Note: As I say in the diary, this election really is that important.  Whitman would be a disaster for the state.  You can contribute to Jerry’s campaign at the Calitics ActBlue Page.

If you’ve read this blog much, you’ll have seen Robert’s excellent writing on the flawed economic vision that Meg Whitman is espousing.  Her stated goal of cutting 40,000 jobs is unrealistic, at best, and at worst could push the state economy into an even deeper recession.  Heck, even the Governor questions whether that number is at all possible, saying something to the effect of that it was all a big campaign pledge with no real meaning behind it.  Let’s be honest, if Arnold is calling your campaign cynically out of touch, well, dang, you are that and then some.

But beyond that mere gamesmanship of that 40,000 number, her fundamental principles of her economic plan are just plain flawed. Sure, she can dress them up in a pretty magazine with glossy pages. But the stinker remains the stinker.   Or, as a panel of economists wrote in a new Center for American Progress Action Fund report (PDF) highlighted in the LA Times today:

In short, Whitman’s diagnosis of the California economy is deeply flawed and her “solutions” would be deeply damaging. Her approach to economic policy, which she calls “my kind of supply-side economics,” is wrong for California. As we document, the economic “studies” she draws upon are unscientific and an unsound basis for policy. If implemented, her policy proposals are likely to have negative effects on jobs and economic growth and to deepen the state’s budget crisis.

Just as Meg’s glossy magazine is a worthwhile read, even if only to get an idea of how the other side thinks, this brief report should be universally read by progressives.  Jerry Brown has articulated a vision that seeks to grow the economy through innovation, but in and out of government, while Whitman wants to simply burn the whole place down.

The report calls out the gaping wholes in her plan, which she has been touting as some sort of panacea.  But, the math just doesn’t add up. She wants to cut $15 Billion in spending while decreasing taxes. Yet the deficit stands at about $20 Billion, so how in the world does she think that this math adds up?  This isn’t one of those corporate gigs where you can just toss a billion here, a billion there.

Furthermore, when you talk about shaving $15Billion off a $86 Billion budget, you aren’t talking about easy fixes.  You are talking about ending services that save lives, and slashing education in ways that will continue to decrease our state’s ability to compete in the new knowledge based economy.  The cuts that have been made already are shocking enough, to further imply that cuts alone are the solution belies a thorough misunderstanding of the California budget.

So thorough is her misunderstanding that the simplest review of facts can put the lie to her statements.  First of all, you simply don’t just cut 40,000 workers without a major impact on government’s ability to function.  While she may beleive all the right-wing hooey about “waste, fraud, and abuse”, the fact is that goverment workers work just as hard as other workers, and there is no real evidence to show that waste is any higher in government than the corporate world. (Like, for example, go try asking a state worker if he or she has ever had some of the lavish lunches or private jets that Whitman got at eBay.)

Or another area, she argues that the state government is bloated, but the numbers just don’t bear that out.

In 2008, the most recent year available, California’s government employment per capita was 28 percent below the U.S. average, ranking 48th among the states, and California state employment per capita has not increased since the early 1980s.

So, is it all really as simple as Arnold has pointed out? She’s just saying this stuff to get elected, and that she’ll lurch towards sanity after November? Perhaps, but there are no sure bets, and Whitman is simply too dangerous to be complacent.  Jerry Brown’s victory is imperative for the state’s continued vitality.

UPDATE by Robert: It’s as clear as day: Whitmanomics doesn’t work for California. We already have 12% unemployment – over 21% if you go by the U6 measure. The absolute last thing we need is more unemployment, and the main thing we DO need is more investment in working people and the infrastructure that supports them. Whitman instead will continue a pirate economics of robbing the middle class blind.