Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

This Week in Poverty: Kids, Jobs and GOP Myths .. one bit .. (note: all repeats picked up on a trail) ..

A Little Help From Obama

When President Obama proposed his American Jobs Act back in September, he included $1.5 billion toward summer jobs and year-round employment for low-income youth ages 16–24. That was important, considering that just 49 percent of that age group was employed in July, the month when youth employment usually peaks, including only 34.6 percent of African-American youth and 42.9 percent of Hispanic youth.

The bill was dead-on-arrival given a GOP majority in the House and a filibustering Senate.
more .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70887601

Related: McConnell’s pro-unemployment argument .. one bit ..

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last week kept his caucus united and killed a popular jobs bill during a jobs crisis. The plan — 400,000 jobs for teachers, police officers, and firefighters, paid for with a 0.5% surtax on millionaires and billionaires — was wildly popular with the public, but McConnell and his Senate Republicans killed it anyway.

Yesterday on CNN, Candy Crowley asked him why. The GOP leader replied: ..
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1110/23/sotu.01.html

“Well, Candy, I’m sure that Americans do, I certainly do approve of firefighters and police. The question is whether the federal government ought to be raising taxes on 300,000 small businesses in order to send money down to bail out states for whom firefighters and police work. They are local and state employees.

“Look, we have a debt the size of our economy. That alone makes us look a lot like Greece. The question is whether the federal government can afford to be bailing out states. I think the answer is no…. Look, we are not going to get this economy going by continuing to shower money on the public sector.”

By way of a fact-check, let’s note a couple of the glaring errors here. The first is that the financing relied on a small tax increase on millionaires and billionaires, not small businesses. The number of businesses affected is ridiculously small, making McConnell’s claim patently dishonest. The second is that anyone who compares America’s debt issues to Greece’s is a fool. .. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_07/lindsey_graham_were_becoming_g030916.php

But the larger issue here is McConnell’s entire approach to government. Jobs for teachers and first responders, in his mind, are (a) a “local” problem, and (b) related to the public sector. They’re ultimately two sides of the same coin — McConnell cares first about ideology, not problem-solving. .. more .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68343749

A "very rich person" says it like it is ..

Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators: Nick Hanauer .. two bits ..

I’m a very rich person. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also the first non-family investor in Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)

Even so, I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

Theory of Evolution

When businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it is like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it’s the other way around.

It is unquestionably true that without entrepreneurs and investors, you can’t have a dynamic and growing capitalist economy. But it’s equally true that without consumers, you can’t have entrepreneurs and investors. And the more we have happy customers with lots of disposable income, the better our businesses will do.

That’s why our current policies are so upside down. When the American middle class defends a tax system in which the lion’s share of benefits accrues to the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.

And that’s what has been happening in the U.S. for the last 30 years.

[...]

I can’t buy enough of anything to make up for the fact that millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans can’t buy any new clothes or enjoy any meals out. Or to make up for the decreasing consumption of the tens of millions of middle-class families that are barely squeaking by, buried by spiraling costs and trapped by stagnant or declining wages. .. more .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69590223

Related: bingo .. here is a mention of one myth of small business which was mentioned in another post somewhere ..

poster44ny, an American small business holder just said, on Australian radio, (your economy and
efforts to get it rolling again are prominent in Australian media today, i'm sure you understand why)
that she did not believe the payroll tax cut would be very helpful .. i think she was a hairdresser.

Also, a Colorado man in the clean energy sector said the Obama efforts in
that area have put on MANY jobs, electricians and roofers were mentioned ..

Further, without in any way denigrating small business owners another American said your American much repeated assertion that small business was the driver of solid jobs was "totally untrue" .. i think he said small business provides some 20% of jobs.

Small business does create the most jobs, but they also
disappear so the overall effect is not the driver of good solid jobs. ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67477398

One more ..

Corporations Hate Regulation, Until They Love It .. one bit ..

But businesses don't like simple rules, because simple rules are hard to evade. So they lobby endlessly for exemptions both big and small. This is why we end up with tax subsidies for bow-and-arrow makers. It's why we end up with environmental rules that treat a hundred different industries a hundred different ways. It's why financial regulators don't enact simple leverage rules or place firm asset caps on firm size. Those would be hard to get around and might genuinely eat into bank profits. Complex rules, conversely, are the meat and drink of $500-per-hour lawyers and whiz kid engineers. If the rules are complicated enough, smart lawyers can always find ways around them. And American corporations employ lots of smart lawyers.

Keep this firmly in mind the next time you hear someone from the Chamber of Commerce complaining about how many thousands of pages of regulations they have to comply with. .. more .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68925728

F6, yours was a GOOD ONE i missed .. :( .. it prompted a search for one with a sentiment
as in the "bingo one and the "very rich man" one .. the others were 'i spy with my little eye' .. :)