Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 2, 2010

11

LEFT/RIGHT

Mountain Views News Saturday, October 2, 2010

GREG Welborn

The Pledge To America

HOWARD Hays 

As I See It

 Ever come to the end of a 
sentence and then have to look 
away from the page, pause, sit 
back and reflect on what you’d 
read? That happened as I read 
a column by poli sci professors 
Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson (Yale and UC 
Berkeley, respectively) in the LA Times last week. 
The column, on extending the Bush tax cuts for 
the wealthiest Americans, stated that the nation’s 
400 wealthiest households saw their tax rates 
fall 45% over the past several years; from a rate 
of 30% in 1995 to 16.6% in 2007. This resulted 
in savings for those 400 wealthiest in 2007 alone 
of $46 million (here are the words that gave me 
pause) “per household”.

 

 The professors describe tax cuts for the 
wealthiest as an all-weather cause for Republicans. 
Strong economy or weak economy, budget deficit 
or surplus, high or low unemployment; whatever 
the situation might be, the answer is always tax 
cuts for the wealthiest. Even in wartime: former 
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) is 
quoted as telling a group of bankers shortly before 
the Iraq invasion, “nothing is more important in 
the face of a war than cutting taxes.”

 

 Now we have Republicans in Congress playing 
a game of “chicken” with the Bush tax cuts due 
to expire at the end of this year; unless they’re 
allowed to continue for the wealthiest (those 
pulling in over $250,000 a year), then the 98% 
of us who don’t make that much will have to 
have their taxes go up, too. (We’re dealing with 
marginal rates; with $260,000 a year in income, 
only that $10,000 over $250,000 would be subject 
to about a 3.6% increase in taxes). According to 
the columnists, those making over $1 million a 
year will be given a tax cut averaging $128,832 
apiece - at a cost over the next decade of about 
$1 trillion in lost revenue and interest on the 
national debt.

 

 Whether it be investments in education, 
infrastructure, research, help for states or other 
stimulus programs (even those that work), 
Republicans warn of saddling future generations 
with debt. With tax cuts though, debt doesn’t 
matter - regardless of the extra $500 billion we’d 
need to borrow from China to cover it. 

 

 Arguments they’ve used in the past have 
proved false. The most effective investments by 
government are in such things as food stamps 
and unemployment benefits, where the money is 
almost immediately circulated back through the 
economy. Tax cuts for the wealthiest are more 
likely to end up in offshore tax shelters. When 
rates are higher, as they were during the Clinton 
years (not to mention the 1950s and 60s), profits 
are more likely to be reinvested back into new 
plants, equipment and new hires. When they’re 
lowered, as in the last decade, profits instead go 
to bloated executive salaries and bonuses. As 
for Republican warnings of the effect on “small 
business”, it would only affect the less than 2% 
whose owners pocket over a quarter-million a 
year in take-home pay, rather than using the 
profits to grow their business.

 

 In the gubernatorial debate between Meg 
Whitman and Jerry Brown at UC Davis, 
Whitman repeated that quote from Albert 
Einstein about the definition of insanity being 
repeating the same thing and expecting a 
different result. Brown took the quote and used 
it against her, reminding voters it wasn’t that long 
ago when another “outsider” candidate, one who 
put his own money into his campaign (though 
only a fraction of what Whitman has invested), 
promised to come in and change the way things 
operate in Sacramento without having had any 
real experience in the place.

 

 I thought of Einstein’s quote as I heard 
Whitman’s economic policy prescriptions, which 
were the same tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy nostrums 
that proved disastrous under Bush. Her focus 
is on doing away with the capital gains tax. 
Although she relates it to investing in companies, 
it has more to do with day traders, hedge fund 
managers and market players who gamble with 
other people’s money and then cash out. It’s not 
for the benefit of the vast majority of California 
workers, but could mean millions of dollars 
in annual windfalls for billionaires - like Meg 
Whitman. As Jerry Brown pointed out, those 
windfalls would be paid for out of the general 
fund, half of which goes to fund education.

 

 I also recalled Einstein’s quote when Whitman 
spoke of doing away with government pensions 
and replacing them with 401(k)s. Back in the 
early 1980s, workers in private industry were told 
what an improvement these new plans would 
be over their old-fashioned pensions. Now, 
taxpayers have seen their retirement accounts 
decimated, while being asked to shell out 
hundreds of billions to bail out the Wall Street 
firms to whom their 401(k)s were entrusted. 

 Another recent L.A. Times column that gave 
me pause was by Garrett Gruener, dot-com 
entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who writes, 
“What American businesspeople know, and 
have known since Henry Ford insisted that his 
employees be able to afford to buy the cars they 
made, is that a thriving economy doesn’t just 
need investors; it needs people who can buy the 
goods and services businesses create. For the 
overall economy to do well, everyday Americans 
have to do well. . . . Republicans are again arguing 
that taxes should remain low for the wealthy. The 
idea is that this will spur people like me to put 
more capital to work and start more ventures, 
which will create new jobs, power the economy 
and ultimately produce more tax revenues. It’s a 
beguiling theory, but it’s one that hasn’t worked 
before and won’t work now.”

 

 Our own Susan Henderson warned in her 
column last week that, with recent Supreme Court 
decisions opening a flood of corporate money 
into campaign coffers, we’ll find more campaigns 
ultimately geared not for the benefit of the 
community, but for the protection of corporate 
profit and private fortunes. That should give us 
all pause - especially before going out to vote. 

 
Generally speaking, I like written pledges. 
They make clear for us what someone intends 
to do in order to win our support, and they 
allow for a good measure of accountability. 
When they’re written, it’s very easy to go back 
to them and compare actions against the 
promises made. So, I’m very happy with the 
GOP’s ‘Pledge To America’, although I wish it 
were shorter than 200 pages, but I am truly 
amazed at the panic that it has unleashed 
among those on the left, whom I thought were 
pretty unleashed already.

 The tame criticisms of the document are 
that it contains nothing but “warmed over” 
ideas and that “there’s nothing new here”. 
That’s an odd statement coming from liberals 
given that they have widely praised President 
Obama for successfully pursuing the policies 
that Roosevelt, Truman and Clinton couldn’t 
successfully push through. Liberals have been 
trying to raise spending and increase the tax 
burden on entrepreneurs and investors since 
the early 1930s. If that’s not warmed over, I 
don’t know what is.

 Whether something is old or new really 
has nothing to do with whether it is good or 
bad. Those in the media ask Republicans how 
they can possibly entertain lowering taxes 
in light of the massive budget deficits we’re 
facing. It’s almost laughable that they are so 
blind to the flip side of the question. Isn’t it 
more appropriate to ask how we can afford to 
increase spending as much as this Congress 
and this administration have? Taxes haven’t 
changed since Obama came to power. The 
deficits we’re facing are caused by the spending 
increases he pushed through.

 The less polite among the unhinged, unleashed 
crowd would have us all believe that The 
Pledge To America is a dangerous “ideological 
document” constituting “hysterical tirades 
against government”. They also accuse the 
authors, and the GOP broadly of trying to 
“dismantle the federal government”. So, let’s 
review exactly what the 200 page dangerous 
document says about what the next Republican 
Congress wants to do.

1 If we’ve learned anything over the last 2 years, 
it’s that we cannot spend our way to prosperity.

2 Government spending should be rolled back 
to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us 
$100 billion in the first year alone.

3 Strict budget caps, like those used in the 
1990s under Bill Clinton, should be used to 
limit government spending from this point 
forward.

4 Obamacare should be replaced with real 
medical liability reform and allow medical 
insurance carriers to compete across state lines, 
rather than observe the government mandated 
mini-monopolies granted in each state.

5 All tax increases scheduled to take effect on 
Jan 1, 2011 should be permanently stopped.

6 Unspent stimulus funds 
should be canceled.

7 The TARP corporate 
bailout program should be 
canceled.

8 All new legislation will 
specifically contain a clause 
citing the specific constitutional authority 
upon which the bill is justified so that activist 
judges aren’t given even more leeway to rewrite 
the constitution as they see fit every time they 
hear a case involving government action 
against private entities.

 As I’m sure most readers have by now 
concluded, there’s nothing really radical about 
these statements, principals and pledges. Had 
President Obama acted as the great unifier 
he presented himself to be, and had he truly 
tried to change the way things were done in 
Washington, we wouldn’t be in this state at 
this point in time. There wouldn’t be any real 
reason for Tea Parties to exist, let alone capture 
the approval of 33% of Americans.

 Yes, you heard that right. The latest national 
poll shows that Tea Party principles (most of 
which are actually enshrined in The Pledge 
To America) are supported by one third 
of all voting Americans. For a grass-roots 
organization that didn’t exist 2 years ago, that’s 
a huge growth rate, and speaks volumes of the 
heart-felt desire among Americans for real 
hope and change.

 President Obama may have captured the 
spirit of the discontent in America at the time 
of the last election. This writer, for one, was 
sickened at the spending levels initiated by the 
last Republican Congress. But the speed with 
which President Obama contradicted his own 
promises and the magnitude of the spending 
and debt that he has unleashed on this country 
– on top of what the previous Congress did - is 
nothing short of appalling.

 I truly believe that Republicans have learned 
their lessons. I also know that Democrats 
haven’t even opened up the lesson book. The 
choice this November is pretty clear. The fact 
that the Republicans now understand what 
Americans want is gratifying to most of us 
but absolutely terrifying to those who want to 
retain and expand their power to take more of 
our hard-earned money and to tell us in even 
greater meddling detail how to live our lives. 
The worse the press coverage of The Pledge To 
America, the better the document I know it is.

 About the author: Gregory J. Welborn is 
a freelance writer and has spoken to several 
civic and religious organizations on cultural 
and moral issues. He lives in the Los Angeles 
area with his wife and 3 children and is active 
in the community. He can be reached at 
gregwelborn@earthlink.net.

CALIFORNIA GENERAL ELECTION 2010 - The Race For U. S. Senate

A Word From The Editor: The Mountain Views News will continue in its tradition of providing readers with as much unbiased information as possible regarding the issues and candidates on the General 
Election Ballot in November. The series will run for the next seven weeks and will include coverage of all Propositions, The U. S. Senate Race, The California Governor’s Race, all other Statewide races, and the 
California Legislative Races. Please remember that the opinions of ALL columnists are not necessarily the position of the paper, but rather, those of the individual author. Those opinions will NOT be a part 
of our General Election Coverage. The official position of the Mountain Views and its’ Editorial Advisors will be clearly stated prior to the election. We do encourage readers, however, to submit their views as 
Letters To The Editor. The more we communicate with each other, the more informed our decisions will be. -Susan Henderson, Publisher/Editor Mountain Views News

MARSHA FEINLAND 

2124 Kittredge St., #66 

(510) 845-4360

Peace and Freedom Berkeley, 
CA 94704 mfeinland@att.net 
feinlandforsenate.org

Take A Stand Against Corporate 
Domination

It’s no surprise that Congress 
voted to bail out the banks while 
working class people are losing 
their homes and their jobs. The 
corporations win and the people 
lose on every issue. 

Health Care

We need a system which covers 
all of us. Socialized medicine, 
like the British system, or 
single payer, as in Canada or 
variations in France, Australia, 
and Germany provide effective 
health care for everyone. The 
cost is lower and outcomes 
better than the insurance and 
pharmaceutical company 
controlled situation here.

The Environment

We need to promote the 
production and use of clean 
renewable energy. But most of 
all, we need to implement infill 
housing, public transportation, 
and other social policies which 
reduce our use of energy, 
whatever the source, and protect 
and restore ecosystems. 

Immigration

People who come to this country 
to work or to escape persecution 
should not be called criminals. 

War Funding

We need to stop subsidizing 
the companies that develop the 
weapons and contractors that 
create the war infrastructure. 
The military, weapons 
production and contracting 
consume almost 50% of our 
Federal budget.

EDWARD NOONAN 

1561 N. Beale Rd. 

(530) 743-6878 

American Independent 
Marysville, CA 95901 
ednoonan@4xtreme.org 
http://www.4xtreme.org

CARLY FIORINA 

915 L Street, Suite C-378 

(877) 664-6676

Republican 

Sacramento, CA 95814 

info@carlyforca.com 

carlyforca.com

I started my business career as a secretary, 
earned an MBA and became the first woman to 
lead a Fortune 20 company, Hewlett-Packard. I 
understand the challenges people face and how 
to create jobs. America is in a crisis. Soaring 
federal spending and the mushrooming federal 
deficit are killing jobs and stalling economic 
recovery. 

Unless reversed, our children will be burdened 
with unsustainable future debt. We need real 
job creation not failed federal policy like the 
stimulus. The problem is old-line politicians, 
who have been in office for decades, are not 
interested in solving problems. They are more 
concerned with partisanship, ideology and the 
next election. I’m a strong fiscal conservative 
who will fight to reduce spending, slash the 
federal deficit and stop the expansion of federal 
control over the economy. 

We are at war with terrorists who seek to 
destroy America’s way of life. I chaired the 
External Advisory Board for the CIA. I’ll work 
for tougher U.S. policy in dealing with terrorists 
and oppose the administration’s policy to try 
terrorists in civilian court. If you’re tired of 
partisan politics as usual then send a political 
outsider like me to Washington. I will work 
across party lines for real reform. Together we 
can take back our government; make it listen 
and work for each of us. I’m Carly Fiorina. I will 
take a fresh, new look at solving the problems 
facing America. We can actually make things 
better for a change. I’m working hard to earn 
your vote. 

BARBARA BOXER 

P.O. Box 411176 

(323) 836-0820

Democratic 

Los Angeles, CA 90041 

info@barbaraboxer.com 

www.barbaraboxer.com

We’re going through the toughest economic 
times I’ve seen, and nothing is more important 
than creating good California jobs. I’m doing 
that with a specific jobs plan. (Read the entire 
plan at www.BarbaraBoxer.com.) 

First, I’m fighting to end tax breaks for 
companies that ship jobs overseas and instead 
give tax breaks to middle-class families and small 
businesses that create jobs here at home. We have 
to stop rewarding companies that ship our jobs to 
Europe, India or China. 

Second, I’ve been working to make California 
the hub of the new clean energy industry. I’m 
helping create manufacturing jobs and jobs for 
engineers, construction workers, salespeople and 
office workers. I want to see the words “Made in 
America” again, with clean energy that reduces 
pollution and gets us off foreign oil. 

Third, I’ve helped double transportation funding 
for California since I was elected to the Senate, 
and I’ll continue to create thousands more jobs 
improving our roads, bridges and mass transit. 

As your Senator, I’ve gotten over 1,000 provisions 
enacted, including the first-ever federal after-
school program that’s helping keep a million 
kids off the streets and out of gangs, and tough 
protections for our air, water and our coast. I’m 
protecting a woman’s right to choose. And I’ve 
gotten better treatment for our injured veterans 
who deserve the best from us. These are tough 
economic times with no easy solutions, but I 
won’t stop fighting to create California jobs and 
make life better for our families. 

DUANE ROBERTS 

P.O. Box 5123 info@
voteforduane.org

Green Anaheim, CA 92814 
www.voteforduane.org

See www.voteforduane.org


(Excerpts from public statements):

GAIL K. LIGHTFOOT 

P.O. Box 598 (805) 709-1130

Libertarian 

Pismo Beach, CA 93448 
www.gailklightfoot.com

Career politicians, lobbyists 
and the parties in power 
failed us. With no political/
corporate ties, pledged to 
serve one term, I will defend 
our Constitution; vote to 
cut taxes, spending and 
regulations; withdraw U.S. 
troops from overseas; protect 
2nd Amendment; and audit 
the Federal Reserve.

Four Key Issues:

DRIVE THE PRIVATE 
HEALTH INSURANCE 
INDUSTRY OUT OF 
BUSINESS AND REPLACE 
IT WITH A SINGLE-PAYER 
SYSTEM

END COLONIAL WARS IN 
IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN 
TO PAY FOR TUITION-FREE 
HIGHER EDUCATION FOR 
ALL STUDENTS

OPPOSE NUCLEAR POWER 
IN FAVOR OF FURTHER 
DEVELOPING CLEAN 
AND SAFE SOURCES OF 
RENEWABLE ENERGY

SUPPORT LEGALIZING 
MARIJUANA AND HEMP

FOR MEDICINAL, 

RECREATIONAL AND

 INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES

Dates to 
Remember

October 18, 2010

Last day to register to 
vote

October 26, 2010

Last day to apply for a

vote-by-mail ballot by 
mail

November 2, 2010

Election Day