Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Obama Creates Jobs!

This article first appeared in the Knoxville News- Sentinel on January 4, 2009.

Happy New Year. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the 110th Congress is gone. The bad news is that the 111th Congress will be worse. More good news is that the Bush Administration is gone with its $1 trillion in new spending before all the bailouts. The bad news is that the Obama Administration will be worse because it will increase spending by even more and likely will raise taxes as well. Lets hope that Barack Obama does not change the Bush recession into the Obama depression.

I saw a headline that said “Carmakers’ long-term fate in hands of next president”. I beg to differ: the carmakers’ long-term fate is in the hands of the American consumer. When President Bush decided – for whatever reason – to throw away $17.4 billion to Chrysler and GM, he said that the money gave them the opportunity to start to institute plans to restructure into viable companies. Huh? What have they been doing while they have been hemorrhaging money and raking up loses? I admit that I am part of the problem. I have never owned an American car – unless you count the four Saabs of my youth. However, I have never owned a foreign truck. If Ford takes a penny of the government’s money, I will seriously consider never buying another American truck.

I was struck by how many US firms are now either relocating their headquarters out of the country or contemplating doing so. It is a sad day when companies have to flee the US because of burdens from taxes and government regulations. I wish the auto execs had said that if Congress would not start to aggressively deregulate the auto industry, then they would be forced to relocate their headquarters and production overseas. There is a reason why the automakers make money everywhere but in the US.

But not to worry, another headline said “Obama increases jobs goal to 3 million.” Of course any figure could be pulled from the air because any job creation by the government is illusory. The article said that plans were being made to winterize 1 million homes, investing in disease prevention and modernizing schools. Well I guess during these times we all need comic relief. Obama seems to be obsessed with infrastructure and job creation. I presume what we are going to do is to take the displaced Wall Street bankers and retrain them as welders. By the way, crumbling infrastructure is due to failed government policies. The capitalist market would never allow this to happen.

If Barack Obama wanted to create 3 million real jobs, he could do it today. All he would have to say is the following “My fellow Americans, in order to create permanent jobs, I will eliminate both the capital gains tax and the corporate income tax. I will make permanent the Bush tax cuts and aggressively work to limit government spending to no more than 20 percent of GDP unless in the case of a national emergency. I will also seek to fully exploit all domestic energy sources. I believe that in adopting these policies, we can reignite American commerce, energize consumer confidence, restore the integrity of the dollar and guarantee that the American dream will be a reality for our children, our children’s children and for all Americans for generations to come.”

1 comment:

Mike said...

If the "big three's" survival rest on US consumers what possible incentives could they offer us? I own a 98' Honda Civic with 120k on it and not a day in the shop. With out some new dazzling technology that becomes a must have for every consumer I can not see how the car manufacturers will entice us buy, and buy Ford, Chrysler, or GM.