• After the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Republican tax plan along party lines on Nov. 16, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) spoke out against the legislation in an interview with Bloomberg the following day. Brown said that Republicans could see losses in the 2018 midterms and the 2020 elections if the legislation is passed. “Who’s to say that the rich need more money right now,” Brown said. “If you give them more money, what are they going to do with it? Are they going to put it to work in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania, all the people that voted for Trump? I think there’s going to be a rude awakening when people wake up and say they were misled.” The tax plan would make several changes to U.S. tax code, including cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, changes the number of tax brackets from seven to four, and removes certain deductions. According to the Bloomberg article, states like California that already pay higher levels of income tax will be hit harder by the changes. Of the 14 House Republicans from California, 11 voted to approve the tax plan, which Brown said was “a form of declaring war on their fellow neighbors and citizens.” Brown said that it’s too early to say how much of an effect the tax plan would have on California if passed, but pointed to the state’s place economically in the country as a cause for concern. “When you step on California, you’re stepping on America,” he said. 24th District Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) voted against the tax plan, calling it “a gift to the wealthiest 1 percent and multinational at the expense of our students, homeowners, and seniors,” from the House floor. “Americans deserve tax reform that simplifies our tax codes and puts the middle-class first,” Carbajal said.
• U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the rest of the committee’s Democratic members sent a letter to committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Nov. 17, denouncing Grassley’s decision to eliminate the blue slip policy, which requires home-state senators to sign off on judicial nominees from their states. “The blue slip tradition has lasted for nearly 100 years precisely because it protects both institutional and home-state interests that are important to the integrity of the Senate and the judiciary,” the letter states. “Our respective caucuses have pointed fingers for some time about who is to blame for the erosion of bipartisanship on judicial nominations, culminating with the elimination of the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees earlier this year. On the issue of blue slips, however, it is indisputable that during Democratic administrations, Democratic chairs of the Judiciary Committee respected Republican senators’ blue slips. … We ask for nothing more than equal treatment.”
• Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Kamala Harris (D-California) issued a joint statement on Nov. 17 criticizing the Trump administration’s supplemental disaster funding request for excluding California wildfire victims. “It’s appalling the White House is choosing to ignore the victims of California’s wildfires,” the statement said. “That latest disaster supplemental request is a completely inadequate response to all of the recent natural disasters, but it’s particularly egregious that no money was included to help Californians rebuild. … The president needs to remember that he serves all Americans has a responsibility to help the citizens of California, as well as those of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida, and Texas.”
This article appears in Nov 23-30, 2017.