Few, if any, California legislators can remember a summer not dominated by a political stalemate over a late and unbalanced state budget. Indeed, last year the budget remained unsettled until October. Then it was enacted with a patchwork scenario that almost immediately fell apart. Read More

California legislators — who seem unable to come up with an honest balanced budget, who always seek tax increases, and who won’t pass even modest reforms to the state’s unfunded pension system or to anything else, for that matter — want to blame the government’s problems on voters, rather than themselves. Read More

As California’s budget battle continues, Republicans and Democrats have engaged in a rhetorical battle regarding the relative merits and demerits of our lovely state and one of the nation’s other growing mega-states, Texas. This debate started after a legislative delegation made up mostly of Republicans went eastward in April to meet with Lone Star officials to learn about job growth and has re-emerged as Texas Gov. Rick Perry is mentioned as a potential GOP presidential hopeful. Read More

When former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s spectacular betrayal of his marriage was discovered, some pundits tried to make it connect to his failings as governor, but one has nothing to do with the other. Mostly, when Schwarzenegger failed, it was not because of his own lapses. California’s political structure generates failure regardless of who occupies the office. Read More