Free Republic

Not even fiscal crisis trumps partisan politics in California, where lawmakers remained sharply divided on a budget rescue plan Friday with time running out in this year's session. With California facing a projected two-year, $27.8 billion budget shortfall, Democrats and Republicans continued to fight over whether tax increases would make things better or worse. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders met Friday and were expected to discuss a tripling of the state's vehicle license tax in return for about $4 billion in cuts this budget year and placement of a rigid spending cap on a future ballot. When the session...

Sacramento - -- More than a dozen state lawmakers have missed much of the special legislative session called to tackle the state's fiscal mess, instead traveling to India, China and Hawaii to learn about education, high-speed rail and dams. The legislators include Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, and several Assembly Budget Committee members who missed a hearing on the crisis on Friday. At least two of the lawmakers are not expected to return by Sunday's planned floor sessions of the Senate and the Assembly, their staff members said. "Obviously, they're not taking the...

SACRAMENTO – Barely a month after lawmakers passed an overdue state budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will call them back to Sacramento to tackle California's worsening economy and revenues that already are $3 billion lower than expected. The administration said the special legislative session will work on two levels, addressing the shortfall in this year's budget and debating how to stimulate California's economy. During a news conference Tuesday in Southern California, Schwarzenegger said state government should try to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure and put billions of dollars in voter-approved infrastructure bonds to use. “I think it is the best thing...

Governor wants lawmakers to lose pay By Amy Taxin LONG BEACH — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday demanded that lawmakers face consequences when they fail to pass a state budget on time, including a loss of pay and the inability to work on other bills until a spending plan is passed. Schwarzenegger’s comments came after an 85-day standoff between lawmakers over how to close a $15.2 billion deficit. The impasse was the longest in state history and put the squeeze on medical clinics, nursing homes, daycare centers and other community programs that receive state aid. The governor signed the state’s...

NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street blue-chip stocks suffered their worst single-day point decline Monday as markets went into convulsions after US lawmakers rejected a massive rescue of the financial system. The plunge came with investors already fretting over a deepening of banking sector problems in Europe and the United States, with at least three banks saved with government aid. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 777.68 points (6.98) percent to close at 10,365.45 in its biggest single-day point decline ever. The slide eclipsed a 684-point drop on September 17, 2001, when the markets reopened following the September 11 terror...

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California lawmakers enjoy a perk not available to their colleagues in any other state: unchecked use of gasoline charge cards that stick taxpayers with the bill. Through the first seven months of the year, California taxpayers have spent $220,000 to pay for lawmakers' gasoline, according to a review of records requested by The Associated Press. That includes July, when lawmakers already were past their deadline to approve a budget and the state faced a $15.2 billion deficit.

Lawmakers closed a budget deal tonight that all had reason to dislike. With Republicans still opposed, the Senate voted 22-14 and the Assembly 41-30 to approve the final fix of the long overdue package. Republican leaders supported the budget deal reached Thursday, but no GOP members voted for the bill. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is expected to sign the budget next week, said the spending plan is "an improvement" over earlier versions, but still fails to solve California's structural financial problems. "Unfortunately the Legislature was unable to make the hard decisions to end our structural deficit, but this budget is...

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve's bailout of insurance giant American International Group reminded some of the most powerful members of Congress how little power they sometimes have. The lawmakers didn't like the decision being sprung on them with no notice, but they're also happy not having the responsibility for it. “Republicans in the Congress feel like we could have had and should have had more information sooner,” Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the party's second in command in the House, said Wednesday.

SACRAMENTO -- -- Insurance companies could no longer cancel with impunity the health coverage of sick people under a measure passed Sunday in the last hour of the Legislature's session. Lawmakers also moved to require that chain restaurants tell patrons the calorie content of their food; restrict unscrupulous practices by mortgage lenders; launch state review of chemicals; ban the sale of recalled products; and give college financial assistance to illegal immigrants. The Legislature finished its work on bills Sunday, but because lawmakers have yet to agree to a budget -- it is 63 days overdue -- they will return next...

PARIS (AFP) – The Dalai Lama accused China on Wednesday of pursuing a crackdown in Tibet in spite of the Olympic Games, French lawmakers said following talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Asked during a private meeting at the Paris Senate whether China was respecting the "Olympic truce", the Dalai Lama's "answer was very clear: no," said former French justice minister Robert Badinter. "While the Games are taking place, the oppression of the Tibetan people and repression continue," said the opposition lawmaker, who oversaw the abolition of the death penalty in France. The 73-year-old Buddhist leader, who arrived on...

The state's looming budget cuts have some legislators eyeing a multibillion-dollar pot of money that for years has built playgrounds, fixed tiny teeth, provided preschool for poor kids, funded craft workshops and doled out books and other freebies in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Supporters of the state's First 5 program say it provides essential health care, education and child care services for infants, toddlers and their parents. But some legislators question the program's spending decisions and oversight. They say First 5 money -- estimated at $580 million a year and $2.4 billion in reserve accounts -- would be better...

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaimed a statewide drought in June and then urged passage of a $9.3 billion water bond, Democrats and environmental critics became suspicious. They still are. “Last year we did have record low rainfall, but whether or not there is a drought is somewhat debatable,” said the Sierra Club’s Jim Metropulos. “The governor calling it a drought--that carries no legal significance. It’s interesting he calls for a drought, and couple of weeks later, he calls for a water bond.” The Republican governor proposes a $9.3 billion dollar water bond for the November ballot, arguing that passage of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers Wednesday accused China of reneging on a commitment to improve human rights when it won the right to host the Olympics, saying it had instead intensified a crackdown on dissent. "There were early indications that China was prepared to improve its behavior as the games approached," said Howard Berman, the Democratic head of the House of Representatives foreign affairs panel. But "the hope was short-lived, as China failed to honor these commitments," he said, citing as examples Beijing's "failed" pledges to allow greater press freedoms and improve its general human rights situation. Reporters Without Borders...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Thursday said Congress should examine Countrywide Financial Corp's mortgage loans to Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad. "My view is that these allegations should be considered by the appropriate bodies, and I understand that the Senate Ethics Committee has already begun to look into the matter," Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.

WASHINGTON – House leaders are doing well financially during this economic slump. Their lucrative investments and, in many cases, well-compensated spouses supplement their House salaries. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., one of the wealthiest members of Congress, and her real estate-magnate husband Paul Pelosi spent between $1 million and $5 million to buy the home they'd been living in on San Francisco's Broadway. They also own a vineyard in St. Helena, Calif., worth between $5 million and $25 million and a town house in Norden, Calif., valued between $1 million and $5 million, according to annual financial disclosures released Monday. The...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Countrywide Financial, the largest mortgage lender at the center of the US housing crisis, regularly gave loans on favorable terms to prominent lawmakers and former cabinet members, according to US media. The preferential treatment for senators including Democrat Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a recent presidential candidate, was approved by Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. CondeNast Portfolio magazine first broke the story on Wednesday, saying the recipients of the favorable terms were known as "Friends of Angelo" in internal company documents and e-mails. "Make an...

From an e-mail I received, a good time to put pressure on your elected representatives: Ask your senators and congressmen: 1. China is drilling for oil 60 miles off our coast, why aren't we? 2. Who do you trust more to drill 60 miles from our coast, China or a U.S. company? 3. If President Clinton hadn't vetoed drilling in a very small (.01%) are of the Alaska wildlife area (ANWR) we would be producing 1,000,000 barrels of oil per day. Why aren't we? 4. Why are you supporting a windfall profit tax on oil companies which would just be...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two House members said Wednesday their Capitol Hill computers, containing information about political dissidents from around the world, have been hacked by sources apparently working out of China. Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf says four of his computers were hacked. New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith says two of his computers were compromised in December 2006 and March 2007. The two lawmakers are longtime critics of China's record on human rights. In an interview Wednesday, Wolf said the hacking of computers in his Capitol Hill office began in August 2006. He says a computer at a House committee office...

Salaries of California lawmakers and top elected officials should be cut to share the pain of a massive budget deficit, the head of the state's independent salary commission has concluded. Charles Murray said Friday that he plans to propose a cut of perhaps 10 percent when the California Citizens Compensation Commission meets Tuesday in Sacramento City Hall. "It's across-the-board for everybody under our power – from the governor on down," Murray said. If approved by the seven-member commission, a 10 percent cut would slice annual pay by amounts ranging from about $21,000 for the governor to $11,600 for legislators. Because...

BAGHDAD - Lawmakers loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the Iraqi government of trying to crush the movement and warned Saturday of "black clouds" on the horizon for truces that have eased fighting between al-Sadr's militia and security forces. The Sadrist Movement has heightened its rhetoric against the government in recent days, raising concerns over the cease-fires in the southern city of Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City district, the stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Still, the lawmakers and other al-Sadr officials said they are adhering to the truces. The cease-fires are crucial to Iraqi security forces' sweeps in...