Ray Haynes Memorandum

It's Super Bowl time, when all the new commercials come out. Have you seen those Real Men of Genius/Real American Hero series of commercials, celebrating Mr. Way-Too-Much-Cologne Wearer or Mr. Giant-Taco-Salad Inventor? Well, they missed one. So, to help out those Madison-Avenue types who missed this obvious set of geniuses, I offer up a salute to those California legislators we can affectionately refer to as Mr. Really-Liberal-California Politician.

Hey-Mr. Really-Liberal-California Politician. We know that you are real men of genius. You, who took a thriving California economy and turned it into a job-killing machine with your taxes and regulations. Only a genius could figure out how to take such a powerful economic engine, and shut it down in just two short years.

You know that you are smarter than the rest of us, that is why you spend your time trying to enact great government programs you learned about in college while in the middle of some chemical induced stupor, and actually think that it will work in real life.

There aren't many people in this world that could take a $12 billion surplus, and turn it into a $35 billion deficit, but you did it. Amazing. Even more amazing, even though you had record majorities in both houses of the legislature and controlled all the levers of the government, you managed to blame Republicans for the deficits.

You, Mr. Really-Liberal-California Politician can increase spending by 40% while tax receipts only increase by 25%, and then say that low taxes caused the deficit.

Only you can tax law-abiding California citizens to pay for law-breaking foreign nationals, and call the citizens racist for objecting.

You took a state with beaches, mountains, deserts, forests, Hollywood and perfect weather that had attracted Americans for over a century, and made it so intolerable that more citizens are now moving out of California than are moving into California.

Only you, Mr. Really-Liberal-California Politician, can pass a law that says a man can show up for work dressed like a woman, even if the boss objects. You then pass a law that says the boss has to pay the employee if a customer makes fun of the employee for dressing up like a woman.

And you think that choice is important, unless it's a choice in education, health care, self-defense, social security, or any other government program you control.

You were there, Mr. Really-Liberal-California Politician, when the Governor of the state of California did everything you wanted, and you still complained. You pushed him even harder to do more liberal things, and he did them. Then, when he was recalled for doing what you asked him to do, you blamed him.

That is because, Mr. Really-Liberal-California Politician, you are smarter than the rest of us, and you know it. You know your programs don't work only because we are not spending enough money on them.

You know that the special interests, like the unions, that you pass your laws to protect are destroying the economy, hurting employees, taking the employees money without the employee's permission, but who cares, they are giving that money to you so you will stay in power.

You know the trial lawyers are destroying jobs and the economy in this state with the laws you pass for them, so they can make more money, but who cares, because they are giving you that money so you can stay in power.

And that is what it is all about, Mr. Really-Liberal-California Politician, keeping you in power. Because if you weren't in power, you know that people would pay less in taxes, have more freedom, and live much more happily. And not being able to force people to do your bidding anymore would cause your precious self-esteem to plummet.

And that would drive you crazy. So, we salute you, Mr. Really-Liberal-California Politician, because without you, we probably wouldn't have anything to complain about. And that would be a shame.

OK, they won't make this commercial, but they should. It is only fitting for those folks we call Democrats in Sacramento.

Clash brewing over state job privatization http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%7E20954%7E1914808,00.html 01-25-04

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to downsize state government and privatize some services challenges Sacramento's ultimate sacred cow -- the powerful public employee unions -- and triggers a political battle that is certain to be far tougher than trying to balance the budget without new taxes. In his budget proposal, the governor calls for a constitutional amendment that would give him broad powers to contract with private firms when it will "reduce costs, improve efficiency or improve services." He calls the effort "competition" for state services rather than "privatization" because the stated goal is for public employees to keep their jobs by outbidding contractors, which means they would have to accept lower salaries and benefits or require fewer people to get tasks done.

Arduin Wants To Measure Program Performance http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/8141475p-9073381c.html 01-22-04

Donna Arduin has a quaint idea about government finance: She thinks every state program should have specific goals laying out what it is trying to accomplish and clear measures to help the public determine whether those goals have been achieved. Arduin, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance director, is spending much of her time these days helping the boss with his most immediate fiscal problem -- trying to close a $15 billion gap between California's revenues and its projected spending. But Arduin, who came to California after budget stints in Michigan, New York and Florida, also has her eye on the long term. ******************************

When The Rich Aren't Getting Richer, State's In Poorhouse http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/8123067p-9055 136c.html 01-18-04

The rich are no longer getting richer in California. And the rest of us, oddly enough, are suffering from their misfortune. That's the story from the latest report on tax returns filed for the 2002 tax year. The preliminary figures, which I obtained from the Franchise Tax Board last week, show that the number of returns reporting incomes exceeding $1 million dropped again, to about 25,000. The combined income earned by those fat cats also shrunk, by more than 20 percent. Why should we care? Because California's skewed income distribution, combined with progressive tax rates, means that the people at the very top of the income heap pay a very high percentage of the personal income tax collected in this state.

SSA Admits Private Plans Will Work http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=14122 01-01-04

A December 1 memorandum from the Social Security Administration (SSA) to a renowned policy analyst marked the first time SSA has officially admitted private retirement plans will work. "The chief actuary of the Social Security Administration confirmed the feasibility of every worker's owning a substantial personal retirement account," said Jack Kemp of Empower America. The memo from SSA Chief Actuary Steve Gross to Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) tax expert Peter Ferrara admits that, "Under the plan specifications described [by Ferrara] the Social Security program would be expected to be solvent and to meet its benefit obligations throughout the long range period 2003 through 2077 and beyond." That statement contrasts with SSA figures that place the current Social Security system in bankruptcy within the forecast horizon. "The SSA's scoring turns traditional Washington-establishment thinking on its head," says Ferrara. "The scoring reveals that large personal accounts would achieve permanent solvency for Social Security, without benefit cuts or tax increases, with manageable transition financing burdens. Up until now, establishment Washington has assumed that any personal account option for Social Security would involve at most 2 percentage points of the 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax."

Health Care - Consumer Choice Matters: Backlash from the Left http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=14076 01-01-04

It didn't take long for the left wing to realize the impact of the Health Savings Account (HSA) provision of the Medicare reform legislation. Don McCanne, president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), quoted extensively from my analysis of the measure , reprinted in this issue of Health Care News. Sure enough, like a jack-in-the-box, Senator Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) immediately popped up with a proposal to repeal the HSA provision. That might be worrisome if the arguments from PNHP had any merit. They don't. They are just window-dressing for their real concern, which is that HSAs and patient empowerment will be the death of their long-cherished hopes for a nationalized health insurance scheme.

Wage law will hit restaurants hard S.F. diners likely to bear burden of pay hike http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/01/26/BAG2C4HM081.DTL 01-26-04

Any way you look at it, people eating out in San Francisco are going to feel the pain of the city's looming minimum wage hike, in higher prices, reduced service or both. And so will many of the workers for whom the raise was intended to help. To cover the $1.75-an-hour raise, to $8.50, eateries from Restaurant Gary Danko to Pasta Pomodoro may raise menu prices, slap on small surcharges or, as a last resort, adopt European-style service charges. Many will also whittle staff hours and benefits when the new wage, passed by voters last November, takes effect Feb. 23. "For the average table service restaurant in San Francisco, this will be the difference between being marginally profitable and posting a loss," said Mark Pastore, who opened Incanto in Noe Valley 18 months ago and enjoyed his first day in the black on Dec. 31.

Tribe's Measure Offers Tax Deal http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gamble22jan22,1,6456997.story?coll=l a-headlines-california 01-22-04

Opening a new front in a coming battle over gambling, a wealthy California Indian tribe has proposed an initiative that would expand tribes' casino operations and protect their monopoly while requiring them to pay the equivalent of a corporate profits tax on their earnings. The proposition, a state constitutional amendment, would permit tribes to offer all casino games, including craps and roulette, something they cannot do under current state law. And it would allow them to operate as many casinos on their reservations as they chose, with as many slot machines as the market would bear.

Report Endorses Charter Schools http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/01/22/BAGLG4F7PG1.DTL 01-22-04

Charter schools should be allowed to flourish around California because they are cost effective and have proved their worth academically, says a new report by the state legislative analyst's office, which advises lawmakers. Three recommendations, which stand out in the report by legislative analyst Elizabeth Hill, have charter proponents cheering: -- The state should eliminate the cap limiting the number of new charter schools to 100 a year. -- Agencies other than school districts should be allowed to authorize and oversee charters.

To View LAO Report: http://www.lao.ca.gov/2004/charter_schools/012004_charter_schools.htm

Car-Tax Rollback Challenged http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=77313 01-22-04

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's key campaign promise to roll back a tripling of the state's car tax was challenged directly to the California Supreme Court on Wednesday by a coalition of college students and social activists whose members and clients will bear the brunt of his budget cuts. Opponents of the governor's November tax cut, which saves motorists $4 billion a year in annual registration renewal fees, want a majority of the seven high-court justices to overturn the pledge, which has deepened the state's deficit, and along with it, the need for cuts to services.

The Declaration of Independence: A Look at the Meaning Our founding document still provides guidance on the proper size of the government. http://www.cse.org/informed/issues_template.php?issue_id=1660 01-19-04

Any discussion about the proper role of government can be improved by an appeal back to the ideas upon which our nation was founded. In the Declaration of Independence, we find perhaps the most concise expression of those very ideas and beliefs. The Declaration is clear: the Founders believed in individual liberty, defined by the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, secured by a government created for that purpose, gaining its legitimate power from the consent of the governed. The order of the words in the Declaration is important. Upon carefully reading the Declaration, as Roger Pilon at the Cato Institute has done, one will notice that there is no mention of government until the moral order of the world the Founders envisioned is laid out. Their philosophy begins in a "state of nature," where no government has yet been created by human beings. It is not until after the moral order is established that the political order-- which comes from this moral order-- is discussed.

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution is permitted and encouraged!

Ray Haynes Rocks! He also wrote back on my plea to not let AB992 pass(it's the .10cent per bullet ammo tax bill). He wrote back "I voted against this bill in Committee, and will vote against it on the floor. It could be heard as early as this afternoon. I will argue against it.

Assemblyman Ray Haynes"

There aren't many people in this world that could take a $12 billion surplus, and turn it into a $35 billion deficit, but you did it. Amazing. Even more amazing, even though you had record majorities in both houses of the legislature and controlled all the levers of the government, you managed to blame Republicans for the deficits.

Say It Loud!!! BUMP

There aren't many people in this world that could take a $12 billion surplus, and turn it into a $35 billion deficit, but you did it.

Which is why we should not accept Arnold's claim that he can't find $15 billion to cut.

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