Free Republic

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass takes pride in being a consensus-builder, a soothing and maternal let's-get-along kind of leader. Now please pardon the interruption -- Madam Speaker is ticked off. She simmered as efforts to tame California's $26.3-billion deficit threatened to shred the health and welfare safety net she helped stitch together as a Democratic lawmaker from Los Angeles. She stewed in budget briefings as clear second banana to Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), her counterpart in the state Senate. Finally, she boiled over at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He rankled Democrats with demands that could undermine their union allies and a declaration to...

To put it charitably, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is not having a good 2009. In February, the Los Angeles Democrat was one of a handful of state leaders who put together five budget-related ballot measures that included $16 billion in tax hikes. She then went along with the dishonest decision to omit any mention of the hikes in ballot language. When voters figured out the truth and overwhelmingly rejected the measures in a May 19 special election, Bass proclaimed she had gotten the message. Within days, however, Bass joined in efforts to spin the May 19 results as somehow having...

California State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Democrat, did an interview with the LA Times. Thought you may enjoy her response to the following question: How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work? Bass' response: The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair. Now that's a first. I know that politicians...

interview exerpt: QUESTION: How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work? BASS: "The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair." QUESTION: Do you get especially exasperated when your own people -- Democrats -- don't agree with you? You know, I was a community activist, so I'm used to standing out in...

In an an interview with Patt Morrison in the Op-Ed Section of today's edition of the Los Angeles Times, California House Speaker Ms. Karen Bass brands conservative talk-radio as "terrorists" Here's the relevant excerpt. For full interview click on URL. Q: How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work? Speaker Bass: A "The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I...

SACRAMENTO — In a bid to avoid mass closures of state parks, Assembly Democrats on Monday offered a financial trade-off: Pay an additional $15 to register your car, and in return, the state will waive vehicle entry fees at all state parks for anyone with a California license plate. The proposal, outlined by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, is part of a sweeping budget plan Democrats aim to unveil this week and vote on as early as next week. ... But Bass said the majority party would also push for at least a handful of tax increases. In addition...

The California Supreme Court's decision not to retract Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage, has sent the issue back to the forefront of conversation across the country. Most recently, New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize gay marriages. While some 18,000 same-sex couples have already tied the knot in California, those who wish to walk down the aisle today will not receive the same privilege. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass says blacks have been falsely accused of passing Prop 8. Some in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community blame the passing of Proposition 8 last November on...

By a nearly two to one margin, California voters rejected the “compromise” tax hike propositions put on the ballot by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the Democratic majority of the state assembly. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) called voters’ rejection of the measures “a tragic error.” “It’s a demonstration of lack of trust in those of us charged with governing this state,” Bass said. “We tried to minimize the pain. Now, it will be severe.” “Now we will get to see how voters like having their kids home early from school, paying for their own medicine, dodging the thousands...

Here are some partial quotes: "Voters were very confused on what we were asking them to do" "Voters were saying: "It was quite complex" "This is too complicated" "We don't want to vote on it" "We are fatigued with the number of elections we have had, especially Special Elections" "We realize that there are going to be cuts but whatever needs to be done, you do it, and we don not want to participate in it." What an arrogant condescending twit. And she still doesn't get it. I sent her a "nice" message. http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/Speaker/

SACRAMENTO — Losing a chairmanship was worth voting his conscience, Oakland Democratic assemblyman Sandre Swanson said a day after Speaker Karen Bass informed him that he no longer held a prestigious post. Swanson did provide critical votes for two budget bills that required the vote of all Assembly Democrats. But he was stripped of his chairmanship of the Assembly Labor and Employment committee after voting against a spending cap measure and other issues that were key to a hard-fought deal between legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in closing a $41 billion deficit with a mix of taxes, spending cuts...

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said Monday that Gerald Parksy, a longtime Republican political figure, will chair the tax commission she and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formed in late October. The commission, according to the executive order Schwarzenegger signed, will release a report on how to modernize California's tax structure on April 15, 2009. The commission has gotten off to a slow start, however. On October 30, Schwarzenegger said, "Speaker Bass and the Senate President pro Tem and I will name 12 commission members in time for them to begin their work in November." But as of yet no one...

Speaker Bass wrote a column in the Sacramento Bee today calling for a "stimulus package" for California. Her solution? Give the state more federal welfare. Since the state's financial problems have been caused by overspending, poor fiscal management of the tax dollars entrusted to them, and a complete lack of self control, you would expect the President and Congress to say no to this outlandish demand. However, since neither the President nor Congress have said no to the completely self indulgent behavior of the private sector, the Speaker's request might actually be considered. The Speaker claims that the state has...

During the Cold War, U.S. presidents paid close attention to the "domino theory" and to how having some country fall to communism on their watch would ultimately affect their place in history. In his final weeks in office, President Bush has another set of dominoes to worry about – namely which financial giant will be the next to topple during his presidency. To help in moving toward a national economic recovery – and to burnish his legacy by doing right in time of crisis – President Bush needs to step in now to help shore up one of the country's...

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass touted Uncle Sam as a realistic savior Wednesday for California's multibillion-dollar budget shortfall – but critics say the tactic could backfire by raising false hopes. "I'm still concerned that some folks are looking at this in isolation and not in its national and international context," Bass said of a projected budget gap of $27.8 billion over two years. Rather than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approach of bridging the gap by roughly a 50-50 formula of tax increases and program cuts, Bass said it's realistic to turn to federal officials for a bailout that would avoid cuts. "I...

A Los Angeles labor leader now the target of a corruption probe routinely ordered employees of a charity he headed to work on campaigns for political candidates -- a practice barred by law -- according to people who said they participated in such activities. Tyrone Freeman, president of the Service Employees International Union's largest California local, later denied to the Internal Revenue Service that the charity employees were required to do campaign work, said a person close to an IRS inquiry into the matter. Because they are subsidized by taxpayers, charities are forbidden to take part in campaigns for public...

What happens when you cross Karen Bass, the L.A. Democrat who leads the Assembly? Nicole Parra, the lone Assembly Democrat to refuse to vote for her party's spending plan, on Sunday shared the answer as her staff packed for a sudden banishment move to a small office across the street from the state Capitol, Nancy Vogel reports. (That's Parra in the photo at right.) Bass ordered Assemblywoman Nicole Parra of Hanford out of her fifth-floor Capitol office and into an office building across the street where legislative staffers work. “They wanted us to have everything packed up by 4 p.m.,”...

In the latest episode of Capitol punishment, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass tossed Assemblywoman Nicole Parra from her office on Monday morning after the Central Valley Democrat failed to vote for the budget on Sunday. In a twist, Parra hasn't been reassigned to more cramped quarters in the Capitol itself - but booted straight across the street to the Legislative Office Building. She will be the only member of the Legislature whose office is not housed in the Capitol. "I knew going in Sunday that if I didn't support the budget, something was going to happen," Parra, D-Hanford, said in an...

SACRAMENTO -- One severely broken part of California's state government is the tax code. It's antiquated and unreliable. Government financing is too heavily dependent on the rich, who have good and bad years, causing roller-coaster tax trauma in the Capitol. And there isn't enough help from the creaky old sales tax. The volatility of the tax system keeps getting worse, making it increasingly difficult for policymakers to plan ahead. New Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) has taken up the cause and is bent on creating an independent blue-ribbon commission to overhaul the tax code. "The economic crisis is national,...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is proposing to raise $6.4 billion in taxes to balance the state budget. Bass told the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday she wants to close tax loopholes and eliminate tax breaks on wealthy Californians. She declined to say which taxes Assembly Democrats want to raise.

Incoming state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass on Tuesday said one way to solve California's continual budget mess is to revamp the state's tax code, possibly raising income taxes on the wealthy, levying sales taxes on services and closing tax loopholes. In an interview with The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Democrat said she wants a bipartisan panel to examine the code and recommend ways to change it. "The state of California is in a crisis," Bass said. "I want to set up a commission outside of the Legislature that will look at more long-term solutions and evaluate whether the tax...