Free Republic

A s the Senate immigration bill faltered, Sen. Dianne Feinstein complained that the status quo is de facto amnesty because the mass deportation of millions of illegal immigrants is logistically, politically and socially impractical. Feinstein and her cohorts seem oblivious that it is this attitude that discredits any promises that a new, tougher law will somehow be enforced when an amnesty is granted. Sorry: been there, done that. And they have yet to explain what is wrong with current immigration law — except that it's not being enforced. Indeed, if the self-described "grand bargainers" want to enact future immigration laws,...

Respected fiscal watchdog state Sen. Tom McClintock, writing in The Sacramento Bee, criticized a state government spending rate that has grown “significantly faster than it did under Davis,” increasing 30 percent the last three years alongside 23 percent revenue growth. McClintock said “the governor’s spending spree has now produced the biggest operating deficit in California’s history -- $8 billion, compared with Davis’s worst year of $6.6 billion.” McClintock also cited $45 billion in pension obligations and “$40 billion to $70 billion in health care obligations” owed to state employees. Warning that “pressure for tax increases” will grow “as California approaches...

SACRAMENTO - While critics believe California state government is bloated, a new analysis from a Silicon Valley think tank suggests the state has one of the leanest work forces in the country. Census data released this week shows California had 393,609 full-time-equivalent employees as of last March, working out to 105 employees per 10,000 state residents, according to the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. That makes California the third-lowest in the nation in state employees per resident, behind every state except Illinois (at 103) and Nevada (at 104). The federal government has 142 employees per...

State Senator Tom McClintock is the most recognized and popular conservative leader in California today. At the close of his 2006 campaign for Lt. Governor, more than 80 percent of California’s public had heard of him and viewed him favorably by a three-to-one margin. He has received the support of more than 44,000 individual contributors and an additional 35,000 volunteers – constituting one of the broadest political followings in California. Through Citizens for the California Republic, Tom has a vehicle to amplify and broadcast McClintock’s commentaries and proposals to an awakening constituency throughout California. The following is my conversation with...

Tom McClintock will discuss the Governor's budget and health care plans on KFI at 5:05. All politics aside, he always brings common sense to the subject of California economics. Broadcast from Los Angles at 640 on the AM dial. Streaming here.

Click on the link

For Tom McClintock: May 1940 By William E. Saracino “Now at last, at last, his hour had struck. He had been waiting in Parliament for forty years, had grown bald and gray in his nation’s service, had endured slander and calumny only to be summoned when the situation seemed hopeless to everyone but him.” — William Manchester, The Last Lion. Tom McClintock is a fan of Winston Churchill, described above in the opening of William Manchester’s magnificent biography. The “now at last” referred to by Manchester was May 1940 when Churchill finally became prime minister. That marked the vindication of...

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena...who's face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcomings, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause... FlashReport Managing Editor Nicholas Romero asked me to pen a column for his FlashReport [some time ago] and I must admit I was tempted to write about a post November election agenda but decided against it. At a time such as this,...

Democrats are leading in six "down ballot" races for statewide offices although a significant number of voters remain undecided going into the November election, according to a new statewide poll released Tuesday. In the race for lieutenant governor, the Field Poll showed that Democratic Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi leads Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, 48 percent to 38 percent, with 13 percent undecided. Oakland mayor and former Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, also is ahead of his Republican rival, state Sen. Charles Poochigian of Fresno, in the race for attorney general. About 54 percent of likely voters chose Brown, 33...

McClintock Holds Big Fundraising Advantage; Garamendi Continues to StruggleSince he began his campaign for Lt. Governor, state Senator Tom McClintock has topped the $3 million mark in fundraising, and is closing in on having $2 million cash on hand, substantially increasing his fundraising lead over rival John Garamendi. As of June 30th, McClintock reported having more than $1.5 million cash on hand and $18,199 in unpaid bills. Garamendi reported having $408,238 with outstanding debts of $215,533. In real terms, McClintock has $1.5 million to Garamendi’s $188,000. “Tom McClintock is in a very strong position to become California’s next Lt. Governor,”...

General Election - November 7, 2006 Prop. 1A Transportation Funding Protection: YES! For years, the Legislature has raided our highway taxes for general fund spending. Though it’s more window dressing than relief, this measure makes it marginally harder to do so. Prop. 1B Transportation Bond: NO! Although some of this money is for long overdue road construction, most goes for equipment, maintenance and social programs that will be obsolete decades before our children have finished paying off the debt. Californians pay the third highest tax per gallon of gasoline in the country – and yet we rank 43rd in per...

State Sen. Tom McClintock still wants the governor's job, he admitted Thursday, but there's already a well-known Republican in line for that seat. For now, McClintock hopes Californians will choose him for the No. 2 job and confirm his belief that the state is at a "crisis or turning point." As long as voters are paying attention to the state's spending problems and education and infrastructure woes, he thinks they'll see things his way and pick him as lieutenant governor. "I believe this election will determine whether the recall of 2003 was a passing fluke," he said during an editorial...

Name: Tom McClintock Birthdate: July 10, 1956 Education: Bachelor's degree, University of California, Los Angeles, 1978 Elected office: State assemblyman, 1983-1993, 1997-2001; state assembly Republican whip, 1984-1989; state senator, 2000-present

Democratic Candidate for Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi released the following statement regarding today’s Field Poll. The poll shows Garamendi with a double-digit lead among Democratic Primary voters and in the best position to defeat right-wing extremist Tom McClintock in the fall. “But first I'll work everyday between now and June 6 to earn the votes of Democrats across California. Then, as I have done twice before, I will build a coalition of Democrats, fair-minded independents and Republicans so I can defeat Tom McClintock in the fall.” In addition, Garamendi has nearly swept the endorsement race, earning the support of the...

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy: it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. Nine-tenths of the economic fallacies that are working such dreadful harm in the world today are the result of ignoring this lesson. — Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson In the 60-plus years since Henry Hazlitt pounded out on his pre-computer-age typewriter those lines from his classic contribution to economic and conservative literature, the world has demonstrated their wisdom repeatedly,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign has launched a 60-second radio ad featuring state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, touting Proposition 76, the Nov. 8 ballot measure that would change the state's budgeting rules. Below is a text of the ad and an analysis by Bee Deputy Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Smith. Announcer: Unless you want higher taxes next year ... pay close attention to this message. Tom McClintock: This is Sen. Tom McClintock for Prop. 76. 76 is the Live Within Your Means Act - to control state spending, balance the budget without new taxes and stop borrowing from our kids....

Of all the factors contributing to California’s fiscal woes, one of the most fundamental and pervasive is the collapse of the constitutional process by which the state budget is developed in the first place. Ever since the Magna Carta, it has been a settled principle of governance that the authority that requests funds should not be the same one that approves them. This is the heart of our separation of powers, and the most important single mechanism to check the excesses and abuses that occur whenever mere mortals are spending other people’s money. Following this principle, California’s constitution sets forth...

"Starving" Education on the 'All You Can Eat' Plan January 26, 2005 State schools superintendent Jack O'Connell this week called for massive tax increases for the public school bureaucracy while issuing a blunt warning to Gov. Schwarzenegger: "Stop starving our schools." Here's how the governor is "starving our schools." According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, the governor's proposed budget provides $9,508 for every pupil in the California public schools. That's $206 per pupil more than last year. That means every classroom of 30 students will receive $6,180 more next year than it did this year - or a total of...

Notes on the State of the State January 6, 2005 I have always believed that resolving the basic problems that confront California will not be done within the most liberal legislature in the country. Put bluntly, the legislature is the problem, not the solution. Ultimately, I have believed that California's only salvation rests with a direct appeal to the electorate through the initiative. Nothing came through more clearly in Gov. Schwarzenegger's State of the State Address than that he has now reached the same conclusion. After a largely fruitless year of trying to work with the legislature, this year he...

Thank You to the E-team From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for everything that you did on my behalf - and on behalf of the other candidates who share our beliefs. For the nation, there is no question that the result reflects a continuing trend of conservative resurgence across America. In California, although the partisan balance of the legislature remains unchanged, the exit-polling that I've seen indicates that the state's voters remain philosophically more conservative than the votes they are actually casting. We certainly proved in the 19th Senate District that even in so-called "moderate"...