HB1263 Dems to business: Buzz off

Exerpts from 2/19/2010 Denver Business Journal - by Neil Westergaard

I don’t know whether it’s just the yin and yang of politics or what, but Statehouse Democrats are jumping off a political cliff. They’re squandering their advantage, just like the Republicans did by carrying out radical agendas.

They’re handing the majority back to the Republicans in a stunning case of political hari-kari, alienating the very constituency that put them in control for the first time in four decades: political moderates and independents, many of them in business.

What else explains going after business with such a vengeance this session? Why else would you go out of your way to prop up organized labor even as its membership dwindles nationwide?

What’s the rationale for engaging in this victim-led, symbolic populist revolt against anybody who’s ever been successful in business?

This past week, Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, who gets my vote as the most clueless lawmaker up there today, introduced legislation barring businesses from deducting more than $250,000 in individual salaries as a business expense. Pommer has been the Democrats’ torchbearer in a series of attacks on business this year and last.

Pommer’s salary bill is aimed at executives, of course, a flash point for ignorant people who rationalize their lack of success on assorted “fat cats” and “bigwigs.” This is class warfare, folks.
Not to be outdone, even by himself, Pommer declared on the House floor that “businesses don’t care about Colorado.” A few members of his own party winced.

If Pommer’s salary bill passes, there won’t be another economic development deal in Colorado — ever. No company of any size will want to do business in this state. The eco-devo agencies might as well pack up and go home. File for unemployment. Game over.