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Contributor
John
Campbell
John
Campbell (R-Irvine) is an Assemblyman representing the 70th
District
in Orange County. Mr. Campbell is the Vice-Chairman of the Assembly
Budget Committee. He is the only CPA in the California State
legislature
and recently received a national award as Freshman Republican
Legislator of the Year. He represents the cities of Newport
Beach,
Laguna Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Aliso Viejo, Laguna
Woods and Lake Forest. He can be reached through his Assembly
website
and through the website
for his California Senate campaign. [go to Campbell index]
 Recall?
So?
Sacramento's
socialists just didn't get the recall message...
[John Campbell] 4/6/04
When will they ever
learn? When will they ever learn: That line of the refrain
from the 1960s folk song, "Where have all
the flowers gone?" is starting to ring true for Democrats
in the state legislature. After the unprecedented recall of Governor
Davis and then the overwhelming vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger,
I honestly thought that the other elected Democrats would read
the electorate's writing on the wall and understand that their
failed policies were now unpopular too. Right now, all indications
are that I was wrong. Here are a few examples:
- In spite
of the preponderance of evidence about the completely dysfunctional
worker's compensation system, Democrat leadership,
at the time of this writing, is still blocking real reform
of
the system. The only "fix" they want to see is
a cap on rates but not on costs. Wait a minute, isn't that
what happened
with the electricity system that caused the energy crisis?
If insurance companies were gouging, how come all but a handful
went bankrupt or left the state with all of their gouging
profits?
- In spite
of the voter revolt on the car tax increase and the massive
failure of the tax raising Proposition 56 on the March
ballot, Democrats are still demanding tax increases. They
have 3 propositions headed for the November, 2004 ballot
which would
in sequence raise property taxes, income taxes and add a
new tax on all use of any phone, cellular or otherwise. They
are
also still arguing for additional tax increases in this year's
budget although the Governor's proposed budget balances without
tax increases and still spends slightly more than last year
already.
- I introduced
a bill (AB 2181) which would repeal the horrible "bounty
hunter " legislation of last year (SB796 - Dunn (D))
which allowed a whole new class of frivolous litigation against
employers
for any technical violations of the 3 inch thick labor code
when no one has been harmed. This law just went into effect
1/1/04
and already multiple lawsuits have been filed for such heinous
crimes as not posting a poster with the correct pica size
type, not conspicuously posting the name of your worker's
comp carrier,
and not displaying the phone number of the whistleblower
hotline. Amgen Corporation stands to lose $10 million because
of these
acts. You would think that the Democrats on the labor committee
would see that this is the next workers' comp-style debacle
and would want to avoid it. But not of one of them voted
for the
repeal and it died on a party-line vote.
I thought
they would have gotten some of this by now. But their ideology
(which is admittedly socialist for many) and their slavish
devotion to personal injury lawyers and union bosses is just
too strong. So, When will they ever learn? Maybe not until the
upcoming November election when some of them (I hope) are thrown
out of office. Until next week...CRO
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