What do Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner, and Carly Fiorina have in common? Aside from their independent wealth, that is?<\/p>\n
Each one prides themselves on their record of mass layoffs, plans to enact mass layoffs if elected – or both. All three are the true “job killers” in California. At a time when the state is still facing record unemployment, their emphasis on further job losses is bizarre, reckless, and a sign they are all interested in building corporate power instead of broadly shared economic recovery.<\/p>\n
Let’s start with Meg Whitman, who is having even more trouble explaining herself<\/a> to the public, this time about mass layoffs she presided over at eBay:<\/p>\n It’s true that there were regular, relatively small batches of layoffs at eBay during the dot-bomb when Whitman was CEO.<\/p>\n However, in 2008 the company laid off 10 percent of its employees. And though no longer acting as CEO, Whitman was on the board and still receiving paychecks. (The same board that provided lavish “golden parachutes” for executives while approving the layoffs.)<\/p>\n And, ironically enough, that same 10 percent number has been used by Whitman to describe how many state jobs she plans to eliminate if she becomes governor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Let’s be very clear here – by serving on eBay’s board, she had responsibility for those layoffs. And as the NBC11 report noted, Whitman plans to make further mass layoffs if she becomes governor. She hasn’t explained why she believes an increase in unemployment is good for California – let’s hope someone asks her before she retreats to her lair in Atherton and spends several more months hiding from the public.<\/p>\n Steve Poizner also would like to initiate mass layoffs in California through his 10-10-10 plan<\/a>, which would cut taxes and spending by 10%. The tax cuts would actually produce greater spending cuts, since the state would lose ongoing revenues. Poizner has targeted mostly health and human services for cuts, which will mean not only job losses for state workers who provide those services, but for health care workers as well. These cuts, of course, will cause children to suffer and more families to go under, but Poizner apparently thinks things like child starvation and untreated illnesses are somehow good for the state.<\/p>\n Finally, there is Carly Fiorina, who not only fired 18,000 people<\/a> at a H-P before running that venerable company into the ground – she told Fortune magazine in 2005 that she should have fired more people more quickly<\/em>. Fiorina compounded that by calling offshoring “right-sourcing” and claiming nobody had a “God-given right” to a job.<\/p>\n In short, Whitman, Poizner and Fiorina all represent the worst of CEO capitalism. They all believe that economic policy should be set for the benefit of the wealthy, no matter the cost. Even if it means mass layoffs of teachers and firefighters to ensure that we don’t raise taxes on the rich and on large corporations as Oregon voters did last month.<\/p>\n The message from the leading Republican candidates is clear: “A vote for us is a vote for unemployment.” We’ll see if Californians embrace it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What do Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner, and Carly Fiorina have in common? Aside from their independent wealth, that is?<\/p>\n Each one prides themselves on their record of mass layoffs, plans to enact mass layoffs if elected – or both. All three are the true “job killers” in California. At a time when the state is still facing record unemployment, their emphasis on further job losses is bizarre, reckless, and a sign they are all interested in building corporate power instead of broadly shared economic recovery.<\/p>\n Let’s start with Meg Whitman, who is having even more trouble explaining herself<\/a> to the public, this time about mass layoffs she presided over at eBay:<\/p>\n It’s true that there were regular, relatively small batches of layoffs at eBay during the dot-bomb when Whitman was CEO.<\/p>\n However, in 2008 the company laid off 10 percent of its employees. And though no longer acting as CEO, Whitman was on the board and still receiving paychecks. (The same board that provided lavish “golden parachutes” for executives while approving the layoffs.)<\/p>\n And, ironically enough, that same 10 percent number has been used by Whitman to describe how many state jobs she plans to eliminate if she becomes governor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Let’s be very clear here – by serving on eBay’s board, she had responsibility for those layoffs. And as the NBC11 report noted, Whitman plans to make further mass layoffs if she becomes governor. She hasn’t explained why she believes an increase in unemployment is good for California – let’s hope someone asks her before she retreats to her lair in Atherton and spends several more months hiding from the public.<\/p>\n Steve Poizner also would like to initiate mass layoffs in California through his 10-10-10 plan<\/a>, which would cut taxes and spending by 10%. The tax cuts would actually produce greater spending cuts, since the state would lose ongoing revenues. Poizner has targeted mostly health and human services for cuts, which will mean not only job losses for state workers who provide those services, but for health care workers as well. These cuts, of course, will cause children to suffer and more families to go under, but Poizner apparently thinks things like child starvation and untreated illnesses are somehow good for the state.<\/p>\n