We are pleased to offer this guest commentary from longtime FR friend Rob Stutzman, who is a senior advisor to Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman…

Surprise! Liberals Oppose Whitman’s Plans for Job Creation, Tax Cuts
By Rob Stutzman

The liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) out of Washington DC released a “report” yesterday that unsurprisingly attacked Meg Whitman’s plan to create 2 million jobs in the next 5 years.

Just who are the people behind CAP? Its main funding source is none other than billionaire liberal political activist George Soros.  One of the founders of the group is former Bill Clinton chief of staff and Barack Obama transition team leader John Podesta. The author of the report is a Berkeley academic who is the co-director of the school’s labor program named after labor leader Miguel Contreras.

If that doesn’t tell you all you need to know about the group, a quick examination of the types of policies they’ve advocated should do the rest.  CAP has:

• Called on President Obama to raise taxes.
• Supported earmarks by declaring they “provide as much value-added as non-earmarked federal spending.”
• Opposed “supply-side” economics and does not believe in the economic benefits of tax cuts.
• Cited climate change as “the greatest moral and economic challenge of our time.”
• Supported the “public option” as part of the Obama’s health care overhaul

The list goes on and on. Bloomberg News has called CAP “an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals.” Jennifer Palmieri, CAP’s vice president for communications and former spokesperson for the 2004 John Edwards presidential campaign, admitted to media that they aren’t impartial nor do they try to be. “Others strive to be objective, we don’t,” said Palmieri.

Here is a great example that shows how out of touch CAP’s ivory tower “analysis” is with every day Californians. The report disputes that Californians are overtaxed. The notion that Californians aren’t overtaxed is laughable. Ask any small business person who’s fighting to make payroll or the entrepreneur who has to pay the $800 fee just to get a business started if they’re overtaxed, and we all know the answer would be an enthusiastic “Yes!”

The report also disputes the fact that Californians are overregulated. When Meg’s out on the campaign trail, she often tells the story of a Central Valley farmer she met while traveling the state. One government agency tells the farmer that he has to recycle all the water on his land. A separate government agency tells him he can’t recycle any of the water on his land. The farmer, she recounts, would be willing to do either one, but just needs to know which one. If this isn’t overregulation, what is?

Michael Boskin, a respected senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the T.M. Friedman Professor of Economics at Stanford University, threw his support behind Meg Whitman’s economic plan.

“Meg Whitman laid out her jobs plan for California last year,” said Boskin. “That plan is designed to immediately jumpstart hiring with tax cuts and streamlined regulations and after economic recovery takes hold, she will pursue tax reform policies to return long-term prosperity to California. Her plan is designed to make California more competitive and finally put a stop to the state’s chronic budget crises.
 
“Meg Whitman has a well-planned road map to create new jobs, reform California government spending and encourage businesses to grow and thrive in California.”

Yesterday’s report was brought to you by the same people who support big government, pro-tax politicians in Washington DC who support pork-laden budgets and tax increases and who are now trying to extend their influence to Sacramento. Unfortunately for them, we’re onto their scam.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.