Left I on the News

I've already been on Meg Whitman's case for claiming that as governor of California she'll create millions of jobs, starting by firing 40,000 state workers. Here's today's sample of Whitmanomics:

Thursday, Whitman told a crowd of about 150 people that bureaucracy and regulations are strangling job creation in California.

While claiming that Brown supports regulations that hurts business, the former eBay CEO promised to eliminate the state's $800 fee on business start-ups and drop the "factory sales tax" on new equipment.

She also pledged to wipe out California's tax on capital gains.

So there you go. Cut taxes on the rich, and on businesses (giving more money to the rich not to pay taxes on), cut regulations, and...increase jobs? For years, every proposal in California to regulate businesses or tax the rich has been met with the cry about how they'll just take their money and jobs to Nevada. Nevada has no personal or corporate income tax and very lax regulations on businesses. So how is that working out? California has 12.3% unemployment. And Nevada? 14.2%, the highest in the nation.

Looks like cutting taxes and corporate regulations isn't exactly the ticket to creating jobs. Not that Meg would be deterred by the facts. She's really not interested in creating jobs, only in saying she's interested in creating jobs because that helps to get elected. What she's really interested in is...cutting taxes on the rich and on businesses.

By the way, readers who know I have no less love lost for Democrats than Republicans may wonder why I've had several posts criticizing Meg Whitman, and none on Jerry Brown. Well, primarily that's because Jerry Brown doesn't seem to actually have a campaign, aside from calling press conferences to denounce things Whitman says. If he ever actually says anything, perhaps I'll comment on it.