Has anyone else noticed that “everything” (except Health Care Reform, and Outsourcing) that Kerry has said he would do so far is already being done by the current administration, except that Kerry wants to spend more money to do it faster, despite the current budget problem. How? I refuse to believe that a 20 year Senator doesn’t know the limiations of the budget.
It is obvious that the reformation of the Health Care System, which in the short-term is an impossibility (unless we give the decision as to who gets what care to a bureaucrat with a budget), will be a hard road or else it would have been done by now. It will be a process that will take a minimum of 8 – 10 years to accomplish, and that is wishful thinking.
The outsourcing “problem”: Is anyone up on that subject? I can’t see how the problem can be fixed without throwing up barriers to free trade which would force other countries to retaliate. I understand the taxing side of it, but that will barely scratch the difference in the cost savings of outsourcing. Since the savings are so great, any reasonable taxes applied to it will make very little impact. The problem lies in the value of the dollar in the countries that receive most of the outsourcing, and effectively controlling that is out of our hands.
I welcome responses by those with more factual “knowledge” on these subjects than I
- Anne replies
- Dave Williams,
- Craig said,
Annie, I concur. I stay out of these things too, but there is something to be said when I am more "afraid" of our own government than I am of some outside threat. I am not convinced that these so called terrorists are not feeding their families with our tax dollars...or the profits of the renewed bumper crop of Poppy (mostly eradicated under Taliban control)in Afghanistan which helps to fund the "non-existant" Black Budget.
I haven't the time or the energy to do the research for anyone but
myself. I must agree, it is very easy to go through life with blinders - accepting everything I am fed without question. Bush/Kerry; in my humble opinion they're both the same. The agenda has been set, and the puppet we "elect" president...well, who knows the dance of a different puppet. At least Kerry can construct a coherent sentence.
1 comment:
Here, though is an email by a thoughtful person:
Quick note on the W.T.O.: Clinton filed over 140 petitions to the W.T.O. to protect us from unfair trade practices abroad. W has filed 4, count them 4. What do you want to bet those 4 companies make huge political contributions.
As for the outsourcing problem, the common republican line is that any action is a "Barrier to free trade". Well, the current situation strikes me as being pretty damn far from "Free trade". Right now my tax dollars are being spent to subsidize companies that close factories in the U.S. and open them overseas.
Free Trade
"Free trade" is a level playing field. Eliminating subsidies that are deliberately killing our industrial base is not a "trade barrier". In my opinion this merely brings us closer to a level playing field. A Trade barrier is just that-a barrier to trade. There are still plenty of factories in China we can import from, you don't need to worry.
Kerry's proposal to give tax breaks to domestic manufacturers will help to make us more competitive with the lucrative incentives being offered overseas to US companies and our foreign competition. Boeing is struggling to compete with Airbus-who is heavily subsidized. China has linked their currency to ours at an eight to one ratio. Our competition isn't exactly playing fair-if you are really talking about "free trade" then matching subsidies to hedge against aggressive competition is leveling the playing field, not "creating barriers". Do you think China will cut off thier exports to us? Ha ha, yeah right.
The "trade barrier" argument is a lie plain and simple, and it is a lie that has wrecked 2 million families in the last 4 years. For me this isn't some story on CNN it is real. I know these people who are getting laid off, I worked with them for years. They were good at what they did and they were proud of it. They had devoted decades of their lives to promoting their careers and were getting rewarded for it. They had house payments and kids in school. Minimum wage is $12,000 a year. Wal-Mart doesn't cut it.
Reasons to keep Manufacturing.
Tax revenue: When a company mover overseas, the CEO's still collect their pay and some tax revenue from the increased corporate profits finds it's way back. We don't get import tariffs-that would be a "trade barrier" But you lose the income tax for the factory workers, the sales tax from their spending (sorry state budgets) and the fed and state income taxes from the local businesses where they spend their money. So you get a net gain for the companies who made the big political contributions and a net loss for the country.
Security: We didn't win WWII because God likes our color scheme, we won with massive industrial capacity. When we destroyed Germany's industrial capacity the war was quickly over. Making our own planes, tanks, bearings and spare parts keeps us self sufficient. In 1948 when the fledgling Israeli militias bought thousands of ex Nazi rifles they found that the Balkan slaves who built them had sabotaged the sights and receiver mechanisms. Look at the Civil war, where the agricultural half of the country took on the industrial half we know how that worked out.
Note: Sometimes a trade barrier is a useful thing. A huge tariff on large bore Jap cruisers gave Harley Davidson enough time to retool, redesign and catch up. When the tariff expired Harley was strong enough to compete toe to toe. They now export all over the world.
To me this is personal, I am tired of seeing wrecked lives and communities and I don't fancy finding a new career as I'm pushing 40. Unless you have a size 10 1/2 (double wide) poop hole you should exercise some caution in defending "free trade" policies around me.
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