 2014, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Elan Carr is running for Los Angeles County Supervisor in the 5th District, in the November 2016 election.

When asked in an interview why he is running for Los Angeles County Supervisor, Carr said, “I have three young children. My job as a parent is to protect them, imbue them with good values, and then turn over running the state to them.”

“However, if we don’t make the right decisions now, we’ll be handing over to my kids a less safe, less prosperous state,” Carr added.… Read More

UnionWatch has just released thefourth and final installmentof“The Fall of Pacific Grove – The Final Chapter,” written by John Moore, who is a retired attorney and resident of Pacific Grove. This four part series constitutes an extended epilogue to a eight part series on Pacific Grove which was published last year on UnionWatch. Links to all twelve installments appear at the conclusion of this post.

Moore’s earlier set of articles describe in detail howPacific Groveslid inexorably towards insolvency by yielding, again and again, year after year, to pressure from local government unions to award unaffordable pension benefits to city employees. Pacific Grove’s challenges area textbook case of how there is simply no interest group, anywhere, currently capable of standing up to the political power of government unions. This small city now faces the possibility of selling off every asset they’ve got, primarily real estate, to private developers to raise cash for the city’s perpetually escalating annual pension contributions. They face the… Read More

Okay, I’m exaggerating, but only a bit. This costly label “font” mandate was one of several state-imposed regulations that drove this small company under.

At its peak, this Chico firm employed 30 people. Since none of them were union members, politicians simply don’t much care that these workers are now unemployed. Indeed, as unemployed, these folks are more likely than ever to vote Democrat. It’s a win-win!

http://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/woof-and-poof-to-cease-production-in-chico/

Woof & Poof to cease production in Chico

Nov 7, 2015 2:50 PM by Debbie Cobb

One of the few things actually made in Chico may, sadly, no longer be made in Chico. Woof & Poof C.E.O. and owner Roger Hart said today, the company is having to cease production. Hart made the statement today at the annual warehouse sale.

Every year on the first Saturday of November a sale is held at the warehouse on Orange Street. Woof & Poof products include everything from stuffed… Read More

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Serving in the Legislature for six years, I had a front row seat to the culture in Sacramento where operatives strategize and execute plans to continuously raise your taxes to fund an ever expanding state government. For the first time in years, our state budget is running a surplus, and yet the demand for more of your money never ceases. The lobby for bigger government is alive and well in California, backed by creative think tanks and pressure groups dedicated to finding new ways to further separate you from your income. While your paycheck doesn’t buy what it used to, neither do your ever-increasing tax “investments.”

Most of us expect our “investment” in government to provide transportation and water infrastructure to keep up with the growing population. We expect our schools to be funded such that the money actually reaches the classroom. We expect safe neighborhoods through well-funded public safety enhancements. However, we don’t seem to getting a very good return on our investment. We pay higher rates for scarce water and power and remain stuck in traffic as the state attempts to change our behaviors by redirecting our road and highway improvement… Read More

Did you know that there was an election last Tuesday? Not many voters did, and the tax-and-spend crowd likes it that way. In this little publicized election, 29 out of 40 local tax increase measures passed.

Michael Coleman, Founder of the California Local Government Finance Almanac, notes the significance: “There were more local revenue measures on ballots this November than any of the four prior gubernatorial or presidential elections,” he said. “More were passed than ever before…”

Some might interpret these election results as a new acceptance of taxes by California voters. But for those of us who have observed government behavior for more than a few decades, we see a more sinister explanation. Specifically, that the tax raisers have become expert at gaming the system to pass tax and bond measures.

To read the entire column click here http://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/%E2%80%8Btax-raisers-like-non-voters%E2%80%8B/… Read More

Here’s a breaking bizarre news story, the result of anAssociated Press Investigationjust released today (Thursday, 11/5/15). Apparently CA Governor Jerry Brown sought and received extensive geological services from a government agency, mapping out the prospects for finding oil on his family’s land. According to this write-up of the facts by Breitbart, these services are normally never available to private individuals. Of course, Brown’s push to all but outlaw the use of fossil fuels makes this story even weirder.

Here’s the Breitbart story: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/05/shock-jerry-brown-used-state-experts-to-seek-oil-on-family-land/

The South Coast Air Quality Management District is one of the state’s most powerful and least accountable government agencies. It enacts and enforces air quality rules and regulations affecting millions of people and thousands of employers in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. From its enormous, gleaming headquarters overlooking the 57 Freeway in Diamond Bar, the AQMD’s power and reach extend from oil refineries to manufacturing facilities down to neighborhood gas stations, leaf blowers and beach fire pits. It sustains itself with money harvested from fees for permits businesses are compelled to obtain and fines AQMD regulators levy on those businesses.

The American system of government is based on the separation of the legislative, executive and judicial powers into independent… Read More