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Let’s Cut California’s Tax Burden to Help the Giants Win the Pennant in 2018

To say that I am a fan of the San Francisco Giants is an understatement. 24 Willie Mays Plaza is perhaps my favorite place on Earth.  I make the trek down to AT&T Park at least half a dozen times each year.  Visit my den at home and you’ll see ...
Blog

The Price Control Hammer Will Break the Health Care System

From California to Washington D.C. legislators continue to confirm Abraham Kaplan’s famous insight that if you, “give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” In the case of our legislators, that hammer is price controls; and, what needs pounding is the price of ...
Blog

Prop. 54 Tames Wild Late Nights at the State Capitol

For political nerds like me, there’s no rush quite like the last night of the legislative session. Every year, legislators and staff literally work around-the-clock to pass final bills before the clock runs out.  To keep going, they drink too much coffee and eat lukewarm pizza and take-out Chinese food.  ...
Blog

What Connecticut – and California – Can Learn from Tennessee on Fiscal Reform

We’ve all heard the negative economic and budget stories coming out of Sacramento in recent years.  But as a Connecticut native, the headlines coming out of my home state are equally concerning, and offer a lesson for Golden State policymakers. Connecticut is the richest state in the country (by per-capita ...
Blog

Gov. Brown’s Rolling Stone Interview is a Must-Read

As much as we have criticized Gov. Jerry Brown, we have to acknowledge that on occasion he will act as the senior statesman of his party, beating back its most mindless impulses. The most recent example: his judicious counsel on single-payer health care. Of course Brown has been a supporter ...
Blog

An entitlement for… moi?

If you think this is going to be one of those hard-hitting policy pieces that you get from the likes of Anaya and Jackson, or one of those brainy blogs from Winegarden.  It’s not.  It’s all about me, and my yearning for that fabulous, subsidized Tesla. I’m in the market ...
Blog

A Scientific Basis for the EPA on the Clean Power Plan

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt will make official on Tuesday what we knew all along – the Administration is officially withdrawing the controversial Clean Power Plan rule on power plant emissions. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has railed against the repeal of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) claiming that the EPA’s ...
Blog

A Sad State of Affairs on Campus

National media attention recently returned to UC Berkeley over the planned “Free Speech Week.” Following dueling press releases over whether the event would occur and who would speak, the event largely fizzled out.  Ben Shaprio did speak on campus a few weeks prior amid a heavy security tab estimated at ...
Blog

Government Policy, Not Hurricanes, Main Contributor to High California Gas Prices

Download Capital Ideas, October 2017 Gasoline prices spiked more sharply in some states after deadly storms in Texas and Florida than at any time since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But in California, steep fuel prices are an everyday event. The average gallon of gasoline cost $3.02 in California in August, ...
Blog

Latest Effort to Move Up California Primary Won’t Make a Difference

The Legislature recently passed a bill that will move California’s presidential primary from June up to Super Tuesday – which will be March 3, 2020. Upon Governor Brown signing the bill, Secretary of State Alex Padilla told the Los Angeles Times that, “candidates will not be able to ignore the ...
Blog

Let’s Cut California’s Tax Burden to Help the Giants Win the Pennant in 2018

To say that I am a fan of the San Francisco Giants is an understatement. 24 Willie Mays Plaza is perhaps my favorite place on Earth.  I make the trek down to AT&T Park at least half a dozen times each year.  Visit my den at home and you’ll see ...
Blog

The Price Control Hammer Will Break the Health Care System

From California to Washington D.C. legislators continue to confirm Abraham Kaplan’s famous insight that if you, “give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” In the case of our legislators, that hammer is price controls; and, what needs pounding is the price of ...
Blog

Prop. 54 Tames Wild Late Nights at the State Capitol

For political nerds like me, there’s no rush quite like the last night of the legislative session. Every year, legislators and staff literally work around-the-clock to pass final bills before the clock runs out.  To keep going, they drink too much coffee and eat lukewarm pizza and take-out Chinese food.  ...
Blog

What Connecticut – and California – Can Learn from Tennessee on Fiscal Reform

We’ve all heard the negative economic and budget stories coming out of Sacramento in recent years.  But as a Connecticut native, the headlines coming out of my home state are equally concerning, and offer a lesson for Golden State policymakers. Connecticut is the richest state in the country (by per-capita ...
Blog

Gov. Brown’s Rolling Stone Interview is a Must-Read

As much as we have criticized Gov. Jerry Brown, we have to acknowledge that on occasion he will act as the senior statesman of his party, beating back its most mindless impulses. The most recent example: his judicious counsel on single-payer health care. Of course Brown has been a supporter ...
Blog

An entitlement for… moi?

If you think this is going to be one of those hard-hitting policy pieces that you get from the likes of Anaya and Jackson, or one of those brainy blogs from Winegarden.  It’s not.  It’s all about me, and my yearning for that fabulous, subsidized Tesla. I’m in the market ...
Blog

A Scientific Basis for the EPA on the Clean Power Plan

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt will make official on Tuesday what we knew all along – the Administration is officially withdrawing the controversial Clean Power Plan rule on power plant emissions. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has railed against the repeal of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) claiming that the EPA’s ...
Blog

A Sad State of Affairs on Campus

National media attention recently returned to UC Berkeley over the planned “Free Speech Week.” Following dueling press releases over whether the event would occur and who would speak, the event largely fizzled out.  Ben Shaprio did speak on campus a few weeks prior amid a heavy security tab estimated at ...
Blog

Government Policy, Not Hurricanes, Main Contributor to High California Gas Prices

Download Capital Ideas, October 2017 Gasoline prices spiked more sharply in some states after deadly storms in Texas and Florida than at any time since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But in California, steep fuel prices are an everyday event. The average gallon of gasoline cost $3.02 in California in August, ...
Blog

Latest Effort to Move Up California Primary Won’t Make a Difference

The Legislature recently passed a bill that will move California’s presidential primary from June up to Super Tuesday – which will be March 3, 2020. Upon Governor Brown signing the bill, Secretary of State Alex Padilla told the Los Angeles Times that, “candidates will not be able to ignore the ...
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