The New York Times’ California ‘Revolution’
One opinion that unites my family – a family of newspaper people – is that you can’t trust anything you read in the New York Times. My dad writes for the Washington Post. My mom’s an editor at USA Today. My wife is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. I was a staffer at the LA Times before joining the think tank. The NYT is a competitor for all of us.
But even as a Times skeptic, I was taken aback by the front page headline this morning, declaring that the passage of Prop 14 represents a "revolution" that’s likely to spread across the country, Prop 13-style. Even supporters of Prop 14 (congratulations to them, by the way) know that’s not true.
Prop 14 is actually quite modest. (I thought it far too modest-and thus a problematic distraction from the fight for real reform of California’s broken system.) Prop 14 may or may not produce more moderates in the legislature (there’s little evidence of this, given the limited data we have with Washington state’s experience with same).
Reagan’s 11th Commandment
"Our 11th Commandment is perhaps more profound than we realize. "Thou shall not speak ill of any Republican." To do so means we are inhibited in the support we can give that Republican if he should become the nominee of our party. Certainly
our task is harder if we must challenge and refute charges made by our
opponents if those charges were first uttered by us…."
"Fight
as hard in the coming primary as you can for your candidate, but be
against only those we must defeat in November of 1968. Let
no opposition candidate quote your words in the general election to
advance statism or the philosophy of those who have lost confidence in
man’s capacity for self-rule."
Ronald Reagan in a Speech to the California Republican Assembly, April 1967
LAO Report: Business Tax Change Would Promote Job Growth
No sooner than California voters put one set of initiatives behind them, than the next group appears on the horizon. While the voters probably don’t think about what initiatives are coming down the road in November, policy and political types are already measuring potential effects and political consequences.
This comes to mind with the release of the Legislative Analyst’s Report on the Single Sales Factor tax formula for business. The budget agreement in February 2009 changed a business tax formula used to calculate taxes on California businesses that also operate in other states. The current formula considers a firm’s sales, property and payroll. Under the budget agreement, starting in 2011, businesses will have the option of considering only their sales in determining their California taxes.
A Dose of Perspective
Next time you are shopping at the Mall, Costco, or Bed Bath & Beyond and your shopping cart or pallet is overflowing, think of this: nearly half of the world’s population (roughly), some three billion people, are living on less than $2.50 per day – the price of a cheap magazine or a couple of Cokes or perhaps a Happy Meal at Mickey D’s. The opposite of SuperSize – PatheticallyTiny.
When you are next staring into the late night contents of your refrigerator, having paused your movie on DVR, not really hungry, but looking for something to stuff in your face . . . one billion people inhabiting this same world (one thousand million, for the numerically challenged) went to bed hungry last night – not dieting; not low cal; not ‘no fat’ – starving hungry – the kind that really hurts . . . all night.
When you finish that late night movie and take out your DVD, VHS, or power down your computer’s streaming video, consider this. One in four people living on the same planet as you and me, have no access to basic electricity – zip, zero, nada. When the sun goes down, they live by candlelight, if they can afford candles; lamplight, if they can afford whatever burns inside to illuminate . . . as humans have lived for the several million years that we have been evolving into the multi-tasking, digitally plugged in, expensively clothed and accessorized marvels you walk past all day, every day, in your life.