Democratic Members of Congress, through the Democratic Caucus New Media Working Group, will be participating in a Congressional Twitter Town Hall, Thursday (tomorrow), from noon-1 PM EST, and I wanted to personally invite you to join us. We're taking questions with the #AskDems hashtag. You'll be able to follow Democratic responses here.
We're focusing on budget issues and spending priorities. Since we anticipate far more questions than we can possibly answer, we're encouraging Twitter users to retweet the questions they're most interested in seeing answered. Remember, if you don't use the #AskDems hashtag, we won't see it during the town hall.
The Twitter Town Hall is being 'hosted' by Rep. John Larson, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Mike Honda, chair of the New Media Working Group, and me, Rep. John Garamendi. I'll post a list of Members of Congress confirmed to participate on my Twitter feed soon. It would be great to see this community participate in the conversation.
With his State of the Union address, President Obama delivered an important message that Congress and the American people need to hear: our nation's leaders must pass legislation that creates American jobs now.
America, our shining city on a hill, has been blessed with great fortune in our proud past, but as the President noted, every generation faces new challenges and new opportunities. We must be bold and forward looking, never forgetting that America's prosperity has always relied on hard work, solid education, and well-maintained infrastructure. We're a nation that has always thrived when we've built things - the light bulb, the automobile, the Internet, and the GPS. We need to build things again. We need to Make It In America
This fall I was invited to cover the the Keep It Made In America Tour put on by the Alliance for American Manufacturing. I spent a week driving around Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, ejoying the fall colors and visiting small towns all along the way.
I live in Silicon Valley where in spite of the high unemployment -- still 10.6% -- it's still pretty nice here, so the extent and especially breadth of the decline of so many cities and towns was a shock. Everywhere you go you see America's infrastructure crumbling! Of course I know this has been going on, but when you actually come from somewhere that is still pretty nice and see it firsthand - and everywhere - you really see it.
There were nine measures on the statewide November ballot and NRDC took positions on four of them: we supported Propositions 21 and 25, and opposed Propositions 23 and 26.
Proposition 23 was the largest public referendum in history on climate and clean energy policy, with almost 10 million voters, and is a decisive victory for California's clean energy future. The measure was rejected by almost a two to one margin, with over 61 percent voting against Proposition 23. NRDC and a broad bipartisan coalition of environmental and public health advocates, businesses, labor unions, the NAACP, Latino organizations, community groups, utilities, consumers -- and yes, even some oil companies - fought Proposition 23 together. This coalition represents the new face of the environmental movement and promises a clean energy future for California. We will continue to work together to foster policies that provide multiple benefits, including a prosperous economy and improved public health.
Voters also passed Proposition 25, which will help end budget gridlock by allowing passage of a state budget with a simple majority vote rather than the two-thirds vote currently required. Budget gridlock and the supermajority budget vote requirement was threatening the very foundation of state government; in recent years, a handful of legislators have been able to hold the entire state budget hostage as they pushed to weaken or repeal critical environmental policies in exchange for their budget votes.
Then voters turned around and voted for Proposition 26, a measure funded by oil, alcohol and tobacco interests that will make the budget harder to balance, again. It will shift the cost of public health and environmental damages caused by companies from those responsible to taxpayers and create another $1 billion hole in the state budget. This was a short sighted measure, but this vote will not stop California's path breaking climate program. Mary Nichols, Chair of the State Air Resources Board which is responsible for carrying out AB 32 said this morning that "Prop 26 does not impair the scoping plan adopted in 2008 or any regulations developed under that plan. AB 32 is on track, with renewed vigor thanks to the resounding defeat of Prop 23 by the voters."
Proposition 21, went down to a surprising defeat given the popularity of our state parks. This measure would have helped keep our state parks accessible to all and fund sorely needed maintenance.
The defeat of Proposition 23 is much more far-reaching in its significance and impact than any setbacks on Propositions 21 and 26. This victory on climate and clean energy was particularly significant for the Golden State and the rest of the nation. In an election when the economy trumped all other issues, including two wars, it is no surprise why. Jobs in California's clean energy sector have grown 10 times faster than the statewide average over the past five years, and the clean tech sector attracted $9 billion cumulative venture capital investment from 2005 through 2009.
We hope that this campaign will inspire the nation in another way. Proposition 23 was defeated because Californians are devoted to pragmatism and compromise rather than inflexible ideology. We've done it in the past by passing the nation's most progressive air and water quality laws - regulations that consequently served as models for other states and the federal government.
As we celebrate a victory for common sense, it's more clear than ever that working together is what makes us stronger. We need the great technical expertise, brain power and vast capital resources of businesses, the workforce of unions, the reach of diverse community groups and the wide sweep of public and private partners to make an efficient transition to the coming clean energy economy. And sooner or later, we will all work together for the common good. We have no other choice.
These last couple months, I've been writing on the internet arguing for the passage of California's Proposition 24. Polls show we have one of the closest races of any California initiative, and nobody can say what the outcome will be on Tuesday. However, I have to say that my colleagues and I on the Yes campaign have been extremely heartened by the outpouring of support we've seen, especially from working Californians. These are teachers, healthcare workers, community organizers and civil servants who understand the dire situation California's budget is in, and know that we need Proposition 24 to avoid things getting even worse.
A brief recap: in 2009, as part of a contentious budget deal, three new corporate tax loopholes were signed into law in California. As they are implemented, these giveaways will cost Californians $1.3 billion a year. The loopholes benefit large multistate corporations, not small business. Corporations can receive the breaks without hiring any new California workers; they can even ship Californians' jobs overseas and still get a tax cut. Proposition 24 was placed on the November ballot to repeal these loopholes and make sure the corporations pay their fair share.
We were all children once, and if there's one childhood experience in California we'd like to remember fondly, it's going to Disneyland. After a day in that park, anyone would be justified in thinking that the people who put this place together truly care about all of us.
Sadly, we've learned more recently what the Disney Corporation really cares about: tax cuts. So much so, actually, that they've put in a million dollars to try and preserve tax giveaways that can be repealed by Proposition 24 in November. These tax breaks, if they aren't repealed, are going to cost California $1.3 billion dollars annually, money that will be taken away from schools, social services and public safety. So you would think that Disney would have a very good reason to want to keep the tax cuts.
Unfortunately, when you look at the facts, it all just comes down to cash. Disney is not struggling to make ends meet- their net income in FY 2009 was $3.3 billion. They've found the money to pay their CEO well over $20 million in total compensation last year.
California has a proud history as being the most innovative state in the nation. Historically, we've provided top-notch services to our citizens, and our economy has grown stronger for it. Perhaps most importantly, California boasts the nation's best educated workforce. It should come as little surprise that 5 of our public universities made U.S. News and World Report's top 10 for best public universities this year (and UC Irvine came in 11th). Our education system, from kindergarten through graduate school, has always ensured that the nation's most entrepreneurial businesses will arise in California.
Unfortunately, the current economic climate and years of budget crises have endangered California's education system, and with it our way of life. To make matters worse, special interests pushed through a set of brand new tax loopholes during a budget deadlock in 2009. These giveaways are set to cost California $1.3 billion dollars a year, money that will be cut from education and the other vital programs that make California great.
I wrote earlier about some of the horrific cuts we've seen to public education in California. Passage of Proposition 24 could alleviate at least some of the pain by restoring $1.3 billion that's set to be gift-wrapped to multistate corporations that aren't creating California jobs. After I finished talking to the teachers who I featured in the linked post, I spoke with other community activists who are seeing lives affected by draconian budget cuts. Their stories should stay with us as we cast our ballots in this election, and inspire us to vote for the change we deserve.
Karla Salazar, who works for AFSCME, told me the saddest story I've heard so far. One of her union members is a woman named Pamela Garcia, who works as a rec assistant at state parks. She's the mother of 2 children. During the budget crises, she's had her hours cut time and again, and now she's down to 5 a week. On 5 hours a week, she couldn't come close to paying the rent, and she and her children don't have a home.
In case you want things to get worse, Astrid Campos of the California Partnership has more bad news. California Partnership is a coalition of community-based organizations that fight poverty, and they lobby Sacramento to try and protect the safety net for families like the Garcias. Despite their best efforts, the safety net is being ripped to shreds. If Prop 24 fails, she told me, we'll lose childcare for families that are transitioning out of Cal-Works, the state welfare program. The adults in these families must work at least 32 hours a week, but they make less than $25,000 a year. Ironically, these cuts won't even save the state money in the long run, as most of the 80,000 families affected will be driven back to welfare.
The Riverside/San Bernardino County area, aka Inland Empire (whose Empire, I always want to know)recently beat Detroit for the dubious honor of being No. 1 in unemployment nationwide. The Democratic challenger for the 65th Assembly District, Carl Wood, is running on job creation and tax fairness (ie, make corporations pay their fair share). The incumbent Republican has no record whatsoever on jobs, and recently gave struggling homeowners the back of his hand on foreclosure relief.
The only hope for turning this District around is voter turnout. A bit of local press on Wood's odds in the extended diary. Carl's Act Blue page is here.
(Originally posted at the Pay Their Fair Share blog)
Disclosure: I proudly work for Yes on 24
Let me begin by saying I'm proud to have helped launched the brand new Pay Their Fair Share website, located at paytheirfairshare.com. If you're in California, it's your best resource to find out who's really opposing Proposition 24 and why. Even if you aren't in the Golden State, we hope Pay Their Fair Share gives a fresh look into the bad behavior of major corporations during our tough economic times. Below the fold you'll find the first piece originally posted to the blog over at Pay Their Fair Share, which I authored. Other posts have previously appeared on this website.
Governor Schwarzenegger leaves behind a legacy of devastating budget cuts and huge tax giveaways for corporations. In the last two years alone, Schwarzenegger has slashed $32.5 billion from the state budget-- and now our schools and roads are crumbling, public safety is at risk, and vital state services have been decimated. And while state workers have endured deep wage cuts, corporations have enjoyed massive new tax breaks.
Now, Meg Whitman is on a mission to ratchet up the pain on working people in California -- above and beyond the misery that Governor Schwarzenegger has already imposed.
State Workers' Jobs In February, Schwarzenegger announced two-day-a-month furloughs for state workers, which effectively reduced worker pay but did little to help our long-term economic crisis. In fact, economists report that the furloughs will result in a loss of $503 million over the subsequent years. When asked at the time what she would do to balance the budget, Whitman said that she would double the furloughs to four days a week, even though the furloughs actually caused the state to lose money.
When Schwarzenegger increased the furloughs to three days a month (resulting in a 12.8 percent pay cut and loss of an estimated $2.1 billion in wages and benefits for hundreds of thousands of state workers), Whitman went one step further. She announced that she plans to fire 40,000 state workers because she believes the state is "over-staffed" (In fact, California ranks second to last in the number of state workers per capita, and the ratio of all government employees to population in California is 28 percent below the national average.) This mass layoff would cause unemployment in the state to spike a full percentage point.
Public Employee Pensions Schwarzenegger has made pension takeaways a major issue and has threatened to not sign a budget without reforms. But despite his rhetoric the Governor has been forced to negotiate directly with unions representing state workers to get agreement on any changes to current pension benefits and contributions.
Whitman supports Schwarzenegger's proposals, which include raising the retirement age, increasing what workers pay into the pension and ending defined-benefit pensions for new hires and sticking them in risky 401(k)-style retirement plans. But she doesn't stop there. She's willing to circumvent collective bargaining, and the elected legislature, by putting a pension cuts initiative on the ballot, and using her personal fortune to fund the ballot measure.
Meg Whitman keeps reciting the same misinformation about job loss resulting from California's bad business climate, claiming that businesses are leaving California because of "over-regulation". But the truth is, we have lost fewer jobs than neighboring states that have fewer worker protections and lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Arizona, Nevada and Oregon had over 6.5% job loss, while California had 4%.
The "bleeding of jobs" -- the notion that a large number of jobs are businesses are fleeing California -- is a familiar talking point in state politics these days, especially among Republicans. But in the only broad, longitudinal nonpartisan study out there, the numbers don't match the rhetoric.
The annual net employment change in California due to relocation -- a loss of about 9,000 jobs -- represents only 0.05% of California's 18 million jobs.
Not only is Whitman wrong on the big picture, the specifics she cites aren't credible either. She continually points to aerospace giant Northrop Grumman's relocation from Long Beach to Virginia as evidence of businesses fleeing the state. Which would make sense... except that Northrop Grumman didn't actually leave California. They moved their corporate headquarters, which amounts to just 1 percent of their workforce, while over 30,000 employees remain here in California.
Disclosure: I proudly work for the Yes on 24 campaign.
CEOs make a lot of money. This is not an original observation, nor is it a particularly surprising one. But during a difficult financial time, it does become a salient observation. Furthermore, inequality just keeps growing. CEOs of large companies are making hundreds of times what some of their workers do- and I haven't even gotten to the people whom they no longer employ.
Because according to a recent piece in Newsweek, the inequality is worse than we thought. Not only do some CEOs make far too much money, but, as Newsweek notes:
"What's striking is that the executives who are the most willing to ax workers also seem to be the least likely to tighten their own belts. Management guru Peter Drucker once noted that after CEO-to-worker pay ratios went above 25-1, major moral questions started to be raised. It will be hard to make employees believe that "we're all in this together" when it becomes clear in public documents that company leaders have largely insulated themselves from any financial risk."
If you've followed the debate concerning Proposition 24, the Tax Fairness Act, then you probably know what its opponents claim. The groups funding the opposition, big corporations, want you to believe that making them pay their fair share will kill California jobs. This sets us a dichotomy we hear a lot from certain quarters: low corporate taxes mean lots of jobs for the little people.
Unfortunately, that's not quite how it works. And what's more, we now know that CEOs like the ones whose companies are trying to defeat Prop 24 actually have a personal disincentive to create jobs. In fact, the Institute for Policy Studies released a stunning report this year indicating that CEOs who lay off workers receive exponentially higher pay than their peers who do not. CEOs are not stupid. They know there's an easy way to boost their own corporate reputation and paycheck, even if it comes at the expense of hardworking people lower down the totem pole.
As I pick up the pace of work again, coming into the midterms, I have to get some stories cleared off the desk in order to make room for some others, and that's what we're about today.
We'll be talking about saving more than 300,000 of this country's most important jobs, and paying for it in a way that is not only good policy, but is a real problem for Republicans who are yelling "no new taxes!" once again while pretending they care about actually paying for actual spending and actually want to cut actual unemployment.
We have a bit of work to do today, but we want to keep it somewhat short...so let's get going.
It's no secret that Meg Whitman is wealthy beyond most of our wildest dreams. But few know the true cost of Whitman's wealth. Today, the California Labor Federation launched a new online video and video game that highlights Whitman's job-slashing corporate history.
Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski:
Meg Whitman has made a game of downsizing workers and outsourcing their jobs, and walking away with a very real fortune for herself in the process. The record shows that Whitman is a one-person weapon of mass job destruction. By attempting to buy the California Governor's Office, Whitman wants to take her game to the next level, but we can't forget there are real lives at stake with every jobs she cuts, outsources or downsizes.
While Whitman touts her business savvy as her primary qualification to become governor, a closer look at Whitman's corporate background reveals a troubling portrait of someone who got rich at the expense of her own employees. Whitman is a career corporate executive who built a personal fortune by eliminating and outsourcing jobs and slashing workers' benefits. Everywhere she's been, she's made out with lucrative bonuses, stock options and other compensation. And workers have suffered hardships as a result.
Finally, there's a budget proposal worth fighting for, and it couldn't have come at a more critical time.
On Tuesday, Assembly Democrats, led by new Speaker of the Assembly John Pérez, proposed an innovative budget plan, that closes the nearly $18 billion budget gap while focusing on jobs, as an alternative to Gov. Schwarzenegger's job killing, all-cuts budget.
This proposal takes the economic high road by saving hundreds of thousands of jobs for teachers, police, firefighters and other workers, and creating jobs in the private sector that will spur economic growth and new revenues for the state without raising taxes on working families.
Speaker Pérez:
California has to produce a budget that promotes job creation and makes economic sense. We shouldn't make budget decisions that cut jobs and short-change our overall recovery and long-term growth. The California Jobs Budget will protect and create 465,000 jobs in the private sector and local communities, while also protecting funding for schools, public safety, and a basic safety net.
The proposal would ease California through the worst budget deficit of a generation. It protects working families from devastating cuts in service like home care and child care, and saves jobs for teachers, police, firefighters and others who provide vital services at the state and local levels. It proposes only half of the Governor's fee increase for UC and CSU students, and rejects his proposed $4.3 billion cut in education.
This package would mitigate deep budget cuts by choosing working families over Big Oil and large multinational corporations. A new oil severance fee will help fund a private sector job creation program. And delaying unnecessary corporate tax breaks will save $2 billion that can be invested in job creation, child care, health care, and job services for the working poor.
The California Jobs Budget closes the state's $17.9 billion General Fund shortfall and ends the year with a $1 billion final reserve. The centerpiece of the California Jobs Budget is a $10.1 billion Jobs and Economic Stability Fund that will protect against the loss of 430,000 private sector, local community and school jobs in the Governor's May Budget Revision, and which will also generate tens of thousands of new jobs. The California Jobs Budget provides $1.5 billion for targeted Jobs Initiatives, repays debts to local governments and schools to avoid massive local government layoffs, and maintains critical employment services and training programs that get people back to work and keep them on payrolls and off government aid.
Predictably, Republicans and the Governor are already attacking the proposal in an effort to try to score some cheap political points as they enter negotiations.
The California Jobs Budget protects the private sector job growth we've begun to see and it prevents massive layoffs of teachers and cops. Assembly Republican Leader Martin Garrick is saying he'd rather kill 430,000 jobs in a time of record unemployment than have California join other states in charging oil companies a fee for the oil they take, a fee that experts agree won't impact consumers. The irresponsible rejection of jobs and federal funds Mr. Garrick's position represents is not what Californians want - and it's not what California's economic recovery needs.
By unleashing their attack machine without even considering the merits of this proposal and its potential benefits to our economy and middle class, Republicans have once again shown they aren't interested in meaningful solutions to the budget crisis that will actually get our economy back on track. Instead, the Governor and his Republican allies continue their scorched earth campaign that would eviscerate the state as we know it. We simply can't let them win. Not this time.
As progressives and advocates for working families, this is the proposal we've been waiting for. And this is precisely the kind of proposal the people of California want. Recent polls show that Californians are seeking a fair budget solution that won't destroy what we value most: education, public safety, our safety net and other important programs. The Assembly Democrats have stepped up to offer a budget that delivers.
This proposal is a bold and creative step forward that, frankly, we haven't seen in prior budget fights. But it can't pass on its own. We need to fight for it. It's time for everyone who cares about our state's future to rally around this proposal so that we can achieve where the Governor has repeatedly failed: delivering a budget that protects jobs, education the safety net and finally puts California on the road to economic recovery.
Angie Wei is legislative director at the California Labor Federation, which represents 2.1 million workers in 1,200 unions across the state.
Meg Whitman spent last week crisscrossing California with her Wall Street pal Mitt Romney, pumping up her already overflowing campaign coffers with even more corporate cash. Her campaign strategy is clear: write big checks and avoid a real conversation with voters about her background, her policies, and her plans for the state.
But California's workers aren't going to let Meg and her Wall Street agenda take the express jet to the Governor's office. While Meg and Mitt were rubbing elbows with the corporate elite, an army of nurses, educators, construction trades workers, and others who would be directly impacted by Meg's anti-worker agenda were putting the final touches on our campaign to expose her plans to do Wall Street's bidding and what her Governorship would mean for California's families.
Today, the California Labor Federation launched a massive grassroots campaign massive grassroots campaign that will deploy an army of volunteers to expose the truth about Meg Whitman's Wall Street agenda and her history on the board at Goldman Sachs. The campaign will counter Whitman's avalanche of TV ads and estimated $150 war chest with online tools as well as and person-to-person contact, which is proven to be the best way to reach voters.
The current state of California politics can be summed up in a simple comparison: in the Republican gubernatorial primaries, we see one candidate promising that their first action upon becoming governor is to put 40,000 people out of work and the other complaining that this isn’t enough; in the Democratic convention, we see a party divided over whether to fight for majority rule for budgets or for budgets and taxes.
As a state, California seems caught between the scissors of an increasing need for public services to provide a basic level of social protection for the sick, the elderly and the poor and to restore our high-road, high-wage economy based on superior public education and green technology, and a paralyzed, undemocratic, and irrational political structure that is unwilling and unable to take the necessary actions to meet those needs.
We know that the strategies proposed by the GOP’s gubernatorial candidates won’t work because they are essentially a retreat of the last seven years of failed policies – Schwarzeneggerism without a human face.
Yet Democrats lack a forceful message about what we want to do beyond the immediate issue of the budget.
