CA GOP Kashkari Praises Reformer Scott Walker

Mark Fisher

Massachusetts Republican Gubernatorial candidate Mark Fisher praised one Republican leader without blinking, without having to think about it: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

His primary challenger, Charlie Baker, took a minute, then tried to retreat back to Ronald Reagan (the stand pat answer, and no longer accepted right away), then admitted he could think of no one else.

Neel Kashkari (on the right)

Another Republican gubernatorial candidate also claimed Governor Walker as a solid example of leadership, a candidate whom detractors (including myself) labeled a RINO or a very liberal Republican, and in a liberal state dominated by one party Democratic rule.

I am writing about Neel Kashkari in his one solid debate against Jerry Brown:

I don't think Governor Brown did nearly enough on Tesla or any other number of businesses. Governor Brown frequently says 'Businesses come and go.' It's not businesses coming and going. It's Tesla, it's Toyota, it's [Charles] Schwab, it's Nestle, on and on, and they're all going. This is a real problem.

These are major businesses, by the way, and Tesla is the latest failure. A green company which sought major subsidies (since green tech is not making any green), Telsa found a better climate in Nevada, which has the worst unemployment, but a Republican Governor who recognizes the importance of inviting and supporting businesses, not driving them away.

In the four years Governor Brown has been governor, we have been ranked fiftieth out of fifty states, fifty, fifty, fifty, fifty for four years in a row for our business climate. If you look at Wisconsin, Governor Walker, who has been governor for the same term, started out forty-first in business and job climate, today they're seventeenth. That's real progress that you can make in a  few years. Governor Brown hasn't done the work.

Kashkari was right to slam Brown repeatedly with the "Fifty" moniker. There are fifty states, yes, and a state with the eighth largest economy (and ample resources) in the world should not be struggling behind the Dakotas, Washington state, or even New Hampshire.

Unfortunately, due to the to the time and focus constraints of the debate, Kashkari could not elaborate why Walker was able top take the state from 41st to 17.

Collective bargaining reforms were key. Forcing the state employee associations to respect the rights of individual employees, while requiring them to contribute more to their own pensions, benefits, and limiting their power to negotiate salaries, Walker and his Republican allies in the state legislature took a state with a three billion dollar deficit to a multi-million dollar surplus.

Walker extended tax credits to all property owners in Wisconsin. His reforms enable even liberal leaders like Milwaukee's Tom Barrett to balance city budgets without raising taxes.

Education reforms have improve opportunities in Wisconsin, as well, with the expansion of private school voucher programs as well as growing options for Internet courses to earn college degrees.

Walker's pro-business, anti-Big Government legacy has made taxpayers and profit makers the priority, instead of government bureaucracies and special interests.

Having little time to castigate Brown's failed leadership on economic issues, Kashkari did well enough mentioning one key reformer, rhetoric and results combined: Scott Walker.

Scott Walker