Obama rejects Keystone XL jobs, promotes more wind and solar subsidies. What to do now?

President Obama “is focused like a laser on putting people back to work,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) assured us last fall – echoing repeated statements by President Obama and Administration officials who “can’t wait” for Congress or others to take action and create jobs.

The jobs thing didn’t last long, however. The President soon vetoed TransCanada’s application for permits to build the Keystone XL pipeline. Approving them “would not be in the national interest,” he declared.

It is hard for most Americans to understand how it is contrary to the national interest to create 20,000 construction and manufacturing jobs, increase US gross domestic product by an estimated $350 billion, and bring 830,000 barrels of oil per day via pipeline from friend and neighbor Canada to Texas refineries. It’s hard for us to grasp how pipelining Canadian oil is worse than importing oil in much riskier tankers from unstable, unfriendly places like Venezuela and the Middle East – or how it’s better for the global environment to transport Canadian oil by tanker to China, where it will be burned under far less rigorous pollution laws and controls.

It’s equally hard for average citizens to comprehend how more than three years of careful environmental studies are insufficient, especially after the State Department had issued several reports concluding that the pipeline would have only “limited adverse environmental impacts” in areas that are already dotted with oil wells and crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines.

To suppose, as the President insisted, that Keystone would generate “a lot fewer jobs than would be created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance” is simply baffling.

In view of White House intransigence, what should Congress and TransCanada do now?

The 1,660-mile-long Keystone XL pipeline would begin in southeastern Alberta, Canada and end in Port Arthur, Texas. Although it would incorporate the existing Keystone Cushing pipeline through Kansas and part of Oklahoma, most of the US portion (from Canada through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, and from Cushing, Oklahoma to Port Arthur) would be new. Keystone XL would create 20,000 jobs manufacturing and installing 36-inch pipe, valves and other components to build that addition.

Environmentalists predictably went ballistic. Surface mining Alberta’s oil sands damages lands and habitats, they railed. Never mind that this technique is being replaced by in situ “steam-assisted gravity drain” processes, that mined lands are being restored to forest and grass habitats, or that blocking Keystone XL will neither end oil extraction nor prevent crude or refined product shipments to China.

Mining, processing and using this oil will increase greenhouse gas levels and global warming, activists vented. Never mind that total “greenhouse gas” emissions would amount to an almost undetectable portion of annual global GHG emissions. That “dangerous manmade global warming” is an exaggerated scare that has little basis in truly peer-reviewed science. Or that there has been no warming for a decade, UN IPCC “science” is crumbling at its foundation, and increasing numbers of climate experts are publicly dissenting from IPCC orthodoxy.

Mr. Obama needs environmentalists in his camp, if he expects to be reelected. Radical greens have made Keystone XL the latest symbol of their intense hatred of anything hydrocarbon – and a centerpiece for fundraising. Like the President, they are intent on ending our “addiction to oil” and “fundamentally transforming” the energy, economic and social fabric of America.

Jobs, GDP, tax revenues and national security will therefore have to take a backseat.

As he suggested in his State of the Union speech, President Obama seems willing to generate expensive electricity for three million homes by blanketing a million acres of public lands with taxpayer-subsidized, bird-killing wind turbines, habitat-smothering solar panels, high-voltage transmission lines, and gas-fired backup units. Anti-Keystone “environmentalists” seem to have few objections to such “eco-friendly” energy. But for them a pipeline is intolerable.

Faced with these facts, TransCanada could do as Mr. Obama suggested – and reapply for permits, after the fall elections and after changing its intended pipeline route to avoid allegedly sensitive areas. In the meantime, it could continue trying to win friends and influence people.

Yes, it could. But doing so has significant pitfalls.

It would drag the process out, leave the company in the “kill zone” of media and environmentalist attacks, in a political no man’s land, amid deadly crossfire from savvy and well-funded activists, journalists and bureaucrats. It would also set the stage for anti-pipeline lawsuits in courts of their choosing – perhaps in “friendly” lawsuits between “green” plaintiffs and EPA or State – when and if permits finally are granted.

A further drawback is that focusing on the State Department and White House ignores the Interior Department, Fish & Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency and many other federal and state regulatory and judicial agencies and processes that will still stand in the way of final project approval, and will likely take years to navigate.

There is a better way.

TransCanada could and should work closely and cooperatively with farmers and farm bureaus, state governors, agencies and legislators, mayors and other affected parties, to address concerns and compensate landowners for the use of their property, unavoidable impacts and damages in the unlikely event of an accident. The company should emphasize that Keystone XL will create thousands of jobs; generate billions of dollars in private, local, state and national revenue; use the best and safest pipeline technology; and bring oil from a friendly country to American refineries, motorists, farmers and manufacturers.

TransCanada should also take legal action, in state and/or federal courts of its choosing, over causes of action of its choosing. The company’s permit application has been rejected – for specious environmental and overtly political reasons. The Administration’s decision is clearly “ripe” for litigation.

The company may be reluctant to sue. Litigation over such matters is not as common in Canada as in the lawsuit-happy USA; the judicial territory may be unfamiliar; and the outcome is not certain.

However, in the United States environmentalists often win in the courts of media and public opinion, especially in an election year, especially with hundred-million-dollar anti-oil campaigns, laden with emotional rhetoric.

On the other hand, companies frequently win in US courts of law, where they are able to compile complete judicial records with solid scientific facts supporting their projects – something that is virtually impossible to do in a sound-bite-driven (and often biased) news media. The factually bankrupt rhetoric of environmentalist campaigns is no match for sound science, when claims and arguments are scrutinized at the trial and appellate level. Faced with defeat, the green wolf packs often go off in search of easier prey.

The anti-pipeline, anti-oil sands groups will not disappear. They will most assuredly sue TransCanada and multiple government agencies if permits are ultimately issued. They will also do all they can to shut down any Pacific Gateway pipeline, any exports to Asia, and ultimately all oil sands operations.

This better way forward has strong probabilities for success. It is clearly in the national interest of both Canada and the United States that it be taken, and that it succeed.

____________

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality, and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

 

WesternFront America

Tapping abundant US energy deposits would create jobs and restore prosperity

Our nation’s economic growth may finish an anemic 2% on the year. Faced with looming taxes and regulations, few companies are expanding, hiring or buying equipment. More than 14 million Americans are unemployed, excluding the nearly 9 million who have been forced to take part-time jobs, or the 2.5 million who’ve given up on finding work.

Meanwhile, 140,000 have been added to government payrolls, and the nation is spending $4 billion a day more than it’s taking in.

That is unacceptable, demoralizing – and unnecessary.

The White House and Democrats are clueless about reinvigorating the economy. But they have proven they know how to kill jobs, prosperity and hope. Their energy policies are especially destructive.

As President Obama made clear, under his tutelage electricity costs would “necessarily skyrocket,” gasoline prices would soar, “green” energy would become the law of the land, and he would “fundamentally transform” America. He is keeping his promise.

America’s vast storehouses of untapped oil, gas, coal and uranium could generate millions of jobs and hundreds of billions in revenues. Electricity generation industries and the factories and other businesses that depend on reliable, affordable energy could do likewise, if they were unshackled from excessive regulations that often actually harm health and environmental quality.

Instead, the Environmental Protection Agency, Departments of Energy and the Interior, and other government bureaucracies continue to impose a near-total shutdown of onshore and offshore oil and gas leasing. They drag their feet or simply reject drilling permits, display antipathy toward hydraulic fracturing to tap our 100-year supply of shale gas, and impose truckloads of punitive air and water rules designed to shutter dozens of coal-burning power plants.

The President claims he will “pare back regulation” by several billion dollars – out of an estimated $1 trillion in total annual regulatory compliance costs. EPA alone promised “$126 million” in supposed paperwork reductions, while imposing several hundred billion dollars in new EPA regulations.

Mr. Obama finally suspended EPA’s proposed ozone rules, which many had warned would be the most expensive environmental edicts in history. But they will be back with a vengeance after the 2012 elections. Meanwhile, bowing to EPA and environmentalist pressure, he postponed action on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have created 20,000 almost-shovel-ready construction jobs.

Now EPA wants 230,000 new bureaucrats, just to process future carbon dioxide emission permits, based on bogus climate chaos models and scenarios. Even our worst nightmares cannot fathom the job-killing compliance costs this would impose on the 6,000,000 businesses these regulations would affect.

Again using questionable to fraudulent assertions about catastrophic manmade climate change to justify its actions, EPA is also demanding 54.5 mpg fuel economy standards – which will result in thousands of deaths and millions of injuries, as cars are further downsized and plasticized.

Even businesses on the leading edge of the “green revolution,” crony capitalism and lobbying for dollars are faring poorly. After lapping up $1.5 billion in government red-ink subsidies and loan guarantees, three US solar companies filed for bankruptcy and fired over 2,000 workers. And still the Energy Department shoveled more billions of tax dollars into more wind and solar projects, despite voter objections.

DOE also sponsored programs that cost $20 million to create 14 jobs and weatherize four Seattle houses in a year. It spent $80 billion to create 225,000 “clean energy” jobs – at $356,000 apiece. It shells out $6 billion a year to grow corn on an area bigger than Indiana, and convert it into ethanol that gets a third less mileage per gallon than gasoline.

This isn’t “green” energy. It’s “greenbacks” energy. It requires perpetual infusions of taxpayer money, confiscated from hard-working, productive sectors, and given to companies that have better political connections. That is unconscionable, and unsustainable.

America must promote and permit projects that actually generate energy, jobs and revenues. It must reward and encourage companies that provide affordable 24/7 energy to power virtually everything we make, grow, transport and do.

Unleashing America’s vast supplies of shale oil and gas, conventional petroleum, coal and nuclear energy isn’t a magic potion. But it is a vital part of the solution to what ails our nation.

The petroleum industry alone currently supports some 9.2 million jobs, but could do much more. Recent studies by Wood McKenzie, ICF International and other analysts conclude that opening currently off-limits onshore and offshore areas could generate an additional $800 billion in government revenues and another 1.4 million jobs, by 2030. That includes primary jobs for roughnecks on rigs; secondary jobs in steel making, construction, pipelines, refineries, transportation and other sectors; and indirect jobs in hotel, restaurant, retail and other sectors that benefit from the increased energy, payrolls and economic activity.

We could do likewise with coal, nuclear and hydroelectric projects.

We need American energy for American jobs – tapping resource bounties to help balance the budget, drive down unemployment and get the country going again.

We can and must protect human health and environmental quality – from real threats, not exaggerated, speculative or computer-generated threats. We can and must do so without raising energy and business costs even higher, killing more jobs, and stifling private sector and government revenue opportunities.

Over-regulation brings energy poverty and blackouts, destroys jobs, impairs families’ living standards and nutrition, leads to foreclosures and homelessness, increases stress and alcohol abuse, makes it harder for families to afford proper heating and air conditioning, and harms people’s health and welfare.

Those impacts must be fully considered, along with putative benefits of current and future regulations. If laws and rules don’t pass muster, they need to be rewritten, rejected or repealed.

Subsidies do not create jobs. Getting overzealous government out of the way, ending government deficit spending, letting business work within a sensible regulatory system, ensuring that companies have the affordable energy they need – that creates permanent, sustainable jobs and brings renewed prosperity. That generates revenue streams that curb the need to raise taxes on productive companies and workers.

As election year 2012 dawns, voters must demand that presidential and congressional candidates explain how they will reform our legal and regulatory system, to tap US energy bounties, while protecting environmental values from actual risks, and ignoring exaggerated, imagined and invented dangers.

Unaccountable politicians, bureaucrats and environmental ideologues have strangled our economy long enough. We the People must now lay the foundation for producing more domestic energy, creating jobs, and ensuring that our children can look forward to a brighter future.

American energy can ignite America’s renewal, and restore American jobs, opportunity and prosperity. Voters need to send Congress, the White House and EPA a message:

We need American resources for an American recovery. Slash the crippling regulations. Drill here in America. Produce affordable energy, to create jobs and fix our economy. Do it now!

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

 

WesternFront America

Energy-depriving, job-killing, income-squeezing regulations have a frightening impact

Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr. and Reverend Efrain Piñeda

Halloween is over. The “scary” costumes are packed away. The monster/slasher movie extravaganza has concluded. All that remains are several weeks of sugar highs.

But as winter sets in, America faces real monsters: government regulations that stifle energy production, increase energy prices, kill jobs, squeeze family and business incomes, and threaten living standards and productivity.

Millions of poor, black, Latino and elderly Americans will bear the brunt of rising energy costs. Even middle class families will have to decide whether to heat their homes or buy groceries or medicine.

A recent USA Today story revealed how our sluggish economy has impacted families and communities. “Across the nation, the middle class share of the nation’s income is shrinking,” the article stated. “The vast middle class has less of the pie than it had before,” it continued, quoting Pew Research Center Executive Vice President Paul Taylor.

In Reno, Nevada, the paper noted, unemployment jumped from 4 percent in 2006 to 14 percent last year. Empty storefronts and rows of home-for-sale signs are commonplace.

USA TODAY also mentioned New Bern, North Carolina, where most middle class residents are retirees living on investments and fixed incomes. Plummeting portfolio values have forced many of them to look for work in an market where the trucking and boat and appliance manufacturing base has been battered.

What USA Today did not do was analyze the depressing problem.

In the case of Nevada, it could have observed that the federal government owns 85 percent of the state. Once managed under “multiple use” principles that allow mining, drilling, timber cutting, and even grazing, snowmobiles and vehicles in many areas, it is now ruled with little but environmental preservation in mind. Multiple use activities are highly restricted or banned, and few business and employment opportunities remain.

President Obama didn’t help either state when he said, “When times are tough, you don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas. You don’t go buying a boat.” In the wake of that remark, many singles, families and companies took their vacations and conventions somewhere other than Nevada, further increasing unemployment. Combined with his stated intention to raise taxes on wealthy (boat and appliance buying) families, the President didn’t help New Bern, either.

The ongoing legislative and regulatory binge has kept businesses and investors on the sidelines, stifling economic recovery. Actions on energy have been especially damaging, because reliable, affordable energy is the key to living standards, jobs, and everything we make, ship, eat and do.

Yet, the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency are locking up more oil, gas and coal prospects; delaying or denying onshore and offshore drilling permits; and imposing countless costly regulations on electricity generation that is the backbone of affordable energy for factories, workers and families. Despite the Solyndra, SunPower and Fisker scandals, the Energy Department spent billions more to subsidize expensive, intermittent green energy.

When the Democrat-controlled senate wouldn’t pass cap-tax-and-trade, President Obama said he would go around Congress and impose more rules on his own. EPA then decreed that carbon dioxide is a dangerous, climate altering pollutant. However, CO2 is essential to life on Earth: we exhale it and plants absorb it. The decision will adversely affect factories, power plants, refineries and numerous other facilities, costing hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

EPA’s ultra-expensive ozone rules could affect 85% of all US counties. Its Maximum Achievable Control Technology rules for power plants, cement kilns and other facilities will cost still more jobs.

EPA insists its rules will improve health and environmental quality. But as a report posted at www.AffordablePowerAlliance.com explains, there is no medical or scientific basis for most of these claims. The agency needs to consider how its policies will affect energy and reliability, business and family energy bills, jobs, and people’s health and welfare.

EPA and other agencies recently postponed some of their most costly regulations. After the 2012 elections, however, many will likely be back. Going down this road will bring to America what “green” energy policies, mandates, taxes and tariffs have inflicted on Britain.

Energy prices in the UK have skyrocketed. One-fifth of all British households are in “fuel poverty,” spending over 10 percent of their total incomes on gasoline and heating. Millions of workers have lost their jobs, or will soon, as energy-intensive companies lay people off, close their doors or outsource operations to China and India. A recent government-commissioned report concluded that 2,700 people will die this winter, because they cannot afford to heat their homes properly.

Poor and middle class Americans deserve a better future.

Government must stop transferring money from productive sectors to green theory capitalists – and fostering excessive legislation, taxation, regulation and litigation. It must promulgate sensible laws and regulations, to protect citizens, consumers and our environment from the unscrupulous, while allowing businesses and markets to operate more freely and profitably.

“Going green” must turn the corner from a marketing philosophy that does not carry its own weight, to a process that involves real data and considers the impact on poor and minority families.

That is how we can transform a monstrous “green” government into a facilitator of sustainable jobs, growth and revenue.

Bishop Jackson is Senior Pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland and president of the High impact Leadership Coalition. Reverend Piñeda is executive director of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

 

WesternFront America

Hydraulic fracturing opponents misrepresent facts to protect their ideologies and agendas.

Hydraulic fracturing sends “huge volumes of toxic fluids” deep underground at high pressure, to fracture shale rock and release natural gas, Food & Water Watch claims. “Billions of gallons of toxic fluids” will “contaminate” groundwater and drinking water “for generations.” We need to “Ban Fracking Now.”

Environmentalists used to support “clean natural gas.” Whence the intolerant new attitude?

Oil companies have been using hydraulic fracturing for 60 years to get the most petroleum possible from grudging rock formations deep beneath the Earth. A few years ago, Mitchell Energy and others combined HF with horizontal drilling to tap into hydrocarbon-rich shale deposits that previously refused to surrender their energy riches. Countless fracking operations later, the results have been spectacular.

Tapping the Marcellus, Bakken, Barnett, Haynesville and other formations has created jobs, generated revenues and rejuvenated moribund industries in many states that have shale deposits or manufacture the fluids, pipes and other equipment used in these operations. US natural gas production and estimated reserves have soared, and wellhead prices have dropped from $11 per thousand cubic feet in 2008 to $4 today. Canada is actively drilling, while Poland and Britain are evaluating early exploration results.

The Fort Worth Chamber says fracking supports 110,000 direct and secondary jobs in the region and added billions in property and sales tax revenues. Loren C. Scott & Associates calculates that shale drilling has added $11 billion to Louisiana’s economy. Pennsylvania’s Labor and Industry Department reports that HF has already generated 72,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in state tax revenues, and could bring another $20 billion by 2020. West Virginia and North Dakota report similar success.

Soaring supplies and plummeting prices have persuaded Dow, Shell, Sasol, Ormet and other companies to open, reopen or expand plants to produce ethylene, petrochemicals, aluminum – and more jobs.

That’s excellent energy and economic news, at a time when we sure could use a little good news.

Certainly, with all this activity going on – much of it in states that haven’t seen much drilling in decades, if ever – there is a clear need for regulations and oversight. We need to ensure that drilling and fracking are done properly, and chemicals are handled, disposed of and recycled correctly, to prevent harm to human health, wildlife habitats and environmental quality. While most shale gas deposits are thousands of feet below groundwater aquifers and drinking water supplies, we need to ensure that well casings are properly installed and cemented, so that there is no danger of contamination.

But ban hydraulic fracturing – and abandon these revenues and jobs? What the frack is going on here?

Think about it. This is free enterprise in action. It pays its own way. It doesn’t need subsidies, mandates, tariffs, or bureaucrats and politicians deciding which companies and industries win or lose. HF generates real, sustainable jobs, plus significant tax and royalty revenue, right here in America. It provides energy that works 24/7/365 … and is far cheaper than land-hungry wind turbine and solar panel installations. In fact, the shale gas revolution is making it even harder to justify these “renewable energy alternatives.”

Natural gas, specifically shale gas, is essential for powering backup generators for unreliable wind and solar installations. However, low gas prices make wind and solar even less competitive. The better solution is just to go with gas, coal and nuclear for electricity generation, and forget about expensive, eco-unfriendly, subsidy-dependent, crony capitalist wind and solar.

HF also demolishes the “peak oil and gas” mantra that we are rapidly running out of hydrocarbon energy. It again demonstrates that geologist Wallace Pratt was right. “Oil is first found in the minds of men.” Once companies devised new ways to extract shale gas bounties, vast new reserves became available.

Today, in reality, the only reason we might run out of energy is that government won’t let us drill.

People want and need reliable, affordable power. Many environmentalists support Paul Ehrlich’s opposite sentiment, that “giving society cheap energy is like giving an idiot child a machine gun.”

No wonder unrepentant fossil fuel haters are going ballistic over fracking.

The rest of us just want honest answers, carefully conducted drilling, fracking and production operations – and the benefits that come with them. Thankfully, the facts are relatively easy to find.

The Wall Street Journal laid many out clearly and forcefully in a June 2011 editorial, “The facts about fracking: The real risks of the shale gas revolution and how to manage them.” Whether it’s cancer, drinking water contamination, toxic or radioactive chemicals, earthquakes or regulations – the truth is miles from the misrepresentations, hysteria and fear-mongering propagated by Food & Water Watch and similar groups.

People who want to know how hydraulic fracturing is actually done – and what chemicals are actually used, even in specific states – can find a wealth of information at well-designed industry websites provided by Chesapeake Energy, the Ground Water Protection Council and Halliburton.

As the Halliburton site notes, 99.5% of fracking fluids is water and sand (the sand is carried into fractures, to keep them open and release the gas). However, forcing that fluid mix down wellbores and into solid rock formations thousands of feet underground requires advanced engineering and special chemicals to:

* Keep the sand suspended in the liquid, so that it is carried deep into the fractures;

* Fight the growth of bacteria in the fluid and wellbore, so that gas flows and pipes don’t corrode; and

* Reduce the surface tension of water that comes in contact with the reservoir, to improve gas production.

Different subsurface rock formations and conditions require different formulations for the 0.5% of the HF fluids that involves special chemicals. In the past, diesel oil and various industrial chemicals were used. Today, to an ever-increasing degree, the chemicals are borrowed from the food and cosmetics industry. The technical names sound daunting or even scary (inorganic acids, polysaccharide polymers and sulfonated alcohol, for instance), but these CleanStream chemicals (Halliburton’s terminology) are found in cheese and beer, canned fish and dairy desserts, and marshmallows and shampoo, respectively.

Even these three chemical groups (and other food and cosmetic chemicals) are classified as “hazardous” by the EPA and FDA, because in high doses some can cause cancer and other problems in animals. So you could say Food & Water Watch is technically correct when it tries to scare people by saying fracking fluids contain “toxic chemicals.” But the same point would apply to alcoholic beverages, fruit juices, lip liners, food starch, hand soap and countless other everyday products. Should we ban them too, along with coffee, broccoli and other foods that naturally contain even more potent carcinogens?

In other advanced techniques, instead of chemical biocides to kill bacteria, some systems now employ ultraviolet light, and mobile units now allow crews to treat and reuse water, reducing the amount of freshwater required in fracking. Other improvements are being made on a regular basis, as explained in simple lay terms on websites like those mentioned above. You can even find psychedelic 3-D maps of hydraulic fracturing operations and explanations of other fascinating technologies.

New York and other states, the Delaware River Basin Commission, Canadian provinces, Britain, Poland, the European Commission, and many Asian and Latin American countries are pondering HF as part of the solution to their energy, unemployment, economic and revenue problems. Getting the facts is essential.

Shale gas is an energy policy game changer. The last thing we need is more laws, regulations and policies based on misrepresentations and fabrications from outfits like Food & Water Watch.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality, and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

 

WesternFront America

Obama’s “jobs” speech was historic in one way: It was the first completely ‘green’ address to Congress. Every so–called idea in the speech was recycled from the extensive collection of failed Obama stimulus programs.

What did appear to be new was the increasing level of desperation in Obama’s demeanor. He’s a man who knows he’s on a sinking ship because his socks are getting squishy.

He’s gone from the cool, noble, Führer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrer> of the Future to the Nag of our National Nightmare. I lost count of the number of times he whined, “Pass this jobs plan.” It would have been a more convincing performance if Michelle had been ordering Congress around. Obama did everything but tap his foot and shake his finger in Speaker of the House John Boehner’s face.

(And speaking of faces, did you notice Boehner’s? Maybe it was the lighting, but I could have sworn his complexion was darker than Obama’s. I think we may have the first black or at least Indigenous American Speaker of the House, but of course the mainstream media ignores a story that might make Republicans look good.)

In keeping with his policy of relaxing the administration’s grasp on reality, at the time of the speech there was no ‘Save Obama’s Job’ bill for Congress to pass, because nothing had been introduced. And just like the Congressional Budget Office does not estimate Obama speeches, the House does not pass speeches. It only endures them.

Obama grants awesome powers to his non–existent bill, “It will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled.” Yet he keeps hooking the electrodes up to the same dead battery.

First there is $140 billion for “infrastructure.” This is Son of Shovel–Ready jobs. The only way the $50 billion allocated to bridges and infrastructure will be spent in a timely fashion is if he’s prepared to ship environmentalists off to Guantanamo. The kudzu of regulation and lawsuits surrounding road, bridge and transit funding guarantees paralysis. Just like it did the last time.

Besides, I think every illegal that wants a construction job already has one.

Then there’s the $35 billion handout for teacher’s unions and ‘first responders.’ Lucky for them most of these government workers already have jobs and since the money is a one time BINGO! experience, cities with budget problems that rely on this money to meet payroll expenses will be in the same situation next year.

So much for “investment.” Next up are tax cuts. Tuesday we learned Obama’s one year of tax cuts will be paid for by a decade of tax increases, which is about the usual Democrat exchange rate when it comes to spending.

Time stops for the Obama administration on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, so his planning horizon is just over a year. But that’s not the way it works for business. One year of tax cuts followed by ten years of tax hikes is not a ratio that’s going to inspire confidence in the business community.

Smart businessmen will continue to sit on their cash until the future looks Obama–less. Net jobs created: Zero.

The same is true for the individual taxpayers and the payroll deduction decrease. Over the course of a year it will average out to a $1,500 tax cut, but Obama doesn’t drop it off at your door in a lump sum. It comes in $125 installments. Families aren’t going to rush out and spend the money in this economy. The additional money will be used to pay down debt or be squirreled away in savings, just like it was when Bush tried this ploy and when Obama copied it later. Net jobs increased = none.

Finally comes $62 billion for the currently unemployed. Extending unemployment insurance will cost $49 billion. This may be a boon for the jobless, but it won’t get them work and it won’t get anyone else a new job either. The rest is tax credits for hiring the long–term unemployed and “work opportunities.”

Here again we encounter the time mismatch. The tax credits are for a single year, then the old rates resume along with the decade of tax increases planned by the wallet–emptiers in Obamaland.

Obama’s idea of job creation is to throw good money we don’t have after bad money we never had either. He shouldn’t be asking Congress for permission, Obama should be checking with the Chinese ambassador.

There are a number of actions Obama could have proposed if he was serious about job creation, but these are not among them. And that’s because right now the only job Obama is really interested in is his own.

Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at
michael-shannon@comcast.net.

Michael R. Shannon
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WesternFront America

A vital part of the solution to our economic and employment crisis is right under our feet

A frequent refrain during budget and debt ceiling debates is that we need revenue enhancement: higher tax rates, reduced deductions, eliminated credits. But doing this, especially amid today’s massively expanding regulations, will kill more jobs and further reduce government revenues.

There is a better way. Huge revenue sources are literally under our noses, or more precisely our feet.

America is blessed with vast oil, gas, coal, uranium, rare earth and other natural resource riches – to compliment our ultimate resource: the creative, competitive, innovative spirit of our people.

Finding and developing these resources would generate millions of jobs and billions, even trillions, in new government revenue and societal wealth. It would prevent default and downgraded credit ratings, reduce the need to cut government programs, shrink unemployment and welfare payments, avoid having to send hundreds of billions of dollars overseas each year for foreign energy and minerals, and reduce the need to borrow $120 billion out of every $300 billion the United States is now spending every month.

Many of these untapped resources are on federal public lands in our western states, Alaska and Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Many more are on private land and onshore and offshore state-owned lands.

Leasing, exploration, extraction, transportation and processing unleash economic activities and revenues on extraordinary scales: business activity, investment and profits, along with lease bonus and rental payments, permit fees, royalties and severance taxes for each unit produced, direct and secondary jobs, taxes on corporate profits and workers’ income, property taxes on equipment and facilities.

These activities also generate billions of dollars in purchases of equipment, food, supplies, raw materials, hotel lodging, special services and myriad other items. All this means still more employment, newly enabled consumer spending, more local, county, state and federal revenue, and other economic benefits.

Newly developed horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) techniques have enabled companies to unlock previously unavailable natural gas riches in conventional and shale gas deposits. That increased production, in turn, has reduced industry’s cost for energy and raw material feed stocks.

The American Chemical Council says this is reopening idled plants and creating jobs. In 2010 it helped increase chemical and plastics exports by 17% and 10% respectively, turning a $100 million industry balance of trade deficit into a $3.7 billion surplus. Other industries could soon see similar benefits.

America’s OCS generates over $19 billion annually in bonus, rent, royalty and tax revenue, IHS Global Insight has calculated. Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil field alone has generated hundreds of billions in government revenues since 1978, and the state of Alaska has collected a whopping $157 billion (in 2010) dollars from statewide oil and gas development since 1959. Millions of jobs were created and sustained.

In the Lower 48 States, Marcellus Shale deposits stretch across 95,000 square miles of New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, western Maryland and eastern Ohio. In Pennsylvania, say the state Labor and Revenue Departments, Marcellus fracking activities created 72,000 jobs (with an average $73,000 salary) between October 2009 and March 2011. Workers and royalty recipients paid $214 million in personal income taxes attributable to Marcellus development, while Marcellus drillers paid $1 billion in state taxes 2006-2010 (and another $238 million just during first quarter 2011).

The shale gas success story is being repeated in West Virginia, Louisiana, Texas and other states: thousands of jobs created, billions in royalties and taxes collected. New York should take note.

Taken together, America’s oil industry sustains 9.2 million direct and secondary jobs (5.3% of all US employment), generates $533 billion in total annual payrolls, contributes $1.1 trillion to US gross domestic product (7.5%), invested $2 trillion in capital improvements since 2000, and accounted for $190 billion in 2010 oil production. The largest integrated oil companies alone paid $1.95 trillion in corporate income, severance, property, excise and sales taxes, between 1981 and 2008, says the Tax Foundation.

We have it in our power to put many of our 20 million unemployed and involuntary part-timers back to work, generate trillions in revenue, and slash our chronic indebtedness. We just need to take action.

* End the leasing moratorium and “green flu” backlog on drilling permits in formerly accessible areas of the Gulf of Mexico. By the end of 2012 America could create 230,000 jobs in Gulf Coast and dozens of manufacturing states, produce 150,000,000 barrels of oil (worth $15 billion), reduce oil imports by a like amount, and generate $12 billion in tax and royalty payments, says IHS Global Insight.

(Right now, we are losing over $1 billion annually in Gulf royalty payments, because Gulf oil and gas production is down 220,000 barrels a day, thanks to DOI, EPA and White House foot dragging.)

* End leasing and drilling bans in the East Coast, West Coast, Western Gulf and Alaskan OCS, Rocky Mountains and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. America could produce up to 40 billion barrels of oil (worth $4 trillion at $100 a barrel) … create 114,000 to 160,000 jobs … and generate $547 billion to $1.7 trillion in new government revenues over the next few decades, according to ICF International.

* Open up some of the nearly 500 million acres of public lands that are now closed to mineral exploration (nearly 70% of all public lands). We could repeat these petroleum-related gains, and end our near-total dependence on China for rare earth metals that are essential for smart phones, smart bombs, night vision goggles, hybrid and electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and a host of other modern technologies.

Unfortunately, Congress and the EPA, Interior Department and White House are doing just the opposite.

EPA denied Shell Oil permits to drill in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, after Shell had spent $5 billion acquiring and exploring leases. EPA also blocked construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada to Port Arthur, Texas. During construction, the project would generate 130,000 US jobs, plus $600 million in state and local tax revenues – plus $5 billion in property tax and other government revenues during the pipeline’s life. EPA’s excuse? The projects would contribute to global warming.

EPA is also imposing thousands of pages of new rules on coal-fired power plants that provide 48-98% of the electricity in 26 states, including our most important manufacturing centers. Experts say the actions will raise electricity rates 20-60 percent, shutter up to 60,000 megawatts of electricity generation, kill 3.5 million jobs in six Midwestern states, and cost those six states $42-82 billion in lost annual GDP.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar continues to stall OCS leasing and drilling, and keep Western States oil, natural gas, oil shale, shale gas, coal, uranium and metals deposits off limits.

Meanwhile, our state and federal governments are spending over $10 billion annually, subsidizing wind and solar energy, and bankrolling radical environmental activism on energy, climate and public land issues.

Americans deserve a complete and honest accounting of how much revenue and how many jobs have been lost to environmental excesses. We have a right, and a duty, to develop our resources, rather than depleting other countries’ energy and minerals – and saddling our children with more joblessness and debt. It’s a perfect time for bipartisanship, at least among Republicans and moderate Democrats.

Committee hearings and briefings could discuss and evaluate industry, government and independent analyses of our vast energy, mineral, job and revenue opportunities. They would go a long way toward revealing the enormity of our self-inflicted wounds – and charting a responsible path forward.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality, and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

 

WesternFront America

Obama Administration energy policies are impairing our jobs, revenues, economy and health.

By Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. and Niger Innis

President Obama’s healthcare program came under intense scrutiny in 2010. As we enter 2011, we need to open our eyes to what is really going on behind his green energy propaganda, as well. To some, it may not seem as desperate an issue as healthcare, but it will grow to become just as devastating to those citizens among us who are poor, because access to affordable energy affects everything we do.

The administration’s green policies are being thrust into a precarious American economy. Every “green scenario” shows raised energy costs across the board. Not only will the average person pay more for energy; many will lose their jobs as the forced transition to alternative power sources rocks the stability of current energy-producing and energy-using companies.

Skyrocketing energy prices and lost jobs also mean millions of otherwise healthy Americans are subjected to new health threats: higher air conditioning, heating, transportation and other energy bills. For those who cannot afford the increased costs, this can mean death from heat stroke and hypothermia; reduced budgets for healthy food, proper healthcare, home and car repairs, college, retirement, and charitable giving; and psychological depression that accompanies economic depression.

Land withdrawals and leasing and permitting delays don’t just lock up vast energy storehouses. They kill jobs, eliminate billions in government bonus, rent, royalty and tax revenues – and force us to spend other billions to import more oil that we could produce right here at home.

The White House agenda represents a double power grab. It usurps state, local and private sector control over energy prices and generation, and gives it to unelected Washington bureaucrats. It also seizes our reliable, affordable energy, and replaces it with expensive, intermittent power.

While many Americans are duped into thinking renewable energy sources are the ticket to a clean world, they have not looked at the downside to these energy sources. Replacing fossil fuel power with coerced renewable energy means millions of acres will be covered with turbines and solar panels, and built with billions of tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass and rare earth metals. It means millions of acres of forest and crop land will be converted to farming for inefficient biofuels that also require vast inputs of water, pesticides, fertilizers and hydrocarbon fuels.

Moreover, wind and solar facilities work only 10-30 percent of the time, compared to 90-95 percent for coal, gas and nuclear power plants. Even worse, prolonged cold is almost invariably associated with high atmospheric pressure, and thus very little wind. On December 21, 2010 – one of the coldest days on record for Yorkshire, England (undoubtedly due to global warming) – the region’s coal, gas and nuclear power plants generated 53,000 megawatts of electricity; its wind turbines provided a measly 20 MW, or 0.04% of the total. The same high pressure, no wind scenario happens on the hottest summer days.

“Renewable” and “clean” energy projects received $30 billion in subsidies under the gargantuan stimulus bill. They got another $3 billion in the “lame duck” tax deal. Federal wind power subsidies are $6.44 per million BTUs – dozens of times what coal and natural gas receive, to generate 1/50 of the electricity that coal does. At current and foreseeable coal and gas prices, wind (and solar) simply cannot compete.

As to “green” jobs, Competitive Enterprise Institute energy analyst Chris Horner calculates that the stimulus bill’s subsidies for wind and solar mean taxpayers are billed $475,000 for each job created. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs reports that property tax breaks for wind projects in her state cost nearly $1.6 million per job. “Green energy” is simply unsustainable, environmentally and economically.

President Obama and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson may be convinced that we face a manmade climate change crisis, and unacceptable health risks from power plant and refinery emissions. However, their “climate science” is little more than a self-proving theory: no matter what happens – hotter or colder, wetter or drier, more storms or fewer – it’s “proof” of global warming.

Thousands of scientists say there is yet no real evidence that we face such a crisis, and most coal-fired power plants and refineries have already reduced their harmful emissions to the point that only the most sensitive or health-impaired would be harmed.

The problem is not runaway global warming. It is a runaway and unaccountable federal bureaucracy.

Putting the green power grab into even sharper focus are these eye-opening comments from two “socially responsible” CEOs, who have lobbied the Congress, EPA and White House intensely for cap-tax-and-trade, far tougher emission policies and still more subsidies. We thank the Wall Street Journal for bringing them to our attention.

EPA’s regulations “increase operating costs for coal-fired generators and ultimately increase the price of energy” for families and companies that need electricity, observed Exelon CEO John Rowe. “The upside for Exelon is unmistakable. Exelon’s clean [mostly nuclear] generation will continue to grow in value in a relatively short time. We are of course positioning our portfolio to capture that value.”

“Even without legislation in Congress, EPA is marching forward in terms of regulating carbon dioxide,” noted Lewis Hay, CEO of NextEra Energy, America’s largest producer of wind and solar power. “That puts us in a very good position.”

The Journal summarized the situation succinctly in a recent editorial: “The EPA is abusing environmental law to achieve policy goals that the democratic process rejected, while also engineering a transfer of wealth from the 25 states in the Midwest and South that get more than 50 percent of their electricity from coal. The industry beneficiaries [of these destructive regulations] then pretend that this agenda is nothing more than a stroll around Walden Pond, when it’s really about lining their own pockets.”

It is time to face reality. Misnamed “green energy” policies severely undermine any opportunity America may have to rebuild her economy. Perpetuating current jobless rates would be just the tip of the iceberg, if we follow the path that EPA and the White House have laid in front of us.

Let your legislators know that you do not support the White House’s current green programs.  We cannot afford to go broke trying to go green.

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. and Niger Innis are co-chairs of the Affordable Power Alliance, a humanitarian coalition of civil rights, minority, small business, senior citizen and faith-based organizations that champion access to reliable, affordable energy: www.AffordablePowerAlliance.org

 

WesternFront America

The Scott Brown election sent a cold chill through the Washington Democrat establishment. FINALLY they have begun to understand that there is a pervasive, universal, vocal and VOTING dissatisfaction with them!

Sadly, at least according to their public statements, they still don’t quite comprehend WHO is angry, WHAT they’re angry about, or WHAT to do about it!

They think that there is opposition to the PACE of healthcare reform, and that they should FOCUS on JOBS.

It still hasn’t occurred to them that the opposition to ObamaCare is because ObamaCare STINKS! It is a government takeover… a power grab. It doesn’t cover everyone. It doesn’t lower costs. It rations care. It will drive physicians out of practice, reducing availability of service. In short – it’s BAD law and the people don’t want it.

But I digress.

Now the Dems think they will earn favor by turning their destructo-beam of attention on jobs. That means they’re going to try to DO something about job “creation” by spending more tax money. Sadly, Progressives still don’t understand that government doesn’t create jobs (except for where they hire more government workers to do jobs that private industry could do better… like TSA!)

Job creation is done by Private Enterprise. Big Corporations represent a good portion of employment, but the most new jobs are created by SMALL BUSINESSES. And it’s small business that progressive policies hurt the most.

What causes job loss?

The quick answer is “the economy”.  And, of course, our current economic woes are the result of Progressive policies, from the Community Reinvestment Act to the failure to exercise oversight over the Fannie/Freddie mess back when they had opportunity during the 2005 hearings (when Lefties like Maxine Waters PRAISED the OUTSTANDING leadership of Franklin Raines… but I digress again!), to quadrupling the federal deficit in one year to increasing the debt to over $13 Trillion, to expanding government exponentially and on and on.

(To put that debt into perspective, with approximately 250 million people (all ages and employment statuses) in the US , that means each and every man, woman and child of us owes $4 for every billion dollars they spend. A Trillion is 1000 Billion so we each owe $4000 for every Trillion. $13 Trillion in debt means that we owe $52,000 for every man, woman and child in the nation… AND THEY’RE STILL SPENDING in a way that would insult drunken sailors if I were to use that simile! They’re increasing our debt load by over $4000 per person every year for the next decade!)

What CREATES jobs?

When Government GETS OUT OF THE WAY, economic recovery happens and the engine that drives our economy begins to chug. Consumers begin to buy. Companies begin to grow and expand. Durable goods orders increase. Investor confidence increases and money flows. Companies hire employees to meet the increased demands.

Tax cuts have spurred the economy AND INCREASED REVENUE to the federal government EVERY time they’ve been tried.

Kennedy, Reagan and Bush all reduced taxes – and every time the economy experienced an extended period of growth… AND revenues to the treasury increased.

Progressive rhetoric always presumes a zero sum game… cutting taxes means less revenue. But in reality that this is a completely false premise. Just as raising tax rates does not increase revenues. (We’re seeing increased deficit numbers right now, because of decreased revenues due to the slowdown in the economy!)

What you subsidize, you get more of. What you tax, you get less of. When you raise taxes, you slow the economy. Jobs are lost and there are less tax payers. When you lower tax rates, the economy is revved up and there are more taxpayers making more money, and generating more revenue.

Picture this: Which nets you more… taking 50% of a 6” pie or taking 33% of a 12” pie? Well, a 6” pie is roughly 18 square inches netting you 9 square inches if you take half. A 12” pie is roughly 36 square inches, so 33% would be around 12 square inches. Cutting your rate from 50% to 33% nets you more pie… if your pie grows from 6” to 12”

The economy works the same way. Cutting taxes grows the pie. A smaller portion of a bigger pie still nets you more revenue.

The more Government is involved in the economy, the less efficiently the economy operates. The government took over GM and Chrysler. They pumped massive influxes of billions of dollars into these companies. They’re still failing and losing money.

Ford, on the other hand, took no government bailout. They’re making money.

The Administration has proposed a “deficit cutting commission” (for AFTER November’s elections!). Rest assured that the purpose is not to find ways to cut spending (except maybe for the military!). They will conclude that they don’t have enough revenue to meet their level of spending, so they need to raise taxes to cover it!! As if that wouldn’t be the final nail in the coffin of the economy!

No, if the Progressives in government today REALLY want to see job growth, they should:

Make the Bush Tax Cuts permanent and make further tax cuts.

Reduce regulations on corporations such as Sarbanes Oxley and other oppressive rules that punish the law abiding and which don’t hinder the unscrupulous.

Discontinue the so-called stimulus and return all unspent funds from that legislation to the general fund.

Abandon Cap and Trade and the ObamaCare takeover of Healthcare – and eliminate all the new spending authorized in 2009.

Vow to never bail out another private business. Proclaim that failure IS an option in a Capitalistic Republic . But assure the OPPORTUNITY for success is unfettered by government

Make across the board spending cuts throughout government.

Create NO new bureaucracies.

REDUCE the size and influence of government. Get the government OUT of everything not constitutionally designated to the Federal Government. And quit interpreting the “Interstate Commerce” clause to authorize federal meddling in virtually anything and everything! The constitution exists to LIMIT government and to ASSURE personal freedom!

Negotiate to refinance our existing debt at a lower rate based on our implementation of the above and the resultant economic stimulus which will bolster our dollar.

Of course, this would mean the Progressives would have to become Fiscal Conservatives… and this is unlikely to happen. Therefore, it becomes incumbent upon the American people to REPLACE the Progressives in power today with Conservatives, come election time.

Based on recent events in New Jersey , Virginia and now Massachusetts (or is it Massachusettes?), it would appear that, perhaps, the sleeping giant of the American Voting Populace and the so-called “silent majority” is now awake and no longer silent.

We can only hope.

Copyright © 2009 by Doug Edelman

Doug Edelman is a conservative political commentator and has been a contributing editor for The Conservative Voice. His work is also seen on News By Us, The American Daily, The Post Chronicle, New Media Journal, Capitol Hill Coffee House etc. For the support of his family, however, he is also an IT Consultant/Contractor and owner of a Computer Services Business.  He has taught PC Maintenance & Repair and Networking at his local Community College, and maintains a blog at http://edeldoug.blogs.com/.

 

WesternFront America

They may have expected the worse after Obama was elected. Knowing they were going to be subject to more profit-robbing taxes including cap and trade, 11 major US corporations beat Obama to the punch in 2009. They have moved their operations overseas. More will follow when cap and trade is finally passed.

These Democrats lie about the job losses cap and trade will create, but we have 11 major corporations who said they have had enough before Congress rapes them one more time. These are more jobs gone overseas.

I once believed companies like Ingersoll Rand were safe thinking the size of their products made the product impractical to ship back to the United States, but so wicked is the Untied States tax code, they are now a foreign based company.

Investors.com sites the threat of new taxes, the convergence of technology, the ease of digital collaboration and ready access to abundant foreign engineering talent. Not only the coming new taxes like cap and trade the culprit, the crummy federal education system is also a culprit. Why am I not surprised? Lack of engineering talent places the blame at the Department of Education—there’s no other entity to point a finger at. Math and science skills are suffering in the United States thanks to these crummy schools that would rather teach a child how to put a condom on a banana than focus on the needs of the country.

Taxes are the largest blame to the problem. The United States corporate tax rate is only second to Japan’s. The Democrats in Congress don’t want to fix that little problem because they are too busy spending money for their special interest projects in their districts and states. They need more funding so they can fund these unconstitutional projects.

Let’s look at what the United States lost this year knowing that both Boeing and General Motors are looking at China and Mexico to lower their production costs and possibly escape the heavy hand of the American government.

Tyco International, Foster Wheeler, Weatherford International, Nabors Industries, Noble Corp., TransOcean International, United America Indemnity, Cooper Industries, Covidien, Ingersoll-Rand and Accenture have all left our once fruited plains now plagued by an oppressive and over taxing government, and they have taken their production jobs to someplace where they won’t have to deal with these fools in Congress.

Investors.com also places the blame on education. The US spends more per capita on a student than any other OECD country, but continues to get the bottom of the barrel test scores. Until parents start putting pressure on their schools to end the social experimentation and actually teach kids something, this is a statistic that will destroy this country.

We all should be concerned that 11 corporations have left our shores, especially when our Congress is looking at tying the hands of more US corporations through taxation, bad environmental policies, and a pathetic education system. It’s really sad to watch our country fall like it is. This doesn’t even include major companies that have closed their doors this year thanks to environmental policies—remember Columbia Falls Aluminum Company? They closed their doors after environmentalist prevented them from getting the needed electricity to run their operations. More jobs gone because of the sick philosophies currently taking over our institutions in this country.

These jobs aren’t coming back. That’s the bottom line.

Originally posted at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom © Clay Bowler

 

WesternFront America

Another example of an out of control government.

According to the IRS, the Making Work Pay Tax Credit is the following. “In 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will provide a refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns. This tax credit will be calculated at a rate of 6.2 percent of earned income and will phase out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income in excess of $75,000, or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly. ” (IRS.Com, 2009)

A much-vaunted approach by the NEW New Deal government we have in Obama. However, as with everything that starts with “FREE” all good things must end. Obama’s appointee Tim G. the tax evading head of the IRS is now reporting the following, “An estimated 15.4 million tax filers may be getting paid more of the Making Work Pay credit than they should, according to a report from a Treasury Department inspector general publicly released Monday. And that means they either will get less of a refund than they expected, or will actually owe money to the IRS on their 2009 taxes.” (CNNMoney.Com, 2009) I mean sure, the inspector general is not Tim- however, lets be honest what is the use of being in charge of the largest money scam of our time (the IRS) if you do not sign off on inspector general reports.

Yes folks, another example of a rogue government went badly. For almost 16 million Americans next year will be a truly bad year. After all thanks to bad funding decisions and TRILLIONS spent bailing out corporate interests so that those same corporate interests can lay off millions of people, now some of those millions of people will be receiving calls from the IRS telling them that if they don’t pay for the IRS’s mistake and do it NOW they will lose everything. Take it from someone who has had those calls. 5 years after a supposed “error” on my part, I finally received notice. Of course in the five-year interim the fees had built up astronomically, and guess what I no longer had any time to find out what the real problem was. Therefore, I set up regular payments to the IRS, being on disability SSI at the time made it hard, of course what made it harder was when the IRS again screwed the pooch and began deducting 45% of my SSI payments on top of the payments I was already making. Yes folks, the government you love to hate, or hate to love your call has caused more people to become jobless or homeless than any other entity through bad decisions and even worse leadership.

I digress however; let us concentrate on the almost 16 million more people who are about to get a wake up call and a reassurance that when they voted for Obama it meant being screwed yet again! Yes folks, I warned you all as did hundreds of other people who saw that the original New Deal politics ended with, you guessed it- our current situation! Lets recap, bail out and prop up major corporate interests under the guise of saving the economy- lose over 12% of American jobs as a result, than say “whoo hoo my plan rocks under it some  people (of the almost 6 million lost) have found jobs…” really? According to (CNSNews.com) - “At least 12,000 jobs “created” by President Obama’s stimulus package are summer jobs for young people.”  Oops, what- you mean he aint really helping us?

Now let us take another approach, let us just say that these major businesses fail completely. Now all of the sudden there is a vacuum for this business type and true to American ingenuity several small business springs up to fill the gaps. So now, instead of losing jobs we have allowed competition and the true American capitalist attitude to succeed where government has failed. Unfortunately, this is but a dream, your government has instead sold you out forcing you to become socialists all the while blaming capitalism.The first time was in the 30′s and the now again they are bailing out aging giants that should be allowed to die, and they are doing it with YOUR money-

My answer here is- YOU LIE OBAMA and Company (that’s everyone voting for his programs, and working with him)

This Making Work Pay Tax Credit is just another example of the failure that occurs when you allow or encourage some subpar wanna be politicians to begin making business decisions. Sorry folks, who remembers the Constitution, who remembers the days when you could own a mom and pop place and be comfortable, who remembers what freedom really tasted like…

Remember in 2010- remember to vote for people who can and will take this country back and will hold to account the rampant BAD decisions being made at the top. For those of us in Arizona, its time to get rid of John McCain and bring in Jim Deakin!

Originally posted at Examiner.com © Jesse Mathewson

 

WesternFront America