“Far more startling, the state is eliminating the deduction retroactively–going all the back to 2008.”

◼ Crazifornia: Franchise Tax Board kills the Golden State Goose - Laer Pearce/Cal Watchdog

California’s hostility towards business, and willingness to tax it into oblivion, is storied. As State Senator Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, is quoted in my recent book, “Crazifornia“:

“I am tired of my constituents and other business owners here being treated like pinatas by regulators and politicians who smack them around until some fine or penalty falls out.”

Or, for that matter, some newly created tax liability — like the new retroactive (to 2008) tax that’s going to smack the Golden State’s golden goose upside the head. Henry Blodget explains in Business Insider:

“As a way of encouraging entrepreneurs and investors to start companies in California, the state has long offered a tax deduction for those who start, invest in, and eventually sell companies.

“This tax deduction allowed entrepreneurs and [investor] angels to exclude 50 percent of any gain on the sale of ‘Qualified Small Business’ (QSB) stock.

“California’s capital gains taxes are a high 9 percent, so the deduction reduced the capital gains rate to 4.5 percent. This encouraged the entrepreneurs to start and keep their companies in California, instead of decamping to lower-tax states.

“And, for many years, California entrepreneurs and investors have taken advantage of the deduction.

“But now the state has apparently decided that it no longer needs to encourage entrepreneurs to start and keep their companies in California.

“So it is eliminating the tax deduction.

“Far more startling, the state is eliminating the deduction retroactively–going all the back to 2008.” (Emphasis in original)

As you can imagine, those QSBs, the companies that qualified for the reduction in taxes but now suddenly don’t qualify, are not reacting positively to this news....

True to form, California is alone in its stupidity. The federal government, tone deaf as it is on the economy, realized that encouraging fast-growing businesses is a good thing and extended its QSB program.

Who could disagree with Overstreet when he concludes: ”Why in the world would any smart business person start or invest in a new California company facing that kind of penalty?”

Will CA gun control also chase away businesses, jobs?

◼ Here’s a question: Will more gun control laws in California chase away even more businesses and jobs than our high taxes already do? - John Seiler/Cal Watchdog

◼ Gun control costs lives - Thomas Sowell/OC Register

One can cherry-pick the factual studies, or cite some studies that have subsequently been discredited, but the great bulk of the studies show that gun control laws do not in fact control guns. On net balance, they do not save lives but cost lives.

Gun control laws allow some people to vent their emotions, politicians to grandstand and self-righteous people to "make a statement" – but all at the cost of other people's lives.

◼ Did the Democrats accidentally reveal their #guncontrol agenda? — Updated - Sister Toldjah

"What hope is there for environmentalists in conversation where our side wants to take people's kittens away?"

◼ New Zealand environmental advocate launches campaign to ban cats as pets - AP via FOX

Where does the GOP’s message fit in here? It doesn’t. It comes through in the real world when college grads have a job to work, taxes to pay, etc. – in other words, when fiscal policy becomes more relevant and in-your-face than ever. We lose the youth vote because we focus too much on politics, which flies over their heads, stresses them out, or bores them.

◼ THE YOUTH VOTE: MAKING THE GOP COOL AGAIN - ELENA LATHROP/Breitbart

Conservative blogger Bill Whittle compared this fight to the Korean War, when General MacArthur and his troops were essentially backed into a corner, outnumbered and ill-equipped. To win such a battle, we must get to places we’re not expected to be and show people things they’ve never seen before. Without getting into details on Whittle’s specific plan for doing this (and yes, he definitely has one), it involves creating parallel structures that show how much better private citizens are at getting things done than the government will ever be. We can do it faster, better, and cheaper without any of the government’s help. Show people what actually works in the real world through tangible results. Purify the conservative message and let the youth see that there is more to politics than gay marriage, abortion, free birth control, or whatever the cause du jour on campus may be at a given time. When those hot topics are swept aside, Left versus Right essentially becomes big versus small government, and the latter must become the hero of the story. Republicans have the ability to make individualism, self-reliance, and liberty, rather than identity politics, cool again, and they should try everything in their power to do so in hopes of ever capturing the youth vote.

So, within a breath of calling for hard choices, he rejected the need for them. I can think of no more fitting summation of Obama’s presidency.

◼ Two lines that sum up Obama’s presidency - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner @philipklein

President Obama’s Second Inaugural Address was devoid of memorable lines, but for me, two of them jumped out: “We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.”

Throughout his presidency, Obama has rhetorically wanted to establish himself as a transformational leader who was willing to tackle the nation’s tough problems, but when push came to shove, he has dodged them. This has been especially true than when it comes to dealing with the nation’s debt burden.

◼ MSNBC: Obama's speech about moving nation to progressivism - CainTV

◼ SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS: OBAMA DECLARES WAR ON LIBERTY AS WE KNOW IT - Joel Pollak/Breitbart

Sounding the same themes of class warfare that propelled his re-election campaign, President Barack Obama devoted his second inaugural address to laying out his second term agenda: a struggle to undo the seeming injustices of America's past, and to overcome the army of straw men that stand in opposition to progress.

In the process, President Obama attempted nothing less than an assault on the timeless notion of liberty itself...

◼ OBAMA SPEECH IGNORES FAILED ECONOMY; MEDIA GUSHES ANYWAY - John Nolte/Breitbart

...Meanwhile, in the real America outside of DC and left-wing media empires, the poor are getting poorer, the middle class is slowly being strangled, job growth is hardly treading water with population growth, there are more food stamps recipients than ever before, and more people are living in poverty.

If you were dumb enough to get your news only from the mainstream media, you would think that economic times are so flush today, the American president can afford to squander his second term socially re-engineering America.

Looks as though the media is just as determined as Obama to manufacture a reality that says we're enjoying economic boom times, deficits don't matter, and those crazy, stupid, racist Republicans in Congress are the real problem.

We'll see how long this heartless charade can last. Even with the most feckless GOP leadership in decades, eventually people will have to take a look around and ask themselves, Is this all there is?

◼ Obama concedes: Obamacare didn’t do anything for rising health care costs - HotAir

◼ Obama’s Second Inaugural - Yuval Levin/National Review

◼ Obama’s “Us Versus Them” Speech - Artur Davis

Israeli Election Results

◼ The most recent polling indicated that while Bibi Netanyahu’s Likud coalition will win, and he will continue as Prime Minister, his coalition has been dropping. - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

◼ Over 5 million Israelis are voting for the 19th Knesset Tuesday at polling stations in schools and public buildings across the country. The Times of Israel is liveblogging every development as the day progresses.