George Clooney is a powerful force for fundraising as proven by his star-studded party to raise money for President Obama’s reelection. Clooney and his friends like Barbara Streisand and Tobey Maguire helped add $15 million to the president’s campaign coffers.
But meanwhile, poor Jerry Brown, who is an executive like Obama and a fellow Democrat is out in the cold. The governor of California has a big problem, the state is missing $16 billion dollars. One of the main reasons is that tax collections are down including nearly $2 billion in personal income taxes that haven’t been paid.
Brown has a plan though. He’s going to cut the budget by $8 billion and then raise taxes for the rest. So why aren’t Clooney and Co. doing their part? Brown has already explained that Californians’ will vote to aprove his planned increase the top marginal tax rate from 10.3 percent to 13.3 percent.
If Clooney would have just taken all the money he promised to Obama and paid it to Sacramento, in advance of the tax hike referendum, he could have helped his home state and supported the Obama proposition that everyone should do their fair share.
C’mon George, basketball with the hoopster-in-chief just isn’t going to cut it. Put up, save California, or shut up.