When you are in business it is particularly important to try innovations for enhancing your success. Some of those innovations work but some do not. Some that work do so for a time and then stop working. As a business operator it is important to recognize when to terminate your project and move on. However, the government doesn’t often know when to move on from a promising idea. Diamond lanes have outlived their benefit and should be retired. The first diamond lane (actually known as “high-occupancy lane” or “HOV”) was introduced in 1976. It was on the Santa Monica (I-10) freeway in California. The lane was dedicated to buses and cars with three or more passengers. There are now HOV lanes in 20 states covering thousands of miles of highways. They operate under different rules depending on the state. One of the annoying rules in California is you can only merge into the lane at specific points that often don’t make sense. That causes many people to merge in and out against the rules, breaking a law that is never enforced. Why is it time to ditch them? The simple answer is they don’t work. It is rare when you see the… Read More

Taking a page from the successful “Contract with America” thirty years ago, today I’m unveiling our Contract to Reform California — a 10-point agenda that offers bold proposals to fix the state’s pressing problems.

The Contract with America was a plan advanced by Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and House Republicans in the 1994 midterm election, which promised specific legislation on government reform and gave Republicans control of the House for the first time in 40 years. In California, Republicans have been in the minority in the Legislature for nearly 30 years — and are in a similar position to offer voters a change in the state.

And the 2024 election shows California voters are hungry for change, but to satisfy that demand, California Republicans must get their act together ASAP and become a real and functioning opposition party. Our first priority must be to unite under a single… Read More

There is certainly a broad reaction to the election of Donald Trump since November 5th. There is a radiating joy that continues unabated but in a subliminal manner by his supporters and an unhinged, irrational, self-harming response from those who refuse to accept the reality they lost, and the others will be in charge for the next four years. Let us focus on two aspects of the aftermath – the Democrats’ maneuvers and the Trump cabinet choices. Elected leaders in the premier left of center states have had a fairly universal response. They are going to fight the Trump Administration by making new policies in their own legislature and challenging the new Administration in the courts. This on its face is a civil and legal manner very much in accordance with our federalized system of government. The question is whether that is a wise path. The victory of the Republicans was deep and wide. Though not every U.S. Senate candidate prevailed in states Trump won, the vote for Trump in each of these deep red states swung dramatically toward the Republicans. Instead of recognizing the depth and breadth of that movement, these elected leaders have decided to… Read More

Some people go to work for the federal government to represent their country with the idea they are going to help their government provide the services that citizens are paying to obtain. Mark Moyar was one of those people. He is a highly qualified individual brought in during the first Trump Administration. He soon found out there is a deep state, and it attempted to destroy his career and livelihood. He chronicles that in a riveting book, Masters of Corruption. I received his book right before election day and started to read it, thinking it would be meaningful. His book became an important guide with Trump’s victory for making sure career bureaucrats do not crush the efforts of the political appointees in the second Trump Administration. Moyar is someone you would think would be on the road to a roaringly successful life based on his resume. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard with a degree in history. By the age of 26 he had published his first history book which was on Viet Nam. He then headed to obtain his Ph.D. in history from Cambridge with his young wife and first child by his side. He returned to the U.S after receiving his… Read More

“There is nothing new under the sun” goes the old saying, and the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is no exception. While I love the idea, and applaud the effort, a warning is in order. The bureaucracy will do everything they can to destroy the effort, and they are a formidable opponent.

Governor Schwarzenegger, in 2004, had the same idea. He called it the “California Performance Review” and his idea was to “streamline government,” and it generated a 2500 page document with suggested California government reforms. He promised to make full use of the report in overhauling California government. The California Performance Review died a quiet death less than a year after its drafting, and we never heard of it again.

I have one story to tell about how the project was co-opted by the bureaucrats and killed. I helped a friend who worked for state government get on one of the panels formed to study ways to reform government to make it more efficient. That person’s job was to cut down the costs of maintaining state buildings, and they were a big proponent of privatizing janitorial services.… Read More

First the Dodgers won the World Series. Then Trump wins big on election night bringing along a few Senate seats and the House while winning the popular vote. God did not intend us to have this much joy — and in just one week. First, let me be clear – the Trump win was obviously because the country is racist and sexist. How else could we have voted for the Orangeman over that wonderful woman? PolitiFact has checked and, no, Trump did not win the election. They will get back to you with the actual results. We keep being told that we are doomed because the Left controls the press and our schools and colleges. I keep saying despite their pervasive attempts to control our thoughts, the American people keep seeing through their malarkey and vote against their message carriers. I still have faith in what we now call “the average American.” What has been missing in all the analysis is Republicans have recently become the plurality party for the first time in 30 years. That accounts for a large part of growth in voters for Trump. There are two reasons I believe this has happened. The Democrats’ policies are out of touch with Americans… Read More

Like the Wizard of Oz iconic scene where the Wicked Witch of the West melts before our eyes, our free press is likewise melting before our eyes. The difference is that Margaret Hamilton yelled “I am melting,” while the current press states they are doing their job with a level of certitude. But their actions endanger our freedoms. Just when many thought the legacy media could not stoop to a level yet lower, they have openly achieved it in this current election. The most pronounced exhibit of this was MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle who has a regular show on that bastion of “good” journalism. You know — that network that makes CNN look moderate. Ms. Ruhle appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher. Bill had another person on the show who happened to want to maintain our classic understanding of what our press is supposed to do in a presidential election. That is to extract the thoughts from both major candidates on the important public policy points they could be facing if elected. That person who adamantly stated he would never vote for Donald Trump is Bret Stephens of the New York Times. He expressed at the time… Read More

With election day less than a week away, here are some thoughts of importance not fully addressed nor previously discussed in my columns in deciding who gets your vote. Since the legacy media and its many organs will be chastising former President Trump for everything he has ever done, I will limit my comments to Ms. Harris. Harris like Biden and many others speak often of corporations and the rich not paying their “fair share.” We will probably never agree on the fact that corporations are just conduits for collecting taxes. We can discuss what is considered a “fair share” for individuals. This is where the advocates for higher taxes do not address what they believe is a “fair share.” They simply believe “the rich” should pay more so it can run through the hands of the higher-tax advocates to be directed to their preferred projects. Here are the facts and you can make your own decision. The IRS released their most current calculations which were for 2021 – four years after the Trump tax rate adjustments became law. The top 1% of earners paid 45.78% of the total taxes in 2021. That was up from 43.31% in 2020. Their share of total… Read More