Buffet Tax and Jobs Bill

Is President Obama on target to fix the broken finances of the U.S. Government with his two recent proposals? In one hand he is asking for a jobs bill to create jobs and in the other he is proposing a tax increase on millionaires. In some respects I think he has the right idea but needs to go further with fixing the budget and the nations ongoing debt problem.

Common sense tells you that you can’t pay all of your household bills if you have less coming in than going out. Common sense also tells you that in order to fix that problem you have to cut spending first and increase income. No matter how you look at the process the two are joined for the end result. All of the bills need to be paid and paying down the nations debt should be a prerogative for both political parties.

The “Buffet Tax” where millionaires will pay a minimum percentage is a good start at a second job income coming in for the treasury. It makes sense to tax someone like Warren Buffet that pays less tax percentage wise than someone raising three kids on a middle class paycheck. The majority of income that financially sound millionaires make is from income from investments that are taxed at 15%. If you have three kids on your middle income salary you are taxed around 23% of your total income on average. With the treasury shelling out more than it takes in then you need the extra job income from the “Buffet Tax”.

Then comes the jobs bill that is supposedly paid partially for with the above mentioned tax increase on millionaires. What jobs are going to be created is the long term question? Green jobs are good but the nation needs jobs in the manufacturing sector where products are made and goods are sold that feed more MADE IN THE USA jobs. You can not hand out checks to industries that are going to take the money and run for the border to outsource even more American jobs. Or in the case of some “Green” jobs, file bankruptcy after a couple of years. Do we really need a jobs bill? Damn straight we do! What the jobs bill needs is some meat and potatoes of long term good jobs that will be in America for more than two or three years. It can be done and it can be done in several American Made industries. One industry is where I suggest that the jobs bill should start.

When you look at jobs in this country, one of the largest is the automotive industry that has the single ability to feed growth of new jobs down the supply chain. Ergo why George W. Bush had no choice other than to bailout the industry when the economy crashed. When you build automotive plants no matter who the brand name is, it builds second stage, third stage, fourth stage, fifth stage, sixth and seventh stage and even more jobs outside of that plant in suppliers plants and the transportation industries. Thousands of small companies all across this country feed the automotive industry with parts and each widget made here is made by someone paying into the U.S. Treasury in the form of a payroll tax.

It’s time to bring the jobs back and you do that by offering incentives to overseas companies to build more automotive plants here in the United States. How do we do that? The same way local communities do by offering companies tax incentives and financing for the new plants. Every plant that is built is a win win for long term good paying American jobs. The trickle down from the automotive industry and each plant no matter where it is placed is phenomenal. Entire cities and thousands of jobs, homes, and communities are built around them and that is just common sense. Who looses?

Can we get these companies to build plants in America? Of course we can and it is a plan that both political parties can and should agree on. The President could charm any manufacturer to build their goods here in America and Speaker Bohner could sell it to his political friends in the business community. Together they could get it done. But they won’t.

It is more important for the political parties to bicker over politics rather than put bread on American workers tables. The end result is that both of them will be eating cake after a two hundred dollar dinner of good food and good drink. But you should know that they both really care about good long term jobs for America.

End of discussion is that the President wants a jobs bill but that would make him look good if it succeeded and that would make the Republican’s look bad and the only outcome that is acceptable to the GOP is no new jobs and no new taxes. How that is politically sound for a struggling economy is beyond me but they do wave the flag pretty damn good so I’m sold on it. NOT!

I guess Marie Antoinette was somewhat right. But no cake for all of you looking for a good job at a good wage. But make sure you vote Republican because that will help you get a good job at a good wage and then you can continue to pay more than millionaires in taxes percentage wise if you can find a job. It only makes sense. And pigs will fly.

First class if they are on the menu at the RNC fund raising dinner. Try applying in the food service industry. It is after all a job.

Papamoka

Death of American Innovation

The United States of America has long been known for its abilities to produce the next great machine. Expanding our nation’s abilities by building products in factories and relying on its workforce to innovate original designs, streamline production, increase product quality, and in return supply a living wage to our citizens. Innovations come from people making a product in a factory and being proud of the next great widget that they were a part of from the start. They don’t come from an office worker sending a production order to be built overseas or just over the border where wages are disgustingly low but corporate profits are high.

More and more, American companies are outsourcing their manufacturing out of the country and that is a potential blow to our future economy no matter how you look at it. The cost savings today to the American companies are paid for in lost American jobs for future generations. This then begets a “Do you want fries with that” economy. An economic engine where two cars in every driveway, parents being able to send the next generation to college, and the demise of the American dream of home ownership will not be realistic to sustain.

Over at the New York Times they have a great piece on this subject by Louis Uchitelle…

“The big debate today is whether we can continue to be competitive in R&D when we are not making the stuff that we innovate,” she says. “I think not; the two can’t be separated.”

THE loss of manufacturing capacity, measured in lost workers, is startling. From the high point in the summer of 1979, through last month, employment in manufacturing has fallen by 8.1 million, to 11.6 million, with most of the drop in just the last decade. While consumers have benefited from lower prices, made possible by unrestricted imports, on the other side of the ledger are tens of billion of dollars in lost manufacturing wages.

Something else is gone, too. “We had a storehouse of knowledge and skill built up in these workers and we can’t use it now,” says James Jordan, president of the Interstate Maglev Project, promoting a high-speed rail technology that uses special magnets to levitate and propel trains. Maglev was invented in the United States, but equipment based on that technology is manufactured and used today in Japan.

Mr. Jordan argues that as manufacturing’s presence — and status — shrinks in America, the odds of a Henry Ford or a Thomas Edison or a Steve Jobs appearing in the next generation are reduced. -New York Times

How do we fix this? My thoughts are the same as they always have been. Make it costly to corporations that want to export existing manufacturing jobs out of the United States. When you come right down to it, we should have a “Keep the Jobs in America” campaign and it doesn’t matter which political party wants to get behind it. Either party that does back such a movement will deserve thumbs up from the next generation of innovators. People that will be thankful that they will not have to look forward to a thirty plus year career at Walmart stocking shelves full of products that used to be manufactured for good wages right here at home.

Feel free to comment and shout out on products no longer made in this country. It would be interesting to see a list of industries that have died but were born in the USA.

***Yet another related Posts from Gun Toting Liberal concerning Walmart and their selling out of America...

Papamoka

The GOP Does Not Get IT

Back in the day when George Bush Senior was concentrating on the world and ignored the folks at home there came a key phrase, “It’s the economy stupid”. And George Bush lost his bid for re-election to Bill Clinton for the White House.

While the GOP is full of piss and vinegar they still don’t get it. The economy is still in the tank and jobs are still scarce. People are still pissed and there is a reason why there are Tea Party groups and any other faction that leans right politically. The core reason for those factions is that the GOP ignored American’s while it stuffed its pockets under George W. Bush. Pick a subject and the GOP in power was stuffing big business pockets full of cash simply because they could. The war in Iraq, no bid contracts to KBR aka Dick Cheney’s former company that he was CEO for. Gasoline at $4.00 plus per gallon the last year W was president and there was no common sense reason for it other than stuffing the pockets of the president’s buddies. And there was never a conclusive investigation over it other than “Market” movement. Bullshit!

Now the GOP is shocked that they are having a hard time electing anyone in the special elections. The seat held by Jack Murtha in PA was a battlefield and still the GOP lost it by six or seven points. The exception to the rule is the seat once held by Teddy Kennedy that is now held by Scott Brown in Mass, but that could be explained easily when you look at what Martha Coakley, the Attorney General, brought to the table and that was nada. Then again, Massachusetts is the state that also votes in Republican Governors because the states people know that a one sided political government is never a good thing without some checks and balances. Why else would the bluest of the blues elect Ed King, Bill Weld, and Mitt Romney? Life long liberal here but voted for all three of the gentleman because I didn’t trust my state to be run by just one side.

If the GOP wants any chance of getting any seats then they have to face the fact that IT IS THE ECONOMY STUPID. When anyone wants to earn votes then tell the people what YOU will do to get jobs for your district. When people see that your GOP Chairman is spending money frivolously like he is a Lord in days of old because the trough will never run dry with donations then the election results are what they are. You would have to be an idiot to not know that the GOP is funded by mega corporations and the top income of America. Which is why I personally do not trust the GOP to offer me any information on local candidates for federal offices.

When you assume that everyone that is a Democrat will never vote Republican then the results are the same when you smack an intelligent person that is politically active regardless of their political affiliation in the face. In the end it comes down to the economy and the Republican leadership under Bush had a field day screwing it all up and Tea Party or whatever faction the GOP has now I want no part of it if the message is in ten parts because ten different groups now define the GOP and I’m thinking that is the basis of the GOP problem. Too many damn cooks in the kitchen.

Till then, we Democrats will clean up the mess that W and his crew left behind. We fixed the bank mess because the GOP striped regulation out of the industry, we are trying to fix Wall Street, we fixed Detroit and the auto makers because they are the largest contributor to the economy bar non, (GM just paid back its loan in full), we fixed healthcare, we fixed the massive loss of jobs under Bush, and we have a ton of other issues to clean up that 409 or Pinesol won’t have any effect on. And that is what matters at the polls when people vote.

And that is what Democrat’s do. So bite me. (Turrets)

Papamoka

Reaching out for help

This is really hard for me. I’ve worked hard all my life and I have always been proud to have been able to always keep a roof over my little families head, food in the fridge and providing an atmosphere for my five baby girls to grow up in that was nothing to be ashamed of. Never in my life have I felt so ashamed to tell someone what is going on in my life. I can’t make the rent. I can’t make the electric bill, the gas bill and the list goes on.

I lost my job back in March of 2008 and unemployment ran out in March of 2009. I have never not had a job in my entire life! I’m working now pretty much for myself but it isn’t paying the bills due to the industry I work in. It takes weeks and sometimes months to produce the products I sell and I don’t get paid till the end user gets the product and then they pay for it in thirty, sixty to ninety days. It sucks! The landlord has his bills to pay and I understand that more than you know. I sympathize with him. I don’t want to be a deadbeat but I’m going to become one and I hate that fact.

My lifetime savings ran out in the beginning of May and I’m up the creek without a paddle. Your savings run down quick when your unemployment benefit is half of what you used to bring home. I’m a proud man but I am not to proud to ask for help when I really need it to keep a roof over my children’s head and food on the table. I could really use your help as a reader of this site. Without your help, I can’t keep this going if I don’t have a street address or link to post articles from. And yes I am behind on the internet bill too. I’ve been packing up personal stuff and I have no clue as to where I’m even going to put them if I loose this apartment and that fact is evident within the next thirty days. I have no idea what is going to happen to us and I’m terrified.

I’m so frustrated with myself, with my life, with everything that it is truly depressing. And yet every single day I am working the phones to try and find new customers and sometimes I do but most times I don’t. That is the nature of the business I am in. Some folks might think that I should get out of the business I know but that would be hard since I’ve been in it since 1984.

If you can help us out that would be great. If you want to knock me down further for asking for help then so be it. I’ve lost all respect for myself at this point in my life.

I set up a donation button in the sidebar that is a secure PayPal link. I thank you in advance for whatever you can donate to the Papamoka family fund to pay the rent. God bless ya and love and hugs at ya. Feel free to spread the word that Papamoka needs help to pay the rent.

Feel free to email me at papamoka@hotmail.com to get a mailing address if that works best for you.

Papamoka

UPDATE: 5/31/09 My personal thanks to all of my internet and blogging friends that have helped spread the word. God bless ya all! I humbly apologize if I missed anyone and please know that it was not intentional. I'll add my heroes to the list as I find them. You all rock and you touched my heart more than you know. I have to thank Jeff especially for his contribution. He knows who he is and I thank him to no end for being a hero when I thought I was drowning. For that matter, I thank everyone that has or will donate to the Papamoka family. You all have a special place in my heart forever.

My friend K of Gun Toting Liberal
Crooks and Liars on Mikes Blog Round Up, my email bud
My sistah from another mother at Chells Roost
My left coast friend Infidel 753
Political Byline from my friend Pat
Pink Granite from my friend Lee and Chuck
The Moderate Voice and my bud Joe Gandelman
Freedom Writing and my new friend David
Wormtown Taxi and my bud Jeff

Obama Message on Unemployment

Politics aside, we all need to look to one leader to get us all out of this economic crisis and free fall. Jobs are being lost at record numbers and we need to come together to stop the free fall. Where do we all stop being Liberal and Conservative when it comes to record job losses. America and her people need consensus and somebody to follow other than the message of politicians and talking heads in the main stream media of whom to blame. We have a President, like him, love him, or hate him, he is our President.

George Washington, our first President, he alone faced many trials during the Revolutionary War but one thing was certain, he was the leader of men willing to sacrifice life and liberty for what they and he believed in. Washington put his foot down in the time of crisis in his Presidency for a reason and it was to prove the point that this nation can not survive based on one or two or three political points of view. Leadership comes from being firm, showing confidence, and moving forward regardless of your many detractors. Our President must act as his gut tells him and thus history is made. President Obama needs to do the same and thus he is acting on the best of the American people…

Video Link

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

While the Bush year millionaires are contemplating how much of a donation they should send to his Presidential Library Fund, I wonder if any of them know what it feels like to get a pink slip or told that the company they have worked for loyally can no longer afford their services? The clock is ticking if your state believes in unemployment payments to support your family. If your state doesn’t provide unemployment compensation then you need to find a job where paper or plastic is a common phrase during the work day.

Papamoka

Republican Secrets and Lies

Hello Papamoka Readers! Senate Republicans and "centrists" appear to have been successful at ripping the heart out of the stimulus bill, which will probably render it mostly ineffective. It's been both incredible and depressing to watch!

The Republican rank and file have fallen for their party's ruse about reduced government spending, while the GOP leadership looks out for their shadow interests few understand. The pathetic Senator Reid needs to fix it, or the outcome could be very bad news for America.

After watching recent events unfold it's now clear that I was wrong. I thought the Republicans were just stubbornly clinging to discredited ideas about how to spur economic growth, to create jobs their way, but I've changed my mind. I now believe they don't give a damn about creating good jobs.

After watching the debate on the Senate floor, with Democrats giving amazing speeches supported by leading economists on both sides of the aisle, it's clear nothing will convince GOP leaders. The opposition's floor comments were often outrageous, mostly unhelpful, and without alternatives. They obviously have another agenda. It's still unclear what it is, but I think they're up to no good.

They're deaf about the "change" the American people voted for. They are willing to destroy the ONE PLAN we have to create a solution for their own mysterious, selfish, power-hungry reasons. They seem unconcerned about the American economy, suggesting we wait for better solutions. They are spewing lies, muddying the waters, and playing the WORST POLITICS imaginable with people's lives and livelihoods.

The GOP today is surreal. Their leadership lies to control the message. Their constituents believe them. We know they're lying about the spending, but their true economic and political goals remain unclear. If I had to guess, it probably has something to do with keeping CONTROL of economic power. Government intervention is probably a threat to their interests. That's my best guess. What's yours?

Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist all you want, but the evidence seems clear. I'll bet the GOP shadow government, or oligarchy, cares about the American economy IF it serves their interests. IF it threatens that wealth and power, it must be sacrificed and renewed.

So, the Republicans have succeeded once again at herding their sheep and attracting a few moronic centrists into their fold. The damage this time will be significant. The stimulus bill Reid has negotiated will not be enough. Forget Reid, unless President Obama and Nancy Pelosi can convince the centrists in the Senate - like Olympia Snowe (R-ME) - to accept more stimulus than all is lost.

The watered-down version will not do the job - it will NOT CREATE ENOUGH JOBS to restart the economy. Unless we can stop the Republicans and their centrist allies, than America is doomed. The economy will begin to spiral down further, and as more jobs are lost the housing market will crumble more. The government will lose its ability to borrow from the credit markets, and then the worst will happen.

The final Republican bubble will burst. The treasury will lose its ability to raise money and the American economy will CRASH! The Chinese and the rest of the world holding over $10 trillion in American government paper will have only one course of action: buy America piece by piece.

Unless President Obama and the Democrats can reverse the ship of state on its collision course with disaster, then we - AVERAGE AMERICANS - are doomed to CRASH! Most Americans will suffer, and the middle-class will be destroyed for good. We will be powerless. It will make the first Great Depression look like a trial run. President Obama needs the support FDR fought so well to attract, or we're all in trouble.

The Republicans will be fine. Remember, the rich always get richer. They'll make their money anyway possible - as they always do - while America slowly heals over decades from its deep Republican wound. Once crashed, the Republicans will probably return to power, and do what they've always wanted to do - enact the "Anti-New Deal!"

The Anti-New Deal will be sold to "get us out of debt." It's ironic how the "party of debt" will be the ones selling to get us out of debt. They will do it by destroying everything good about the nation. In the best libertarian traditions they'll destroy everything FDR created. The REPUBLICAN FINAL SOLUTION will finally be enacted.

It's not concentration camps, but it will kill people. Social security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment, and the rest of the 20th century entitlement programs will be eliminated. Government will suffer its final Republican castration, and few government programs will be left to serve average Americans.

The result will be a dog eat dog nation again. Charity will be left to the poverty stricken private sector, and millions of people will die. Only the strongest will survive. They are trying to return us to that very dark and ugly world, and they may succeed if we can't stop them. They got us to this point by spending us into oblivion, and now they're trying to say we can't be allowed to fix it.

I'm sorry to be so negative, but despite our "glass half full" national personality, everything described here is possible. Our only hope is that ordinary Americans who happen to be Republicans figure it out before it's too late, and force their leaders to act in the best interest of the nation and its people.

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

Handle with Care

In these foreboding times in our nation it is up to all of us to handle our economy with care. While we have all been beat up and shot down our reputation and place in the world is to lead with confidence and to some degree arrogance and yet with some form of humility. Our future as a people and nation has not been robbed from us but simply misplaced. It is up to each one of us to lean on one another to find the path out of this mess and we can clean it up together. Our nations government and its reputation is on the line with the bailout packages that they are proposing but that is just a drop in the bucket of what this nation really needs. We need to join together, stop being fooled and listen to one another and act accordingly with one another. Stop acting as if the next great depression is upon us and listen to the traffic outside your window and that my friends is America alive and well and working. Non stop fear mongering by the media is driving the mentality that we should all tighten our belts and forget that we are the economic engine of the world. That is bull and we all know it deep down.

Video Link



Everybody has a part to play in this economy and everyone can excel at their part in fixing it by simply not acting out of fear. Give the time needed for change to happen and by all means, if you can hire one person to do a job in your small business, then do so. If you can take the time out of your life to volunteer at your local police or fire department, parks department, schools, or wherever your service to the community you live in will help, then just do it!

One thing is certain, when any group of people acts like a bed of clams and closes their shells tightly out of fear, eventually the entire bed will die off from lack of oxygen. The same scenario is true when the American people stop using their overall purchasing power that does in fact run the world economy.

Make no doubt about it, fear is the main driving force that is running the American economy right now and the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. A wise man once said that to his people in a similar situation. Who was it that said that? His name is on the tip of my tongue but I'm drawing a blank... Help me out here.

If you are waiting for better times to replace the things you need to replace just in case then the fear is in your heart. Let it go and let God. Replace that old car or truck with a new one, replace that television or fridge or washer and dryer with a new one, replace that living room set that you hate anyway. Not because you have to, but because you want too! That my friends is the key to the American way of life. We do things simply because we want to and that got us to the moon with the inspiration of a President some four decades ago. So what is stopping you from replacing or upgrading the stuff you already have? Is it fear? Now ask yourself who sold you that fear in a wrapped package?

Papamoka

Bush Consistent Deafness to Unemployed

One has to give President Bush credit for being unrealistically consistent. He’s threatening his mighty veto pen if Congress passes an extension of benefits for our nations growing unemployed. Bush is true to form even when it comes to telling the unemployed to get a paper route you lazy good for nothing leaches. Especially, those folks in states with robust economies, there is no excuse for these unemployed people to not work according to President Bush. There is just one problem with his thinking. The jobs he sold out to God knows who overseas were once good paying American made jobs no longer exist. The economy in America with good jobs at great wages has morphed under his watch into an environment where no amount of higher education will guarantee you a well paying job.

President Bush I swear is an economic idiot in thinking that a job is a job, and a paycheck is a paycheck. An engineering job is not the same pay grade as the person manning the French fry baskets at the local McDonald’s. McDonald’s might be a great place to work but it doesn’t afford the paycheck needed to pay down college loans for any college degree, pay for health insurance for your family, or even pay for a mortgage once obtained by a person with a higher education position.

Over at the New York Times they have this to say on Bush threatening a Veto if unemployment benefits are extended by the Congress…

House Passes Unemployment Benefits Extension

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 12, 2008
Filed at 2:51 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Thursday approved an extra three months of jobless benefits for all unemployed Americans, knowing the plan's chances are slight in the Senate and almost nonexistent at the White House.

After failing to get a veto-proof two-thirds margin Wednesday, Democrats said they pushed the legislation through to the Senate anyway, on a 274-137 vote, to help Americans survive a slumping economy.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week increased by 25,000 from the week before. The unemployment rate in May jumped to 5.5 percent, up from 5 percent in April. It was the biggest one-month gain in 22 years.

"The American people are waiting to see if Congress is going to help them," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said.

But the White House already has threatened to veto the bill, and Senate Democrats have said they won't try and force their Republican colleagues to consider the House legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he will try to bring up the House bill, but he won't force the issue if Senate Republicans object. "We're not wasting weeks" on it, he said. Instead, Reid said, Democrats might attach the jobless benefits extension to the Iraq war spending bill, a move also opposed by the White House.

The White House and Republicans said a bill targeting unemployment benefits only to states that have high unemployment would be more palatable to them. The Democrats' plan "is dead on arrival," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said. "The Senate's not going to take it up." - New York Times

Or you could read what they have to say at the Washington Post...

"The Congressional Budget Office estimated that about 3.2 million Americans would collect $11.7 billion in extended unemployment benefits over the life of the extension."

I have to get this straight in my head… Our government has no problem with $15 Billion Dollars unaccountable for in Iraq but if Americans in America need help then Republican’s have a problem with it? That $15 Billion dollars, who was overseeing how that cash was distributed in the middle of the desert of Iraq? Was there a division of unemployment to make sure the cash was distributed properly? Power Line News has this to say about our tax dollars being spent, or misplaced in Iraq…

Friday, May 23, 2008 10:44 PM

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon cannot account for nearly 15 billion dollars in payments for goods and services in Iraq, according to an internal audit which members of Congress blasted Friday as a “shocking” accountability failure.

Of 8.2 billion dollars in US taxpayer-funded defense contracts reviewed by the defense department’s inspector general, the Pentagon could not properly account for more than 7.7 billion dollars.

The lack of accountability of the funds, intended for purchases of weapons, vehicles, construction equipment and security services, amounted to a 95 percent failure rate in basic accounting standards, according to the report. - Power Line News

I’m thinking that the Bush administration and his political crony Republican’s in the Congress have no problem flushing cash down the drain without care as to where it ends up in the war in Iraq but all of them lazy Americans that are unemployed should just screw. Unemployed people are not paying taxes, thus not contributing to the endless money grab of the Iraq War and thus are terrorist and anti American.

I’m still fuzzy on the Republican math but if they say it’s for the protection of our nation against terrorism then it must be true. There has to be a mistake with the 95% accounting failure rate? Maybe an auditor forgot to carry the one somewhere or missed a large receipt for French fries from KBR. Or should I be politically correct and call them “Freedom Fries”?

Papamoka

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It’s called a Recession

While all the politicians including the Hack in Chief of the United States are finally noticing that the economy is in a free fall the latest news everywhere is not enlightening on how to fix it. While one political party is calling for more tax cuts for the middle and upper classes the other is presenting tax cuts for the middle and lower classes. Stimulus tax cuts they call them. In a realistic world they would be called one layer of gauze tape to stop the bleeding of a lost limb.

Our nation is being bled dry not by outside influences but by our own behaviors as a nation. Rather than facing our worst fears we point out who is to blame and then head on over to Walmart or any other super store to save a few dollars on our household needs. It may not be fair to single out Walmart alone simply because every store you go into for any product your family needs and it has become increasingly harder to find products that are actually “Made in the U.S.A.”. Which should also mean made here and not just packaged here. All of the manufacturing jobs that used to make that tooth brush or that nail clipper or toaster are gone. Walmart is hiring part time workers though so you can make minimum wage being a greeter or cashier.

There is an enormous difference between a manufacturing wage and a retail wage. Huge difference! Our nations middle class economy is based in the manufacturing sector and when that is sold out to Wall Street and jobs shipped overseas, it tends to have a negative effect on local economies all across America.

Free markets without controls and rules are dangerous as ignored by the former majority political party and the latest reporting of the mega banks writing off hundreds of billions in foreclosed mortgages is outrageous. Without clearly written government rules, the industry of home lending is imploding on itself with bad loans for people that could not afford them to begin with and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. Greed will do that in a pyramid scheme when you leave the next guy holding the bad loan bag.

"We're facing a recession in the economy," Clinton told a predominantly black church outside of Los Angeles. "I know it's already arrived." - New York Times

"We don't know whether we are already in a technical definition of a recession, but what I know from traveling all across the country is families have been struggling for a long time -- even prior to the sub-prime lending crisis," Obama said in San Francisco. - New York Times

John Edwards… We have to strengthen and grow the middle class, which is struggling mightily in this country today. And one of the reasons that we've lost jobs, we're having trouble creating jobs, we're having trouble growing & strengthening the middle class is because corporate power and greed have literally taken over the government. - On the Issues.org

Instead of a “Stimulus Tax Cut” lets look at the highest affect of the economy and largest creator of the American recession. Oil prices. Everything in your personal life is bound to the price of oil even if you are a new born child. All of the food on your table has a transportation cost to get it to the market and then to your refrigerator. I won't even start on plastic products which are all oil based. You are not alone when you think that three bags of groceries should not cost fifty dollars when it was twenty less than six years ago. Transportation cost are passed on to the consumer in every industry product on the open market except the ones coming from China? They may now call it Black China as an accounting term rather than a political one. Government supports in China make the products the cheapest in the world and the cheapest on the shelf here in America.

Instead of a tax cut, we should urge our government leaders to propose a Legal Aid for America. awyers with a free will to go get them attitude with a government badge. How many of the best legal minds in America would sign up for a commission basis result of prosecuting market manipulation in the oil markets from any sector. We could call it the Green Beret’s of the Justice Department and just the site of any single one of them in the lobby of any Wall Street firm or Big Oil companies front office would set off the sprinklers in the CEO’s pants. Prices at the pump would drop and so would the preposterous ten and twenty billion dollar quarterly profits reported by the largest of oil companies. Not to mention the hundred million dollar bonuses for the top of the top on Wall Street every single year.

We need strong leaders and a strong legal arm of the government that is not beholding to the President no matter who it is. Our economy is being sucked down the drain because the friends of this current President are at the end of the money pipeline with his time left in office.

It was rather ironic that recently the most powerful man in the free world was forced to beg and kiss the ring of the King of Saudi Arabia to open the spigots to relieve the world oil supply needs after being rebuked by the King’s Oil Minister. Now that tells you who is really running the world doesn’t it.

Then of course there is the bleeding of our treasury to fight a war that has no end in the Middle East. Our nation is sending so much money into this endless pit that it has become an addiction of pride rather than an admission of the truth. Can’t fix it, won’t ever be fixed, and the people that live there don’t want it fixed. And yet the American people are screwed by the King of America and the King of Saudi Arabia.

I know that I personally thank our President in my own special way every time I fill up my tank. How about you? Do you feel no longer like an American and just another money chip on the political poker game table? If you do then voting now is more important than ever.

Papamoka

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Cross posted at Michael Linn Jones.com and Bring IT ON!

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It’s the Economy Stupid… Again!

Now that reality and what it means to be an actual American is in the head lights of the politicians running for President maybe they will all see that it is the economy that is the heartbeat of America. With the hundreds of billions of dollars flowing out of America to pay for an endless war it is finally hitting home in the nations capitol.

We have had eight years of a President that simply can not stand Americans but loves to only show up at military bases and closed public meetings that are invitation only events. It has been a late revelation to me but something I have slowly put together over the last few days but I’m sure others have conceived the thought before I. George Bush is terrified to be President.

We have had eight years of a President that does not see the tasks of lenders that would lead to a housing market and ownership collapse. One thing that all economist know as the standard bar to base our economy on is the housing market. Right now and for a long time now the housing market has been in a free fall. And just not the President but the entire Congress has looked the other way from the millionaire club seats that most of them come from. None of them have lost their homes and most likely not one soul that they are familiar with has lost their home. While President Bush is on the road to the Middle East all you have to do is watch his body language to see that the suit does not fit. He is no more comfortable with that situation as much as he is facing the fact that he and our government can no longer fix the housing market free fall.

Some Fear Economic Stimulus Is Already Too Late

By PETER S. GOODMAN and FLOYD NORRIS
Published: January 13, 2008

As leaders in Washington turn their attention to efforts to avert a looming downturn, many economists suggest that it may already be too late to change the course of the economy over the first half of the year, if not longer.

With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008. Huge and complex, the American economy has in recent years been aided by a global web of finance so elaborate that no one seems capable of fully comprehending it. That makes it all but impossible to predict how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes.

The answer could be a defining factor in the outcome of the fiercely contested presidential election. Not long ago, the race centered on the war in Iraq.

But now, as candidates fan out across the country, visiting places as varied as the factory towns of Michigan and streets lined with unsold condominiums in Las Vegas, voters are increasingly demanding that they focus on the best way to keep the economy from slipping off the tracks. - New York Times

Americans need to face the facts and know that the government is no longer there to help you. That is till you stop paying taxes and feeding the machine with a bottomless appetite. Then they really care about you as an individual. So much so they will provide you with three square meals a day, a bed and a room mate to talk to in your prison cell.

Some how it was decided that everyone needs to stand on their own two feet. Be you man, woman or beast you must stand on your own two feet! Then the Republicans gutted the Veterans Administration that treated all the so called leaches needing medical help that fought for the nation they love. That is the true difference between a Democrat and a Republican, Democrats will recognize a veteran that was disabled in service to their nation, Republicans look at them as an expense on the backs of hard working people. One of them is wrong.

I know what the loss of hope is. I’ve lived it, I’ve fought it and still fight it every single day. So does every single American under the screw you and do it your damn self policies of the Republican Party. That is why change is so critical in our nation right now in this point in time. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can bitch and moan who moved or advanced civil rights to the center stage of American politics and it wasn’t John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson or even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was people that were sick and tired of the loss of hope. People like you, your neighbor and people that knew America could be better. People in mass made the difference by seeking change in their elected leaders.

A good friend reminded me that some people believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves but it was not only his actions and words that eventually lead to that freedom existing in this nation. It was the actions of many willing to fight for that freedom and die for it. Not just white men but black men as well. Words are easy, fighting for what you believe in and putting your life on the line for it are true forms of courage that few politicians have the stomach for.

When Barack and Hillary figure out who is a racist and who is a bitch then somebody please pass a note or tell them that “It’s the damn economy!” Vote for change or fight for your bread in the next economy.

Maybe the problem we as Americans have is we keep electing millionaires as President that have forgotten what it is truly like to be hungry. Not politically hungry, stomach pain, have not eaten hungry.

Papamoka
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Cross posted to Michael Linn Jones.com & Bring IT ON!

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