{"id":14733,"date":"2012-12-04T19:02:52","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T19:02:52","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-12-05T14:19:41","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T14:19:41","slug":"villariagosa-partners-with-wall-street-to-throw-californians-off-the-fiscal-cliff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/04\/villariagosa-partners-with-wall-street-to-throw-californians-off-the-fiscal-cliff\/","title":{"rendered":"Villariagosa Partners With Wall Street To Throw Californians Off The “Fiscal Cliff”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made national headlines he looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming semi<\/a> as the Democratic National Convention he chaired descended into chaos.<\/p>\n

This time he’s making national headlines for joining the steering committee of “Fix the Debt”<\/a>, a high-profile lobbying group whose “core principles” include keeping tax rates low for the wealthy while slashing Social Security and Medicare. Founded by deficit hawks Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson (co-chairs of Erksine\/Bowles 2010 deficit-reduction commission) the Campaign to Fix the Debt claims to be a “bipartisan” interest group, and is trying to influence ongoing fiscal cliff budget negotiations taking place in Washington D.C.right now.<\/p>\n

“If we’re serious about long-term economic growth, we need a balanced approach for reducing the federal debt,” said Villaraigosa in a press release. “That approach should include spending cuts, raising revenue and reforms that put our entitlement programs on a sustainable footing. The Campaign to Fix the Debt is dedicated to reminding all Americans that we can’t reduce the debt and create the conditions for long-term job creation without working across party lines to find practical solutions.”<\/p>\n

If you want to know what some of those “practical solutions” Villaraigosa will be lobbying for might look like, follow the money. Fix The Debt’s $42 million war-chest is funded almost exclusively by Big Business CEO’s notorious for underfunding their employee’s pension plans<\/a>, Wall Street executives who support privatizing Social Security<\/a>, and virulent anti-tax lobbyists.<\/a><\/p>\n

“These CEOs paint a stark picture of hypocrisy,” said Scott Klinger of the Institute for Policy Studies, who co-authored a report which called Fix the Debt a ‘Trojan Horse for massive corporate tax breaks’.<\/a><\/p>\n

“They’re simply taking advantage of the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ to push the same old agenda of more corporate tax breaks while shifting costs onto the poor and elderly.”<\/p>\n

Klinger’s report paints a stark picture of what Villaraigosa has signed up to defend:<\/a>
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