Today we feature a "Guest Commentary" — which is actually the prepared text of Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s address at last Friday’s Dinner Banquet at the California Republican Party Convention. I thought it might be interesting reading, especially given that Poizner is often spoken of as a potential GOP candidate for Governor in 2010…
REMARKS TO THE CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY
FROM INSURANCE COMMISSIONER STEVE POIZNER
Let me start off by saying, “Thank you members and friends of the California Republican Party for helping to defeat Proposition 93.”
Without your support and hard work, we could never have taken on the entrenched special interests in Sacramento, and won.
We all know that Prop 93 wasn’t about reform – it was about power,
…the naked desire of a few to keep their power.
And that’s why defeating Proposition 93 was so vitally important.
It sent the signal that the people of California aren’t going to take it anymore. We demand that our elected representatives put the public’s interest before their own.
We demand a government that is transparent and responsive.
The beauty of our government is that it is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
The masterminds of Prop 93 mistakenly believed that they were above the people.
They were wrong – and we, the voters let them know it.
Let’s remember how this started.
After Nancy Pelosi and Sacramento Democrats killed Proposition 77 in 2005, Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senator Pro Tem Don Perata repeatedly promised that, under their leadership, the legislature would put a fair redistricting proposal on the ballot.
“Just watch us,” they said.
Well . . . we watched. And we waited.
And while we waited they talked about it. And talked . . . and talked.
But they didn’t deliver.
But while they were talking, they quietly went out and qualified a term limits initiative – one that extended their terms in office.
And they got Jerry Brown to give it a very deceiving ballot title and summary.
The Speaker then went out and shook down all the special interests. He hit up his friends and threatened his enemies. They raised millions for Prop 93. $17 million, to be exact.
Someone needed to hold the entrenched politicians accountable.
Someone needed to shine a light on what they were doing.
I was convinced that if the voters knew the truth, they’d reject it. I kept waiting for the “No on 93” campaign to materialize, for those committed to honesty and to free and fair elections to stand up.
Some did, like US Term Limits, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association and the National Tax Limitation Committee. But they were overwhelmed by the vast resources being mounted on behalf of 93.
So I threw in with the rebels and we went after the Deathstar.
We put together a coalition designed to do one thing: educate the voters about Prop 93.
We didn’t just shine a light on Prop 93 – we put a spotlight on it.
We went and visited editorial boards up and down the state.
And you know what? More than 40 newspapers across the state – including the San Diego Union Tribune, the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle – sided with us.
Say what you want, these are not conservative mouthpieces. They recognized what our effort was really about: trust, integrity, and keeping faith with the voters.
We did talk radio up and down the state. And listeners were fired up. Did anyone hear John and Ken talking about Prop 93?
We hit the air with very clear and direct television ads that called Prop 93 what it was – a self-serving fraud.
And the California Republican Party was strong in its opposition.
Despite being outspent two-and-a-half to one, the truth prevailed and Proposition 93 went down to a richly-deserved defeat by more than half-a-million votes.
But as important as defeating 93 was, as Republicans, it’s simply not enough to beat back one liberal scheme after another.
We need to articulate our own vision for California’s future.
Now, I’ve only been in Sacramento for one year. Before that I spent 20 years starting and running companies in the Silicon Valley.
While I haven’t completely figured Sacramento out, some things are crystal clear to me.
One is that most of those politicians in our state’s capital are completely missing the big picture.
The world is changing and they need to wake up.
We brag that California is the eighth largest economy in the world . . .
We are the global leader in technology, agriculture and entertainment.
That’s true. And that’s great.
50 years ago Detroit ruled the world.
Been there, lately?
There has been a massive transformation in the world over the past 20 years: the fall of communism, the rise of the internet, massive economic liberalization in China, a huge investment in telecommunications that has wired up the globe, insourcing, outsourcing, offshoring. All this has happened in little more than a blink of an eye.
From a competitive standpoint, this has changed everything.
Take three of our largest competitors: China, Russia, and India. From an economic perspective, these three countries were largely irrelevant to California as little as 15 years ago.
Not anymore.
If you add up the people who live in these three countries, it comes to three billion people. And if you assume that 90% of them are uneducated farmers, which is basically the case, you are still left with 300 million people. 300 million highly educated business people, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs . . . . who for the first time in the history of the planet, can compete directly with us by simply plugging in.
Now let me ask you a question…what happens when you unleash 300 million new entrepreneurs onto the global stage in a very short period of time?
Things change. And things change rapidly.
California is no longer just competing with its neighboring states and the countries of the Pacific Rim. We are competing with the entire world.
And we are losing market share every day.
This year, more than 200,000 US tax returns will be prepared in India.
That’s right, US companies like H&R Block outsource the work because foreign employees do it at a fraction of the cost. Make no mistake: this number will increase dramatically in the years to come.
If you call Delta Airlines, American Express, Sprint, Citibank, IBM or Hewlett Packard’s customer support numbers, chances are you’ll be talking to someone in India.
Why? . . . It’s much cheaper.
And today you can hire a personal assistant in Asia to do research, correspondence, Web updates, powerpoint presentations and scheduling because this work can all be done on-line or on the phone.
By the way – this will only cost you about $15 an hour . . . and you don’t have to worry about benefits, workers comp or provide them parking, an office, a desk or a chair.
And if you don’t think that this challenge is serious, think again.
Did you know that there are more people learning the English language in China than speak it in the US?
English is the language of commerce – and our competitors know it.
And the changes going on are far more than just economic. Look around us.
Take the freshmen class at UC Berkeley’s School of Engineering. Do you know that 50% of what they are studying today will be obsolete by their third year?
Look at Myspace. . . . Myspace now has over 200 million active users. If Myspace were a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world.
There were more text messages sent yesterday than there are people on the planet.
Last month, there were 2 billion searches performed on Google. Google didn’t even exist ten years ago.
The world is fundamentally changing – and doing so at breakneck speed. I’m convinced that folks in Sacramento are oblivious to it all. As a state, we’ve got to wake up – and take action.
It’s time for a major paradigm shift.
CA State government was designed in 1850. There were no cars, electricity, phones.
We didn’t have Medi-Cal, welfare, environmental regulations, state pensions.
There was no income tax.
In fact, California had only 92,000 residents. To put that in perspective, the City of Carlsbad today has a population of 92,000.
Over the past 150 years we cobbled together a governmental structure that supposedly addressed needs as they arose.
We shouldn’t be looking at government and trying to fix it.
We should be asking ourselves what government should look like in the 21st Century and build it that way.
We need to get those innovative thinkers who are changing the world to apply their brainpower to government.
I guarantee you that if the best public and private sector minds were to design state government, it wouldn’t look anything like what we have today.
I’m not talking about incremental change – I’m talking about fundamentally revisiting what services government should and should not provide and how they should be delivered in a world that those who originally designed our government couldn’t even imagine.
Top to bottom, starting from scratch.
Like any major change, this will be met with major resistance. Especially in Sacramento. Every state agency and every government program has its supporters and beneficiaries. As a result, when you try to make a change in Sacramento you are inevitably goring someone’s ox. This is why government rarely changes.
People tell me, “Steve, you just don’t understand.” But let me tell you something – I DO understand.
Over the past 20 years I’ve gone head-to-head with our new global competitors.
And let me tell you, they don’t mess around.
We must do whatever it takes to prepare our government and economic engine to meet the demands of the 21st Century.
And this is the very reason the Republican Party is so important today.
China, Russia and India figured out that big government isn’t the answer . . . . They are adopting free market principles at a rapid clip. But here in California the Democrats are moving us toward what history tells us DOES NOT work.
As Republicans we’ve got to stop thinking our only job is to keep entrenched liberals from launching more unnecessary government programs.
Instead, we need to start promoting our philosophy of less government, lower taxes, and individual responsibility.
And we’ve got to harness and promote the creativity of the free market.
Why?
Because as never before in history, these principles are not just the best path to the future, they are the only path.
To compete and thrive in the new world economy, we’ve got to embrace freedom as if our lives depended on it – because they do.
Democrats won’t do this. Maybe Republicans won’t either. But I do know this: the party that embraces political and economic freedom is the party of the future.
If we are to embrace that future I believe that we must speak – and act – with a unified voice on the issues that define our party and make it relevant to that future: a vision of streamlined and efficient government that fulfills its basic functions, a level of unparalleled personal freedom, and a future brimming with hope and opportunity where people can start businesses, worship in peace, raise their families and enjoy the fruits of their labors.
One of my personal heroes is Teddy Roosevelt. He was a renaissance man – a businessman, military leader, explorer, reformer, and environmentalist. He was a unique character – an idealist who was also extremely practical. Something he said has always stuck with me: “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.”
This is great advice . . . and it’s very Republican.
Republicans think big. We don’t see problems, we see possibilities. And that’s because we’re optimists at heart. It’s in our blood.
As Republicans, it’s up to us to show the way.
Let’s get on with it.
Thank you.
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