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Where are the jobs?
On tonight's Crossfire, hosts Stephanie Cutter and S.E. Cupp debate solutions to unemployment with the United State's struggling economy.
Guests fmr. Gov Tim Pawlenty and fmr. Labor Secretary Robert Reich spar over what the plan of action should be. Who were you siding with during the debate?
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Posted by CNN's Christina Manduley Filed under: Budget • Debates • economy • Middle Class • Minimum wage • Robert Reich • S.E. Cupp • Stephanie Cutter • Tim Pawlenty • Unemployment |
Meet the Hosts
Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
Conservative columnist for New York Daily News, contributing editor at Townhall Magazine, commentator and author
Former Special Adviser for Green Jobs under President Obama, co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, author and attorney
Obamcare is killing us!..... "White House proposes eliminating Medicare's prescription cost protections"
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5424029-74/medicare-transplant-prescription#ixzz2r92XAwUU
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So you're unaware that the GOP basically allowed lobbyists for the drug companies to write the Medicare Part D legislation that made competitive drug pricing, similar to what the VA enjoys, impossible?
Mr. Reich's argument and his presentation just went about a foot over Cupp's head. You can see it in her face and notice it in her random jabs that are completely unfounded and irrelevant. I'm glad she did her homework the day of, but it was kind of obvious she came to a gun fight with a knife.
Where are the jobs??? Ask the chamber of commerce they are on the dock waving goodbye to slow boat to China!!! Now pass Glass-Steagall for the 21st century into law so the middle-class can rebuild and we may have a chance. Banks are currently only lending 50% of their deposits a sure sign of failure, stop the Wall Street casino separate the banks again so they must lend to create wealth not play the markets. This has been the challenge since 1999 when Wall Street lost their senses and killed our economy, please don't let them kill America!!!
So refreshing to read from an intelligent person! We need to amend the tax code to penalize employers who shift jobs out of the country. Currently, because of that wretched Reagan, they are rewarded. That needs to stop.
Very true – Please keep speaking out.
Illegal aliens have stolen millions of jobs from the poorest Americans. H1B visa holders steal hundreds of thousands of jobs from Engineers and Scientists. In both cases wages are driven down for labor in the US. I just want to know when the Federal Government will start doing their job and deporting all illegal aliens?
Galactus, That's a good common sense observation and question?
Please, keep speaking out and asking the same kind of questions, because it's very important that we continue to become the unsilent majority until our messages of common sense are heard and our leaders actually start putting some sensible measures in place to stem the tide and bring back businesses and jobs to The United States of America and to Tax-Paying US Citizens. Otherwise this is going to continue to have a devastating effect on America and the American People.
YES! We need to keep hammering at it until we get the results WE, not the rich, want.
Kind of a short term and blinded view.
With free trade, stopping immigration (legal or illegal) has little impact. If the people who will work for less in foreign countries can't come to the US, the jobs will go to them. The only ones that won't go are those that can't... such as service jobs dependent on location (restraunts, hotel workers, etc).
Simply put... the job impact of going protectionist on immigration is virtually nil and possibly negative... UNLESS you get rid of free trade so that those who produce elsewhere have a penalty if they try to bring goods to our market.
Stop our Government from allowing H1B visa holders to come to the USA! Its killing jobs for Americans!
They are not going to stop it unless we force the issue. As long as we do nothing about it, it will continue.
Eh,
Jobs important no matter which side fence you on. After 100 years of Liberal's running show why we no better off than 1930's? Since most of you never took Economics 101 why you full of advice how fix problem? Some look for Magic Formula. Old Gunderson know there no Magic Formula. Socalisim already tried in old Soviet Union and failed. Liberal's put many Big Social Programs in place help people. So far they fail just like Soviet Union. As long as people let Liberal's put up Roadblocks jobs be scarce. Many Businesses learn how get along with less workers. Old Navy saying. Don't "F" up, liberty good. Is it too late to save Titanic? Up to you, the voter. Don't forget Old Navy Advice.
The American Jobs Act has been setting in congress for 3 or 4 years now. Though it is fully paid for Republicans are blocking it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/senate-republicans-succes_b_1008103.html
There hasn't been a liberal in the whitehouse since LBJ. In his short term in office the war on poverty lifted 20 million people out of poverty and created jobs. The Civil rights act of 1964 created vast opportunities for blacks that never existed before. Liberals like FDR, LBJ, JFK, Frank Sinatra and many others made this country work for the people.
Real wages increased during the war years and steady increased until Reagan. He blamed the country's problems on the poor and began the union busting and decline of American wages that has going on ever since.
You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - and you don't have to be an economist to read a chart. Look up real wages. You can see for yourself.
James, have you read the AJA? Much of it goes to big Unions, Labor groups and funds projects for a short period...but the cost or DEBT of that remains. The "titles" always sound good, but the true impact is never what we think.. We're investing on the wrong side of the ledger...Invest in new small businesses, innovation grants thru the SBA, NOT paying some steel worker $88.00 an hour thru the Davis-Bacon Act on a [project that lasts 2 years while the debt remains payable forever.
Not buying it. Ricko. Heard it before. A lot of folks are still waiting for that "rising tide that floats all boats" but the only thing that has floated away in 30 years is peoples homes, good jobs and small businesses.
We need to revist your assumptions.
Reaganomics was a foolish notion from the start and all it has done is reduce taxes and increase the wealth of ultrarich sociopaths and global corporations at the expense of American workers - and it is destroying the country.
Davis Bacon was set up to prevent declining wages in the 1930s. It may or may not be important today since minimum wage laws have been largely abandoned. But it is a minor issue in the overall debate over jobs. If you look hard enough at anything you can find some issue to quibble over.
The law should be passed. It will do the very thing it is intended to do. Create good jobs. And if you ever worked steel, you might find those people very well deserve 88 dollars per hour.
When people are out of work and near poverty they don't have money to spend. That makes businesses fail. If working people have money to spend, they spend it. They buy homes and cars and things they want or need instead of investing overseas. That actually grows the economy and it is good for America.
We don't all have supercomputers connected to wall street computers, skimming millions of dollars a day. Most of us have to produce something useful to make money. They don't. In fact, today they can make more doing nothing than they can building businesses and taking risks.
We need to unite and destroy the republikkkans, AND, clean America's mindset from so-called "Free Trade".
Protect you need to stop listening to Dimbaugh and Bleck. "Illegal Aliens" are not eligible for any funds from the ACA. There are other consequences because unless you think we should let someone who doesn't have the right credentials just die, then SOMEBODY down the line has to pick up the tab. But that's the essential problem that you conservatives don't seem to understand.
Here's an article from a nice conservative rag for you: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/obamacare-bars-illegal-immigrants-and-sticks-hospitals-with-the-bill/282444/
The GOP ran on jobs, jobs, jobs, but it turned into stopping womens rights, voter suppression, and stopping healthcare for the people with pre-exsisting conditions.
The only safe jobs are designing robots to take human jobs, of course unless a robot is designed to replace humans who design robots to replace humans.
I have a question that I hope someone can answer. Being a Canadian and trying to understand US politics (better than any reality show by far), if the current economic problems are on put on Bush does that mean that Bush inherited his budgets/deficits/debts etc., from policies put into place by Clinton? Did Clinton inherit his budgets/deficits/debts/surpluses etc., from policies put into place by Bush Sr/Reagan.
I know there is causes for all issues but continually blaming the previous administration does nothing to help get over the current issues. I honestly think people should vote for the candidate (Senator/Congressman) who presents the best ideas for the country. I don't see that all Republicans are the same or that all Democrats are all the same, I think there are idiiots in both parties
Google Pogo to see who real enemy is.
Baby Bush inherited Clinton's budget surplus, the first surplus in decades, and turned it into a big deficit. Clinton inherited Daddy Bush's and Reagan's huge deficits. The 2 major parties are not the same. The republikkkans believe in allowing the capitalists free reign to do anything they want to whoever they want no matter who is hurt. The Democrats believe in a democratic, classless society. The republikkkans are against Trade Unionism, the Democrats, if not exactly for it, are at least willing to let it live. The Democrats also believe that Big Business must be regulated for the benefit of the people. The republikkkans believe that Big Business, and the rich and powerful in general, must be allowed to anything they wish as long they get richer doing it.
There will always be income inequality. The fact is, do we want all the money at the top of the pyramid to the point where it buckles under its unbalanced weight and tips over, or do we want a distribution of wealth in this nation that is at least some what fair? We are not proposing income equality, we are proposing income fairness. If you work hard, you should be paid well. That is what we are proposing. That has not happened in the United STates for some 35 plus years. We see our fellow Americans busting their behinds ever day earning less than minimum wage and most people revel in it! Why are people so happy that the majority of people in our nation are being issued and rejoining in the fact that the United STates is one of the most miserable nations on the planet! I just do not understand why privileged Americans are so full of it. Republicans literally have stripped me of all hope in this nation. How much longer now until it fails? I will laugh when the Walton families 40 percent of the Americans peoples wealth is WORTHLESS! Wont you?
I had to laugh because apparently dismantling teacher unions is going to magically create jobs? Republicans need to go out and get some brains...
SE Cupp is against the workers and middle class, she is a conservative HO
That's right Sammy! Name calling is truly the answer to EVERYTHING!
Our government is selling out the worker in America. They are signing off on TPP, thus moving jobs overseas again. Obama and Boehner is pushing this bill. It is being kept a secret so far. But everyone has to push back on TPP, as all jobs will be moved to Europe and Asia. This is ever worst then NAFTA was and is. Our law makers do not care about the working class. But TPP will even make billions more in profits to the corporations.
what we have here are two people arguing for the middle class and two other not so smart people arguing for "Job Creators." The rest of us call them the 1%.
"ProtectAmericanJobs" sure uses a whollotta words to say absolutely nothing! Dominating a conversation doesn't make your point of view correct. Protest too much and no one pays attention to anything you say.
My biggest concern is the fact that the economy continues to grow with the high unemployment rate. The concern is over the capitalist obsession with efficiency. The most efficient economy is the one that does not shrink and simultaneously employs the fewest people possible. Why work to reduce the unemployment rate if your business can grow with fewer employees?
My company only employs 15 people, but if I can keep my business and/or grow it while also reducing my staff to 14 or 13 people then I would be able to pocket that extra $100k-200k for myself. The stress in big business is probably greater considering the pressure stock holders place on those companies in which they are invested.
Sure, it is probably a short-term consideration...but American business is not exactly known for thinking decades down the road.
The very first thing S. E. Cupp said was a lie. Republicans do not care one iota about income equality and they have not spoke of it.
Please state exactly how do YOU propose "income equality"? How is making everyone earn the same amount going to help anything? At the least it would stifle ingenuity on a massive scale.
It doesn't mean that everyone should earn the same amount. Consider that in the 1980's the ratio of CEOs salary to the average worker's pay was about 40 to 1. Compare that to a recent article in CNN Money that says that ratio has ballooned to 354 to 1. Think about how the average worker's salary is about $34,000. Now think about Oracle' CEO Larry Ellison's compensation of $96.1 MILLION.
Perhaps a clear illustration of income inequality would be to compare the compensation of Disney's Bob Iger: $19.8 million in cash plus another 17.3 million in stock and options. He received an 18% increase in compensation over last year. A cast member at Disney World makes about $8/hour. When was the last time YOU got a raise of :ANY amount? Any guess how many poor slobs have to go to Disney World or buy their kid a princess costume to pay for Iger's outrageous salary?
Please tell us how much you think everyone should be making.
Look what unions did to the car industry.
Look what unions are doing to government.
Both nothing any good.
Would you seriously like to go back to the working conditions that existed before there were unions? Ever hear the expression "slave to the company store"? Before there were unions, workers could be forced to work for next to nothing, rent their shack from the company and shop at the company store. Companies made sure that worker's pay would not be sufficient to meet their rent and living expenses, but were happy to extend them credit with interest. Thus a form of debt bondage developed where the worker could never leave because his wages would never cover the debt.
Add to that the fact that worker's safety was not "Job 1", it wasn't even considered. You should read about the horrible deaths suffered by garment manufacturers–all the dust and scraps of cloth were fodder for fires but the workers were locked in because God forbid they should take a breath of fresh air during their shift.
I admit that unions have in some ways corrupted their original mission and exceed the needs of the workers they are supposed to support, but I certainly would not expect the GOP politicians to represent fair and safe working conditions either. Why, Michele Bachmann didn't even think there needed to be ANY minimum wage.
There needs to be a balance of worker/company rights and right now the pendulum has swung extremely in favor of companies and at the expense of workers.
Concerning the discussion between Reich and Pawlenty, it needs to be made very clear and obvious that a federal minimum wage hike back to the 1960's levels with respect to inflation is only good for all of society. Most businesses, and all good-to-great businesses will benefit from this. It doesn't take much thought:
The poor (people making minimum wage) are forced to spend all their money in order to stay alive. That is, all their money goes back into the economy (utilities, food, rent, health). Those are the essentials for survival, so when you give a poor person a couple extra dollars per hour, it's only going to go back into the economy, which means that money just goes back to the businesses, except on a wider scale with greater volume. The important conceptual jump that most people do not realize here is that most businesses have a lot more customers than they do employees. So while the businesses do pay out more to their employees, there are A LOT more customers coming in who will be paying a little more which over-compensates for the increase in worker salary. Not only that, higher minimum wage across the country will increase the states sales tax revenue (because the poor will be spending that extra money) AND it will also result in higher income tax revenue (because those people are getting paid more, more is also being taken out to go toward state and federal taxes). It's a win-win for everyone, and as Pawlenty confirmed, when he signed to rase Minnesota's minimum wage, the state did very well after that. So even Pawlenty agrees, and Unz in California is a Republican millionaire who wants to raise the minimum wage in California to $12 an hour by 2016. It only makes sense. More money circulating in the economy is better for businesses, better for government, and better for society.
I also agree that people should look at which diverted funds add the MOST to the economy. Tax loopholes for hedge fund managers does not equate to anything improving on Main Street. That money they save means they take less out of their over-seas bank accounts, so they save money for themselves, and that money isn't anywhere near the U.S. economy when it's over-seas not even being taxed. I'm not against tax sheltered annuities, but tax loop holes for the wealthiest 1-5% does not help the economy at all. Banning those tax loop-holes and diverting that gained tax money towards government assistance for the 2.3 million starving children would be much wiser (Jesus isn't around to magically make bread and wine appear, but I bet he'd agree that money collecting interest in a Swiss bank account would be better spent on a starving poor child that cannot get the nutrition it needs because her/his parents do not make enough at minimum wage levels). A lot of people call that attacking the rich or punishing the rich, but that's a backward way of framing it. The rich have been rewarded for years and decades. Take away a tax loophole is not a punishment- a tax loophole is a privilege denied to everyone else in this country. They would just be losing the precious privilege they never needed in the first place, and a privilege that only helps them and not the rest of the economy, whereas an increase in the minimum wage helps the entire economy.
Wow, S.E. Cupp really spouts nonsense right from the get-go when she claims that republicans have been talking about income inequality since Nixon. Every time I've heard income inequality mentioned recently, republicans start shouting "class warfare."
What a horrible job of moderation. Before Reich even had a chance to speak you're attacking him in a belittling tone. Incredibly unprofessional, looks like something from fox.
I found it interesting how she started right off the bat calling Robert Reich "Robert" but Tim Pawlenty was "Governor". But perhaps I'm getting too fussy in my dotage.
Labor is undervalued. It doesn't matter how easy or unskilled a job is. If you want it filled by a living, breathing human being who's not doing anything else but completing your tasks for you while they're on the clock, you need to compensate them for their opportunity cost. If you're letting them sleep or watch their children or do other paying work at the same time, that's a different story. But if you're going to demand exclusive claim over their time, you need to give them a means to live. What are their other options for survival if all their hours are spent working for you at minimum wage? If you don't feel a job is worth paying a wage that will support the person doing it, the job isn't worth being done. If you can't afford to pay a living wage, you can't afford employees. Nobody owes you their labor. Do the work yourself.
I agree. completely true. Unfortunately the system is set up so they can use the threats of poverty and hunger to force you to work for less than the job is worth. That is why many workers put their lives on the line and many were killed to establish trade unions. Now they have been able to convince workers that trade unions are bad which is a major part of the reason real wages have declined so much. People are taught to vote against unions and their own interests so very weathy corporations can get richer.
frijolitofarmer
you put it perfectly. It is never discussed. THEOPPORTUNITY COSTS loss that a low wage worker makes when using their time to aid the profits of a check signer. Well said. A point I always try to impart on people who insist the minimum wage should NOT be raised, or that living wage is not a proper paradigm to use. It is essenstial that a true capitalistic, private property, free market economy have such a mechanism, due the inherent imbalance in power it causes.
If that person doesn't like their wage they can quit and go work for someone else. But yes, a company has to compete when it comes to wages if they want to survive as a business. But they have no obligation to give in to demands from anyone about what they pay their employees. Nobody's holding a gun to the employees head making them work there.
Brian, wouldn't it be great if working was optional? No one's holding a gun to their head...except for their children who seem to expect food everyday. Wouldn't it be great if, like Michelle Bachman suggested, there was no minimum wage? Businesses could pay them nothing and if the workers didn't like it, they could go work somewhere else for nothing. And they could take that nothing and spend it at those same businesses who'd gladly take that nothing and hire more workers. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Brian, your response that employers have to purchase labor within the labor markets. This is disingenuous. Employers are powerful enough to lobby Congress for H1B visas because they cannot find skilled workers who will work at their wage. Obviously, the net effect is a flood of skilled workers from poorer nations to compete against Citicens who will not work for lower wages. The ultimate result is a downward spiral on wages.
The U.S. needs a major program to repair and upgrade our infrastructure.
Also, non-financial U.S. businesses are sitting on $2T - if they would only invest in expanding their businesses or in new businesses.
The repairs and upgrades our infrastructure should of been done from the very first stimulus package. It would of created more jobs than what was created. Hind sight 20/20? I said this back then.
It is fascinating to me that on today's show the voices for the GOP were two disgraced form Speakers.
This casts a very unfavorable light on both the GOP and CNN – can CNN not find Republican spokes people other than former Speakers who were forced from the position for, at the very least, unethical behavior?
Can any of our leaders actually help America and the American People bounce back from all the stupid, traitorous, nonsense and damage done to the Real American Economy over the last 2-3 decades?
Unfortunately most of our politicians are joke – Only it's not so funny, because over the past several decades, all they've been doing is screwing the American people, by stalling, spending, removing protections and allowing illegal aliens to continue to pour in and American jobs and industry to pour out, and all while collecting their American tax-payer funded pay checks, benefits and whatever else they get on the side from their various lobbyist friends.
It seems to me that over the last 2-3 decades that both parties were always able to distract and polarize voters with insignificant peripheral BS, which get's most voters so caught up in the BS that they lose sight of the bigger picture.
We'd really all be better off by just cutting through the BS and all the my team vs your team name calling nonsense and really focus on America and improving the future of the American people.
Once they're elected, our leaders should be working together for the good of the our country and our citizens by using combinations of the best ideas from both sides versus just trying to make the other side look bad so they lose the next election. – How's that been working?
All the nonsense just allows the puppet-masters to continue to do what's best for them at the expense of the American people while we're polarized and distracted.
But, let's face it – Neither party is actually running our country – Powerful puppet-masters play both sides to make sure that they get what they want. Unfortunately what they want is not usually in the best interest of the majority of the American people. (American citizens)
Foreign Lobbyists here in the US promote sending US jobs to countries like China, where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. It also doesn't help us compete when these company's factories are subsidized by China's communist government. Just check out the current Chinese extreme pollution issues – We all live in the same world, but not every country plays by the same rules.
The so called "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world's customer base out of work.
The American people need American leaders who will start putting some sensible measures in place to stem the tide or this is going to continue to have a devastating effect on the United States of America and the American people.
Aren't there at least a handful of these powerful puppet-masters that are fellow Americans with enough of a conscience, guts and loyalty to America and their fellow Americans to start trying to turn this trend around?
If there aren't any, we're screwed.
The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect domestic industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
The so called "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "outsourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world's customer base out of work.
Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let's keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
The ONLY REAL FIX for our great country is to RAISE REVENUE, by Bringing Back Businesses and Jobs to TAX-PAYING AMERICAN CITIZENS.
The lack of businesses and good jobs in the USA is what's really going to rob us, our children, grand children and great grand children of the potential of a prosperous or even decent future.
It's all happened because, over the last 25-years, our government has allowed our country's industries to get sucked out to China, India, Mexico, etc and allowed illegal aliens and H-1B foreigners to come into our country and take away tax-paying Americans jobs and drive down prices and wages.
That's where our government leaders have to step up and put some sensible measures and incentives in place to keep jobs here in the USA or the real economy and infrastructure of the country we love will be destroyed along with the future of the American people.
Nowadays it's obviously not about being either lazy or uneducated as many try to profess, but about wages, expenses and regulations that are not even remotely close to the wages, expenses and regulations in our country.
Regardless of what the Free-Traitors keep trying to sell us, we can see what's real. The American People need to just trust their own instincts, common sense and what they've seen actually going on all around them versus all of the nonsense that the free-traitors are still trying to sell us.
Wouldn't we be better off if Our Elected Leaders Started Working Together as AMERICANS for AMERICANS and AMERICA, instead of just bickering, stalling and posturing for the next election as democrats and republicans/tea-whatevers! The American People have had it with this unproductive BS! The way that both parties having been operating for years just stinks! Neither party has really been looking out for the best interests of the US Citizens who elect them and who they're supposed to represent.
Let's face it – Over the past 2-3 decades, both parties have sold out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the incursion of illegal aliens (cheap labor) and the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide.
Our leaders are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself. – They are NOT elected by the Global Market Place or foreign citizens!
It shouldn't be all about Democrats or Republicans! It should be about Americans, especially our elected officials, doing the right thing for our country and its citizens. All the single-minded, left versus right, ideological one dimensional bull has got to go!
The Citizens of the United States of America need our elected leaders from both parties to start working together to actually start trying to fix the real problems in our country like "out-sourcing", illegal immigration, the out of control costs of health care insurance and our reliance on foreign fuel.
Fix them together as Americans! – Because united we'll stand, but divided we'll fall.
What we need to do to bring back jobs is to, 1) Repeal Reagan's tax subsidy to employers who shift jobs out of the country, 2) Us consumers to start refusing, as much as possible, to buy foreign products, no matter how good they may be, 3) Abandon so-called "Free Trade" in favor of FAIR Trade, which is a 2 way street. Free Trade is actually trade deregulation that benefits cheap-labor countries at our expense, 4) FORCE our government to protect us working people in THIS country from subsidized foreign products with tariffs. If this is "protectionist", so be it. They don't buy from us anyway.
Makes sense to me.
Please keep spreading the word whenever and where ever possible, because it's very important that we continue to become the unsilent majority until our messages of common sense are heard and our leaders actually start putting some sensible measures in place to stem the tide and bring back businesses and jobs to The United States of America and to Tax-Paying US Citizens. Otherwise this is going to continue to have a devastating effect on America and the American People.
Regardless of what the free-traitors keep trying to sell us, we can see what's real. The American People need to just trust their own instincts, common sense and what they've actually seen going on all around them versus all of the nonsense that the free-traitors are still trying to sell us.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO ASK OBAMA. IT'S HIS ECONOMY.
The jobs disappeared under Reagan, way before President Obama came on the scene. You need to ask Nancy.
The president inherited this economy, and republicans realize that the president gets credit for any improvements. Therefore, the republican have put party first and country last, in order to stifle any economic improvements that would reflect well on the president.
This economy is all in the hands of the corupt republican party alone...Not Obama's economy.
The delusional that answered my above statement shows how typically pathetic democrats really are.
Thanks for playing.
everybody knows that the GOP speaks for the 1% no matter how they twist things to the voters. If we the voters are stupid enough to listen to the GOP we have failed the American people. All they talked about if you listen closely are the companies struggles not the people working for the companies. Yeh the stock market is at an all time high for who the middle class and the poor I don't think so. GOP wants you to leave everything alone because the higher the stocks go the richer there 1% get and also them don't forget 50% of congress who make all these decisions are millionaires. How would the GOP ever know how the middle class lives and struggle everyday to put food on the table.
You speak of the 1 % how about all of the democrats in office including in the White House. Unless you are a large donor your opinion or vote does not matter to any of them. You better hope you are never unemployed. No ones gives a DAMN about them. 3 weeks into Jan. and discussions have become non existent. We are the 1 % no one in office cares about.
There are those who have their biases and they follow them wherever they take them, without ever questioning. They simply are feed the propaganda, which they eat up and just regurgitate it back out to others. But what is reality? The Democrats have their faults and the Republicans have theirs, so where does the objectivity exist? We saw the drastic costs with Bush-Cheney and their constantly using their offices and America’s resources for their private agenda to benefit “the money”, their strong supporters and masters. We see the same thinking with Paul Ryan’s budget proposals and in everything Ted Cruz and the others offer, along with the forced gridlock of the GOP’s “my way or no way” political strategy, as they just concentrate on serving “the money” for their support. We see Obama and the Democrats stressed for “liberal” ideals and we understandably have concern for taxes and the deficit. Who can we trust to serve the majority, especially the total middle-class?
It could be nice to have a strong third party consisting of “moderates” focused on serving the majority but that isn’t available and likely won’t ever be without first getting money out of politics to allow quality candidates to compete without having to sell out to “the money”. It is obvious today’s GOP is owned and controlled by “the money” and that they want to return to “more of the same”, Bush-Cheney style, which really can only result in “more of the same” that was so costly with the few always aggressively exploiting the permissive policies and the majority suffering the costs – rationalized as “conservative” and just pushing the country further into being a two-class society. But what about the threat of rising taxes and the costs of the deficit under the Democrats?
The Democrats are far more dependent on the people for support and therefore have more of a conscience and concern for the majority but there is the real concern for the government becoming too much. With the Republicans being more aggressive, better organized, forcing strict unity, with their “puppet” politicians, and having a far better propaganda machine, we are constantly bombarded with scares over taxes, the deficit and for government getting too big – are those real concerns or just more hype to excite and control people like “pawns”? History actually shows us that the wealthy are always gaining no matter who is in office or what the state of things is. We also actually see that the majority has consistently been better off when the Democrats rule. Regarding taxes, they are really more of a concern for the very wealthy, with the economy and the net take home being the concerns for the majority. As for the deficit, does it make more sense to drive it down quickly, sacrificing programs, drastically cutting spending and likely challenging recovery, or more sense to gradually bring it down while gaining benefit from an improving economy? As for the size of government, it simply should be as large as is needed to do the job, without excess, and as small as can efficiently perform, without sacrificing enforcement, – always a challenge. Obviously it all amounts to being the voters choice, hopefully with objective and rational discernment!
You are an idiot with no idea on how the real world works. If you had a clue you would know that the reason jobs are not being created are two fold. One, king Obama has so many executive orders that the job creators are afraid to hire. Two the 1% ers create most of the jobs.
You know it only seems to be the right that refer to Obama as King or whatever other titles they like to use, now lets see PBO has issued fewer executive orders than any president in the last 100 years, Look it up and second 46 months of private sector job growth averaging 200k jobs a month compared to 800k being lost in the months before he took office. So please leave the fake news talking points in the dumpster where they belong.
Wow, you still think it's one person, one presidents fault for everything.. You ignorant pike of dung, you are part of the problem, for not having sense to see a bigger picture. Do us all a favor, don't vote. All your good for is a puppet
" the 1% ers create most of the jobs".
This view of economics alwas confuses me. You need to look a little closer.
Those with money are the ones that hire workers. That is true. But WHY do they hire workers?
The answer is that they see an opportunity to make more money by providing a product or service to meet demand. So where does the demand come from?
Consumers. The people who want to buy stuff.
Giving the 1% more money doesn't help if they don't have a reason to hire people. If there isn't demand in the US, they'll take their money to another country that does have consumer demand and create jobs in that nation... not here.
Supply side economics only works if there is a shortage of investment capital to meet demand. That is simply not the case in the US and likely has never been the case (though I could be convinced that at certain points in our history supply needed stimulus). We currently have PLENTY of available investment income... what we don't have is a strong demand for that income to address. For that, we need a broad base of consumers with more money to buy stuff, creating demand that the existing supply dollars can try to fill. When the demand comes, the suppliers will hire people to meet the demand. They already have the money to make that happen... they don't need more help. The CONSUMERS need the money for the economy to perk up.
If you have 10 billion dollars in the bank and someone gives you another billion... why would that impact your hiring practices? YOu already had plenty of money to hire people for whatever you're doing. More money doesn't change your behavior at all.
Our economic problems didn't happen overnight. It's been happening over the past 25-years, but the economy was kept going by middle class Americans tapping into the equity on their homes until they were completely tapped out.
It's all happened because, for the last few decades, our government has allowed our country's industries to get sucked out to China, India, Mexico, etc and allowed illegal aliens and H-1B foreigners to come into our country and take away tax-paying Americans jobs and drive down prices and wages.
That's where our government leaders have to step up and put some sensible measures and incentives in place to keep jobs here in the USA or the real economy and infrastructure of the country we love will be destroyed along with the future of the American people.
Unfortunately most of our politicians are a frigging joke – Only it's not so funny, because over the past several decades, all they've been doing is screwing the American people, by stalling, spending, removing protections and allowing illegal aliens to continue to pour in and American jobs and industry to pour out, and all while collecting their American tax-payer funded pay checks, benefits and whatever else they get on the side from their various lobbyist friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great American and his march accomplished great things, but now it may be time for a new more all-inclusive march on Washington.
I obviously feel very strongly about what our leaders have allowed to happen to our country and the American people.
I think that it actually borders on being traitorous.
I care about my employees and our company as do many other employers in this country.
It's important that we get our message out there, because when you write to the GOP, DNC, The White House, governors, senators and congressmen you just get generic responses for the most part and they just keep on with the same old same old.
We need a voice.
I'm Angry and Frustrated with Both Parties – As are most American Citizens right now!
The American People need our leaders to start remembering that they are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself and that They are NOT elected by or to represent the Global Market Place, Lobbyist or Foreign citizens!
The ONLY REAL FIX for our great country is to RAISE REVENUE, by Bringing Back Businesses and Jobs to TAX-PAYING AMERICAN CITIZENS.
The outsourcing is not just limited to unskilled and skilled blue-collar manufacturing jobs either. It's also impacting white-collar jobs like, plant managers, engineers, IT jobs, purchasing, customer service, etc........... being outsourced to India, China................. When will it stop?
Just the other day a friend that works in the IT department of a major paint company found out that 90% of their IT department in the USA is being laid off and will be replaced by IT techs in India. He has until February and he's gone, but not until he helps train and transition the job to those that are replacing him.
This summer I learned from a highly educated engineer that their company had recently displaced 100 of their 105 engineers here in the USA by replacing them with engineers in India. He was fortunate enough to be one of the 5 out 105 American engineers that they kept.
Foreigners will be coming here and buying our houses after we all foreclose. They'll also be taking over our government too, after it defaults from lack income tax revenue, due to businesses in the USA shutting down and or US jobs being outsourced and everyone being out of work.
Our leaders better wake up and put some sensible measures in to stem the tide or this is going to have a devastating effect on America and the American people.
Nowadays it's obviously not about being either lazy or uneducated as many try to profess, but about wages, expenses and regulations that are not even remotely close to the wages, expenses and regulations in our country.
Regardless of what the Free-Traitors keep trying to sell us, we can see what's real. The American People need to just trust their own instincts, common sense and what they've seen actually going on all around them versus all of the nonsense that the free-traitors are still trying to sell us.
This is eventually going to effect even the few idiotic Americans who are still championing outsourcing.
We need to bring back the boycott. If we consumers started boycotting stores that only stock foreign-made products, and stopped buying foreign cars and foreign tires, jobs would come flooding back.
Unemployment is up, jobs are down, people are leaving the workforce every day – but STILL the media trumpets success!!! I voted for Obama, twice, and now I'm truly sorry I ever did – all lies & Chicago style politics. He's ruining this country from the inside out.
Hope & Change? How about dissapointment and regret?
No hope, no change – just lies.
The jobs disappeared in the 80s and early 90s. It just didn't affect YOU, that is why you never noticed. It is Reagan's fault, it is Reagan's fault, it is Reagan's fault, no matter how much you want to deny it. And no, I am not repeating what somebody told me or want I read, I lived through it, as I am 58 years old and was in the workforce since the early 70s, so I am saying what I lived through.
Yes. But the reason we voted is to change all that so what you are saying is our current goverment is inefficient.
North Dakota.
All good solutions – but none of them will mean anything until they tackle the problem of discrimination against talented job applicants. As of this moment, job applicants can be refused to be offered employment if: (1) you're over 40, (2) an ex-offender, (3) bad credit, (4) homeless, poor, or disabled. Now in the case of ex-offenders, you can acquire skills. You can have changed your lives to the good, and stayed that way for many years. The age – can't do much about, as we all get older. Bad credit – you can be responsible as best you know how, but one hospital stay(even with insurance), one family crisis – it can mess up your credit big time. Homeless, poor, or disabled – you can argue all you want (like you do with ex-offenders) that, 'they made their bed hard, they can lie in it). Yes – some are lazy. But most (myself included) want to work, and haven't sat around doing nothing. Most have gone to school, gone to employment classes, have gone on interviews, have volunteered, etc – all it seems for nothing nowadays, as employers don't consider what a person HAS done while carrying that label – all they see is that label & do the background check and thenits, 'we've found someone more qualified', 'you'e overqualified'. or 'we'll let you know.', 'we'll get back to you', etc. – and they never do.(but they're hire illegals). Funny how no one wants to take up those issues – so solution: Either give ex-offenders, the homeless, those over 40, the poor, etc., Social Security early, welfare for life, food stamps for liife, or compel businesses to remove the laws that allows them to discriminate against the above categories. But that won't happen absent a miracle – our 'great' politicians are too beholden to their corporate lobbyist masters.
I thought Obammy was on the jobs pivot???? Like everything else, he has failed on job creation also. Its an embarrassment having Bammy being pres.
Presidents don't create jobs. However, their policies do. Obama hasn't done anything policy wise to have jobs created. That's reality.
since the downturn was arrested at the end of 2009, 6 million jobs have been created in the following 4 years. 6.5 million private sector additions, 500K public sector job losses.
I don't think those numbers have a whole lot to do with Obama... his biggest policy impact on jobs was slowing and then stopping job losses through the stimulus package. But jobs are being created.
Jobs are all locked up in "Obama Care" in case you didn't notice. And the majority of you voted for it. Many Companies are not going to put up with "Low Information" voters so they moved off shore. The old adage "Beggers can't be Choosers" has never been more prevalent.
in India
Only jobs being created are part time, or government jobs.
False I'm afraid.
Since January of 2010 (the peak of the recession) we've added about 6.5 million private sector jobs and lost 500K government jobs. Our job growth has pretty much been despite government job losses... not because we're adding government jobs.
The problem is not going away soon ... probably for next 20 years ... because of the huge salary differences in countries, especially with India and China being on the low end of salaries. Ross Perot had a point back when he ran for office. Unless government steps in to prevent it, the general flow of jobs will tend to go to lower salaried countries ... pure economics.
Perot said it back in 1992 "Jobs getting sucked out of the country" – Many people saw it back then, but unfortunately too many people bought into the spin of "BS" that we were being sold. Seems that both parties were always able to distract and polarize voters with insignificant peripheral issues like gay marriage and abortion, which got most voters so caught up in the BS that they lost sight of the bigger picture.
If Ross Perot had been elected president in 1992, the American people and the real American economy would have been much better off today! I and many other people, who were able to see through all of the left vs right BS, did vote for Perot, because he was straight forward and just used common sense. He cared about his country and the American people.
Unfortunately, he was right. I knew it way before he came on the scene, but as you say, most voters allow themselves to be distracted by stupid s–t like abortion, banning capital punishment, etc.
How about we do both? raise min wage and give reasonable tax breaks?
I am a HUGE Robert Reich fan, I wish he would speak publically more often.
Steve – Unfortunately We can't just raise the minimum wage unless we start improving the overall business environment and employment picture. Especially not to the $15/hr. that some people were throwing out there.
You have fix the root of the problem first, which is that over the last 25-years, our government has allowed our country's industries to get sucked out to China, India, Mexico, etc and allowed illegal aliens and H-1B foreigners to come into our country and take away tax-paying Americans jobs and drive down prices and wages.
The lack of businesses and good jobs in the USA is what's really going to rob us, our children, grand children and great grand children of the potential of a prosperous future.
That's where our government leaders have to step up and put some sensible measures and incentives in place to keep jobs here in the USA or the real economy and infrastructure of the country we love will be destroyed along with the future of the American people.
The ONLY REAL FIX for our great country is to RAISE REVENUE, by Bringing Back Businesses and Jobs to TAX-PAYING AMERICAN CITIZENS.
I run a business with 20 employees, all of whom earn well more than minimum wage, but it isn't so easy. We haven't been able to our raise prices or wages for several years, because of what our leaders have allowed to happen to our country. Most small to medium size businesses are just struggling to survive.
It's hard enough to stay in business and make any profit nowadays and take care of our hard working conscientious employees. I believe that our cross-trained employees are our company's most important asset. We have every little turn over in our company. But if I advertise one job opening (all of which are well over the minimum wage), I'd have dozens upon dozens of qualified people and some over qualified people clamoring for the job and almost all of them would be happy to come in for less than they were making, just to have a steady job. But these people and myself are just struggling to keep up with our mortgages, kids student loans, health-care coverage............etc..............
The American people need our leaders to wake up and start putting some sensible measures in place to stem the tide or this is going to continue to have a devastating effect on the United States of America and the American people.
We'd really all be better off by just cutting through the all the my team vs your team name calling nonsense and really focus on America and improving the future of the American people.
Once they're elected, our leaders should be working together for the good of the our country and our citizens by using combinations of the best ideas from both sides versus just trying to make the other side look bad so they lose the next election. – How's that been working?
It's not too late – But it will be soon – If our leaders don't start changing their ways.
There's been too much sparring and not enough action. Put all the economists in a room together and don't let them out for a bathroom break until they all agree on a common workable plan!!!
The problem is you'd end up with a pretty liberal plan and the GOP wouldn't accept that.
While there's more disagreement between economists on basic economic theory then there are with climate scientists on global warming, it's still pretty heavily weighted toward the democrats economic viewpoints.
Although I'm no fan of the GOP, they shouldn't accept a liberal plan. Those plans have failed throughout history. Tax the rich while continuing to spend money we don't have as to look compassionate to the less fortunate so they will keep voting them in. How about easing up on taxes on businesses and individuals so we can keep more of what we earn and businesses can actually expand and hire more employees and individuals will spend their money at those businesses and that beautiful thing we call the free market is in motion and we all determine our own success without the government and the crooked politicians that populate it messing it all up.
business =making money
China didn't just steal our jobs all by themselves
While our politicians have been bickering for years like idiotic fools, China has been crushing the USA in an economic war that we don't even know we're in and without even firing a shot.
Bringing manufacturing back home to the USA is going to end up being not only a key to restoring our economy, but to maintaining our national security as well.
* Chinese firms and state agencies have been implicated in a host of hacking attacks, on targets ranging from leading industrial and technology firms, to the Pentagon and other US government agencies, to the New York Times, Coca-Cola and numerous other companies and industries.
* Oct 2012: The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said U.S. telecommunications operators should not be allowed do business with China's top network equipment makers because potential Chinese state influence on the companies poses a security threat.
* Also most counterfeit goods are produced and manufactured in China, making it the counterfeit capital of the world. In fact, the counterfeiting industry accounts for 8% of China's GDP.
* Foreign Lobbyists here in the US promote sending US jobs to countries like China, where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. It also doesn't help us compete when these company's factories are subsidized by China's communist government. Just check out the current Chinese extreme pollution issues – We all live in the same world, but not every country plays by the same rules.
The so called "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world's customer base out of work.
Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let's keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
Our leaders need to start remembering that they are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself. – They are NOT elected by or to represent the Global Market Place, Lobbyist or Foreign citizens!
The American people need American leaders who will start putting some sensible measures in place to stem the tide or this is going to continue to have a devastating effect on the United States of America and the American people.
Our economic problems didn't happen overnight. It's been happening over the past 25 years, but the economy was kept going by middle class Americans tapping into the equity on their homes until they were completely tapped out.
This all occurred because our government allowed our country's industries to get sucked out to China, India, Mexico, etc and allowed illegal aliens and H-1B foreigners to come into our country and take away tax-paying Americans jobs and drive down prices and wages.
That's where our government leaders have to step up and put some sensible measures and incentives in place to keep jobs here in the USA or the real economy and infrastructure of the country we love will be destroyed along with the future of the American people.
The ONLY REAL FIX for our great country is to RAISE REVENUE, by Bringing Back Businesses and Jobs to TAX-PAYING AMERICAN CITIZENS.
On the US Department of Commerce's US Census Bureau website there's a graphic showing how our trade imbalance has gotten progressively worse over the entire period from 1989 to the present and how it's really accelerated at an increasingly greater rate each year since 1999.
We can thank "our leaders" from both sides and the WTO for that.
See for yourself: www(dot)census(dot)gov(slash)foreign-trade(slash)balance(slash)c0004(dot)html
Check it out and figure it out for yourself.
If these "free trade" agreements were so good us, why did our trade deficit keep getting larger and larger during this span of time.
Increasingly way more money going out of our country every year versus coming in every year.
It's not rocket science.
How's this been working for the American People and the Real American Economy?
Regardless of what the Free-Traitors keep trying to sell us, we can see what's real. The American People need to just trust their own instincts, common sense and what they've seen actually going on all around them versus all of the nonsense that the free-traitors are still trying to sell us.
You, of course, are 100% right, but, so many voters insist on believing in so-called "Free Trade". If we would abandon that stupid ideology and embrace FAIR Trade instead, we would have plenty of jobs.
I'd like to be able to have the option to buy more products that are actually Made in The USA.
But, unfortunately it's gotten to the point where we don't really even have a choice anymore, because nowadays Americans can't even find products in stores that are made in the USA. So you couldn't even choose them even if you did want to. This is particularly true with electronics and most other non-food products.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why. Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word. Hum, maybe it's that our so called leaders (political leaders) are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street, CEOs and Foreign Lobbyists promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations.
Foreign Lobbyists here in the US promote sending US jobs to countries like China, where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. It also doesn't help us compete when these company's factories are subsidized by China's communist government. Just check out the current Chinese extreme pollution issues – We all live in the same world, but not every country plays by the same rules.
The so called "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world's customer base out of work.
That's where our government leaders have to step up and put some sensible measures and incentives in place to keep jobs here in the USA or the real economy and infrastructure of the country we love will be destroyed along with the future of the American people.
* Tariffs don't work, if we don't use them. We could have proportionally decreased and monitored them rather than just eliminating them altogether, which just allowed the floodgates to pop wide open.
* Humm – Let me guess – Oh, here comes the Old Tariffs = Socialism / Trade war BS – * Sorry, they're right removing them has worked out so well for the American People and the Real American Economy. *
The cold, hard truth is that the unholy alliance between Washington and Wall Street has sold out the American worker and exported our standard of living.
Driven by the insatiable greed of Wall Street profiteers and accelerated by the false promise of free trade, our manufacturing base has been chased out of this country and along with it the livelihood of millions of hard-working Americans.
* It used to be fashionable among politicians, pundits and so-called experts to claim that free trade is actually good for us. They say it enables us to buy cheaper goods made with cheap foreign labor and this, in turn, raises our standard of living. (But, if most Americans lose their jobs or are reduced to jobs with much lower pay and little or no benefits, it really doesn't make any sense.)
* The free traitors need to ask themselves a more fundamental question: How will Americans buy those goods when they don't even have a paycheck that covers their mortgage, much less the college tuition for their children, etc....................?
Foreigners will be coming here and buying our houses after we all foreclose. They'll also be taking over our government too, after it defaults from lack income tax revenue, due to businesses in the USA shutting down and or US jobs being outsourced and everyone being out of work.
We need to bring back Glass-Steagall and start standing up to the WTO.
If Ross Perot had been elected president in 1992, the American people and the American economy would have been much better off today!
Our leaders need to start remembering that they are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself. – They are NOT elected by or to represent the Global Market Place, Lobbyist or Foreign citizens!
The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect domestic industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we’re importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue.
The people with all of the excuses as to why we can’t, shouldn't or aren’t willing to manufacture products here in the US are the same people who have provided us with the very same shortsighted thinking that’s gotten us into this mess in the first place.
Over the past 15-20 years, I've seen too many of our customer's close manufacturing plants here in the USA and move those plants to different countries, decimating entire areas here in OUR COUNTRY. And I'm not alone. Returning jobs to American Citizens will provide income tax revenue to OUR Government versus our government having to pay unemployment benefits to those who would be jobless instead.
Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let’s keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
And for those that will say that many jobs are being replaced by robotics and automation, you still need people to maintain and service the automated equipment, warehouse personnel, truck drivers to deliver the products, purchasing people to buy the materials, managers, office staff, etc.
Also, let's manufacture the automated equipment and develop the software to be used for this automated manufacturing, etc. This not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them.
Many American jobs have been replaced by automation, but many more have been replaced by "out-sourcing", H-1B workers and non-income-tax-paying illegal aliens here in the USA.
The ONLY REAL FIX for Our Country is to Raise Revenue by Bringing Back Businesses and Jobs to Tax-Paying American Citizens.
Returning private sector jobs to American Citizens will provide income tax revenue to OUR Government versus our government having to pay unemployment benefits to those who would be jobless instead. We need our elected officials to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. We need leaders who will actually stand up for the American people.
The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect domestic industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
You are a smart man.
And we STILL need to Stop ILLEGAL immigration!
They're not just doing jobs that Americans don't want. (And I'm not talking about migrant workers, which is obviously not the problem.)
Do they pay state and federal income taxes? Don't get me wrong most of these people work hard, but are a drain on the system if they don't pay income taxes, have healthcare coverage, learn the language or get paid wages that are in line with their American counterparts. We all know that the health care provided to uninsured illegals here in the states is being averaged into our hospital costs and our insurance premiums, which have PROPORTIONATELY increased along with illegal immigration over the last 20 years? These costs are also being passed along to Medicaid and Medicare, which means that not only are they increasing our insurance premiums, but that we're paying for them again with our tax dollars. Our tax dollars and insurance premiums should not be used to recoup the cost of healthcare given to illegal aliens, who shouldn't even be here in our country in the first place.
Just look around and you'll see who's doing 90% of the residential renovations, construction and property maintenance jobs. That's certainly what we're seeing in the northeast. These are not just jobs that Americans don't want.
The hiring of cheap illegal labor causes a chain reaction. The contractors who hire cheap, uninsured, non-income-taxpaying, ILLEGAL aliens undercut the contractors who hire US Citizens or Legal immigrants. Even if the contractor wants to continue to employ US Citizens or Legal tax-paying immigrants, they end up replacing their Legal employees with illegals just to be able to get the work. Unfortunately unions and the old "that's not my job" union attitudes here in the USA have also contributed to this problem.
Also when these Non-income-tax-paying Illegal Aliens take American Citizens jobs they also are taking away the income tax revenue that those working American Citizens would be providing to our government. In addition, the American Citizens who have their jobs taken away by these Illegal Aliens then have to be paid unemployment and usually have no healthcare insurance either because they can't afford COBRA, which adds even more to our deficit and further increases our healthcare costs.
Let's face it – Over the last 2-3 decades, both parties have been selling out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the incursion of illegal aliens (cheap labor) and the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide.
I run a business that does it the right way and employs 20 US Citizens and 1 Legal Immigrant and I believe that the use of Workplace Raids is a perfectly realistic way to put a stop to this BS. Plus we should publish the results of these workplace raids and fines to the public, so American Citizens and customers could see which companies are employing illegals.
Let's get the good productive illegal immigrants into the system and paying federal and state income tax or get them out and NOT Let Any More Come In unless they come in as Legal Immigrants. Make them apply for legal visas and or U.S. citizenship and if they don't, then get them out. If they get rejected get them out or give them one quick appeal and if they still get rejected, then get them out. And let's send the bad ILLEGAL Aliens back to where they came in and let's STOP ANYMORE ILLEGAL ALIENS from getting in.
I also think we should start using our military to Start Keeping ILLEGAL Aliens Out.
How About Hiring some of our Unemployed Veterans as Additional Border Patrol Officers, ICE and INS agents?
ps: Most illegal aliens are paid off the books and if they're employer says that they're deducting income tax they're lying. And the few that are being paid on the books, using fake IDs, claim a huge number of dependents, etc................ And could you or I get away with not filling income tax returns? And what about the ballsy ones that do file and claim a ridiculous amount of deductions to get big refunds. There are even sleazy accounts that specialize in helping them game the system.
If an H1B Visa worker gets a job instead of me, is that not discrimination based on Nationality? I work in Little India aka Redmond, Washington. Being a Caucasian American I am treated like a minority in the 1950s by every employer I've had that imports a large percentage of their workforce from India. There is no shortage of American tech workers, the real reason H1B is being exploited is greed by the employers.
Re-educate American workers? Is that a joke? The top importers of tech workers from India offer a 6 week crash course to learn the skills needed for the position.
Suspend the H1B Visa program until employers hire more American workers. Regulate the ratio of H1B Visa workers vs American workers just like Affirmative Action does so that American tech companies are American at heart and not just at some P.O. Box covering for their Indian origins.
You are being discriminated against, but mostly because you are American, rather than because you are White. They refuse to hire you because you will not work for peanuts, you will not surrender your rights, and, horror of horrors, you might unionize the place! The only way to end this is to make it illegal for politicians to accept money, otherwise things will continue to get worse and worse until we are destroyed.