In The News
The Republican Liberty Caucus of California is dedicated to bringing our message to the public and keeping activists informed.
We will work to make the text of our press releases and relevant news articles available to the public from our website.
Keep checking back here for the most current information.
Death Knell May Be Near for Public Election Funds
January 23rd, 2007
The public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate initiative hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died over the weekend.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York became the first candidate since the program began in 1976 to forgo public financing for both the primary and the general election because of the spending limits that come with the federal money. By declaring her confidence that she could raise far more than the roughly $150 million the system would provide for the 2008 presidential primaries and general election, Mrs. Clinton makes it difficult for other serious candidates to participate in the system without putting themselves at a significant disadvantage.
Officials of the Federal Election Commission and advisers to several campaigns say they expect the two candidates who reach Election Day 2008 will raise more than $500 million apiece. Including money raised by other primary candidates, the total spent on the presidential election could easily exceed $1 billion.
Unhappy Days: Has Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped the shark?
January 22nd, 2007
When politicians break their pledges not to raise taxes, they come up with the darnedest evasions. Take Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wants to levy new charges on California doctors, hospitals and employers to help pay for his $12 billion health-care plan. "It is not a tax, just a loan, because it does not go for general [expenditures]," he told the Sacramento Bee last Thursday. "It goes back to health care."
A loan? The first reaction of many Californians was: What state office will I be able to go to and get my loan back--perhaps with interest? It's preposterous, for example, to characterize as a "loan" the 4% payroll levy the governor wants to impose on employers who don't offer health benefits. California's gas taxes are dedicated to transportation but no one would call them "gas loans." Property taxes go to local education. Are they not taxes?
California Focus: Optimism as an accounting tool
January 19th, 2007
According to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's financial condition is "fantastic." Spending has been brought under control, the budget has been balanced, and our debt is being paid down. But, as Winston Churchill once said, "It is not possible to state the opposite of the truth with greater precision."
To the governor's credit, he has proposed some long-overdue spending reforms, most notably conforming state welfare-eligibility standards to federal law.
But there's very little else to praise about the governor's handling of the state's finances. In fact, spending is growing faster than it did under his recalled predecessor, Gray Davis. The state is now running the biggest deficit in its history, and the only way it can pay its bills is because of massive borrowing carried over from 2004, contributing to a doubling of the state's debt burden in just three years.
Frost damage remedy thwarted by EPA bureaucracy
January 19th, 2007
Jack Frost taunted farmers around the state last week with blasts of arctic air that threatened several of California's major agricultural areas, from San Diego to the Central Valley and along the coast. The direct losses in citrus alone could approach a billion dollars, but avocados and strawberries also were severely damaged. Sticker shock at the supermarket can't be far behind.
Farmers have pathetically low-tech methods for preventing frost damage to their crops. These include burning smudge pots, which produce warm smoke; running wind machines to move the frigid air; and spraying water on the plants to form an insulating coat of ice. The only possible high-tech solution, a clever application of biotechnology, has been frozen out by federal regulators.
Shades of Grey: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the road to national health care.
January 18th, 2007
Ted Kennedy, the nation's most persistent backer of nationalized health care, must be smiling at the irony. Almost four decades after he first proposed the idea, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Kennedy relative by marriage, is touting his own version of universal coverage, and, if adopted, the idea could go nationwide quickly. It's no wonder critics are already dubbing the ostensibly Republican chief executive "Schwarzenkennedy."
This isn't the first time Mr. Kennedy has found a Republican to carry water for him. In 1971, after Medicare spending had increased by more than 70% in five years (although the number of people enrolled grew by only 6%), Richard Nixon declared a "health-care cost crisis" and worked with Mr. Kennedy to propose mandatory employer-provided health insurance. The idea foundered, but a modified version now has been revived by Mr. Schwarzenegger, who wants to require that every person buy health insurance, or be covered by an employer or the government. Massachusetts has a more modest law in place, and an adviser to Mitt Romney helped Schwarzenegger aides on their plan.
No-spank bill on way
January 18th, 2007
The state Legislature is about to weigh in on a question that stirs impassioned debate among moms and dads: Should parents spank their children?
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.
Making a swat on the behind a misdemeanor might seem a bit much for some -- and the chances of the idea becoming law appear slim, at best -- but Lieber begs to differ.
GOP senators reject union exec for education board
January 12th, 2007
The California Teachers Assn., one of the state's most politically powerful unions, suffered a rare rebuke Thursday when Republican state senators blocked the confirmation of a union leader to another term on the state Board of Education.
The Senate rejected Joe Nunez, the CTA's deputy executive director and a chief architect of public labor unions' successful campaign against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2005 effort to upend Sacramento politics. Nunez was appointed to the board in 2001 by former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat. To the surprise of many, Schwarzenegger reappointed him last year.
To be confirmed, Nunez needed two-thirds of the Senate, but only two of 15 Republicans voted for him, which wasn't enough for a supermajority. Both of them, Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria and Jeff Denham of Salinas, had been endorsed by the union in a previous election.
"He was on the board and supposed to be independent, and he was running a campaign against the administration for his employer," said Assembly GOP leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine. "This is a conflict you can't get around."
Feinstein acts to thwart 49ers’ possible move
January 12th, 2007
Owners of National Football League teams would have to approve any franchise moves under legislation introduced Thursday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who hopes to keep the 49ers from leaving San Francisco.
The measure, called the Football Fairness Act of 2007, would grant professional football a limited antitrust law exemption, which Feinstein said is needed because football teams are so important to their hometowns. Antitrust laws typically prevent business owners from colluding as a group to limit competition.
Feinstein has said she would consider writing legislation to block the 49ers from using the words "San Francisco" or "49ers" in their name if they left the city. Spokesman Scott Gerber said Thursday the senator is still studying the idea.
Schwarzenegger’s Health Plan Has Critics
January 12th, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking on just about every major interest group in California in his audacious effort to bring universal health care to the nation's biggest state: unions, small business, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, conservatives.
Whether the former Hollywood action hero can prevail and get it passed — or get it passed in still-recognizable form — is far from clear.
"I think it's very difficult in its present form," said Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist. "He's got universal Republican opposition to it and the stakeholders are all going to get hit with a tax — doctors, hospitals and employers — so they're clearly going to be opposed to that."
Schwarzenegger’s budget could expose state to risk, analyst says
January 12th, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget relies on rosy revenue projections and could expose California to serious financial risk, the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst's office said Friday.
"The budget contains a significant number of downside risks and is based on a number of optimistic assumptions," said Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, in her first review of the $143.4 billion spending plan the governor released Wednesday.
"Its key proposals also raise serious policy and legal issues. Adverse outcomes in just a few of these areas could easily eliminate most or all of the proposed reserve."
Gov. calls on state to borrow and build more
January 10th, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for another multibillion-dollar wave of borrowing Tuesday for new reservoirs, courthouses, classrooms and prison beds — core public resources that, he said, are strained by California's growing population.
In his annual State of the State speech, the governor laid out a plan for $43.3 billion in bonds over the next three years to pay for a round of public construction that would surpass what voters approved in the November election.
If Schwarzenegger can persuade lawmakers to bring his proposal to the ballot — no easy feat, given widespread worries about state finances — voters would be asked to approve the new borrowing in the 2008 and 2010 elections.
A plan with something for everyone to love, hate
January 10th, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's expansive plan to reform the state's health insurance system seems to contain a carrot and a stick for everyone.
The proposal would give most of California's 6.5 million residents without insurance access to some form of health coverage, but the price might be high for some.
For example, hospitals and doctors would receive more money for taking care of poor patients, but they would have to pay new fees to the state. Insurers would get more business, but they wouldn't be able to turn away high-risk customers with pre-existing illnesses.
“There's something for everybody to love in this proposal, and there's something for everyone to hate,” said Ann Kuhns, Blue Cross of California's vice president for state affairs.
Can California afford Schwarzenegger’s record borrowing plan?
January 9th, 2007
Even as California voters approved a record bond package last year, critics questioned whether it was just too big and would come back to haunt the state's finances.
Whether the $42.7 billion in borrowing for roads, schools, levees, parks and affordable housing would thrust California too far in debt was one of the leading arguments against the bonds.
Now double it.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday proposed yet another massive borrowing plan, this one $43.3 billion for prisons, courts, schools, colleges and water storage. Can California afford a combined $86 billion in bond debt, especially when it continues to grapple with multibillion dollar annual deficits?
Big-box grocery ban is headed for the ballot box in Long Beach
January 8th, 2007
The battle over banning grocery sales at big box stores in Long Beach will now be fought at the polls and could cost the state's fifth-largest city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Long Beach City Council voted in September to ban grocery sales at stores larger than 100,000 square feet, including Wal-Mart, even though the discount retailer had no plans for a so-called Supercenter in the city.
In November a group calling itself Long Beach Consumers for Choice, largely funded by the Greater Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and Wal-Mart, presented a referendum petition signed by 33,391 registered voters that favored repealing the ban.
The petition was later certified, leaving the council three options: to kill the ban, place the issue on the June 2008 ballot or hold a special election on the issue.
Gov. to seek cuts in aid to families on welfare
January 8th, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose a major rollback of the state's welfare system this week, including a cutoff of aid to tens of thousands of children whose parents do not meet minimum work requirements or are in the country illegally, administration officials said Sunday.
The proposed $465-million reduction in California's welfare budget came two days after the governor promised that his second term would feature "post-partisan" cooperation.
