Commercial banker John Delaney says, “I’d like to see the federal government spend as much money as possible here” in Maryland, but “I’m not sure it’s realistic.”
With the country’s deficit problem, cuts are more likely and the state’s economy is “more vulnerable because of the reliance on federal spending,” Delaney said.
That’s why Delaney, founder and executive chairman of CapitalSource in Chevy Chase, has formed a new nonpartisan nonprofit called Blueprint Maryland to create a roadmap for private-sector job creation in the state.
“It’s not anti-government in any sense,” Delaney said in an interview. But “something that’s not related to government has a better chance of having a balanced dialogue. Politics do matter, and you’re more likely to get more input from stakeholders if it is not done in a political context and it’s more ‘we’re-all-in-this together’ context.”
Delaney is still putting together an advisory board and community board that he will roll out next month. Blueprint Maryland has already commissioned an economic analysis by Anirban Basu’s Sage Policy Group that will describe how “employment trends would be affected under different federal spending scenarios,” such as acceptance of the recommendations from the president’s deficit reduction commission.
The emphasis on private sector job growth sounds vaguely Republican – like Larry Hogan’s Change Maryland group – but Delaney and his wife are major contributors to the Democratic Party and candidates on the state and federal level. According to Federal Election Commission records, the couple gave $183,000 to national Democratic party and candidate committees in the last five years. According to the state campaign finance database, they gave more than $84,000 to the state party and candidates, including the maximum to Gov. Martin O’Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and Attorney General Doug Gansler. John Delaney also has made small donations to Bob Ehrlich and a few other Republicans.
1 comment:
The last paragraph said something to the effect that they'd like to see the federal government spen as much money in Maryland as possible. C'mon...seriously? Hasn't the federal govt. spending gotten us in enough trouble? If we're gonna be fiscally conservative and move to go back to the constitution, let's do it with everything and not just the things that DON'T send money to our pockets. I mean.....if you want Obama to stop redistributing the wealth - and I do - it has to be done across the board. No subsidies of any kind. It's not the job of the federal govt. to take from some and give to others. Whether it's being spend on the healthcare of illegals, third generation welfare recipients, or oil companies - it has to stop. Let's not pretend to be conservatives and tea party patriots and then support federal subsidies to large corporations. By supporting this behavior we are supporting corporate welfare as well as the corruption of politicians by special interests. Let's not be hypocrites. Let's get the federal government solvent again and out of our pockets before were are reduced to the same fate as Greece, Egypt, Syria, and Libya.
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