Free Republic

I feel like a chump. This entire past year, Arnold Schwarzenegger had as a central theme to his campaign for re-election the fact that he would oppose any increase in taxes. I think it would be fair to say that this was a central theme to his campaign. As a matter of fact, in a candidacy that often times stressed issues that were not very appealing to core Republican voters, it was his focused contrasting of Phil Angelides' "The Tax Man" against his own rhetoric of opposing new taxes that helped to mollify, and excite the GOP base to support...

Schwarzenegger: Everyone must have health insurance GOVERNOR UNVEILS PLAN TO OVERHAUL HEALTH CARE By Steven Harmon MediaNew Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a sweeping $12 billion health care plan today that would require all Califonrians to have health insurance. In remarks that he delivered by video conference from Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger insisted covering all Californians was the key to lowering the exploding costs of health care. ``We pay higher deductibles, higher cost for treatment, higher premiums and higher co-pays,'' he said. ``Prices for health care and insurance are rising twice as fast as inflation, twice as fast...

SACRAMENTO — He was booted out of the Capitol three years ago, but when former Gov. Gray Davis returns today to watch the man who replaced him sworn in for a second term, he'll find an eerie resemblance to what he left behind. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has entrusted onetime Davis aides with his administration's success, appointing them to top jobs. He has embraced policies that Davis favored and settled into a similar governing style. The Republican incumbent is even beginning to sound a bit like his Democratic predecessor. --snip-- "If you look at where I come down on issues and...

The governor says his heroes are Reagan and Friedman, but his actions emulate John Kenneth Galbraith and Nixon in ’72. Shortly before the election, I wrote regarding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s impending re-election landslide that he could choose between emulating Richard Nixon in 1972 or Ronald Reagan in 1966. Both Nixon and Reagan were heading for similar overpowering wins but took different paths in the last weeks of their campaigns. Nixon was assured of a massive re-election victory. But — ever suspicious, dark and brooding, in search of a 50-state sweep — he was afraid that campaigning for Republican congressional candidates...

In his victory speech Tuesday night to a confetti-swamped crowd at the Beverly Hilton, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a message for the rest of the Republican Party after its worst defeat in decades. Follow "the California way," he said. "We are proving to the nation that there is another way to go, a better path to solve problems." Schwarzenegger's landslide victory in a largely Democratic state illustrates the growing power of moderate candidates and the electoral appeal of bipartisanship, and it could contain important lessons for Republicans and Democrats as they seek to position themselves in the future, analysts and...

Some significant Republicans are openly speculating that it is only a matter of time before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declares himself a Democrat. What's more, they claim he might as well already have switched political parties. These are mostly the same people who spent much of last summer calling the governor a RINO – Republican in Name Only – as he adopted much of the Democratic Party's legislative agenda while avowing the cause of bipartisanship. "A party switch could happen very soon, any day," asserts Stephen Frank of Ventura County, a former president of the California Republican Assembly and the writer...

Conservatives: Aloof governor doomed the GOP If you've seen even one national political convention, you've witnessed this scene: On the final night, as confetti flies and balloons drop, the head of the party's ticket clasps hands with his running mate and they lift their hands high in a show of confident, optimistic togetherness. Given that clichéd expectation, it was startling to observe this summer's California Republican Party convention. The running mate on the GOP ticket, lieutenant governor nominee Tom McClintock, emceed the Friday night dinner. By 11 a.m. Saturday, he was sneaking out the back door, departing before Gov. Arnold...

The drive to line up Republicans behind Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor bears all the elements that reduced the California Republican Party to a shambles by the end of the 1990s. Consider the message we have heard so far on the bedrock issue of taxes: Yes we’re against taxes ... but, you know, property taxes are too low — what? did we say that? no, no, we love Prop. 13, don’t listen to that man behind the curtain — If he says that again, he’ll have to do 500 sit-ups — No, I won’t sign any pledge not to increase taxes,...

In winning his landslide re-election victory, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also found most other campaigns going his way. Only the narrow defeat of his appointed secretary of state, Bruce McPherson, could be counted as an actual setback, and not a major one at that. First, of course, was the passage of all the Big Bang Bonds infrastructure initiatives that he supported. Schwarzenegger lays claim to the enactment of California?s biggest public works program since the Pat Brown era of the 1960s The defeat of all the tax measures on the ballot was right in line with the Arnold playbook, as was...

MEXICO CITY - California's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, meeting with outgoing President Vicente Fox in Mexico City, hailed the Democratic takeover of Congress as healthy for democracy, saying "Washington was stuck." Schwarzenegger suggested that Washington follow his example in California where he has worked with Democrats to achieve bipartisan agreements, such as placing $37.3 billion in bond measures on the November ballot, which voters embraced and which are aimed at easing the state's traffic jams, aging schools and inadequate affordable housing. "I think this is good that we have new blood coming to Washington, that we have new people with...

SACRAMENTO — With a second term ensured, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to use the next four years to showcase California as a one-of-a-kind model of bipartisan cooperation — and to forge a legacy that will be a springboard for his next political move. Riding the momentum of his victory and a string of legislative accomplishments this year, he hopes to work with Democrats and Republicans to expand access to healthcare, improve teacher accountability in California schools and build enough new prisons to ease rampant overcrowding. --snip-- Even before Tuesday's election, he was looking beyond Sacramento. Aides said he may run...

LOS ANGELES - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tirelessly promoted himself and his ambitious package of public works bonds en route to his landslide re-election. But he spent little time campaigning for fellow GOP candidates gunning for six other statewide offices on Tuesday's ballot. Some experts believe that was one reason only one other Republican joined Schwarzenegger in victory. "Arnold is bigger than the Republican Party in California," said Thad Kousser, an expert in state politics at the University of California, San Diego. "He wants to be known as the person who rebuilt the infrastructure of the state rather than the person...

LOS ANGELES - California voters have launched a wave of public works projects unseen in the Golden State in decades, and in doing so may have handed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a victory that will define him for his second term and beyond. The approval Tuesday of every bond initiative Schwarzenegger had asked for _ four propositions totaling $37.3 billion _ sets the stage for the building of roads, schools, housing and flood-control projects at a level that could dwarf the state's 1960s building boom that became Gov. Pat Brown's legacy. Passage of the bonds _ the biggest in the nation's...

The governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger has been like a three-act play, making it challenging for California voters to figure out exactly who he is politically or what a re-election victory on Nov. 7 would portend for the next four years. Elected in the October 2003 recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, the Republican action-movie star took office intent on “cleaning house” in Sacramento and “blowing up boxes” in the state bureaucracy. But he also showed a willingness to collaborate with the Democratic-controlled Legislature to pay down what was then a $21 billion state budget deficit and overhaul a costly workers'...

Arnold Schwarzenegger entered office on a bold mission to overhaul California government, and voters expected nothing less of an actor who obliterated everything in his path onscreen. Schwarzenegger promised to "blow up the boxes" and "clean house." He described the job of governor as being "the leader of the legislators. You go in there and you tell them what you want to do." He made Sacramento the problem -- and himself the antidote. Three years later, Schwarzenegger's ambitious plans and in-your-face attitude have largely succumbed to the Capitol's political culture. "Sacramento really hasn't changed," said Jaime Regalado, executive director of...

As of today, all legislation to be decided upon by the governor is complete. In total, 1171 bills crossed the Governor Schwarzenegger's desk. 910 bills were signed and 261 vetoed, for an overall veto average of 22%, down from his prior 24% veto-rate since taking office. There are no bills remaining on the GovernorÂ’s desk. Since I had previously posted a thread on Homosexual Agenda - California Legislation In Process, I thought I would provide a final update for the year. Three more bills sponsored and or supported by Equality California (EQCA) were signed today, including SB 1827, Taxation: domestic...

Joel Schwartz (joel@joelschwartz.com) is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. America's entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are passing up a chance to earn billions of dollars by investing in technologies to reduce California's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The only way to overcome business people's stubborn refusal to get rich is for California policymakers to adopt mandatory GHG controls. That's the conclusion of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Climate Action Team, according to an April report to the governor, and of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley Climate Change Center in an August report, "Economic Growth and Greenhouse Gas...

California's landmark effort to set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions is just one step in a long-term strategy by the nation's most populous state to combat global climate change, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday in an interview. The governor said the global warming strategy for California, the world's 12th largest producer of greenhouse gases, will include further industrial reductions and initiatives such as placing greater emphasis on renewable energy and hydrogen-fueled cars. Schwarzenegger said he hopes California's efforts on global warming will inspire other states and the federal government, which has done little to curb the emissions scientists blame...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California filed suit against Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - News), General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News), Toyota Motor Corp. (Tokyo:7203.T - News) and three other carmakers on Wednesday, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have cost the state millions of dollars.

Ever since the Gold Rush, Californians have taken credit for leading the nation and the world with their dynamic culture and responsive politics. But that's hardly the case for their much-vaunted new law restricting the emissions of carbon dioxide to 1990 levels by the year 2020. How sooo 1990s. The California Global Warming Solutions Act is a watered-down version of the 1996 UN Kyoto Protocol, which mandates that most industrial nations reduce their emissions a tiny bit more by 2008-2012. Only one or two major nations may meet Kyoto. The rest failed. California will fail at Kyoto-lite, and New York...