Most people have no idea what actually happens in Sacramento and usually those who serve there don’t like to discuss anything that transpires there.  California is famous for massive deficits, irresponsible spending and harassing businesses until they leave the state.

They act as if they have a suicide mentality.  As a six year veteran of the legislature, allow me to expose some of its dark secrets that create such irresponsibility. 

Aren’t the people who serve in Sacramento selfless public servants and our best and brightest citizens?

Well, no, that’s not really true.  With term limits in place, State Assembly and State Senate seats are merely holding places until the legislator can jump to a congressional seat or offered a job by one of the special interest groups who control the process in Sacramento.  

Since the Democrats control both houses and will for decades to come, it is important to know that most Democrats serving there have NEVER worked a real job in the private sector.  That’s right; they have no idea how jobs are created or the impact taxes and regulation have upon families and businesses. Most Democrats have spent their entire life as a government bureaucrat or an elected official. They typically served on a school board, a city council, or were county supervisors before running for a state legislative seat. Many of them were aides for other state legislators.  They do NOT share the same experiences most Californians do. 

When I first arrived in Sacramento one of the first committee meetings I attended was the Revenue and Taxation Committee.  During a discussion of some proposed tax hikes I brought up the common sense notion that higher taxes will impact job creation.  The chairwoman of the Committee, Juanita McDonald, went ballistic, screaming at me there’s no evidence of any connection between tax rates and job growth.  I was stunned.  And this was the person responsible for all tax policy in California!  I’ve come to the conclusion that my young boys understand more about economics than do most legislators.  

But weren’t they elected by the people to represent our interests?

Yes, they were, but with the massive amounts of funding from unions, homosexual groups, trial lawyers, extremist environmental groups, Planned Parenthood, etc. what they consider to be their priorities has little to do with the needs of the average Californian.  In other words, they were elected by money from groups representing extremely liberal views and as a result are beholden to a hard-left ideology that most Californians cannot relate to.  Why do you think they all spent like drunken sailors the last few decades and gave us a massive deficit?  Well, it’s because they were all busy rewarding the special interest groups who got them elected.  They don’t give a damn about the average hard-working taxpayer.  And I can assure you they all knew they were spending irresponsibly  -- but kept doing it year after year.  Despite the fact that California is facing the worst economy in decades, the legislature did absolutely nothing to help businesses, no regulatory breaks, no tax breaks, nothing.  Even though it’s the private sector that creates jobs, they just don’t care about the private sector not do they even understand it.  

But aren’t there provisions in the law that prohibit them from spending more than they take it? Or to balance the budget each year?  

No. They spend whatever their special interest masters want them to spend and when they end up with a deficit, the simply engage in budget tricks and borrow money.   There isn’t anything in the state constitution that requires a balance budget.  Spending limits that have been enacted over the years via the initiative process – such as the “Gann” limit—have been systemically undermined. 

Aren’t some of these Democrats considered conservative or moderate Democrats?

Not really.  They may call themselves a “conservative” or “moderate” Democrat to get elected from a district that leans conservative, but this is a fraud.  The reality is that alleged conservative or moderate Democrats will NEVER control the process, or influence any key legislation.  For the last 40 years hard left special interest groups have controlled the Democrat Party at both the state and federal level and that’s not going to change anytime soon.  Nevertheless, it is important to the Democrats to maintain the fiction of  “conservative” Democrats, especially since there are districts that will only elect conservative Democrats. 

What the Democrats do in Sacramento is similar to what they do in Washington DC.  When there’s a liberal bill for which the Democrats have more than enough votes for, they “allow” the so-called conservative Democrats to vote the opposite way on purpose so the “conservative” Democrat can send out press releases to their districts boasting about how they voted against a liberal bill. But it’s all for show. 

If at anytime the Democrat majority is short a vote to pass their precious left-wing agenda, they will then simply order one or more “conservative” Democrats to vote for it.  Never will you see the votes of a conservative or moderate Democrat actually stop a bill.  It just doesn’t happen.  The same process happens with the so-called “Blue Dogs Democrats” in Congress.  It’s all for show and about getting reelected.  The existence of real conservative Democrats is a myth.  They haven’t existed in decades.  The Democrat primary process is controlled by hard-left special interest groups and real conservative Democrats just don’t get elected anymore. 

Don’t our legislators respond to the people?

Not really.  Almost all legislative ideas come from special interest groups.  Ideas submitted by the people are thrown in the trash.  Indeed, most of the bills are actually written by special interest groups and then spoon fed to the legislators.  You will see this in the committee process – a legislator gets up to present his bill in Committee but clearly doesn’t understand everything in the bill.  He has to brings up his “witnesses” to better describe the bill and these “witnesses” are nearly always connected to special interest groups.  

The bill process is typically controlled by money.  Bills are introduced that benefit the special interest groups that give the most money to the legislators.  This is why so many bills have to do with increasing the power of the unions, the environmental extremists, the trial lawyers, the homosexuals, etc.  There may be a great idea for a bill, but if it doesn’t lead to contributions to the Democrat majority, it simply won’t go anywhere.  The special interest groups all reciprocate by producing volunteers and money during the campaign season.   

Not only do most legislators NOT write their bills; not read their own bills, don’t understand their own bills, but they often aren’t even present to vote for most bills.  The vast majority of time the outcome of legislation is decided in advance. The leadership of the Democrat Party, after meeting with special interest group leaders, have already decided what bills will pass and which ones won’t.  

What the cameras don’t often show while filming a floor session, are row after row of empty chairs.  The legislators are in a back room eating, playing cards, gossiping, or meeting with lobbyists out in the hallway.  They rarely listen to the debate. Indeed, floor debates don’t change anyone minds anymore because the outcome is already decided before the bill gets to the floor.  The typical legislator will miss most of the debate and even most of the actual votes, but the rules of the legislature actually allow them to come onto the floor at the end of a session and add their votes, usually following a list of instructions from their leaders telling them how to vote. The idea that a powerful or dramatic speech will alter the outcome of a vote died decades ago. Our founding fathers would be appalled.

What about all these nice-sounding endorsements I always see on the campaign literature of legislators?

Well, that’s a fraud as well.  One of the biggest scams used by the Democrats and sometimes liberal Republicans is the use of teacher and law enforcement unions to endorse them in such a way that is gives the impression they’re being supported by rank and file teachers and policemen.  The reality is that when a candidate is endorsed by “teachers,” it means the teachers union, not rank and file teachers.  I was responsible for the passage of many far-reaching education reform bills like re-introducing phonic-based books in elementary schools, but I was never endorsed by the “teachers”. All the California Education Association union cares about is power and money.   Having their endorsement on your literature doesn’t mean anything about improving schools.  All it means is that you supported bills that gave the union more power and control over the education process.

The same goes with police and law enforcement endorsements.  Such endorsements do NOT mean that the legislator in question is supportive of tough law and order issues.  Those endorsements are from law enforcement unions and they endorse based only upon votes having to do with pension plans and the like. You can have a perfect record on law and order votes and still not receive their endorsement.  Conversely, you can be in favor of letting all rapists out of jail and still get their endorsement as long as you voted with them on issues pertaining to their power and benefits. 

This is all very discouraging.  Isn’t there anything we can do about this? 

Well, there are a few genuine principled conservatives in the legislature who are there because they actually believe in free enterprise, law and order, small government, family values and low taxes. They are clearly in the minority, even within the GOP, but they do exist.  One of them is Joel Anderson who represents the 77th Assembly District, my old seat.  And then there’s Steve Knight, Chuck Devore, Van Tran, Dennis Hollingsworth and a few others are principled legislators.  But they are few and far between.

And yes, there are things we can do to clean up the process, but millions of Californians will need to wake up and quit voting in the dark for legislators who don’t care about tax rates, free enterprise, law and order, etc.  Here are a few ideas:

1. We need an initiative to return California to a part time legislature as we used to have many years ago.  Even since the legislature went full time, the number of staff, amount of bills, size of the budget, etc, etc. have all exploded.  And I can tell you after serving there for six years that 90% of the bills have absolutely no value whatsoever except to give some special interest group more power or harass the private sector.   With a part-time legislature that, say meets only three months every two years, there would be time only for the most important bills to be considered.   
2. We should ban all lobbyists from the Capitol building altogether.
3. With the help of ACORN the Democrats have been corrupting the political process for years by registering hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens all over California.  We need to pass an initiative that requires a photo ID to be shown at the ballot box before people are allowed to vote.  We also need to ban ACORN from ever engaging in voter registration efforts here in California.
4. We need more transparency.  By that I mean we need more newspapers, radio shows, blogs, etc. to cover the actions of the legislature.  Much of what they do is done purposely late on night to avoid public scrutiny. However, this also means we need more conservatives to get involved with the media, either as owners or reporters.
5. We need to amend the Constitution to limit how much spending can increase each year.  There are currently no incentives whatsoever for legislators to act in a fiscal responsible way.  And it needs to be written in such a way so that it can’t be undermined.
6. We need voters to become more informed.  We have millions of ignorant voters who vote based on cliques, deceptive campaign slogans, and biased media coverage.  If a voter is not willing to spend some time studying the issues and the actual voting record of a candidate, then they should be encouraged to NOT vote.  The constant drum beat of Hollywood ad campaigns constantly telling us that everyone should vote is killing our country.  If people are ignorant about the issues and candidates, frankly, they shouldn’t vote.  These are the people who are easily swayed by the special interest groups.  Misinformed voters are destroying America.  This is one reason why we’re in the mess we’re in today.  

Numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 are reforms that will NOT be initiated by the legislature.  They will do whatever it takes to protect its existing corrupt and fiscally irresponsible ways.  These reforms will have to be initiated by the people.  Either existing conservative groups will need to push for such reforms or, if they won’t, then the people of California will need to form an organization or a coalition of organizations that will.  Millions of dollars will have to be raised to qualify these reforms for the ballot and they will be fought tooth and nail by all the special interest groups.  This can be done but it will require a lot of hard work by a lot of people and it will also require millions of Californians to pay more attention to how their state is being governed than to what Paris Hilton is doing.

The alternative is to leave the state and if you’re a business, take your jobs with you.  A little Atlas Shrug type activity might actually wake up policy makers.