Angry Bear Blog

Wednesday on Bill O’Reilly’s FOX News show he aimed his wrath in California Congresswoman and Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi’s direction.

Congress is in the process of voting for troop funding in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have introduced the Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act, an amendment to 2346 supplemental bill which has passed the Senate but has been axed by a handful in the House.  The bill would prohibit the release of detainee photo’s which would only be used as propaganda against our military and our Country by terrorists.

The ACLU filled a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to force these photo’s to be released.  

Release of these photos is not about transparency, it’s about feeding a fire that will only bring harm to our men and women in uniform.  It’s unfortunate that there are those in our own House of Representatives standing on the sidelines fanning the flames.  Speaker Pelosi first said she would support the amendment to 2346 but has yet to actually step up and “reign in the nuts” as O’Reilly puts it.

Contact Speaker Pelosi and ask her to get her “House” in order.  Demand the Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act be put back in the supplemental bill and passed.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
http://speaker.house.gov/contact

Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-0100

To follow up on yesterday’s post, here is the response I received from Controller Chiang’s office via email:

The Controller has warned the Governor and the Legislature that the State will be out of cash at the end of July, and is urging them to enact solutions that will provide sufficient cash in the State Treasury to ensure the State meets all of its obligations during the summer and the rest of the new fiscal year. If the Governor and Legislature fail to enact meaningful reforms that provide much-needed fiscal relief, he will be forced to enact a cash-management plan to ensure there are sufficient funds to make all education and debt service payments.  That may include delaying other payments.  At this point, what fiscal controls the Controller will put in place depends entirely on what action the Legislature and Governor take, and how quickly.

My question was: Is there a scheduled order for the delayed payments or is it across the board?  Are all payments delayed or are there only specific payments that may be delayed?  “That may include delaying other payments”….which payments???? Does he know or is he flying by the seat of his pants?

This masterfully crafted email says a lot without saying anything at all and it doesn’t answer my question.  Chiang in just another Sacramento politician who doesn’t feel the need to answer to his constituents.

The June 15th deadline for our legislature to pass a budget is looming. According to our California Constitution (article IV, section 12C), the budget is do by Monday at midnight, which is less than a week away. Where are the air-raid sirens and the red warning lights flashing throughout the state?   California is ablaze and it’s business as usual.

Controller John Chiang tried to light a fire under the feet of the Legislature and the Governor by sending them what amounts to a doomsday letter on May 29th. Chiang warns of the of the states latest cash projections which show the state flat broke on July 29th and the need to sell “Revenue Anticipation Warrants” (RAW), which amount to IOU loans needed to keep the state running.  If a budget is not passed by the June 15th deadline not only will we be just about out of cash but the Controllers ability to obtain the RAW loans becomes all but impossible.    

In an effort to find out what happens if the deadline is not met, I called the Controllers office, where I was referred to the Governor’s office.  Silly me, I thought the chief accountant would be able to answer my questions…. guess not.  Megan, a Governor’s office staff member said, “the Governor is aiming for July 1st” when asked about the June 15th deadline.  It’s nice to know Schwarzenegger is able to so easily disregard the supreme law of our state, it’s Constitution. Megan went on to say “the longer we go the more pressing our problems become and the deeper the cuts will be.  Controller Chiang has said he will again delay payments”.  She added, “We haven’t had a budget passed by the 15th in years.  It’s really up to the Assembly and the Senate”.   I asked about which payments would be delayed and is there an order for which payments will be cut as the budget impasse continues.  I was referred back to Controller’s office, which told me I would need to email my question, as it could not be answered on the call.  I will post their response.

If it has truly become so blasé to brush off the Constitutional deadline and fail to pass a budget before our state sinks into a deficit black hole, you’d think it would be easy to to find out what would happen and how it would happen.  Guess not.

Our whole budget catastrophe is more frustration when you actually watch what’s going on in Sacramento.  The California Channel is currently, as I type this, airing a live feed of the Budget Conference Committee, a dual house committee charged with helping to close our deficit.  This committee is right now taking up budget issues involved with healthcare.  Members are willy nilly about making any entitlement cuts and are entertaining creating various new positions and increasing funding to the state healthcare system.   Big surprise, most of them just don’t get it. This is just another example of why our state is choking to death on debt while it’s Legislature continues to try and be all things to all people.  

The absurd A.B.627 passed on the assembly floor last week with a vote of 49 to 28. Authored by Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica), the bill would require licensed day care facilities in California to make water accessible and available throughout the day, offer only low fat or non fat milk to children 2 years of age and older, limiting juice to one 100% juice per day, and a required 1 serving of vegetables per day at minimum.   

Yes, childhood obesity is an issue, but it should be an issue for parents, not the California assembly.  Parents should be mandating proper nutrition at the facility they choose to employ to provide care for their children, not the state.  I guess this is another attempt to legislate good parenting and common sense.

Our state is getting ready fall into an ocean of red ink.  We are just about out of cash and virtually bankrupt and this is what our inept assembly is choosing to spend time on?  Certainly they can find something more pressing to spend their time on in our current financial apocalypse.  Part-time legislature….hello?!?!?

As the years have passed, it may be easy for some to forget the significance of D-Day.  

Today, on the 65th anniversary of D-Day, we must NEVER forget the sacrifice and courage of those 100,000+ soldiers who stormed the beach at Normandy and began the march across Europe to defeat the evil Reich of Hitler.

We salute you, the brave, the valiant and the fallen.

To learn more about D-Day visit the U.S. Army website. 

The California State Employment Development Department (EDD) is reporting in the May 2009 Unemployment Insurance Fund Forecast, the fund will be short $6.2 BILLION dollars by the end of this year and the fund could see a $17.8 BILLION dollar deficit by the end of 2010.  

In January, the state began borrowing from the federal government to pay its rising unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allows for that money to be borrowed interest free during 2009 and 2010.  Interest will start racking up on the loans starting January 1, 2011 and full payment must be made to the department of Labor by September 30, 2011.

In 2008 UI payments totaled $7 BILLION dollars.  UI payouts are projected to jump to $11.8 BILLION for 2009 and $13.2 BILLION for 2010.  In California’s current anti-business climate, businesses are closing and leaving the state in record numbers.  When we address this, jobs will be created and it will lower the unemployment rate.  This should be a no brainer. 

The deficit should come as no surprise.  The state pays out more in benefits than it collects in payroll tax revenue.  The amount collected from employers is based on a formula enacted in 1985.  

In 2002, the legislature voted to increase unemployment benefits from $230 to $450 a week but didn’t have the votes to amend the 1985 formula to calculate how employers are taxed on employee wages.

This is another example of the legislature failing to serve the people of California. The UI deficit will ultimately lead to the taxpayers holding the bill. 

Read more in a San Fran Chronicle article here.  And for a really irresponsible article on “funemployment”, which fails to mention the UI deficit but points out the virtues of collecting UI read the L.A. Times here.

To update Monday’s post, A.B. 962 was brought to the Assembly floor yesterday for a vote.  It passed and is now off to the Senate.

If this bill passes the Senate, ammunition will become far more expensive and harder to purchase.  This only hurts law abiding California citizens who are given their right to keep and bear arms from the United States Constitution.  It will do nothing to prevent gang violence.  

Be sure and let your Senator know where you stand on bill 962 before it’s to late. You can find your Senator and their contact info here.

To update a post from last week, Assembly Bill 155 was brought to the floor of the Assembly on Wednesday for a vote and once again passed with flying colors, 43 ayes and 16 noes.  

A.B. 155 requires local governments to obtain approval from the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission before filling for bankruptcy.   

If 155 passes the Senate, it will be a huge victory for labor unions.  The bill poses an opportunity for the approval process to be politicized as bankruptcy allows for union contracts to be renegotiated.  For example, we saw what happened when the Governor tried to cut the pay of home heath care workers.  Their labor union, the SEIU cried fowl to the President (who was the recipient of over $30 MILLION in campaign donations from the SEIU).  Although the administration has backed off, they originally threatened to withhold BILLIONS of dollars in federal stimulus money to California if the pay cuts were not voided; this basically amounts to federal extortion.  Do you want labor unions to have the opportunity to influence the decision on if your city can file for bankruptcy protection?

Ask your State Senator to say “NO” to more red tape and government bureaucracy. Ask for their “NO” vote on 155.  Contact info for your State Senator can be found here. 

Tuesday in Sacramento, Governor Schwarzenegger received a standing ovation from the legislature during his joint session budget address.

In the address, he praised the legislature for coming together in February, despite ideological differences, to solve $36 BILLION of a $42 BILLION dollar deficit.  This amounts to a pat on the head of lawmakers for stabbing the taxpayers of California in the back.  

The Governor regurgitates the same rhetoric about getting the voter’s message “loud and clear”.  Again he is half right in word and almost completely wrong in theory.  

We are again given the sob story of what a task it is to make hard decisions during this crisis.  “I know the consequences of these cuts are not just dollars. I see the faces behind those dollars…I see the children whose teacher will be laid-off… I see the Alzheimer’s’ patients losing some of their In-Home Support Services… I see the firefighters and police officers who will lose their jobs. People come up to me all the time, pleading, ‘Governor, please don’t cut my program.’ They tell me how the cuts will affect them and their loved ones. I see the pain in their eyes and hear the fear in their voice. It’s an awful feeling.”  So now were back to fear mongering and guilt, how original.

The Governor wants to use the states financial crisis as an opportunity to make the government more efficient and find creative ways to stretch taxpayer revenue. Citing the need for the Board of Education to make textbooks available online, restructuring the relationship between state and local government, eliminating and consolidating more than a dozen state departments, boards and commissions like the Waste Management Board.  Great idea.  It takes a crisis of this magnitude to figure out the state needs to spend our money more efficiently?  

The Governor did have a stroke of sensibility when he addressed the spending on prison’s has just about doubled in the last five years.  In California we spend approximately $49,000 annually per inmate.  The national average is $32,000 annually per inmate.  When the legislature is prepared to take an honest look at the cost differences we will be on the road to fiscal sanity. 

In a line out of a Hollywood blockbuster, the Governor declares, “California’s day of reckoning is here”.  In reality, this statement comes a few years to late.  It’s nice to know the Governor finally caught up to that page in his script.

The recall State Senator Roy Ashburn efforts are going on full steam ahead.   43,000 qualified signatures are needed by September 30th for the recall.  Michael Moore from RecallRoy.com is currently looking for volunteers to collect signatures in the 18th district, which include: Kern, Tulare, Inyo, San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Visalia, Porterville, Bishop, Lone Pine, Barstow, Big Bear City, Needles and 29 Palms.  The group is also in need of donations to pay the costly expenses associated with the recall.  You can download the petition and collect signatures from your family and friends.

State Senator Ashburn signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in 2006, promising the taxpayers of his district and the state of California, he will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.   On February 19th Ashburn voted to approve the state budget, which included the largest tax increase on any state in the history of the United States.  Ashburn is also the author of Prop 1A, a $16 BILLION dollar tax increase, which was annihilated on the May 19th ballot.