 President Obama spoke at the The Rolls-Royce Crosspointe factory in Prince George, VA Friday. (photo credit: CNN's Brian Yaklyvich)
March 10th, 2012
10:13 AM ET
Jobs and energy have Dems and GOP talking(CNN) – Jobs and energy prices dominated weekly addresses by Democrats and Republicans on Saturday, a day after government numbers showed the creation of 227,000 new jobs last month. Despite the jobs, the unemployment rate remained unchanged, according to the numbers. With unemployment hovering at 8.3%, Republicans put forth Gov. Jack Dalrymple of North Dakota, whose state boasts the lowest unemployment rate, according to the most recent state level data, from December. "These are big reasons why North Dakotais doing so well compared to the rest of the nation," he said. "We have created a friendly business climate inNorth Dakota, where taxes and insurance rates are low, the regulatory environment is very reasonable, and we have the most responsive state government anywhere." He said his state offers major incentives. "Companies want to expand inNorth Dakota because of the ease of doing business and because of our well educated, well trained work force," Dalrymple said. His state's economy, he said, is thriving because of both high-tech manufacturing near the state's capital and oil drilling in the northwestern region. The U.S. could learn from North Dakota’s model and expand domestic oil production, he said, criticizing President Barack Obama for blocking the Keystone oil pipeline, which would run through his state. "It is now within our reach to become energy independent in North America if we simply develop the resources we already have available in places like the Gulf of Mexico, nonsensitive public lands across America, and in our friendly bordering countries," he said. The president also spoke on energy, making his case that theU.S."can't just drill our way to lower gas prices – not when we consume 20% of the world's oil." "The recent spike in gas prices has been another painful reminder of why we have to invest in this technology. As usual, politicians have been rolling out their three-point plans for $2 gas: drill, drill and drill some more,” he said. "Under my Administration, oil production inAmericais at an eight-year high. We've quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs, and opened up millions of acres for drilling." Speaking at aVirginia factory he visited on Friday, Obama said it has a big role to play in aviation. "The engine parts manufactured here will go into next-generation planes that are lighter, faster, and more fuel-efficient," he said. Obama called on legislative leaders to end federal subsidies to oil producers, calling them "taxpayer giveaways" totaling $4 billion. But any such action is unlikely in the coming week, with the House in recess and both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden turning some of their attention to campaign events. |
  |
 |
|||
|
|
|
||||
And there's absolutely NO correlation between Keystone and energy independence. It's not OUR oil, it's Canada's. They will refine it here, but sell it wherever they please at whatever price they please. We're already exporting gasoline. Speculation and unrest in the Middle East are driving prices... not demand. But hey, don't let facts get in the way of a good sound bite.
Sounds like more talk, no action. What about Newt's $2.50 gas. What about hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells. Isn't it time?????
try to understand, the President, no matter who he may be, has no power over the price of oil or gas. Newt is talking out his wazoo about $2.50 gas just like Bachmann and her $2.00 gas. Speculation and unrest in the middle east is driving up gas prices. People like Santorum, Gingrich and Romney are fueling the fire by talking war with Iran.
Drew, you are absolutely correct about the gasoline prices! Besides, fracking is ruining our environment, our water supply (one farmer in La. had to be paid for 22,000 head of cattle that died from drinking the water that had seeped up onto the ground) and the people who own the land do not want the ugly thing running thru their land. One expert says the whole thing from Canada thru the US would only provide a little over 2000 jobs and it would take over 2 yrs, for a tiny miniscule help! We don't need it, we need newer, cleaner energies that will provide many, many jobs.
new moon you are absolutly right but repos can't seem to grasp that. the job rate will go down as the people moving into the system find jobs. Repos are scrambling to put a spin on the presidents good news. Obama 2012
We need harvest, produce and distribute of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. The refining and production of these fuels and energy is also another form of manufacturing. This would keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
We need to harvest, produce and distribute of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. The refining and production of these fuels and energy is also another form of manufacturing. This would keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
We need whoever wins the next election to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. They've got to give us somebody who will stand up for the American people.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why. Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word. Hum, maybe it’s that our so called leaders (political leaders) are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street and CEOs promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us?
The so called “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world’s customer base out of work. I’m not a lefty or member of any union. I run a business that employs over 20 people and produces products that are purchased by customers that do manufacturing and packaging. I’m just an average Joe, but I've been saying this for more than 10 years now. If I can see it, so can our so called leaders (political leaders) who are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we’re importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let’s keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
The bottom line is that “Our Government” has to protect American industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
The people with all of the excuses as to why we can’t or aren’t willing to manufacture products here in the US are the same people who have provided us with the thinking that’s gotten us into this mess in the first place.
Bringing manufacturing back to the United States of America not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. The “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field! The whole idea of the tariffs is so we can pay our factory workers a decent wage and not be blown out by these other countries we’re they don’t play by the same rules.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
Keir Weimer believes there has to be more bipartisan collaboration on innovative legislative and non-legislative (i.e. regulatory changes and overhauls) to continue to bolster hiring and lower this stagnant unemployment figure in this country. This is crucial to our continuing and developing recovery.
You libs live in a vacuum. World demand for gasoline is up. Check the numbers in China and India. The US is exporting gasoline as our demand is down. What is wrong with up to 100,000 jobs from Keystone? Obama's jobs numbers are shalllow. Most are low paying jobs. Obama promised that unemployment would NOT exceed 8% if he got his stimullus in 2009. He failed. What is the formula for a saved job? There is none. The economy runs on net job gain not some politicians spin on "his" jobs created.
I must ask what world you live in the Keystone Pipe line will about 6,000 jobs and that is over two years so that number is actually 3,000 real jobs you see the way they figure it is 3,000 one year and 3,000 the next year which is really the same 3,000 from the first year. so has does 3,000 jobs ever even considering the fact that people will empolyed at resturants because these people need that service ever equall 100,000 jobs.
Then with those 3000 American jobs per year (the Canadians can destroy our environment with the dirtiest of fuel types), they plan to pipe it to the tax duty free zone at Port Arthur, TX by pass paying U. S. taxes, and sell it to the highest bidders on the world market (the Chinese) . So the Chinese can use it to further destroy the atmosphere.
Question is: How does this provide you $2.00 a gallon gasoline? It doesn't.
http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/10/04/seaweed-a-new-wave-of-investment-in-macro-algae/
http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/06/23/with-a-little-kelp-from-my-friends-macroalgae-projects-concepts-bloom/
You guys want to be entertained? Read the Jane Fonda/Steinem/Limbaugh thread, it's hilarious!
I don't want none of dat OLD DIRTY ENERGY that OBAMA is talking about.
Fill er up with some of dat GREEN occu-pooper algie.
WHAT???
What da ya mean you ain't got none???
But my truck in on empty and I need to go make some of dat "evil profit"
so-em I can pay my "fair share" of taxes for Hope & Change....
http://www.nationalalgaeassociation.com/
http://biodieselacademy.com/course-details.php?cid=24
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel
https://www.phoenix.edu/forward/perspectives/2012/02/forget-corn-algae-may-be-the-best-new-energy-source.html
Algae has a two-day turn around before it can be harvested, whereas corn take a full growing season and a lot of luck with weather, and growing season. .
It would only require 15,000 square miles of land to replace all the petroleum we use....that is 85% less land than we use for corn.
Seems some in Texas are ahead of you.
Some in India are ahead of you.
And good for us we have a future visionary president.
http://www.ecoseed.org/politics/funding-a-incentives/article/35-funding-incentives/12539-u-s-provides-$14-million-for-algae-biofuel-development
http://advancedbiofuelsusa.info/category/feedstocks/feedstock-algae
Oh BTW were you the guy who kept shouting "get a horse' when the automobile was invented? For a fact most of the early automobiles were electric powered.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/electric-car-timeline.html
As a matter of fact most handicap equipment today is battery powered plug ins.
Just because technology hasn't researched viable energy means other than gasoline or ethanol, doesn't mean it isn't practical, or that it wouldn't work better than gasoline. That in and of itself isn't a stretch because fossil fuel has seen its day and is currently costing us far too much in world tension.
There is alot of misinformation out there. Go check wikipedia and factcheck. President Obama has saved millions of jobs in the auto industry, saved banks and bank deposits of millions, provided health care for millions and fed millions thru unemployment and food stamps. Yes, getting people on health insurance will help people and boost the healthcare industry and it is still private health insurance! The economy is improving, jobs are being added every month and by election day, things will be better. This recession was really bad and it took a long time to fix. The stimulus was successful in saving teachers, police and fireman jobs. There has been alot of construction in my state to fix the highways from the stimulus bill. This deficit was left by Bush (who spent alot of money to protect this country) thru the two unfunded wars, the 2003 bush tax cuts and the Great Recession. Once the economy gets going, the end of the unfunded wars, the cuts in government spending, less unemployment insurance, cuts in oil subsidies and raising taxes on the rich so they pay their fair share, the deficits will get better. We have had trillions of deficit under Bush and no one complained. We are in a bad recession, a national emergency, we have to feed the people. You really think we should have no deficit and cut back? It would make the recession worst! Economics 101, the government needs to spend in a recession and save industries like the banks and auto industry because there is no one else that can do it. Hey if you like to complain so much, go write your Congressman and Senator, I write all the time to complain.
Reblogged this on Young, Driven & Passionate and commented:
Can this government act in a bipartisan matter?
Gee Rep Dalyrimple with all of that new oil and drilling the price of gas still goes up. How do you explain that. It is a lie that America will profit from Canadian oil sands and the process of sending this heavy, thick oil through a pipeline is dangerous and a potential environmental disaster, just ask the people in Michigan. That oil will be refined in the Gulf region and shipped overseas for profit and these so called hundreds of thousands of jobs are baloney. Members of Congress have aready been paid off by Canadian Corporations to push through the project and President Obama was wise to veto this bill. The fact that these companies already have plans to pipeline it to the west coast of Canada should tell you what is intended. The toxic chemicals they use to thin the oil to send it through the pipe has cause health concerns for people near leak sites..it's a BS deal and Americans need to know that the President has ZERO say in the price of oil!!
I would guess the Keystone XL pipeline is already a done deal. Transcanada has been stockpiling pipe in Gascoyne, North and other parts of the Great Plains since last fall. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/11/08/pol-keystone-pipeline-sections.html Why is pipe being hauled in daily, if it is not a done deal?
TransCanada was pressed to tell where the pipe they would be using would be from. Seems I had heard they were going to mainly use US made pipe, because there have been problems with some of the foreign manufactured pipes. The stockpiles have alot of India manufactured pipe, which has been the cause of many leaks on Keystone 1.
I really do not believe all the malarky about how many jobs it is going to create, especially if you read what those towns around the building the Keystone 1 have to say. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/Keystonexl.html
I live in South Dakota. It is not IF it leaks, it is just WHEN. http://watercenter.unl.edu/downloads/2011-Worst-case-Keystone-spills-report.pdf Why do we have all the risks and not really any benefits?
I think we have been duped by a few (snake) oil salesmen.
check out the news about fracking and the earthquakes it has been causing. Are we screwing up the enviorment in the long run?
The same companies that are selling us oil now will be selling us oil if 100% is produced in this country. I say let them drill under the stipulation that gas prices will be based upon how much it costs to get to market HERE in the US. All oil drilled here will remain here!!! I guarantee they or the sorry GOP will not agree to that because it’s about profit, not energy independence.
Stop talking do something for the economy. What a bunch of jerks we have in Congress. Move towards the center and away from the ideologues!
Good post Ron...I believe that's what Obama is trying to do, but the Greed Over People Party are aligned and quilted into their demons which are greed, power and supremacy. They have been for ages. It's harder to break old habits than I thought! To break them means to 'change'. They are fighting 'change' with all their might!
Here's something to read if your bored:
DEBT VERSIS DEFICIT
Today we see Americans bombarded on TV with concerns over the US Debt. We are told Debt this and Debt that; and trying to scare the daylights out of us. Yet we go back to PRIOR TO World War II, the United States was in a depression and the US Government was borrowing money from the Federal Reserve for years in order to operate the Federal Government and pay for services for the American people. Then WW II hit.
The debt incurred to win World War II drove the debt to where Taxpayers were on the hook for a debt that was significantly bigger, as a percentage of G.D.P., than the debt is today. (Reference: Paul Krugman, Economic Noble Prize Winner).
So when did the US Government pay back all that debt to the Federal Reserve? I am 57 years old and I don’t know anybody that was taxed to pay that debt back to the Federal Reserve. Fact is, it was never paid back
and was not NEVER needed to be paid back.
First, families have to pay back their debt. Governments don’t — all they need to do is ensure that debt
grows more slowly than their tax base. The debt from World War II was never repaid; it just became increasingly irrelevant as the U.S. economy grew, and with it the income subject to taxation. Second — and this is the point almost nobody seems to get — an over-borrowed family owes money to someone else;
U.S. debt is, to a large extent, money we owe to ourselves. (Reference: Paul Krugman, Economic Noble Prize Winner).
We know that after WW II, the depression was over, the economy was booming and unemployment was less than ever before. What happened to the US Debt? How did the economy recover and why?
So, in order to Pay for WW II, the Federal Government had to roll the equivalent of Trillions of dollars out of the Federal Reserve to pay for WW II on top of the already existing US Debt that had been developing over years
during the depression.
In order to finance the War, the Government began to REGULATE AND TOOK CONTROL OF CORPORATIONS, THE RAILROADS, THE AIRLINES, THE AUTOMOBILE COMPANIES, THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, THE INSURANCE COMPANIES, ETC. The US Government took over everything.
Then the US Government began directing these CORPORATIONS AND COMPANIES to build military machinery such as Tanks, Fighters, Bombers, Military Vehicles, developing a National Defense Highway System that we drive on across this country today; other roads, bridges, dams, levies, the electrical grid we have today across the country, and the foundation of the US economic infrastructure we have today.
All designed, built and architected in the name of NATIONAL DEFENSE BY CONTROL AND DIRECTION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. ALL THE JOBS CREATED WERE CREATED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. Lets' be clear here. These jobs WERE NOT CREATED BY CORPORATIONS.
DEFICIT DEFICT DEFICIT
So by the end of WW II the government had a surplus of money to operate the US Government and the DEFICT WAS GONE. Why? Because so many people had become employed and PAYING TAXES that there was NO MORE DEFICIT. And what about the DEBT? Well it was still there but who cared? NOBODY CARED ANYMORE ABOUT THE DEBT BECAUSE IT DID NOT MATTER. Fact is the US Government is NOT A DEBT ACQUIRER BUT A USER AND DISTRIBUTOR OF CURRENCY.
It is a FACT that in order to remove the economic impact either small or large of a Government DEBT, you have to remove it by getting more people EMPLOYED SO THERE IS A LARGER TAX BASE. As Mr. Krugman explained; when the tax base is larger than the need to operate the government (surplus), the so called debt will shrink overtime.
So what happened after WW II? The US economy was booming and of course the rest of the world wanted in on the action. We observe that the US Government was willing to finance the reconstruction of Europe, Japan, and
other countries to help them rebuild their infrastructures and expand their economies. How? It was done using US Dollars right from our US Federal Reserve.
Why was the United States willing to do this? Was not this also a kind of a debt to the United States Government since we were using our US Currency? Oh and by the way, where is the proof these countries ever paid any of that money back to our US Federal Reserve?
In the 1950’s the US Government saw the coming of the Computer Age. They also knew and figured out that whoever controls the Financial Information would control the world economies and thus to a large degree
control the resources of the world. I can argue that the US Government cut deals and agreements with countries (secret or otherwise) that ensured that the US Dollars would be the World Currency FOREVER through the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
This I believe was done and agreed to by China, Russia and everybody else. In return the US Government agreed to finance the economic development of these countries and the agreement to allow for moving US
Manufacturing and Production jobs overseas to their respective countries.
We see how the rest of the world economies shook when the trade centers were hit and our economy shook. We see in 2008 when we almost had a US economic meltdown how the rest of the world economies suffered simultaneously. I rest my case on that point.
So deregulation of corporations has allowed them freedom to expand US Manufacturing and Production of goods and services to foreign countries and of course that has meant reduced regulations, lower labor costs, and lower production and manufacturing costs.
So during the days of WW II, we were mostly a domestic economy and the US Government really didn’t care about what other countries thought or how corporations felt about us rolling money out of the Federal Reserve to finance the war or fix our economic problems. There was only one big economy back then and it was USA.
Today, we have successfully financed off the back of our Federal Reserve and the american people the expansion of many of the economies of the world and the US tax payer has helped this happen. Americans have lost millions of jobs to foreign countries and foreigners over the years since WW II and now Corporations can
not only develop, produce and manufacture goods and services for less in these foreign countries, but they can now in turn SELL THEIR PRODUCTS RIGHT THERE IN THESE COUNTRIES. There is no incentives for Corporations to bring these jobs back to the United States and most Republican Law Makers and many Democratic Law Makers are so bought off by Corporations, they have no political or moral will to change things.
As a matter of fact they want to sell to the American people the brainwashing idea that we need to deregulate Corporations further and tell us that is the answer to creation of more jobs here in the USA. They also want to sell us the idea that we should not tax US Corporations because if we do, that will also cause them not to hire and give them more incentive to send more jobs overseas.
CORPORATIONS AND THE GOVERNMENT
We hear the words, Democracy, Free Trade, Free Market, Capitalism and Republicans want us to believe that those principles are consistent with Government Corporation Deregulation Policies and lower Corporate Tax Policies.
First of all; take any Corporation and what kind of “Government” is a Corporate Entity? IT IS A COMMUNISTIC ORGANIZATION OR GOVERNMENT IN AND OF ITSELF. Let’s see what is the purpose of a Corporation? It is to SERVE A BOARD OF DIRECTORS, MAKE THEM MORE MONEY EACH YEAR AND MONOPOLIZE IF POSSIBLE. Does a Corporation care about serving and taking care of its employees? NO. If a Corporation could, it would force slave labor to make more profit and cut salaries to $3.00 an hour in this country.
It is not meant to serve the employee but only the Board of Directors. Its sole purpose is to make a profit and as much profit as possible ANY WAY LEGALLY POSSIBLE.
PURPOSE OF THE GOVERNMENT WITH CORPORATIONS
So what is the purpose of the government? The purpose of the government is to REGULATE CORPORATIONS SO THEY CANNOT RUN OVER THE PEOPLE AND CREATE A FAIR COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT SO THE PRINCIPLES OF FREE TRADE, FREE MARKET, CAPITALISM AND DEMOCRACY CAN EXIST FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL AMERICANS.
CORPORATIONS AND GOVERNMENT DEBT
Today we are not a domestic economy. Today we are a world economy thanks to the US Tax Payer and the US Federal Reserve. Corporations care about the US Debt (Money rolling out of the Federal Reserve where there is not enough tax base to cover it); because the more Debt we have; the more it costs US Corporations to trade
against other currencies on the world market. So it de-values US Corporate Stock – the larger the US Debt.
For me, I do not give a rats butt how our debt affects US Corporations or other World Currencies. Haven’t we done enough already for these countries and Corporations. We bail out the Financial Markets (Corporations Stocks) and leave the American people suffering.
That seems to be the agenda – Save the Rich and heck with the Poor and Middle Class. We send trillions of dollars to foreign countries and ignore the poverty and suffering of the American People.
CORPORATIONS AND LAWMAKERS
Let’s face it. They are BOUGHT BY CORPORATIONS TO SELL US THIS BULL CRAP. Why DOESN’T THE US GOVERNMENT DO WHAT IT NEEDS TO DO AND ROLL ENOUGH MONEY (TRILLIONS) OUT OF THE FEDERAL
RESERVE TO HELP US, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND GET THE ECONOMY BOOMING AGAIN?
Why not give every American a million dollars? Why not? We give millions to other countries and the rich? Who is the biggest welfare recipient? It sure as hell is not the American People. Let me assure you of that.
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIX OUR ECONOMY?
There is no incentive for lawmakers making millions a year off booming corporations stock. Corporations
have bought enough lawmakers that they can influence law and US Policy. Again as stated above; for corporations it would be better for Americans to be getting $2.00 an hour with no insurance, no benefits, etc. They would love to turn us into a third world country on the level of Mexico.
SO WHAT ABOUT CHINA?
You hear this non-sense we have to be worried about China backing our DEBT. China does that to a degree but not because they like us; they do it because they have to. The US Federal Reserve controls their economy and if
China doesn’t play by the rules, the US GOV could pull the plug on them. It’s like this. If we put an embargo on China exporting to our country; it would sink them as an example. Right now President Obama is working to get China to raise their damn currency rates which they and South Korea and other countries should of done years ago.
But wait, why not. Because the damn Republicans and Corporations have no interest in that happening. Put the whole US Government in a bind I assure you they would quickly bring China around. Other countries raising their currency rates would cost corporations more money and higher labor rates in those countries.
So from a Corporate perspective they will lobby forever to keep that from happening. Thus you see the difficulty Obama is having getting that done.
IMF and CHINESE CURRENCY
Let me say this. If the US Dollar was to be replaced by the Chinese Currency, you would see WW III. China exists today as a world power strictly because the United States financed the expansion of their economy
using money from our Federal Reserve. The US Government is not going to let them take control of the IMF; NOT EVER.
SO WHAT IS MONEY IN RELATION TO RESOURCES?
Whoever has the most power to control the resources of the world, power to take control of those resources if needed or has the greatest negotiating power to leverage those resources; controls the bartering power of the world and thus ultimately has power to dictate economic growth in the world.
I can argue that with all the environmental protection laws on the books in the USA and the difficulty to tap into our own reserves; this would indicate that the US Government's best interest for our country is to use other countries resources first instead of our own and to try and control their resources as much as possible.
Thus we see the military machine of the USA 10 times larger than any other military in the world with
the largest Naval presence. I believe that it was decided and probably secret policy that the US Government would preserve our own resources at all costs and use and manipulate other countries resources to our advantage. Thus we see the use of Saudi Arabia and other country’s oil and our dependency on that oil today.
The issue today is dependency. We now trade security for oil in that we pay for the oil and provide money to assist other countries to build up not only their economies but also their military power to compete against us for controlling the world resources.
So with security threats such as nuclear proliferation to third world countries we have now cut our noses off to spite our face.
It is becoming more popular now to rid our dependency on foreign oil in exchange for using our own natural resources to reduce security threats to our country.
From a currency perspective and value of money perspective you can argue that the value of your currency is directly related to a country’s ability to use another country’s resources or take those resources through
military means if there is no cooperation between the 2 countries for mutual interest.
So for one, the US has the largest most powerful military in the world which provides leverage against other countries for bargaining for trade advantage throughout the world. Forget the Economic Ratings by Financial
Institutions. They don’t mean anything to Governments. Resource Control is what matters to a government because whoever has resources has the ability to CREATE GOODS AND SERVICES AND CAN ESTABLISH ANY CURRENCY THEY DESIRE AND CAN BARGIN TO MARKET THOSE RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS AT THEIR WILL AND PLEASURE.
Sure if you want to believe that Corporations matter at all costs in the long run and believe in the status quo of how we do business with other countries with normalized relationships; then you can accept the Republican agenda and Corporate power and Corporate Government deregulation policies and Coporate influence in our Gov and lowering taxes on the rich.
These are GRAVE TIMES FOR AMERICANS. We need to listen to the 99 and not the 1. The 99 movement is right on target to demonstrate on the steps of corporations because they understand where the problems are originating from.
We have had a US Government for too long allowing monopolies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; giving them to much financial control; insurance companies with too much power and control, oil companies with too much power and control; and we see Republicans wanting to continue this non-sense.
SIZE OF GOVERNMENT
Here again we see this non-sense Republican GOP Law Makers telling the American people our government is too large and we need to reduce its size. Size of the Government has nothing to do with what has been going on for 50 years.
How easy it is to blame the size of the government and try scare the American people with that. Reality is we are a big country with the largest economy in the world and we have to have a growing government size to REGULATE THE GROWING NUMBER OF CORPORATIONS AND EXPANDING ECONOMIES IN OTHER COUNTRIES AND THE SERVICES AND MANAGING THE RESOURCES, ETC NEEDED TO KEEP OUR COUNTRY STABILIZED AND PROSPERING.
REDUCTION IN SIZE OF GOVERNMENT
What does that do? It creates higher unemployment, puts more people on welfare and unemployment benefits and thus creates a larger deficit. Explain how that will reduce debt or help anyone? They want to brainwash you and scare you into believing that we cannot fix the economic problems of this country unless we first address the US Gov Federal Reserve DEBT.
FACT: They tell you the debit is too large and it is going to drive us into an economic meltdown if we do not addrtess the debt first.
The Republican GOP will say it reduces the US Debt. That is a lie. IT DOES NOT REDUCE THE US DEBT AND BESIDES THAT, THE US GOVERNMENT DOES NOT HAVE DEBT AS WE HAVE ESTABLISHED ABOVE.
What it does is help create more unemployment and put more of a percentage of Americans in poverty and reduce the middle class thus increasing Corporate power over the American people. It helps to turn us into a third world country. Selling this brainwashing bull crap to the American people is diabolical and its simply providing more corporate power to US Corporations.
Let's take a look at it closely. What does it really mean to print money and distribute it when millions of people are out of work. If there is very little economic infrastructure in place and you lived in a country with very limited resources or very little potential to transfer existing resources into useable goods and services; then obviously you would have people with a lot of cash but no way to use the money. The money would quickly lose its value.
But when you consider the potential of resource use or the ability to transform those resources into useable goods and services, then printing more money makes sense and has little negative effect upon the economy as a whole. You look and observe the magnitude of the UNLIMITED RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES and ask yourself; DO WE HAVE A DEBT PROBLEM OR DO WE HAVE AN UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.
What was it that drove the economic boom during and after World War II? Was it reducing the US Debt or was it using the resources of this country to put people back to work.
Sure if your an International Corporation you absolutely don't want to see more money rolling out of the Federal Reserve because that devalues the US Currency on the World Market and that drives their stock down. My question to you is this. Which do you care about more; the value of US Corporate Stock or having MORE COMPETITION IN THE MARKET PLACE AND HAVING MORE PEOPLE EMPLOYED AND PAYING TAXES? The more people that pay taxes and are employed the less the tax rate has to be for everyone.
COMPETITION IN THE MARKET PLACE.
What creates competition and how does that affect prices, labor rates, and job growth. Do you actually believe that by using this debt bull crap as an excuse to lay off millions of people and put them on welfare and unemployment and take away their retirement benefits, health insurance, etc is creating more competition in the market place? Do you actually believe that is good for the economy? Do you really buy into this radical none sense being pushed on us by the Republican Party?
Let's see. So in the name of debt you lay off more people, shrink the size of the work force, cause reductions in pay rates and allow corporations now to gobble up smaller companies that go out of business, thus creating more monopolizing and fewer people now with greater control over the Gross National Product. This of course reduces the middle class further to poverty but it sure will increase the power of Corporations.
COMPETITION IS CREATED IN THE MARKET BY REDUCING THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE, HAVING SUFFICIENT AND PROPER CORPORATE REGULATIONS, AND HAVING A BIG ENOUGH GOVERNMENT, WITH ADEQUATE RESOURCES AND MILITARY POWER TO MAINTAIN ECONOMIC LEVERAGE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
The idea of borrowing money is truly not in the best interest of a family or home owner. But if you’re the
US government and you control all the resources in the country and half the resources of the world or potential to take control of 90% of the resources of the world, does that really mean the US Gov has debt? NO absolutely NOT. And sure from a global perspective US Debt matters to corporations and it negatively affects their profits and it affects other countries business with the US but again I could care less about any of them with so many americans suffering.
WHAT IS THE POTENTIAL OF THE UNITED STATES.
We have hardly tapped into our natural resources. I rest my case here.
Stephen Bibb
Nobody Understands Debt By PAUL KRUGMAN
Paul Krugman: Mr. Krugman received his B.A. from Yale University in 1974 and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1977. He has taught at Yale, MIT and Stanford. At MIT he became the Ford International Professor of Economics.
Mr. Krugman is the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 papers in professional journals and edited volumes. His professional reputation rests largely on work in international trade and finance; he is one of the founders of the "new trade theory," a major rethinking of the theory of international trade. In recognition of that work, in 1991 the American Economic Association awarded him its John Bates Clark medal, a prize given every two years to "that economist under forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic knowledge."
Mr. Krugman's current academic research is focused on economic and currency crises. At the same time, Mr. Krugman has written extensively for a broader public audience. Some of his recent articles on economic issues, originally published in Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American and other journals, are reprinted in Pop Internationalism and The Accidental Theorist.
On October 13, 2008, it was announced that Mr. Krugman would receive the Nobel Prize in Economics.
When people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they’re talking about — and the people who talk the most understand the least.
First, families have to pay back their debt. Governments don’t — all they need to do is ensure that debt grows more slowly than their tax base. The debt from World War II was never repaid; it just became increasingly
irrelevant as the U.S. economy grew, and with it the income subject to taxation.
Second — and this is the point almost nobody seems to get — an over-borrowed family owes money to someone else; U.S. debt is, to a large extent, money we owe to ourselves.
This was clearly true of the debt incurred to win World War II. Taxpayers were on the hook for a debt that was significantly bigger, as a percentage of G.D.P., than debt today; but that debt was also owned by taxpayers, such as all the people who bought savings bonds. So the debt didn’t make postwar America poorer. In particular, the debt didn’t prevent the postwar generation from experiencing the biggest rise in incomes and living standards in our nation’s history.
But isn’t this time different? Not as much as you think. It’s true that foreigners now hold large claims on the United States, including a fair amount of government debt. But every dollar’s worth of foreign claims on America is matched by 89 cents’ worth of U.S. claims on foreigners. And because foreigners tend to put their U.S. investments into safe, low-yield assets, America actually earns more from its assets abroad than it pays to foreign investors. If your image is of a nation that’s already deep in hock to the Chinese, you’ve been misinformed. Nor are we heading rapidly in that direction.
Now, the fact that federal debt isn’t at all like a mortgage on America’s future doesn’t mean that the debt is harmless. Taxes must be levied to pay the interest, and you don’t have to be a right-wing ideologue to concede
that taxes impose some cost on the economy, if nothing else by causing a diversion of resources away from productive activities into tax avoidance and evasion. But these costs are a lot less dramatic than the analogy with an over-indebted family might suggest.
And that’s why nations with stable, responsible governments — that is, governments that are willing to impose modestly higher taxes when the situation warrants it — have historically been able to live with much higher
levels of debt than today’s conventional wisdom would lead you to believe. Britain, in particular, has had debt exceeding 100 percent of G.D.P. for 81 of the last 170 years. When Keynes was writing about the need to spend your way out of a depression, Britain was deeper in debt than any advanced nation today, with the exception of Japan.
Of course, America, with its rabidly anti-tax conservative movement, may not have a government that is responsible in this sense. But in that case the fault lies not in our debt, but in ourselves.
So yes, debt matters. But right now, other things matter more. We need more, not less, government spending to get us out of our unemployment trap. And the wrongheaded, ill-informed obsession with debt is standing in the way.
@Steve...that explains a lot! Thanks...it's a good read. I will refer to it from time time. At least it gives some perspective on what's happening now. I hope Howard, John, my buddy Sponge-Bob aka Joey and many other anti-Obama' blogging politicians' make time to read it! I will be reading it again and taking notes.
All this single-minded, left versus right, ideological one dimensional bull has got to go! This is the problem with our country. It shouldn't be about Democrats or Republicans! It should be about Americans, especially our elected officials, doing the right thing for our country and it's citizens.
Both parties have sold out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide. (Under Clinton jobs to China, Under Bush I & II influx of illegals or cheap easily abused labor into the US and jobs to Mexico/NAFTA) Our leaders are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself. They are NOT elected by the Global Market Place or foreign citizens!
We need whoever wins the next election to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. They've got to give us somebody who will stand up for the American people.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why. Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word. Hum, maybe it’s that our so called leaders (political leaders) are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street, CEOs and Foreign Lobbyists promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us?
The so called “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world’s customer base out of work. I’m not a lefty or member of any union. I run a business that employs over 20 people and produces products that are purchased by customers that do manufacturing and packaging. I’m just an average Joe, but I've been saying this for more than 10 years now. If I can see it, so can our so called leaders (political leaders) who are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we’re importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue.
Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let’s keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
These so-called “free trade agreements” have to go. It was obvious when they were passing these agreements as to what was going to happen and sure enough it did. Our leaders had to have known this as well when they were passing these bills. It’s just common sense. We also need to bring customer support services back to the United States of America and staff them with employees who are US Citizens.
The “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field! The whole idea of the tariffs is so we can pay our factory workers a decent wage and not be blown out by these other countries where they don’t play by the same rules.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
The bottom line is that “Our Government” has to protect American industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
Hello! cegddfd interesting cegddfd site! I'm really like it! Very, very cegddfd good!