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As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

CA-GOV: A Conference Call With Phil

I just got off a blogger's conference call with Phil Angelides. This is the second time I've been able to hear him live (OK, this one is on the phone), and I've come away impressed both times. The media filter we have is not getting at the central truths of the California governor's race. Phil Angelides is an unequivocal progressive going against a guy who's gone through 8 different personae in 3 years. Phil is able to make the progressive case with a lot of knowledge and understanding, and he wants to use government to expand opportunity and help the wide swath of Californians rather than corporations and the super-rich. Some call it class warfare, I call it "doing the job you are sent to the governor's mansion to do."

Phil has just launched a re-designed website featuring a brand-new blog (thanks for the link, guys!). That was the essential reason for the conference call, but Angelides used it as an opportunity to once again explain why he's running for governor and what he'd like to do when he wins. He talked about how he started his political engagement at 19 years old, organizing against Richard Nixon. He believes in broad engagement and civic activism, and the power of everyday people to make a difference, and has done so long before there was an Internet. He feels that 2006 can be a turning point, an opportunity to stop the assault on values of fairness and opportunity and to put government back on the side of working people. The nation has always looked to California as a model for progressive action, which is why the Governor's seat is so very important. We cannot cede this race to somebody who looks like a Democrat for three months after looking like a Republican for his entire public life.

Angelides gave a great answer, pursuant to this, about the ways in which the Bush agenda and the Schwarzenegger agenda have dovetailed. This is the B-S agenda:

• Both have talked of "starving the monster" of government, much like Grover Norquist's plea to "drown the government in the bathtub." We all know how well that turned out in New Orleans.

• They've both pushed privatization of retirement safety nets, be it CALPERS or Social Security

• Both have increased the cost of college for students, through tuition hikes, increased student loan rates, and shrinking Pell grants.

• Both have protected tax breaks for the super-rich.

• Both have borrowed billions to finance their budgets, adopting these borrow-and-spend policies at the expense of tax fairness and the middle class.

• Both have UNEQUIVOCAL SUPPORT for the failed war in Iraq.

• And of course, both share the same campaign team. Steve Schmidt and Matthew Dowd went directly from Bush-Cheney '04 to Schwarzenegger '06.

In Phil's words, "Arnold's election-year conversion is as fraudulent as President Bush's claims on weapons of mass destruction."

He did take some questions, and I want to briefly cover those. Conan from GovernorPhil asked him to clarify his position on SB840, the universal health care bill which the Governor has vowed to veto. Phil went off on a bit of a tangent about his support for progressive causes. He called SB840 a "moot point" because it will be vetoed, which disappointed me. But then he made a fine statement, outlining his steps to cover Californians. First, insure all children. Second, force large businesses to cover their employees. Third, crack down on HMO fraud and abuse. Fourth, then work with Sheila Kuehl (the bill's author) to determine strategies to insure all Californians. This incremental approach is probably more sensible and more likely to succeed. A univesal intiative will be subject to major lawsuits and attacks. The right does not want to provide Americans with universal health care distribute by a successful government program. To mount an effort like this will take more than legislation, but a serious effort to mobilize on the ground.

I asked about AB675, the Honest Corporate Tax Reporting Act, which has been on the Governor's desk for a couple weeks without his signature. This bill would stop the practice of corporations who provide one set of books to shareholders (to show enhanced income) and another set to tax boards (with next to no income). There's been literally no talk about this bill, and Angelides didn't seem to know about it, but promised to look into it. There are a lot of bills under the radar screen, and it's important to highlight these points of contrast. Phil also pledged support for Debra Bowen's initiative reform bills, which you won't hear a lot about but are very important (it would disclose who's paying for these ballot measures we vote on every year).

This was a pretty informative conference call, and one that put the issues at stake in California into perspective. It really is a debate about America's future, and I find Phil Angelides to be an excellent standard bearer of the progressive movement we need to keep moving forward.

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