CA-GOV: George Skelton is Shrill

"Mr. Schwarzenegger, stop lying about my record!"

"Angelides' $18-billion tax increase would drive California's economy backwards," the mailer reads. And in case you don't get the message, it's repeated twice. "California families can't afford Phil Angelides' $18-billion tax increase…. Phil Angelides would raise taxes on California families by $18 billion."

It parrots what the governor has been saying himself.

And it's all utterly bogus. (My preferred adjective is unprintable.)

Not even close.

Schwarzenegger must know this by now. But whether he does or doesn't, it seems obvious that the governor has little regard for the truth, at least while in political rut.

Once again — and this has been written a zillion times by myself and many others — Angelides is proposing to raise taxes by roughly $5 billion on the rich and big business: hiking the top income tax rate for couples earning over $500,000 a year, and creating a commission to recommend corporate loophole-closings.

In addition, he is proposing $1.4 billion in tax cuts for the middle class, small businesses and seniors, plus $600 million in college tuition rollbacks.

That's it.

Yes, in years past, Angelides has suggested extending the sales tax to services, boosting property taxes on commercial buildings and restoring the car tax to the level it was for decades. But he isn't doing that now.

And to jump on him for his previous notions would be like arguing that Schwarzenegger still proposes to eliminate death benefits for the widows of firefighters and cops. (He pleads ignorance of this embarrassing feature that was included in his abandoned public pension "reform.")

Except, George, Schwarzenegger has publicly said that all his 2005 reforms were "good ideas," so there's good reason to wonder.