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4A Daily News – Thursday, May 31, 2012 Opinion DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Corporate raider not a good model for public service You can't run government like a business anymore than you can run business like a government. GOP presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, burned corporations to the ground and made millions selling off the charcoal. This private sector experience is being touted as his qualification to be presi- dent. This expertise of banka- neering—corporate raiding— is so sexy to Republicans they now parrot the line, "President Obama doesn't understand the economy," implying Romney does because he's been in the trenches breathing the fumes of leveraged buyouts. That's like a fox claiming he has the insider knowledge to properly guard the hen house. "The farmer just doesn't understand poultry." As billionaire Julian Robertson (after giving $1.25 million Restore Our Future—a pro-Romney superPAC) told NPR last week, "I think Barack Obama is a smart man that the electorate put into power with- out any qualifications to run the biggest business in the world, which is the United States of America." The thing is the U.S. isn't a business. Government isn't a business just as an apple isn't an orange. Running govern- ment like a business would be like running Yosemite Nation- al Park like a 7-Eleven—every inch is monetized to maximize profit--half off all 5-Hour Energy Shots on Half Dome! "A mountain of savings!" It sounds clever in sound bites. They hope it sounds like Republicans are business friendly and quick with the flippant solutions: Government bad, business good—treat one like the other and both will be good! To me it sounds like the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) with a profit motive: another stunningly bad idea. Vulture capitalism (to bor- row a phrase from the leftist pinko Texas Governor Rick Perry) is hardly a good model for public service. Capitalizing on demolishing jobs doesn't give you any insight into the common good, unless you take "common good" to mean just your wealthy friends. Romney having business expe- rience, therefore he's the best to run the country, implies that the economy collapsed because there wasn't enough of a cozy relationship between This whole selling point of government and business. Yes, the world melted because Washington was too adversarial with Wall Street. It was Godzilla battling Mothra that trampled Main Street … instead of deregu- lated greed greased by conspiring politicians. But Republicans, as you recall, came out firmly against empathy (when it comes to President Obama's judicial appointments). But they feel empathy for corporations is what's lacking in the Execu- tive Office. They want a presi- dent who feels the pain of Big Business. Who understands that just like you and me cor- porations are people, my friends. And only the former CEO Romney can see eye-to- eye with a contrived paper- based legal entity. It's very telling that Repub- licans say government is a business and should be run like one. For them there's no con- flict—only interest. Govern- ment is just an extension of business. Like in 2007 when a reporter asked how many of Romney's five sons were serv- ing in the military. Romney's answer: "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president." It's just really all the same thing to Rom- ney. Tina Dupuy rights which annoy yield like free speech and due process. Slavery was profitable. As was child labor. Pollution is prof- itable. was the sole purpose of gov- ernment (like it is of corpora- tions) we'd no longer have a country: We'd have Lehman Brothers. If making rich people richer Tina Dupuy is an award- winning writer and fill-in host at The Young Turks. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. A case for Governor Scott Walker Commentary If you are a pro-capitalist, you are a fascist. If you are a Christian, you are an extrem- ist. If you are a Mormon, you are a polygamist. If you reject Obama's liberal policies, you are a racist. And, if you are Governor Scott Walker of Wis- consin, you are a liar. Liberals are so busy trying to get their way they fail to see the yearning for fiscal integrity rumbling across the highways and byways of this great coun- try. They have no idea this real and present dissatisfaction is non-partisan in nature. In this unstable economy, many Americans have lost their appetites for labor unions and the ginormous government budgets they inspire. Liberals would love to blame this dissatisfaction on those right-wing nut jobs, but they cannot. A good example is ard's way to avoid intelligent discourse. Liberals are notori- ous for responding to just about anything or anyone with whom they disagree using ad hominem rebuttals to discredit their opponents. Rather than exercising brain cells to engage in scholarly debate, most liberals will leapfrog over the subject at hand and con- jure-up a baseless and unrelat- ed charge that makes about as much sense as calling Bill Maher a patriot. Name-calling is the cow- what happened in South Flori- da in March 2011 when Miami- Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a Republican, was shown the door for doing for doing the opposite of what Walker is attempting to do in Wisconsin. Alvarez raised property taxes by 13 percent to fund public- sector union expenses. In an attempt to discredit him, liberals label Walker as "too extreme." I partially agree with them; Walker is extreme- ly effective. Wisconsin was drowning in debt until the gov- ernor's fiscally conservative measures erased Wisconsin's $3.6 billion deficit. Rather than adopting the Democratic Party's "cure-all" prescription of raising taxes, Walker low- ered them, signing a property tax freeze and lowering school property taxes. Wisconsin is expected to have a budget sur- plus by 2013. Governor Walker made tough decisions during tough economic times. Walker's pro- posal allowing union participa- tion to be voluntary and requir- ing union workers to con- tribute to their generous bene- fit plans sent Wisconsin state senate Democrats reeling – lit- erally. Once they realized Walker wasn't going to back down, they absconded to a neighboring state in a childish display of political theatrics. Once it was enacted, the bill President Obama once described as "an assault on unions," became a pathway to indepen- dence. Wisconsin schools and local gov- ernments were given the freedom to live within their means when they were grant- ed the ability to hire, fire and compensate based upon perfor- mance. The nonparti- san group, Wisconsin Taxpayer's Alliance, reported that the sav- ings from employee benefits "allowed dis- tricts to reduce costs" allowing districts like the Kaukauna school district to control their own destiny and convert a $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. Walker's success in Wiscon- sin is a threat to labor unions, Progressives and the Democra- tic Party. According to the New York Post, New York unions are sending resources "to oust the union-busting Walker on June 5 and stop the anti-union movement from spreading to other states." For political zealots, truth is a wonderful thing to twist, spin and slant – especially if it means discrediting a sitting governor prior to his recall election. Why debate an issue when you can call your oppo- nent a liar? To no surprise, Walker has been accused of misrepresenting the truth over a variety of issues for the actions he's taken to regain fiscal stabili- ty. Nevertheless, the best defense for Walker is the truth, which has manifest- ed itself in Wiscon- sin's economic recovery. Susan Brown spreading across this country. No matter who wins in Wis- consin on June 5th, or in Wash- ington this November, our economy will not improve without making tough choices. Either way, the job requires a strong leader and skillful sur- geon, and Governor Scott Walker has proven he is up to the task. ----- A win for Walker will be a win for the rest of us because his policies could serve as an antidote to the economic contagion Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com. government to be run like a corporation. With any follow-up questions the analo- gy fails. Corpora- tions don't ensure rights. Especially We don't want our