BUSH LEAGUE LABOR: The last eight years of the Bush administration's Labor Department have been disastrous for America's workers and unions. If confirmed, Solis "will be taking charge of an agency widely criticized for walking away from its regulatory function across a range of issues, including wage and hour law and workplace safety," the Washington Post observed. As a recent CAP study noted, lax enforcement harms all involved, not just workers. "Taxpayers are cheated out of $2.7 billion to $4.3 billion each year in Social Security, unemployment, and income taxes from just one type of workplace fraud" and "[employers who play by the rules have trouble competing with irresponsible firms that keep labor costs illegally low." Last July, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report finding that the Labor Department "did an inadequate job of investigating complaints by low-wage workers who alleged that their employers were stiffing them for overtime, or failing to pay the minimum wage." Last year, the department's inspector general "found that mine safety regulators did not conduct federally required inspections at more than 14 percent of the country's 731 underground coal mines during the previous year." Also, the GAO recently found that Bush's Labor Department "gave Congress inaccurate and unreliable numbers that understated the expense of contracting out its employees' work to private firms." The report added that the contracting policy itself "demoralized" the agency's workers. Now, the department is "racing to complete a new rule" -- one Obama strongly opposes -- "that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job." "The Bush administration had abdicated its responsibility to protect workers," said Thea Lee, policy director of the AFL-CIO. "We have high hopes that we will see a dramatic change of direction under the Obama administration."
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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of December 26, 2008
The link to this electronic newsletter is being e-mailed to 7,500+
Jefferson County Democrats
We hope you will forward the link to your own e-mail list.
***********************************
CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS
Updated on a regular basis
Bulletin Board:
- The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm at Democratic Headquarters,
- 640 Barret Avenue .
-
NEXT DEMOCRATIC UPDATE WILL BE
FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2009
DEMOCRATIC WOMAN’S CLUB
Members of the Democratic Woman’s Club of Jefferson County would like to express their appreciation for the support and generosity of the members of the Jefferson County Democratic Party. The Woman’s Club raised funds during December to assist four local organizations in assisting families in Jefferson County during the holidays.
The Democrats of Jefferson County responded to our requests and a total of $402 was raised during the month with donations being made to Coalition for the Homeless, The Healing Place, Toys for Tots, and Dare to Care Food Bank.
Donations were collected from All Wool and A Yard Wide Club, the Jefferson County Executive Committee, Democratic Woman’s Club, and the Democratic Holiday Party.
Thanks to everyone who donated and assisted with this project. We are grateful for each dollar and the cooperation of members of the Democratic Party.
Have a great 2009!
Democratic Woman’s Club Members
SHIP FROM CHINA - The Emma Maersk
What a ship....no wonder 'Made in China' is displacing North American goods big time with this floating continent transporting goods across the Pacific in 4 days no less!!!
This is how Wal-Mart gets all it's stuff from China. Get a load of this ship!
15,000 containers and a 207' beam! And look at the crew-size: 13 people
for a ship longer than a US aircraft carrier which has a crew of 5,000
men and officers.
Think it's big enough? Notice that 207' beam means it cannot fit
through the Panama or Suez Canals . It is strictly transpacific. Check
out the cruise speed: 31 knots means the goods arrive 4 days before the
typical container ship (18-20 knots) on a China-to-California run. So
this behemoth is hugely competitive when carrying perishable goods.
This ship was built in five sections. The sections floated together and
then welded. The command bridge is higher than a 10-story building and
has 11 cargo crane rigs that can operate simultaneously.
Editorial Comment! A recent documentary in late March on the History Channel, noted that most a all of these containers are shipped back to China , EMPTY yep you heard it right. We send nothing back on most of these ships What does that tell you about the current Financial State of this country? Better start looking for the Made In USA label !!
STEALTH PRICE INCREASES ON CONSUMER PRODUCTS, Posted by Jim Hightower
Good grief! Whole industries are downsizing, paychecks are shrinking, home values are dwindling, and our 401Ks are deflating to 1Ks. It can’t get any worse, can it?
Well, don’t look now, but they shrunk the toilet paper. Scott Paper is pleased to announce that its "new" toilet product has fully 1,000 sheets of tissue on each roll. Actually, so did the old rolls. What's really new and what the company didn’t announce is that each sheet has been shorted. The old version gave us 4 inches of tissue, but the new and “improved” Scotts has quietly been cut to 3.7 inches in length. That’s a decline of 300 square inches per roll! Yet the price remains the same.
All sorts of corporations are instituting stealth price increases these days by shrinking product content while holding up prices. Skippy peanut butter, for example, ought to change its name to Skimpy. The company is now providing two ounces less in each jar, but it did not lower what it charges us. Worse, Skippy is intentionally trying to hide its consumer heist by playing eye tricks on us. The new jar is the same size as the old one was, so it looks like you’re getting the same amount – unless you turn the jar upside down. Instead of a flat bottom, the jar has an inward dimple that reduces the volume inside.
Likewise, cereal makers are cutting content while maintaining prices, and also using package deception to keep consumers from knowing what’s up – and what’s down. The new cereal boxes have the same height and width, thus looking the same as the old ones on the shelf. But cereal makers cleverly reduced the depth of the packages, leaving you paying more per ounce without knowing it.
One outraged consumer has launched a website chronicling these sneak attacks on our pocketbooks. Check it out: www.mouseprint.org.
“Companies Shrinking Product Sizes, But Not Price,” www.cbs11tv.com, November 14, 2008.
“Sneaky manufactures shrinking packaging, while keeping prices the same,” www.prwatch.org, November 17, 2008.
Wal-Mart to settle wage/hour suits
Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, said yesterday it will pay between $352 million and $640 million to settle 63 wage-and-hour abuse lawsuits.
The
discount retailer, which has more than 1.4 million employees, said the total
amount to be paid depends on the number of eligible claims submitted. Each of
the settlements must be approved by a trial court.
The company said many of the lawsuits were filed years ago and the allegations are not representative of the company it is today.
"Our policy is to pay associates for every hour worked and to provide rest and meal breaks," Tom Mars, Wal-Mart's executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
Wal-Mart agreed to continue to use various measures to ensure compliance with wage-and-hour policies and the law.
Comments:
DAILY GRILL
Q: You disagree with the president [on the auto bailout], I take it.
CANTOR: Wolf, I don't disagree. -- Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), 12/21/08
VERSUS
Q: So let me just be precise. Do you support that $13 billion bailout that
he announced on Friday?
CANTOR: No, Wolf, I don't. -- Cantor,
12/21/08
***************
I am optimistic that we can change the tone in Washington, D.C." --
President Bush,
12/13/00
VERSUS
"I came with the idea of changing the tone in Washington and frankly didn't
do a very good job of it." -- Bush,
12/18/08
Quotes of the Day
"Why can't I just eat my waffle?" --after being asked a foreign policy
question by a reporter while visiting a diner in Pennsylvania
Recent Senate Votes
NOT IN SESSION
Recent House Votes
NOT IN SESSION
HUMOR
"You folks around the country probably know this, but here in New
York City it's freezing cold. It's so cold today that that Bernie Madoff is
actually looking forward to burning in hell." --David Letterman
"It's so cold today
President Bush was ducking ski boots." --David Letterman
"Today is the second day of Hanukkah.
John McCain made an appearance with Joe the Rabbi." --David Letterman
"In a recent interview, President Bush says that he's already begun
thinking about his farewell speech. Yeah, which means he's only two years
behind most Americans." --Conan O'Brien
"According to the Wall Street Journal, this is interesting, many of the
people Barack Obama has appointed to his cabinet are excellent basketball
players. Except for
Hillary Clinton, who prefers lacrosse or field hockey." --Conan O'Brien
"In a new interview,
Barack Obama says he plans on having a lot of jazz and classical music
at the White House. After hearing this, President Bush said, 'I'd better go
break the bad news to the Wiggles.'" --Conan O'Brien
"Bernie Madoff has been charged with swindling people out of $50 billion. I don't want to say he's unpopular, but today as he was walking in New York, he passed a manger scene and Joseph threw a sandal at him." --Jay Leno
"Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he will not fill Barack Obama's seat any time soon. He says he's going to wait until next summer when prices improve." --Jay Leno
ADMINISTRATION -- CHENEY ECHOES NIXON:
IF THE PRESIDENT DOES IT DURING WARTIME, IT IS LEGAL: On Fox News
Sunday yesterday, host Chris Wallace asked Vice President Cheney, "If the
President, during war, decides to do something to protect the country,
is it legal?" "General proposition,
I'd say yes," adding, "I think what we've done has been totally
consistent with what the Constitution provides for." Cheney's answer is
eerily reminiscent of former President Richard Nixon's claim that "when the
president does it,
that means that it is not illegal." Nixon made the comment in his
famous interview with David Frost, responding to a question about
whether "there
are certain situations" in which "the president can decide that it's in
the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal." In
fact, numerous
courts have ruled that the Bush administration has overstepped the
bounds of the Constitution. In August 2006, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs
Taylor ruled that "the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance
program is
unconstitutional, delivering the first decision that the Bush
administration's effort to monitor communications without court oversight
runs afoul of the Bill of Rights and federal law." The fact that Cheney's
Nixon-sequel comment came during an interview with Wallace is ironic,
considering that Cheney recently
thanked Wallace for defending the Bush administration against
comparisons to Nixon.
ECONOMY -- BANKS CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR THEIR
BAILOUT BILLIONS: The AP recently contacted 21 banks that had
received at least $1 billion in taxpayer-financed bailout funds and found
that the banks were unable or unwilling to disclose how they have used the
money. The AP asked the banks four questions: How much has been spent? What
was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for
the rest? However, "[n]one of the banks
provided specific answers." In fact, "[s]ome banks said they simply
didn't know where the money was going," and "no bank provided even the most
basic accounting for the federal money." Earlier this month, a
congressionally-appointed bailout oversight board found that the Treasury
Department
has not sufficiently monitored how banks are using Troubled Asset Relief
Program (TARP) funds. "If the funds committed under TARP...are not merely
no-strings-attached subsidies to financial institutions, then it seems
essential for Treasury to monitor whether those funds are used for those
intended purposes," the report stated. "Treasury
cannot simply trust that the financial institutions will act in the
desired ways; it must verify." The panel's chairman, Elizabeth Warren, "said
her oversight panel
will try to force the banks to say where they've spent the money. 'It
would take a lot of nerve not to give answers,' she said."
ETHICS -- BAILED-OUT WALL STREET EXECUTIVES STILL USING EXPENSIVE PRIVATE JETS: Last month, Big Three automaker CEOs were ridiculed by members of Congress for taking private jets to Washington to plea for a federal bailout. Subsequently, GM put two of its five corporate jets out of service, and the executives drove to Washington for a second round of bailout hearings. But Wall Street's similar excesses have largely avoided scrutiny. The AP reports today that "[s]ix financial firms that received billions in bailout dollars still own and operate fleets of jets to carry executives to company events and sometimes personal trips." Insurance company AIG, which received $150 billion in bailout funds, has seven planes, making it "one of the largest fleets among bailout recipients." Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley all still own aircraft for executive travel -- after receiving a combined $120 billion in bailouts. A separate AP analysis today found that "the 116 banks that so far have received taxpayer dollars to boost them through the economic crisis gave their top tier of executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses and other benefits in 2007."
ADMINISTRATION -- CHENEY: IT 'WOULD HAVE
BEEN IMMORAL' FOR US NOT TO TORTURE: Earlier this week, Vice
President Cheney admitted to
personally authorizing the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other
detainees. In a new interview with the Washington Times, Cheney stridently
defended the program, saying, "I feel very good about what we did," adding
that he would "do exactly the same thing again." He
specifically defended the morality of torture. "I think it would have
been
unethical or immoral for us not to do everything we could in order to
protect the nation against further attacks like what happened on 9/11,"
Cheney said. He claimed that torture was "directly responsible for the fact
that we've been able to avoid or defeat further attacks against the homeland
for 7 1/2 years." In fact, torture has endangered, not protected, American
lives.
Military experts say that U.S. torture policies have been the
single greatest recruiting tool for al Qaeda. A former interrogator who
worked in Iraq stated unequivocally last month, "The number of U.S. soldiers
who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively
known, but it is fair to say that it is
close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001."
Think Fast
Radio syndicator Westwood One is expected to announce this week that former senator Fred Thompson "will begin hosting a two-hour show in March" during Bill O'Reilly's soon-to-be-vacated time slot. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was rumored to be in negotiations for the slot, but "a deal was not struck."
During his interview on Fox News Sunday yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney asserted that 9/11 was his "highest moment in office." He explained, "The way in which that changed the nation, and set the agenda for what we had to deal with as an administration."
Federal regulators adopted new rules governing the credit card industry yesterday. The rules, which take effect in July 2010, "will allow credit card companies to raise interest rates only on new credit cards and future purchases or advances, rather than on current balances."
A new Justice Department audit concludes that the FBI encouraged agents posted in Iraq from 2003 through 2007 to improperly claim overtime pay, resulting in $7.8 million in cost to taxpayers. Due to a "faulty" policy, agents billed work hours when they were "watching movies, exercising, and attending parties."
"I didn't compromise my soul to be popular," President Bush told Fox News in an interview yesterday. "Look, everybody likes to be popular," he said. "I mean, do people approve of the economy? No. I don’t approve of the economy. ... I've had, hell, a lot of serious challenges."
Media Matters named Sean Hannity the 2008 Misinformer of the Year. In bestowing the honor upon Hannity, the media watchdog organization writes, "Never has he so enthusiastically applied his talents for spreading misinformation as he did to the 2008 presidential race, focusing his energies primarily on President-elect Barack Obama."
INTERESTING
Union-haters never let facts stand in the way of their union-bashing, By BERRY CRAIG
MAYFIELD, Ky. – The union-haters are claiming the “greedy” United Auto Workers derailed the federal bailout for financially-strapped Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.
Of course, union haters never let facts stand in the way of their labor-bashing.
The UAW has made concessions, big-time. A group of fiercely anti-union Republican senators used the union’s stand against more concessions as a pretext to scuttle the $15 billion aid package the House passed.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the other Republicans who blocked the bailout bill must have figured they were in a win-win situation. If the UAW knuckled under to their demands for more concessions, the union would be weakened. If the union refused, McConnell and company would have an excuse to nix the bailout and blame the “selfish” UAW.
Not coincidentally, several of the senators who opposed the bailout are from Southern right-to-work states that are home to foreign-owned, non-union auto plants. According to the Associated Press, Ron Gettelfinger, the UAW’s international president, suggested that the bailout-busting lawmakers “thought perhaps they could have a twofer here maybe: Pierce the heart of organized labor while representing foreign brands.”
It didn’t surprise Jeff Wiggins that McConnell opposed the bailout. “Mitch despises unions at the gut-level,” said Wiggins, a Steelworker and member of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO Executive Board. “He never misses a chance to hammer unions. He’s willing to destroy the American auto industry to destroy the UAW.”
Border state Kentucky isn’t a right-to-work state. “To get around that, McConnell favors a national right-to-work law,” said Wiggins, who is also president of the Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO, which is headquartered in Paducah.
Meanwhile, conservative pundits – who have had little to cheer about since the election – have declared open season on the UAW. But even supposedly objective news reporting “is all about how the greedy auto workers and their unions refused to accept the oh-so-reasonable compromise proposed by Senate Republicans that would require them to quickly drop their wages and benefits to match those of foreign-owned plants,” wrote Daphne Eviatar on the Washington Independent Internet website.
She added: “None of the mainstream news coverage I’ve seen – whether in the New York Times, Washington Post or CBS news – mentions the fact that Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee and his fellow Republicans are from the same Southern states where those foreign companies own and operate auto plants – none of which are unionized, and all of which provide lower wages and fewer benefits than the Big Three.”
Eviatar is right. What’s also interesting – but almost never makes the news – is the fact that foreign auto manufacturers who have non-union plants in the U.S. have unionized plants back home.
Eviatar also pointed out that while the Republican “free enterprisers” oppose federal aid to unionized Detroit automakers, they see no problem in luring non-union foreign plants to their neck of the woods with generous state subsidies. (Toyota got almost $150 million in tax breaks and other goodies financed by Kentucky taxpayers to open a plant in Georgetown.)
McConnell and his Southern Republican soul-mates also are fond of wrapping themselves in the Stars and Stripes – some of them the Confederate Stars and Bars, too -- and portraying themselves as true patriots. Yet, as Eviatar aptly observed, they are glad to “represent their foreign car corporation constituents” and “are eager to break the [American] auto workers union – now.”
She also wrote that workers at non-union, foreign-owned car plants make fairly close to what union workers make at American car plants. Thus, a lot of the Southern non-union workers think they don’t need a union. (No doubt McConnell and his sidekicks hoped if they could equalize union and non-union pay and benefits by coercing the UAW to make more concessions, Northern auto workers might think they didn’t need a union either.)
But Eviatar added that it’s UAW-won wages that fatten non-union auto plant worker paychecks. If foreign-owned plant owners paid their workers a lot less than American plant owners pay their union workers, the non-union workers might -- you guessed it – join the UAW.
If the UAW went away, the wages of every car plant worker would sink like the Titanic. “That would make Mitch very happy,” Wiggins said.
Meanwhile, the UAW has made significant concessions to the U.S. auto makers. “…In 2005 the UAW agreed to reopen the contracts mid-term and accepted cuts in workers’ wages and health care benefits for retirees,” Gettelfinger told the U.S. House of Representatives. “Then in the general 2007 collective bargaining negotiations, the UAW agreed to what industry analysts have called a ‘transformational’ contract that fundamentally altered labor costs for the Detroit-based auto companies.”
He added that “as a result of all these painful concessions, the gap in labor costs that had previously existed between the Detroit-based auto companies and the foreign transplant operations will be largely or completely eliminated by the end of the contracts. Indeed, one industry analyst has indicated that labor costs for the Detroit-based auto companies will actually be lower than those for Toyota’s U.S. operations.”
Maybe McConnell’s friends at Toyota will give him an especially nice present this Yuletide. Bless his heart, Mitch’s dobber has been down since Nov. 4.
Kentucky voters almost retired him. While his presidential candidate – another right-wing, pro-right-to-work Republican senator -- carried Kentucky, he lost the election. At the same time, the Democrats increased their House and Senate majorities.
But that’s not all that’s curdling Mitch’s eggnog. His wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, will soon be unemployed.
“We had hoped to ditch Mitch,” Wiggins said ruefully. “But at least his wife, the anti-labor labor secretary, will be out of a job when Barack Obama is sworn in.”
Buy American Mention of the Week, By Roger Simmermaker
Welcome to the Congressional Car Company, Inc.
Apparently the Bush Administration thinks the government can run a car company better than the longtime American auto executives who they charge with being unable to “come up with” a viable solution for success. In exchange for the $17.4 billion in short term loans offered to General Motors and Chrysler, the Big Three have to reduce their wages to the level of foreign automakers operating in the United States.
But President Bush and his previous policies have already unfairly burdened the Big Three with hypocritical conditions which are akin to strapping 5 lb. weights to the arms and legs to American Olympic swimmers and then demanding he or she find a way to become “competitive” with foreign Olympic swimmers with no weights on their arms or legs.
If you’re thinking I just blindly back American automakers and can’t stand it when a foreign company gains an advantage over them, you would be wrong. I only can’t stand it when foreign companies gain a financial advantage unjustly. I simply detest injustice. It’s even worse when foreign companies unjustly gain advantage over American companies because of U.S. government trade policies that have stacked the deck against U.S. companies. Consider the following.
According to economist Pat Choate, who was also Ross Perot’s running mate in 1996, India’s tariff on imported U.S. vehicles is 100 percent. China’s import tariff is 25 percent. South Korea has routinely run tax audit campaigns against foreign car buyers (cars foreign to South Korea).
In these regards, the United States is far from protectionist. If American free marketers want to rally against protectionism, they should travel abroad and rally there, because comparatively it doesn’t exist in the United States.
President-elect Obama recently stated “If jobs and incomes are our yardstick, then the success of the American worker is key to the success of the American economy.” If that’s true, and I believe it is, then the hypocritical haters of the Big Three need to be quickly and firmly rejected and discredited.
One of the big problems in today’s society is that have we not only become greedy but we’ve also become selfish. If a worker in another industry is able to bargain for better wages, we’re against it because we have the opinion that it makes us pay more for their product or service. If we’re going to have this kind of outlook, then we should all call for all of our wages across the country to be immediately and significantly reduced since the higher the wages each of us earns in whatever good or service we produce or contribute to causes the rest of us to pay more.
If you’re a teacher and you get a raise, I have to pay higher taxes or take on a heavier tax load (theoretically) from a higher national and/or state tax burden. If you’re a construction worker and get a raise, that means I have to pay more (theoretically) for houses. If you’re in the military and the government decides to give more money to our troops in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, that means (theoretically) I have to pay higher taxes. Does that mean I should be against higher wages for Americans, other than for myself, of course? No. But many of us Americans would allow for raises for ourselves, which would make others pay more, but we would decry them for others because it would make us pay more. Hypocrisy runs rampant.
But you see this is the precise stance of too many Americans and definitely too many in our United States Congress, especially a few choice Southern senators.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) made the comments below on December 19 about President Bush’s plan to use Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to aide American automakers:
“Unfortunately, the president’s proposal enables the involved parties to continue to avoid some of the tough choices necessary to become competitive.”
Sounds just fine, doesn’t it? Unless you realize that Sessions’ idea of American workers becoming more “competitive” means lowering their wages and gutting retirement and health care benefits. But don’t senators usually campaign for higher wages when they’re running for office? Here’s what Senator Sessions said back in July 2006:
“We paid $200 billion last year for foreign oil and gas--$200 billion, wealth that Americans would rather see invested in our country, hiring Americans to produce oil and gas. They would pay taxes and be able to raise their families, have high wages and good retirement plans and good health care plans.” (my emphasis)
It’s apparent that Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is for higher wages for the American people except when it is for workers who happen to work for an American automaker in another state. Maybe because foreign automakers have built plants in his state? Maybe because he doesn’t like the UAW? This exposes a glaring example of the dangers of foreign influence in our economy. U.S. senators are perfectly willing to sell out the broader American economy in the name of local foreign influence. Chinese newspapers are already reporting that if the American automakers fail, they stand ready to buy them. Are you ready for a Chinese Corvette, race fans?
In today’s super-unstable economy, what could be more mindless than taking a sharp scissors to one of America’s last standing safety nets? Haven’t we all seen the value of our 401(k)’s plummet? And now we want to unilaterally usher in the failure of one or more of the few companies left that are actually paying pensions for their employees? Not only are we allowing it to happen, many of us are adamantly demanding that it come to pass. Do we think we’ll all be better off if GM, Ford and Chrysler default and transfer their pensions to the taxpayer-funded Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp (PBGC).
On Face the Nation on December 7, Senator Dodd rightly pointed out that “Just pension costs alone could total hundreds of billions of dollars that would fall on the back of the American tax payer.”
What are we advocating here? Do we not want to have the Big Three survive so they can continue to provide health care and pensions for their employees? GM spent $5.2 billion on health care for the workers and retirees in 2004 alone. Would you rather that burden be transferred to the taxpayer instead? Would you rather American auto workers get pennies on the dollar for their pensions via the PBGC and make them choose between food and medicine for the rest of their lives? How will these retirees be able to buy the goods or services that you are involved in producing?
I really hope Obama is successful in creating 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding America’s infrastructure, which is totally necessary given a 2005 American Society of Civil Engineers report that concluded the U.S. faces a deficit of $1.6 trillion for things like power grids, wastewater and drinking waters dams and systems through 2010. But even if he is successful, we’ll still be half a million jobs in the hole if we lose 3 million jobs through the failure of the Big Three. And that doesn’t even take into account the exploding trade deficit that will result.
By the government’s own statistics, we find for every billion dollars in trade deficits, we lose about 15,000 American jobs. Even with the current meager American auto demand, the foreign transplant factories in America won’t be able to supply all the vehicles Americans want to buy. And of course there are many of those like myself who would rather drive a used American car than buy a new foreign one any day.
The 105 domestic factories owned and operated by GM, Ford, and Chrysler can’t be taken over and converted overnight by foreign companies to churn out enough foreign nameplates to meet American demand. And even if foreign companies could buy up all those hollowed-out American factories for production, why would they? To do that, they would have to shutter their plants at home and face the ire of newly laid off workers in their home country in a global economic slide that’s seeing employment in nearly every industry go downhill.
The only reason foreign companies are producing in the United States anyway is so they won’t have to face import tariffs should the United States finally wake up and turn protectionist to level the playing field.
Back in May, 1995, top economic advisers to President Clinton recommended tariffs ranging up to 100 percent in retaliation for Japan’s refusal to open their market to American vehicles and auto parts. Automotive exports from Japan represented over 55 percent of America's $66 billion trade deficit with that country in 1994.
Then there’s the hypocrisy of those who hate the Big Three just because some of their workers happen to be members of organized labor who actually have the gall to bargain for things we used to be able to afford and take for granted in this country like health care and company-provided pensions. I do understand the anger behind the jobs bank program, but most of the rest of the demand to force Americans to work under more competitive pressure for less job security and less pay amounts to little more than union busting.
Don’t the hypocritical haters of the Big Three realize there are plenty of salary jobs to be killed along with the unionized hourly ones? It takes nearly 20 months to research, design, engineer, and develop a car and about 20 months to assemble it, and the Big Three haters want us to believe 100 percent of the American automotive workforce punches a clock every morning wearing shirt with blue collars?
What about all the non-union parts suppliers, many of whom will go bankrupt along with the Big Three, making it impossible to supply parts to build all the foreign cars so many Americans supposedly want to buy? What about all the auto dealers and their employees donning dress shirts and ties daring to greet you when you step onto the car lot? Are all those Big Three employees engaged in administration, testing, and advertising all carrying union cards? Doubtful.
I can even understand the anger of seeing the Big Three executives flying into Washington on corporate jets. But the hypocrisy of vilifying Wagoner and company is magnified according to an Associated Press article on December 21 that detailed how six financial firms that received billions of bailout bucks still fly on fleets of jets that shuttle executives to personal destinations as well as company events. Where is the corresponding outrage on that? Can’t we all agree on the firms we should patronize that lend money Americans really want to borrow?
So while Republicans in the South are busy trying to stick it to the Big Three, they're ensuring unemployment rates stay high, social services remain overburdened, and the backbone of the American manufacturing economy remains threatened.
Maybe republicans need to revisit some of their past political platforms to see what they used to stand for. In the 1896 platform, these words represented the republican party:
“We renew and emphasize the allegiance to the policy of protection as the bulwark of American industrial independence and the foundation of American development and prosperity. This true American policy taxes foreign products and encourages home industry; it puts the burden of revenue on foreign goods; it secures the American market for the American producer; it upholds the American standard of wages for the American workingman; We demand such an equitable tariff on foreign imports which come into competition with American products as will not only furnish adequate revenue for the necessary expenses of the Government, but will protect American labor from degradation to the wage level of other lands.”
I still hold out hope that justice will prevail and the Big Three won’t continue to be singled out and vilified while foreign automakers are glorified. For today it was reported that Toyota is forecasting their first operating loss in 71 years because of plummeting demand. Maybe it’s because they’re not building cars Americans want to buy.
***************************************************************************
Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism and writes "Buy American Mention of the Week" articles for WorldNetDaily.com and his website www.howtobuyamerican.com. Roger is a member of the Machinists Union and National Writers Union, has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Business Week among many other publications.
GOOD NEWS
President-elect Obama will form a White House Task Force on Working Families, to be chaired by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, a "major initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America."
VIDEOS
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Watch the presidents morph!
http://www.flixxy.com/presidents-morphing.htm
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