April 18th/20th, 2008
"Picks and Pans for Governor"
Continued from page one.
Speaking of dispensing justice, former Judge Robert Orr left the bench to
lead the NC Institute for Constitutional law, and to crusade against industry
incentives. In fact, Orr is the only candidate of either party who has
pledged to end all incentives for big corporations. Like me, Orr believes those
incentives to be unconstitutional, and, worse, they are a form of legalized
corporate welfare that does nothing but move jobs around from one state to the
next, or from one locality to the other. I have asked the other candidates
if they would join Judge Orr in banning incentives, but none would take up his
mantle. They all hide behind the idea that unilateral repeal of incentives
would spell disaster for North Carolina. But that’s like saying there’s no
need to inoculate against small pox in Raleigh if they’re not going to comply
in Durham. Someone has to take the first step in dismantling this system of
economic development by extortion. It’s too bad that Judge Orr’s message
isn’t resonating more strongly with voters, and that he didn’t decide to try
and unseat Attorney General Roy Cooper instead of running for Governor. While
Cooper has spent his time monitoring cold medicines, our state is being
raped by corporate CEOs. That wouldn’t happen on Orr’s watch as top cop.
Anyway, it’s something to think about four years from now.
State Senator Fred Smith has vast experience as both a legislator and
businessman, and if Hollywood were casting for a Southern Governor, Fred would get
the job. Unfortunately, like Perdue and others, his idea of fixing
healthcare is to emphasize healthy lifestyles. Again, don’t misunderstand my
position. Smith is correct in touting lifestyle changes and preventive care, but
he has been in the legislature too long to go on the attack against health
insurance executives who keep raising premiums by as much as 20% each year while
giving themselves multi million dollar salaries and hefty bonuses. Smith is
wrong to oppose government run universal healthcare (after all, no one in
England has ever lost his home due to unpaid hospital bills). To his credit,
though, Smith makes sure that his own company pays for employee health
insurance. But not all workers are fortunate enough to work for Smith. Over 1.5
million Carolinians can’t afford health insurance, and many others are
struggling to make premium payments each month. Smith told me that everyone needs to
save some money to pay for healthcare. I challenged the Senator by saying
that people who can’t afford insurance certainly can’t afford to put money
into a health savings account. Smith’s reply was, “Everybody’s got some money
” . He should know. Reportedly, his paving company has snagged over $40
million dollars in state contracts, which seems to me to be a conflict of
interest. How can you vote on a budget that includes funds for road improvements,
then turn around and bid for a piece of those funds?
On the issue of illegal immigration, Smith is in favor of instituting the
287G program for all Sheriff’s Departments which will make it easier for them to
catch and deport illegals, and he believes that, overall, NC taxpayers have
not been getting a return on the $21 Billion dollars they send to Raleigh
every year.
No argument there.
Attorney Bill Graham’s solution to the healthcare crisis is to offer more
choices for consumers and , thus, lower premiums. It’s a lofty goal, and we
might end up with more choices. But unless Graham can cap premiums
legislatively, then I am skeptical about big companies lowering their rates, and of
the smaller companies being able to provide the same level of services as the
blue monopoly.
Graham’s finest hour came when he put up his own money for a campaign to
fight the gas tax. His efforts resulted in Democrats capping the tax and saving
us
peons about $159 million dollars this year. Graham also has a proposal for
how to curb the drop-out problem in our schools, which includes putting more
emphasis on trade and vocational training. He is in favor of lowering taxes.
He is also against incentives to industries who make no guarantees to
workers or taxpayers, but stops short of calling for an elimination of all
incentives.
And so, who, then, is the best Republican candidate to face Bev Perdue in
the Fall?
As I alluded to earlier, Fred Smith had been the presumptive front runner
given his statewide appeal and decision to announce early. Smith even told me
that his private polling gave him the requisite 40% needed to capture the GOP
nomination on May 6. But according to Public Policy Poling, McCrory and
Smith are continuing to run neck and neck, so a run-off between the two men is
almost certain.
For the record, let me say that any of the four Republicans would serve us
well as Governor, (and so would Bev Perdue) , but my endorsement goes to
McCrory. I disagree with some of his positions, but he is a new style coalition
builder whose experience as a big city Mayor would bring a fresh approach to
the kind of bipartisan leadership we need in the Governor’s office.
We have suffered through eight years of cronyism and corruption in Raleigh.
What we need now is a personable, compassionate, competent, and accessible
Governor who won’t take off to his beach house after a natural disaster, and
who won’t lose touch with us regular folk.
A McCrory/Perdue match-up in November could produce a really clean,
issues-oriented campaign, and signal an end to the good old boy system in Raleigh.
The good news is that with Pat and Bev fighting for the top spot, voters couldn
’t lose, no matter who wins.
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