Jerry Brown Proves He Has Nothing Relevant To Say

In the category of least surprising, and therefore most anti-climatic, decisions of all time, Jerry Brown announced that he is running for Governor of California. He did so through an Internet video. Certainly I realize how fashionable the Internet is for candidates – but Brown’s choice of venue to announce his campaign was probably less hip than hiding – much like his virtual absence from the campaign trail the last few months.

Quite frankly, the former media-hound Brown has been hiding because he has nothing relevant to say. Indeed, the most important issues of the day all run counter to Jerry Brown’s current policies. Let me count the ways . . .

1. The Budget/Taxes.  In this perennial saga, California has yet another $20 billion+ budget deficit. The Democrats and their Union patrons want more spending and higher tax rates. The Republicans, including their statewide candidates and Brown’s Republican opponents, want less spending and lower tax rates. The California voters, according to the Field Poll (never known to lean to the Right), want lower spending not higher taxes. What’s the current version of Jerry Brown to say under those circumstances? Other than saying he will leave it up to the voters to raise taxes (the so-called leader is asking to be led), he has remarkably little to say – and that is one reason he avoids the press and limelight so assiduously – including campaign announcements devoid of those annoying press questions like – would you veto a Democrat sponsored tax increase bill?

2. Jobs. Nevada is the Nation’s #1 business development State. California is either last or second to last when it comes to being employer friendly because of high tax rates and the nation’s most onerous regulatory burden. See the correlation anyone? California, like the nation, faces a simple choice: government jobs or private sector jobs. Government jobs cost money California does not have. Private sector jobs require tax relief and lower regulations. Brown can’t advocate more spending very well and he can’t seriously claim he will go against the unions and the Democrats in the legislature when it comes to taxes and regulations. So what’s the current version of Jerry Brown to say under those circumstances? Remarkably little.

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Tags: Central Valley, global warming, Government spending, high taxes, Jerry Brown
Posted Mar 3rd 2010 at 5:36 am in Environment, Featured Story, News, Politics, State Politics, Uncategorized | 8330660 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2010/03/03/jerry-brown-proves-he-has-nothing-relevant-to-say/Jerry+Brown+Proves+He+Has+Nothing+Relevant+To+Say2010-03-03+13%3A36%3A59Thomas+Del+Beccaro

California’s Class Warfare: PLAs Pit Union and Non-Union Workers Against Each Other

Ten minutes prior to the start of a December 15^th, 2009 board meeting of the Riverside Community College District in California, board members are handed a 52-page document filled with millions of dollars in projects to be funded by the district’s taxpayers, who themselves are struggling under the state’s 12.4% unemployment rate.  The document, a draft Project Labor Agreement (PLA), will commit long-term construction and ancillary projects for the next several years to labor unions.

At least twenty-three members of the public, many of them local private business owners who oppose the PLA, have attended to publicly comment on the proposal.  Two of the board members have never even seen the PLA prior to today, and have asked for a special session to review it.  Despite opposition from the public, and the concern voiced by those two board members, the remaining three board members have moved that the Board of Trustees authorize Chancellor Greg Gray to negotiate the final PLA with the Riverside and San Bernardino Building and Construction Trade Councils. Board Trustees Virginia Blumenthal and Janet Green dissented.

So, without adequate time for all to review the draft, without any backup analysis provided to justify the use of up to $350,000,000 in Measure C taxpayer funds, without giving the public reasonable time to voice their opinions, and with an unemployment rate of over 12% when non-union workers are in even greater need of jobs than union workers…why would three of Riverside’s five board members vote to move forward with a final negotiation anyway? Why the rush? Residents and business owners in Riverside are wondering the same thing, and hope to have the chance to weigh in before the PLA’s final draft is signed.

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Tags: AFL-CIO, Boston Big Dig, Building and Construction Trade Councils, California, Central Valley
Posted Feb 1st 2010 at 6:41 am in Big Labor, News, Politics, State Politics | 6767081 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/libertychick/2010/02/01/californias-class-warfare-plas-pit-union-vs-non-union-workers-against-each-other/California%27s+Class+Warfare%3A+PLAs+Pit+Union+and+Non-Union+Workers+Against+Each+Other2010-02-01+14%3A41%3A36Liberty+Chick

Government by the Courts, Not the People: Federal Court Thwarts State Budget Cuts

California has long been the land of fruits and nuts – and now runaway federal courts.

Of course, a long time ago, in a place far, far away, the legislatures of individual States of these United States, had a far greater say in the lives of their citizens.  Indeed, for the first 150 years of our existence, the federal government – the Congress and the Courts – had little to say or do in the lives of Americans – the Civil War excluded.

With the advent of the Democrats’ Big Government New Deal, of course, all of that changed.  The Roosevelt Democrats increased the federal budget tenfold – but not without the considerable help of a very activist Supreme Court.  Recall that Roosevelt threatened to pack the Supreme Court which then proceeded through resignations and reinterpretations to redefine our Constitution.  The result was a Big Government takeover the like of which the Supreme Court originally struck down during Roosevelt’s first term.

It also was the dawning of the age of the activist courts which threatens our Liberties to this very day.  Thomas Jefferson, of course, warned us of this possibility.  According to Jefferson:

The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary.  That body, like Gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, & unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is ingulphing insidiuously the special governments [i.e, the states] into the jaws of that which feeds them.

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Tags: Central Valley, Delta Smelt, federal judges, Franklin Roosevelt, judicial activism
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 8:00 am in Justice/Legal, News, Politics, State Politics | 1928231 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/10/22/government-by-the-courts-not-the-people-federal-court-thwarts-state-budget-cuts/Government+by+the+Courts%2C+Not+the+People%3A+Federal+Court+Thwarts+State+Budget+Cuts2009-10-22+15%3A00%3A02Thomas+Del+Beccaro