While Rivals Tangle, DeVore Abides
We’re past deadline at Fox & Hounds Daily, so these are hastily assembled first impressions of today’s U.S. Senate radio debate. And I’m scoring these folks on presentation—their views on foreign policy and national security, the subject of the debate, are so similar that there is simply no reason to get into that here.
– Carly Fiorina, calling in while her rivals were at the debate in person, sounded scratchy and tired (at least over my Internet connection). Her campaign team, for all its operational successes, needs to do more work on the candidate herself. She managed the terrible trick of managing to sound defensive even when she was attacking.
Advice: next time, try more courtesy. First-time candidates, particularly those who happen to be infrequent voters and who are running against people with long records of public service, should not call their rivals by their first names. Stop saying “Tom” and “Chuck,” and try “Congressman Campbell” and “Assemblyman DeVore.”
Gas Tax Swap: It’s Time to Stop the Masquerade
I know this is Mardi gras season, but it’s time to stop this masquerade.
On March 4, the Legislature sent the governor a majority-vote bill (ABX8 6) to implement a gas tax swap, a tax increase in disguise.
The legislation repeals the sales tax on gas and replaces the revenue with an excise tax of 17.3 cents per gallon. It also increases the sales tax on diesel fuel by 1.75 percent and reduces the gas tax on diesel fuel by 4.4 cents per gallon. And, for purposes of Prop. 98 school funding, the state has to pretend that this sales tax on gas was not repealed. Finally, the bill gives legislative authority to the State Board of Equalization to make adjustments to the excise tax rate to ensure “revenue neutrality” in the future.
Campbell on the Spot in Today’s Senate Debate
The three GOP Senate candidates will get together for an hour-long radio debate this afternoon and listeners hoping for a reasoned and thoughtful discussion of national and international affairs probably should stick to NPR.
But if you’re looking for some political hardball and an early indication of what that Senate campaign’s going to look like from now until June, the Eric Hogue Show on Sacramento’s KTKZ 1380 (streaming live at www.ktkz.com from noon to 1 p.m.) will be worth a listen.
First off, kudos to Hogue, a veteran of hot talk radio, for putting the event together in a warp-speed hurry. But it never would have happened if it weren’t for last week’s flurry of reports, cheerfully forwarded by the Carly Fiorina campaign, showing that Tom Campbell had taken campaign money from donors linked to terrorist organization.
Education and Oil; LA Crime; Greek Isles
In support of student protests yesterday there were calls to add revenues to education budgets by taxing oil production. Building continuing programs on the foundation of diminishing resources is faulty architecture.
Both Assemblyman Alberto Torrico in the Huffington Post and Joe Mathews in Fox and Hounds Daily called for an oil severance tax to fund education.
But, such a move would have threatening consequences to the economy and to financially strapped Californians. As I wrote a couple of months ago on this page, the tax expense will likely be passed on to consumers at the pump. The cost of production may slow or eliminate some wells. That means Californians will have to import more oil. Jobs would be cut so the oil companies have the revenue to pay their tax bills.
No Texting While… Legislating?
I’ve heard of no texting while driving, but no texting while Legislating?
Proving once again that Democrats are missing the point by a country mile, incoming Assembly Speaker John Perez announced this week it would now be against the rules to text while on the Assembly floor.
The move is intended to prevent lobbyists from communicating with Legislators during Assembly session and to, somehow, magically lessen the grip that special interests have on the Capitol.
But, banning text messages to Legislators in order to prevent influence is like putting a Chiclet in the Hoover Dam to stop a leak.
I’ll tell you what, Mister Speaker. We’ll give up Text messaging if your side agrees to stop being held hostage by the labor unions, stops forcing hard-working teachers into the teachers’ union, and …well,… I could send you an entire list of special interest offenses. If only you’d accept my texts.
Historic Travel Promotion Act to Help Boost Economy
After many months of getting Washington to understand the value and vulnerability of the travel industry in today’s struggling economy, I am elated that the bipartisan Travel Promotion Act passed in the Senate and was just signed by the President.
As chair of the U.S. Travel Association, which led the industry charge to pass this critical bill, I want to applaud the President and Senate for taking this major step toward strengthening the American economy. This new law, which we anticipate will be signed this week by President Obama, creates a multi-million-dollar public-private partnership to promote the United States as a premier international travel destination and better clarify U.S. security and entry policies to potential foreign travelers.
According to independent analysis by Oxford Economics, the program could attract 1.6 million additional visitors from other countries and create more than $4 billion in consumer spending annually, as well as generate $321 million in new federal tax revenue each year. As mentioned in previous posts, this landmark legislation was sorely needed, as America’s travel industry was the only major country without a national tourism promotion budget. Not keeping pace with global competitors cost us 68 million visitors to the U.S. and more than $500 billion in total spending over the last decade.
Reality Check: Low Carbon Fuel Standard a Misplaced Priority
David Crane’s article about the low carbon fuel standard, fuel prices and market forces truly represents “misplaced priorities” on behalf of the author. Somehow he connects the dots between high oil prices and the need for a low carbon fuel standard. If the oil market was being truly driven by market forces, their may be an inkling of a connection here. However oil markets are now driven by Wall Street investment decisions and the switching of investment bundles into different classes of products, including oil commodities. Oil prices have very little to do with market forces and very much to do with currently-legalized gambling.
Right now there is a huge abundance of oil and fuel in the global economy – a glut. But oil prices hover in the high seventies/low eighties for no other reason than investment firms deciding to abandon the poker table in favor of the dice table.