“Connecticut’s political left," as Mark Pazniokas of CTMirror has taken to calling them, met in New Haven at a “People’s Symposium” -- what else? – to grill Connecticut’s Democrat
candidates for governor in 2018.
The interrogators, members of Connecticut’s “Working Families
Organization,” a left-wing subset of the state’s Democratic Party
ideologically affiliated with state union employees, itself a subset of the Connecticut’s
much more numerous real working families, came away from the grilling somewhat satisfied
that the candidates had met their non-negotiable demands. The next Democrat
governor must soak the rich with progressive taxes, support a $15 dollar an
hour minimum wage, oppose any and all efforts to “erode collective bargaining
for public-sector employees in Connecticut,” and agitate against President
Donald Trump – which, in Connecticut, is not a high hurdle to overleap.
And never mind that “Connecticut lost $2.6 billion in 2015 as high-wealth residents moved out,” an item reported by Marc Fitch of the Yankee Institute. Citing data
provided by the Internal Revenue Service, Fitch notes, “A total of $2.6 billion
in adjusted gross income was lost to other states as Connecticut experienced a
net loss of roughly 20,179 residents… The largest group of tax filers leaving
the state were those earning over $200,000 per year. Between 2015 and 2016,
Connecticut saw a net loss of 2,050 tax filers who earn more than $200,000 per
year, the most since the IRS began tracking that income bracket.”
These are real-world losses – permanent losses. But then,
when ever have progressives in the state attended to the real-world consequences
of their ruinous policies?
Only one of the candidates on the dais, Middletown Mayor Dan
Drew, has declared he is running for governor; his stablemates are still
exploring the possibility. They are: Joe Ganim, the felonious Mayor of
Bridgeport, Dita Bhargava, a former Wall Street executive from Greenwich, and
former State Senator Jonathan Harris of West Hartford. Out in the pasture,
chewing their cuds and considering a run for governor are Mayor of Hartford,
Connecticut’s bankrupt Capital City, Luke Bronin, former Secretary of the State
Susan Bysiewicz and Ned Lamont, the darling of progressives who successfully
challenged former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman in a Democrat primary. Lamont lost
in the general election when Lieberman “pulled a Weicker” and ran for governor
as an independent.
Asked whether they would support additional taxes on the top
three percent of earners in Connecticut, all of whom have wings on their feet
that easily could carry them to a more welcoming state, two of the
gubernatorial wannabes, Harris and Drew, replied unequivocally “yes,” Ganim
hedged his bets – “I don’t think you can exclude any options at all, so the
answer then is yes” -- and Bhargava, who has had some real-world experience in
economics, replied, as unequivocally, “no.”
Bhargava has a degree in computer coding and engineering,
describes herself as a pro-business feminist, and hopes as governor to be able
to bring back to a floundering state “the Obama-era campaign of ‘hope and change’
with a fresh outlook on politics and a knack for facing challenges head on that
people say are impossible,” according to a profile in Elite Daily.
Malloy -- the most progressive, tax prone, union friendly
governor Connecticut has had in living memory – has said no to new taxes
several times, while winking at new taxes. For a while, Malloy seemed to be
unwilling to send to the execution block the goose that long has been laying the
golden eggs deposited in Connecticut treasury. But, unwilling to defend his
legacy at the polls, he has written himself
out of Connecticut’s future, which now is to be placed in the hands of the
state’s junior varsity Democrats, the party’s major players having left the
game.
Had former Governor Ella Grasso been on stage, she would not
have survived the “People’s Symposium” inquisitors, which raises the question:
Are there any moderate Democrats left in the party of John Bailey, Abe Ribicoff
and Grasso, a pinch-penny governor who was an ardent foe of a state income tax –
for reasons that have now become apparent?
Mark Twain, Hartford’s own temperamental social and
political critic – “Whiskey is carried into committee rooms in demijohns and
carried out in demagogues” -- used to grouse about the weather in New England –
“We all grumble about the weather, but nothing is done about it." And
the same may be said in the “State of Steady Bad Habits,” everyone talks about
spending, but nobody does anything about it. Indeed, so long as progressive demagogues
are at the helm of the state, increasing taxes will always be the default position
for politicians in trouble.
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