Free Republic

This is our favorite news item this week, hands down. The Europeans, so enamored by things green that they have implemented subsidies, mandates and regulations that have nearly strangled their economy, have found a way out of their dilemma. “Energy from gas power stations has been rebranded as a green, low-carbon source of power by a €80bn European Union programme, in a triumph of the deep-pocketed fossil fuel industry lobby over renewable forms of power,” reports the Guardian in Great Britain. There you have it. To make the green quota, simply reclassify a fossil fuel as green enough. Voila! ....

In what a prudent observer would think is the least they should do, the pay for Gov. Jerry Brown, legislators and statewide officeholders will be reduced 5 percent, thanks to the state’s independent salary-setting commission. . . Had the people of California to do it over again, they may want to give themselves the power to raise and lower officials’ pay. Voting on Facebook by registered voters seems to us an effective tool for whipping these folks into shape in a timely manner. Bad acts in Sacramento could be cause for pay cuts instantly. That would be some motivation. ....

Many NIMBYs weren’t bothered by the idea that the City of Irvine would siphon off millions of dollars in property tax to develop the ostentatiously named Great Park on the closed El Toro Marine base, turning the expanse into a place to romp and play for those who live around it. We wonder how they feel now that the park is destined to be not so great, thanks to a ruling by state officials that $1.4 billion (with a B) in property funds can’t be spent on the boondoggle, also known as the Balloon-doggle, after its signature floating orange balloon....

Remember the Credibility Gap? It was a phenomenon that rose to public awareness in the late 1960s (and even inspired a funny comedy group) when reporting showed a great difference between what government claimed and reality. It lives. According to Bloomberg: “As California Governor Jerry Brown seeks a temporary 5 percent pay cut from public employees to fill the largest state deficit in the U.S., many of those same workers are poised for raises next year . . .

The global warming alarmism that has pretty much faded from public concern always has been transparently fraudulent for those who care to look closely. And now as the world’s nations desire to carve up the carbon footprint profit, you have to love the arguments. “BONN, Germany — Another round of U.N. climate talks closed without resolving how to share the burden of curbing man-made global warming, mainly because countries don’t agree on who is rich and who is poor,” reports the Associated Press. For those who haven’t been keeping score...

More than 40 Catholic individuals, dioceses and universities have sued the Obama administration to prevent trampling of their First Amendment right to practice religion by forcing them to pay for abortifacients, sterilizations, contraception, devices and pills that would violate their religious beliefs. We would be stunned and alarmed if the courts reject their arguments, grounded as they are in the constitutionally protected right to free exercise of religion...

California government may receive a windfall from huge capital-gains taxes on the sale of Facebook stock following the Palo Alto social-networking behemoth's recent initial public offering. Or not. Some were disappointed that the stock opened at $38 only to drop within a few days to $31. A worst-case scenario for Gov. Jerry Brown and his Democratic Party colleagues desperate to shore up the state budget would be if resales of Facebook stock kept declining in value, not only eliminating capital gains, but providing tax deductions for selling shares at less than their purchase price...

. . . We have devised a foolproof means of guaranteeing that tax increases will be approved on the ballot. Here’s how . . . Only allow people to vote who are willing to pay the tax, and of course they must vote “Yes.” In other words, a new tax or a higher tax can be approved, but only if those voting Yes are the only ones to pay it. If you want higher taxes, you can vote Yes and pay the higher taxes. . .

We don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but there may be some good news in the most current poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, that left-leaning outfit that insists it isn’t left-leaning. “For the first time in a major California poll since Brown took office, a plurality of likely voters disapproves of the job he is doing,” according to the poll released Wednesday. “The margin is pencil-thin – 43 percent disapprove while 42 percent approve – but follows more than a year of relatively favorable marks for the Democratic governor.” Isn’t it encouraging. . .

What would happen if government operated the way successful businesses do? An entrepreneurial business realizes that disappointing customers will disappoint the bottom line as well. Create enough disappointed customers and the business fails. That’s why smart businesses don’t build disappointment into what they promise customers. They under-promise and over-deliver...

Even if Gov. Jerry Brown and his ilk get a horrendous tax increase in November (and that’s far from a sure thing), chances are the state will have less money to spend than the taxers and spenders who run the show want to spend. So, what to do? . . . Even though our first preference is to reduce the size and scope of government, which necessarily would mean far fewer people collecting checks written by taxpayers, we’re not unsympathetic to folks facing the loss of a job. Even a superfluous job. So, how about this approach while we let...

The California High-Speed Rail project already has raised enough red flags to justify stopping the proposal in its tracks, so to speak. . . In light of critics' continuous detailed inspection of its every plan and the looming legal proceedings, what should we make of a new policy that the rail authority is considering – destruction of its email records after 90 days? Were we the suspicious type, we might conclude the rail authority has something to hide. . .

Gov. Jerry Brown promised not to follow the lead of his predecessors, to right the ship of state and to make the hard decisions in order to get the state budget into shape. How did that work out? As economist Thomas Sowell says, “The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy them, and only in the short run.” But maybe that’s not the full explanation. There seems ample evidence that maybe Brown’s truthful,...

Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic Party-controlled state Legislature and the army of bureaucrats and tax collectors doing their bidding have triumphed again. California-based Apple Computer will build a spanking new, $210-million manufacturing plant. In China. Is anyone surprised? The corporate tax rate in California is horrendous, the workforce is taxed worse than the corporations, the cost of living is off the charts thanks in large part to the costly burdens added by government regulations and housing, well, you know how that compares for California versus the rest of the world...

We wrote for the weekend (see our column Sunday morning when it goes up here) that Gov. Jerry Brown is a bad guesser. The ink wasn’t even dry yet – in fact the Sunday paper hasn’t even been printed yet – and we learn that Brown guessed wrong again. Back in January Brown guessed that the state budget would be $9.2 billion in the red. Wrong. Monday Brown revised his estimate. Then he said it would be $15.7 billion in the red. Wrong. Today the independent Legislative Analyst affirmed that Jerry’s wrong again. It will be $17 billion plus some...

We were lamenting just the other day, yesterday in fact, that California’s 11.0 percent unemployment rate was identical to Ghana’s, that sub-Saharan economic stalwart. Today we awoke to the good news. California’s unemployment rate has plunged to (drum roll please) 10.9 percent! That’s as good as the unemployment rate in the euro zone, where people out of work also account for 10.9 percent of the working population, a new high for those folks...

Are you getting your money’s worth when you buy dinner? Probably, or you wouldn’t keep paying that price, and go somewhere elsewhere to eat out. The same applies to clothing and shelter. Almost no one continues to pay more for something than they feel it is worth. In fact, that’s the meaning of un-affordable – something that doesn’t give you equal value for what you are able to pay. The Tax Foundation has a report that might open your eyes. It says Americans are paying more in taxes than they pay for food, clothing and shelter combined...

Public education is something best done privately. Then you can pay for what you get and if you don’t get what you pay for, get your money back. But public education doesn’t work that way. You get what you get, and you keep paying and paying. And the process not only turns out what it turns out (sigh), but it engenders attitudes like the Harford Courant recently reported...

Over the weekend, we received an email complaining about something we must have written about Gov. Jerry Brown and his budgeting schenanigans. It came from someone who apparently has an iPhone and identifies himself as ”Jerry Brown.” Who knows? Any way, the writer’s complaint with this writer was thus: “Check out the massive budget reductions, government realignment, reorganization and solid pension reform. And don’t forget that the most affluent have taken 80% of the growth in income in recent years. And how about JP Morgan blowing $2 billion after lobbying against regs that would have protected its shareholders. Balance and...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday unveiled his revised budget for the coming fiscal year with twin pleas. He pleaded poverty and pleaded with voters to approve more taxes on the November ballot. Both pleas are curious. . .