| Janet Yellen Says Fed Asset Purchases Will Create 3 Million Private Jobs By 2012 Posted: 08 Jan 2011 05:37 PM PST Fed Governor Janet Yellen is bragging about the number of jobs the Fed is going to create because of its Quantitative Easing programs. Please consider Yellen Says Fed Asset Purchases Create 3 Million Private JobsThe Federal Reserve's two rounds of asset purchases totaling $2.3 trillion will have helped boost private payrolls by about 3 million jobs by 2012, said Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen, citing research by four central bank economists.
Policy makers' November decision to start a second round of asset purchases of $600 billion through June "is intended to support economic recovery from an exceptionally deep recession," the 64-year-old central banker said in the text of a speech today in Denver. "I believe it will be effective in fostering maximum employment and price stability." Should we add those three million jobs to the 3.5 million jobs Obama wanted to create or save? By the way what happened to those 3.5 million jobs anyway? I am glad you asked. I was going to figure it out, but a quick search led me to Tracking the 3.5 million jobs President Obama will save or createThis post will track the 3.5 million jobs. There are a number of ways to measure jobs in the US. Some people work several different jobs at a time while others change employers frequently, so measuring jobs is not as simple as it might seem. Obama's economic team define jobs as use the payroll data (see The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Investment Plan for their original report).
Just before the stimulus bill passed, the Department of Labor [Employment Situation Report For January 2009 Table B1] shows the number of people working was 134,580,000. Using the Obama team methodology, without the stimulus bill employment would be expected to fall by around 1,613,000 jobs during the next two years so that without the stimulus bill we would expect employment to be 132,967,000 in January 2011.
With the revised estimate of 3,500,000 jobs "saved or created", employment should be 136,467,000, creating 1,887,000 in addition to the 1,613,000 jobs saved.
Here is a table from the above link.
| Tracking Jobs Created or Saved |
|---|
| Date | Number of Jobs | Change in Jobs After Stimulus | Number of Jobs needed to reach target by Jan 2011 | | January 2009 | 134,333,000 | — | 1,887,000 | | February 2009 | 133,652,000 | -681,000 | 2,568,000 | | March 2009 | 133,000,000 | -1,333,000 | 3,220,000 | | April 2009 | 132,481,000 | -1,852,000 | 3,739,000 | | May 2009 | 132,178,000 | -2,155,000 | 4,042,000 | | June 2009 | 131,715,000 | -2,618,000 | 4,505,000 | | July 2009 | 131,411,000 | -2,922,000 | 4,809,000 | | August 2009 | 131,257,000 | -3,076,000 | 4,963,000 | | Sept. 2009 | 131,118,000 | -3,215,000 | 5,102,000 | | October 2009 | 130,991,000 | -3,342,000 | 5.229,000 | | November 2009 | 130,995,000 | -3,338,000 | 5.225,000 | | December 2009 | 130,910,000 | -3,423,000 | 5.310,000 |
Some of the data in the table has been revised. For example, the BLS Employment Situation Report for December 2010 (see Table B1) shows that December 2009 has now been revised down to 129,588,000. The key number however, is December 2010. Drum roll please....... The just released report shows 130,710,000 jobs. Let's do the math. 130,710,000 - 134,580,000 = -3,870,000. The president expected to create or save 3.5 million jobs. Instead he lost 3.87 million jobs. That is a whopping deficit of 7.37 million jobs. Now Janet Yellen thinks the Fed is going to create 3 million jobs by the end of this year. Let's do that math, too. 3 million divided by 12 is 250,000 jobs a month. Does anyone believe that? Should we add that total to the current deficit of 7.37 million jobs? If by some miracle we do create 250,000 jobs a month does the Fed get credit for them, President Obama, or the man in the moon? More importantly where does she start? A year ago? It really does not matter because there is technically no way to prove her wrong. No matter what happens to jobs, she can say it would have been 3 million jobs worse without QE. President Obama can twist his words and say the same thing "It would have been 3 million worse". That is the problem with bullsweet statements pulled out of one's ass, like Yellen made and Obama before her. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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| Republican Introduce Bill to Eliminate Presidential Czars; How Many Czars are There? Obama on Czars Then vs. Now; Vanity of Barack Obama Posted: 08 Jan 2011 12:05 PM PST President Obama has an army of Czars. Counts vary from 32 to 45 (with 7 more planned). The interesting thing about Czars is Obama's blatant hypocrisy about them. Let's start with a look at Obama and his 32 czars"The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States."
- Sen. Barack Obama, March 31, 2008
To say President Obama failed to follow through on this promise is an understatement. By appointing a virtual army of "czars" - each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House - the president has made an end-run around the legislative branch of historic proportions. The Imperial Court Please consider The Compleat List of Czars- Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) czar, Richard Holbrooke
- AIDS czar, Jeffrey Crowley
- Auto recovery czar, Ed Montgomery
- Behavioral science czar, position not yet filled
- Bailout czar, Herbert Allison Jr., [replaced Bush bailout czar Neel Kashkari, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability confirmed by Senate]
- Border czar, Alan Bersin
- Car czar, Ron Bloom [Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury , under Senate oversight]
UPDATE, 9/07/09: Obama announced his appointment of Ron Bloom as "senior counselor for manufacturing policy," a move that will eliminate Senate oversight. This position has been dubbed "manufacturing czar" and so this listing moves to a different alphabetical location.
UPDATE, 9/08/09: My bad. Ron Bloom continues as car czar and takes the appointment as manufacturing czar. He will be double dipping. - Climate change czar, Todd Stern
- Copyright czar, not appointed yet
- Counterterrorism czar, John Brennan
- Cybersecurity czar, position will be vacant on August 21st [upon the departure of Melissa Hathaway]
- Disinformation czar, Linda Douglass [This is a new media buzz since our earlier list, a response by pundits to the White House request for informants: see Glenn Beck and Lew Rockwell]
- Domestic violence czar, Lynn Rosenthal
- Drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske
- Economic czar, Larry Summers
- Economic czar number two, Paul Volcker
- Education czar, Arne Duncan
- Energy czar, Carol Browner
- Food czar, Michael Taylor [a former Monsanto executive, or, the fox in charge of the henhouse]
- Government performance czar, Jeffrey Zients
- Great Lakes czar, Cameron Davis
- Green jobs czar, Van Jones [who has a communist background]
UPDATE, 9/06/09, Van Jones resigned after an exposé by Glenn Beck. - Guantanamo closure czar, Daniel Fried
- Health czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle
- Infotech czar, Vivek Kundra [Shoplifted four shirts, worth $33.50 each, from J.C. Penney in 1996 (source). His last day in DC government was March 4 but on March 12 the FBI raided his office and arrested two staffers.]
- Intelligence czar, Dennis Blair [Director of National Intelligence, a Senate confirmed position. He is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral]
- Latin-American czar, Arturo Valenzuela (nominee) [although this post is referred to as a czar, he is nominatied to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and so is subject to Senate confirmation. Voting on his confirmation was delayed to clarify his position on Honduras. Watch WaPo's Head Count to track status of confirmation.]
- Manufacturing czar, Ron Bloom,
formerly a "car czar" under Senate oversight, now reporting directly to the President.
UPDATE from Labor Day. - Mideast peace czar, George Mitchell
- Mideast policy czar, Dennis Ross
- Pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg
- Regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein
- Religion czar, aka God czar Joshua DuBois
- Safe schools czar, Kevin Jennings [appointed to be Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, a newly created post (that does not require Senate confirmation); openly gay founder of an organization dedicated to promoting pro-homosexual clubs and curricula in public schools]
- Science czar, John Holdren
- Stimulus oversight czar, Earl Devaney
- Sudan czar, J. Scott Gration
- TARP czar, Elizabeth Warren [chair of the [Congressional Oversight Panel for the Trouble Assets Relief Program; note that Herb Allison is frequently called the TARP czar]
- Technology czar, Aneesh Chopra
- Trade czar, Ron Kirk
- Urban affairs czar, Adolfo Carrion
- War czar, Douglas Lute [retained from Bush administration, married to Jane Holl Lute, currently a Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security]
- Water czar, David J. Hayes [a Deputy Interior Secretary and therefore subject to Senate oversight]
- Weapons czar, Ashton Carter [actually Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics and so subject to Senate confirmation]
- Weapons of mass destruction czar, Gary Samore
Positions being planned: - Income redistribution czar
- Land-use czar
- Mortgage czar, formally "consumer financial protection czar" (source)
- Radio-internet fairness czar
UPDATE, 7/29/09: Mark Lloyd was appointed FCC diversity czar. - Student loan czar, to oversee a program of mandatory service in return for college money (source)
- Voter list czar
- Zoning czar
Enough is Enough (and Too Much is Too Much)Republicans have had enough of this nonsense. The Hill reports Republicans introduce bill to eliminate presidential 'czars'Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and 28 other House Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the informal, paid advisers President Obama has employed over the past two years.
The legislation, which was introduced in the last Congress but was not allowed to advance under Democratic control, would do away with the 39 czars Obama has employed during his administration.
The bill defines a czar as "a head of any task force, council, policy office within the Executive Office of the President, or similar office established by or at the direction of the President" who is appointed to a position that would otherwise require Senate confirmation.
Republicans had complained about the president's use of czars to help advance his agenda in Congress. In particular, the GOP had harped about the personal history of Van Jones, the president's czar for "green jobs," over past comments Jones had made about Fox News came to light. Jones eventually resigned.
Another prominent czar over the past year was Carol Browner, the president's energy and environmental adviser. She helped head up efforts in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the ultimately unsuccessful effort for an energy and climate bill from Congress. The vanity of Barack ObamaInquiring minds are reading American Narcissus regarding the vanity of Barack Obama. Obama's vanity is even more jarring when paraded in the foreign arena. In April, Poland suffered a national tragedy when its president, first lady, and a good portion of the government were killed in a plane crash. Obama decided not to go to the funeral. He played golf instead. Though maybe it's best that he didn't make the trip. When he journeyed to Great Britain to meet with the queen he gave her an amazing gift: an iPod loaded with recordings of his speeches and pictures from his inauguration.
On November 9, 2009, Europe celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was kind of a big deal.
When the leaders of Europe got together to commemorate it, he decided not to go to that, either. But he did find time to record a video message, which he graciously allowed the Europeans to air during the ceremony.
In his video, Obama ruminated for a few minutes on the grand events of the 20th century, the Cold War itself, and the great lesson we all should take from this historic passing:
"Few would have foreseen . . . that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it."
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, and the freedom of all humanity—it's great stuff. Right up there with the election of Barack Obama.
In the presidential race in 2012. As he said to Harry Reid after the majority leader congratulated him on one particularly fine oration, "I have a gift, Harry."
But Obama's faith in his abilities extends beyond mere vote-getting. Buried in a 2008 New Yorker piece by Ryan Lizza about the Obama campaign was this gob-smacking passage:
I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director." After Obama's first debate with McCain, on September 26th, [campaign political director Patrick] Gaspard sent him an e-mail. "You are more clutch than Michael Jordan," he wrote. Obama replied, "Just give me the ball."
It's important to remember that our presidents aren't always this way. When he accepted command of the Revolutionary forces, George Washington said "I feel great distress, from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important Trust. . . . I beg it may be remembered, by every Gentleman in the room, that I, this day, declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the Command I am honored with." We need to reduce the deficit. We can make a tiny contribution by getting rid of 49 unneeded czars. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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| Kern County CA to Impose Contract on Unions; Time for a CA Reality Check; Half Moon Bay, Bell Face Bankruptcy; Brown Seeks Voter Approval for Tax Hike Posted: 08 Jan 2011 09:24 AM PST News has been flying in California the past few weeks over more budget concerns. Those budget problems will not go away until structural problems are fixed. That mean serious concessions across the board by public unions. Instead, Governor Brown may seek a referendum to raise taxes. Rounding out the news, a couple of California cities face immediate bankruptcy, University of California executives have made outrageous pension demands, and Kern County California is playing hardball with public unions. Kern County to Impose Contract on Public Unions Please consider County-union mediation fails Kern County government and its largest union have failed to reach an agreement during contract mediation, setting up a final decision by county supervisors about how to handle negotiations with thousands of their employees.
Negotiators with the Service Employees International Union, Local 521 notified union members Thursday that the mediation process had broken down and they should expect supervisors to impose the contract they want.
That contract does two things -- makes all employees in the union pay 20 percent of their health-care premiums and require thousands of workers who currently do not pay into to their pensions to begin making contributions from each paycheck.
Regina Kane, president of the Kern County chapter of SEIU 521, said supervisors have followed a firm course toward this date, failing to budge an inch when the unions proposed other ways to cut costs and save money that supervisors argued was critical to balance county budgets.
Kane said her members -- especially the most modest workers who handle the county's front-line public services -- will be devastated by the pay reductions.
"Many of our employees will be losing cars and losing homes," she said.
She said many of the county employees who are eligible for retirement will seize the opportunity and leave. Even if, Kane said, some of those jobs are filled, it will take months to bring new workers on board and train them.
"The public service system will be overloaded," she said. A "Start"I commend Kern County. Standing up to the unions is a start. However, 50% to their health-care costs would be a better start, and I do not see anything being done about pension benefits. Nonetheless, not bargaining with unions is the correct approach. I suggest a 1 year imposition then next year attacking pension benefits. Regina Kane whines "many of the county employees who are eligible for retirement will seize the opportunity and leave". To that I say hooray! Let's hope 100% of them leave. New employees should be put into defined contribution plans. Better yet, the county should simply outsource every job and be done with it. The correct way to deal with the SEIU is to not deal with them at all. Kern County Map Now, if only Los Angeles or Orange County would do the same thing. It is time for serious hardball. Complete elimination of every union should be the goal. Bell California on Brink of InsolvencyThe Los Angeles Times reports Bell nearly broke, faces drastic cuts, audit findsScandal-plagued Bell is hovering on the brink of insolvency and drastic cuts in city services — including disbanding the Police Department — probably will be necessary to fix its finances, according to a review of the city's books that Los Angeles County officials plan to release next month.
The report by the Los Angeles County auditor-controller paints the most dire financial picture yet of the southeast Los Angeles County city, where eight current and former city officials have been charged in a sweeping public corruption case. The findings were discussed with The Times by officials familiar with its contents who spoke on condition of anonymity because the document remains under wraps.
The review found that Bell has been running a deficit totaling several million dollars over at least the last three years under former Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo. The red ink is the result of hefty salaries and pensions for top Bell officials and extensive city-run programs, the review found. To cover part of the deficit, city officials took money raised by the sale of bonds for specific projects and diverted it to the general fund, a likely violation of the law, according to experts on municipal finance. Easy Decision in BellThere is nothing for Bell to even think about here. The city is bankrupt. The correct solution is to declare bankruptcy, disband the police union, and outsource 100% of city services eliminating 100% of public union contracts. Half Moon Bay Faces Financial BrinkThe Wall Street Journal reports Half Moon Bay Faces Financial BrinkThis coastal city next month will begin an aggressive campaign to warn residents of severe budget cuts that lie ahead, as the cash-strapped town tries to avert insolvency.
Laura Snideman, appointed earlier this month as Half Moon Bay's city manager, says she and the five-member city council and top managers will meet in the next few weeks with residents to alert them about impending changes, such as potentially outsourcing the town's 15-person police department to an outside agency.
"The choices are no longer hard, they're painful," says Ms. Snideman, formerly an economic development manager in the city of San Mateo. She adds that she hopes by making the case for cuts, some residents will offer ideas or even volunteer to save some services and programs.
The campaign is the latest development in Half Moon Bay's long and winding financial descent, which has made it a poster child of the problems plaguing Bay Area municipalities. While many towns face budget gaps, Half Moon Bay is in especially tough straits. The city already has outsourced some public-works services, including trash, building inspection and health-code enforcement to independent contractors and private companies.
The city of 13,000 is essentially "turning into a functionally unincorporated locale," says Christopher Thornberg, a principal at consultancy Beacon Economics in San Rafael. "They're pretty much a city in name only, having turned over or outsourced most of their essential services." Easy Decision in Half Moon Bay
There is nothing for Half Moon Bay to even think about here. The city is bankrupt. The correct solution is to declare bankruptcy, disband the police union, and outsource 100% of city services eliminating 100% of public union contracts. Outrageous Benefits Demands by University of California ExecutivesMore people sent me an email on regarding this article than any other news story ever. The San Francisco Chronicle reports Highest-paid UC execs demand millions in benefitsThree dozen of the University of California's highest-paid executives are threatening to sue unless UC agrees to spend tens of millions of dollars to dramatically increase retirement benefits for employees earning more than $245,000.
"We believe it is the University's legal, moral and ethical obligation" to increase the benefits, the executives wrote the Board of Regents in a Dec. 9 letter and position paper obtained by The Chronicle.
"Failure to do so will likely result in a costly and unsuccessful legal confrontation," they wrote, using capital letters to emphasize that they were writing "URGENTLY."
The 36 executives who signed the letter include Mark Laret, chief executive officer of UCSF Medical Center; Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the UC Berkeley law school; and Marie Berggren, chief investment officer for the UC system.
They want UC to calculate retirement benefits as a percentage of their entire salaries, instead of the federally instituted limit of $245,000. The difference would be significant for the more than 200 UC employees who currently earn more than $245,000. Amazing Arrogance Of all the stories regarding public workers that I have seen, this ranks among the most galling and disgusting of them. How any public employees can think they deserve those demands just shows how outrageous the sense of entitlement of public workers is from top to bottom. Tuition costs are obscene and it is because of contracts like these. Benefits need to be cut dramatically, not increased. Fortunately, there is some good news to report: High-paid UC executives denied retirement benefits increase by UC RegentsThe issue may be headed to court. By the way, I have had many people who work for the University of California writing to complain about how outrageous those demands were. Time for a Reality Check - California is BrokenAssemblywoman Diane Harkey, Republican 73rd Assembly District, and Vice-Chair of the Appropriations Committee says it's Time for a Reality Check – California is BrokenNoted "straight talker," State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, must be living in another California. In a recent Los Angeles Times editorial ("California Isn't Broken"), he suggests that criticisms of California's fiscal and economic problems are overblown.
While I agree that the state will repay its bond debt, I strongly disagree that we are helpless victims of the recession. Our 12.4 percent unemployment, unfriendly business climate and runaway state spending must be addressed if we are to pull out of our financial abyss.
It's time for straight talk and a reality check. Blaming the recent economic downturn for California's woes ignores many of the deeper underlying problems.
Treasurer Lockyer quickly passes over the fact that California's unemployment rate is the second highest in the country. Our state lost 1.2 million private sector jobs from October 2007 to October 2010. More than 141,000 people left California during a twelve month period in 2008-09 because they could not find work. Jobs and opportunity continue to disappear because of high taxes, costly regulations and job-killer policies.
For the fifth year in a row, Chief Executive magazine rated California as the worst state in the country to do business. According to CNBC's 2010 ranking of "America's Top States for Business," California ranked 48th amongst the 50 states for the cost of doing business. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation found that California has the nation's second-worst business tax climate. California taxpayers pay the highest sales and gas taxes in the nation, and some of the highest top personal income taxes.
Straight talking, state government has been spending more than it receives in revenues for over 10 years. 70 percent of our General Fund spending is locked-in due to big-government program growth and auto-pilot appropriations. Our accumulating debt to fund operations consumes an increasingly larger portion of the revenue pie, as our state annually maxes out its credit cards and pays higher risk adjusted interest rates on its debt.
Despite Mr. Lockyer's assertions that California isn't broken, ignoring reality will only further jeopardize our state's fiscal stability. California will remain broken until we get government out of the way of job growth and come together behind a long-term plan to streamline and restructure the way the state does business. Only then will we be able to balance our budget once-and-for all. Solution Far More Difficult than Harkey Lays OutHarkey wants the state to "stop borrowing and live within our means." One line soundbites make things seem far easier than they are. To live within means will require huge structural changes including properly addressing public worker wages and benefits, not just public union wages and benefits. It will also require an overhaul of the prison system, public worker pensions, health services, immigration, the universities, and education in general. It is by no means as simple as the phrase "stop borrowing and live within our means" makes it sound. Governor Brown's Day of ReckoningBloomberg reports Brown May Cut Aid, Ask Voters to Extend Tax IncreasesJerry Brown returns as California governor today after an absence of almost three decades, facing a "day of reckoning" over a $28 billion budget gap that promises battles with lawmakers, unions and investors threatening to shun the bonds of the most-indebted state.
Brown, 72, a Democrat who served two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983, has pledged an austerity budget, due Jan. 10, that will be free from gimmicks and that will skirt the gridlock that forced the state to pay bills with IOUs two years ago. He's told Californians they'll face painful choices to restore fiscal health. Whether that will mean higher taxes, he hasn't said.
"Please sit down if you're reading the stories on the budget on Jan. 10," Brown told educators in Los Angeles last month. "If you're driving, fasten your seat belt, because it's going to be a rough ride."
Brown has said he wants a budget to erase the nation's largest state deficit approved within 60 days. That task was eased by voters' decision in November to allow lawmakers to authorize spending plans with a simple majority, doing away with a 77-year-old rule requiring a two-thirds vote.
"The day of reckoning is upon us and I'm determined to bite the bullet and get it done," Brown said in Los Angeles last month.
Brown is likely to propose even more cuts and call for a special election to ask voters for money, said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. Brown Institute of Public Affairs -- named for Jerry Brown's father, himself a former governor -- at California State University, Los Angeles. Options include extending temporary tax increases on income, retail sales and vehicle registrations put in place in 2009. They are set to expire this year.
The governor inherits the nation's third-highest unemployment rate at 12.4 percent, what the treasurer's office says is $88.3 billion of bond debt and as much as $500 billion of pension liabilities following the longest recession since World War II.
While Democrats control both Senate and Assembly, they lack a so-called supermajority of 60 percent. Starting a ballot measure that would extend temporary levies, or increase taxes and fees, would need the assent of two-thirds of lawmakers or a citizen initiative drive.
Curbing the cost of state workers' salaries and their pensions may put Brown at odds with the labor unions that supported his campaign, such as the 120,000-member California Federation of Teachers. The state will spend $9.2 billion on payroll this year, according to the Finance Department. Payments to the two public-employee pensions, the largest in the U.S., will consume 5 percent of the general fund.
Brown signed legislation during his first term that gave teachers and state workers the right to bargain collectively, which Schwarzenegger and other Republicans repeatedly criticized. Brown Helped Create This MessGovernor Brown is largely responsible for this mess. The last paragraph above says much of what you need to know: "Brown signed legislation during his first term that gave teachers and state workers the right to bargain collectively" It is time for Brown to put an end to collective bargaining. California Republicans pressed to honor no-tax pledgeReuters reports California Republicans pressed to honor no-tax pledgeA prominent Washington activist is calling on Republican lawmakers in California to stick to an anti-tax pledge, a risk to a special election for raising revenue that Governor Jerry Brown is widely expected to ask the legislature to support.
The pressure came in the form of a letter sent on Thursday by Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, a heavyweight conservative advocacy group. In it he told Republicans that "Voting to send tax increases to the ballot would violate the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written commitment that you made to your constituents to 'oppose any and all efforts to raise taxes'."
"I urge you to stand up for California taxpayers by opposing Governor Brown's efforts to refer higher taxes to the ballot, and in doing so, uphold your central campaign commitment to oppose any and all efforts to raise taxes in the already over-taxed Golden State," Norquist added.
Patrick Gleason, state affairs director at Americans for Tax Reform, said the letter marks the start of a broader campaign against efforts to raise taxes in California.
"This is the opening salvo," Gleason said. With 12.4 percent unemployment, among the worst in the nation, coupled with a business environment that is the worst in the nation, the last thing California needs is a tax hike. What California does needs is an end of public union collective bargaining, scrapping of prevailing wage laws, an end of defined benefit packages for public workers, and a complete overhaul of the prison system. That is nowhere close to everything that needs to be done, but that would be a very good start. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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