Have you seen Disney’s animated movie, UP? It’s a great story about Carl, a 78 year old retired salesman who ties balloons to his house and flies away with Russell, an 8 year old stowaway, and his faithful dog, Dug. It’s a wonderful story, very touching.
The dog, however, really caught my attention. Dug has a special collar that allows him to speak! He helps Carl and Russell on his adventures throughout the film, but does have one tragic flaw: Dug gets distracted by squirrels. He may be on the most important mission of his life, but when he sees a squirrel out of the corner of his eye, his attention is completely diverted and—“SQUIRREL!”—he says. Off he runs to chase it.
Doesn’t this remind you of some of our state leaders? The mission is jobs creation–private sector jobs creation–pure and simple. It’s about getting folks employed who can pay taxes, and businesses that hire, grow and pay taxes, that will help Sacramento get its house in order. How can a state leader help create jobs? In one of three ways: reduce taxes and fees; reduce the glut of regulations business faces every day; and reduce opportunities for frivolous lawsuits.
· Instead, what we are seeing out of Sacramento are proposals to INCREASE gas taxes and lose taxpayer protections for secure transportation improvements—SQUIRREL!
· Time-consuming, wasteful “global warming solutions” that are not acceptable on the global marketplace—SQUIRREL!
· Universal health care “pseudo-solutions” that guarantee the state’s financial insolvency so no one will have health care—SQUIRREL!
· Creation of any more Blueberry Commissions, Fertilizer Commissions, cow-tail docking or ferrets-as-pets legislation—SQUIRREL!
· And give us a break on this eco-stuff, will you? We love green jobs, but we love blue, red, yellow, pink and black jobs too.
Let’s make a pact—anytime you hear a legislator or state official of any kind talk about anything other than reducing taxes and fees, regulations or litigation, just politely look at him and say “SQUIRREL!”
If enough of us do this together, perhaps we can eliminate the nuts and actually get to real jobs creation.