Republicans rail against taxes

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pushed lawmakers to move swiftly with the state budget, but has stressed that his biggest priorities are to not raise taxes, as the state did in February, and to close the entire $24.3-billion deficit in one go. The governor has vowed to veto any measure that fails to do so.

On Thursday, the Assembly approved measures totaling $5 billion that would have cut education funding and deferred some expenses. But the proposal was rejected by the Senate. Both houses of the Legislature scheduled Sunday night sessions. Although the two parties remained divided, they didn’t make it to the June 30 deadline.

Despite the revolutionary spirit unleashed over the Tea Parties, the discussion wasn’t all about taxes.

Attendees of the All American Rally, sponsored by the United Republicans of the Foothills, La Cañada Flintridge Republican Club, Republican Club of the Foothills and La Crescenta Valley Republican Women’s Federated, reacted with disappointment and anger to the sweeping legislation passed by the House on Friday that calls for the nation’s first limits on pollution linked to global warming, arguing the measure would further curtail the job market and increase energy costs.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost an average household $175 a year, but Republicans cited reports from analysts that showed costs going up by $775 per household, and in some cases much more.

On the foreign policy front, U.S. Marine Corps Col. James McGinley, who returned last week after a year in Iraq as the deputy commander and chief of staff for the Iraq Assistance Group, delivered a 15-minute speech touching on good news that “doesn’t, or has yet to make the headlines.”

“Things have gone unbelievably well, and that may be America’s best-kept secret from all of you because obviously there are implications that if it was the right mission, the right place to go, and we actually did well, that has political implications,” said McGinley, the recipient of a Bronze Star who helped manage the operational relationship between Iraqi and coalition forces.