Just a Small Island...

In addition to totally embarrassing himself yesterday, both before and after his arrival in England, we now have this little gem:

"England (sic) is just a small island. Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn't make things that people in the rest of the world want to buy. And if it hadn't been separated from the continent by water, it almost certainly would have been lost to Hitler's ambitions."


That's the Mitt-ster from his 2010 book "No Apologies".  Yessir, gotta hand it to Mitt.  This guy really knows how to win friends and influence people.  He even has his own hash tag now:  #RomneyShambles

Completely Indefensible!

Today Grover "Raise No Taxes Ever" Norquist added his voice to the growing GOP chorus condemning Representative Michele Bachmann for her accusations that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's aide, Huma Abedin is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Although this sounds magnanimous on his part, could it be because he once found himself in the same position having married Samah Alrayyes also a Muslim?

No Jobs For You! - The Vote!

Yesterday I blogged about Senate Bill S. 3364 that would have gone a long way toward bringing jobs back to America by eliminating the deductions for corporations who move their companies overseas and giving tax breaks to companies who bring them home.  Sounds like a great way to get Americans working again.  What's the down side?  What's not to like about this bill?  Who could possibly not vote for this?  Who indeed?  That would be the GOP Senators.  Surprised?  In all fairness, 4 Republicans broke rank and voted with the Democrats, but in the end the bill fell 4 votes short of the number needed just go bring it up for debate.


The GOP: NO JOBS FOR AMERICANS.  


At least not until they use the lack of jobs as a weapon against President Obama for the November election.

An Important Vote for Jobs in America

Tomorrow, Thursday, July 18, the Senate will vote on Senate Bill S. 3364.  The name of that bill is the Bring Jobs Home Act.  What this bill proposes is this:

Bring Jobs Home Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to:

(1) grant business taxpayers a tax credit for up to 20% of insourcing expenses incurred for eliminating a business located outside the United States and relocating it within the United States, and

(2) deny a tax deduction for outsourcing expenses incurred in relocating a U.S. business outside the United States. Requires an increase in the taxpayer's employment of full-time employees in the United States in order to claim the tax credit for insourcing expenses.

This is a bill designed to create jobs for Americans.  Stop outsourcing or off shoring - whatever you want to call it - and bring those jobs back to this country.  The government will give your business a 20% tax credit to relocate your business back in the U.S. and you will be denied a tax deduction as a business expense if you instead still choose to outsource.


With over 8% unemployment this sounds like the proverbial no-brainer, right?  This is a JOB CREATION bill.  This is what everyone says this country needs. This is what the Republican party campaigned on in 2010 when they won back the House.  Remember?  It was jobs, jobs, jobs.  


So how many Republicans will cast a yea vote to bring jobs back to America?  If their recent voting record holds true I think we will see the Republicans voting to a man to defeat this bill.  Then, they will again point the finger at President Obama and say nothing is being done to improve the economy.  


How sad for all those Americans that are out of work.  How said that the Republicans just cannot do the right thing for those Americans.  

It's All About Demand

This is the third in a series.
We left off with the real key to job creation.  Demand.  Remember your widget company and the tax cut you received "to create jobs"?  Well, in reality, the only time you are going to hire additional workers - AKA create jobs - is when you need to produce more product.  In your case that would be widgets.  The only time you are going to hire a new widget maker for your business is when DEMAND outpaces PRODUCTION.  Right?  And it can't be for, say, if demand goes up to 105 widget per week.  You can probably cover the extra 5 widgets with a little over-time.  This is still cheaper that hiring someone and having even that additional 5 extra widgets that you have to store every week.  

In fact, you could probably institute some new procedures that, with the extra over-time, will enable you to produce, oh, say, 115 widgets per week.  And it's really not taking much from your bottom line.  Just that little bit of OT.  The real fact of the matter is that you are just NOT going to hire a new widget maker until the demand for your widgets is high enough that you can no longer meet that demand with your current staff.  Then and ONLY then will you hire that new widget maker.


As a business man, hiring new staff is the LAST RESORT.  That's it!  Think about it.  Really think about it.  The "job creators" have had 10 years of tax cuts and I ask you, WHERE ARE THE JOBS?  If tax cuts create jobs we should have every American who wants a job employed today.
But we don't.


I don't know about you, but I just don't see the relationship.  Nope.  Just don't see it.


We, you and me, the American Middle Class, are the real job creators.  Cut OUR taxes.  Put more dollars in OUR pocket and we are going to spend it.  Most of us have to just to survive!  There's a reason why savings is at an all time low - but that's a topic for another day.


Face it.  The Republicans are just plain wrong about this.  They just will not not screw the 1% that is paying their way.  


If you don't believe me.  Check out this guy.

The REAL Job Creators

This is the second part in a series.


I don't know about you, but I am soooooo tired of the term "job creator".  Every time I hear it I feel like I want to throw up.  I mean, really.  Listen to any Republican talk about unemployment or tax increases and invariably they will use the term when talking about the upper 1%; the very wealthy of this country.  


And they repeat it and repeat it and repeat it and.... Well, you get the idea.


It's all part of their strategy.  If you repeat a lie enough times, people will eventually accept is as the truth.  


So let's examine this concept of the 1% as job creators further.


Let's say that you own a business manufacturing those widget thingies that are in such demand.  You employ 10 people who each work 40 hours a week and are able to produce the 100 widgets each week that you need to meet that great widget demand.  Now, some politician decides that if he cuts your taxes that you will take that extra money, that cash, that wind-fall of moolah and put it into your business and use it to create a job.  You are going to hire a new employee.  Yep, that's what you are going to do.  Right?


My question to you is.... Why would you?


You are selling 100 widgets a week and your current staff of 10 is manufacturing 100 widgets a week so what is that extra person going to do?  Being an experienced widget maker (why would you hire anyone else?) he is going to produce an extra 10 widgets every week.  Now your widget factory is producing 110 widgets a week.  But that's a problem because demand is still 100 widgets a week.  What are you going to do with those additional 10 widgets?  You run a tight ship so you don't have much storage room - never needed it.  Damn.  You might even have to consider a move to a larger space just to have room to store the extra inventory.  Hmmmmm... This isn't working out so well.  You are paying this new guy a salary plus a generous benefits package and now you may have to move to larger quarters because you need the extra space to store all those widgets he's making that are piling up.  This job creating can really cost you!


The answer to my question is that you wouldn't.  You are going to take that extra cashola wind-fall and and put in into your pocket.


Here's the thing that the Republicans just don't get about job creation.  Here's what they continue to ignore.  Here is the secret to real job creation:  


Demand.

More about how that works in my next blog.  Stay tuned.

Free Outdoor Rock and Roll

We interrupt the political blogging to bring you a concert review.  I just returned from catching a Rolling Stones tribute band in a free outdoor summer concert at one of the local community parks here on Long Island.
The Glimmer Twins put on a rock and roll show tonight that plowed through some of the biggest hits of the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.


Opening with Start Me Up, a Stones favorite, the Twins were a more than credible re-enactment of the Stones.  During their hour and forty minute show they easily moved between hard rockers like Satisfaction, Paint it Black and Honky Tonk Women to ballads like Angie and Ruby Tuesday.


Mick Jagger impersonator Keith Call had all Jagger's moves as he sashayed across the stage with that famous Jagger pout.  Guitarist Bernie Bollendorf as Keith Richards easily replicated Richards' riffs and provided strong backing vocals.  the remainder of the band; Mike Rubino on guitar, Chris Bollendor on drums, Rob Ekstedt on bass, Mike Dancik on keyboards, Bobby Michaels on sax and flute and Valorie Steel on vocals were tight and more than up to the task.


If you are as disappointed as I am that the Stones decided not to tour this year, the Glimmer Twins will help fill that void until the real Stones tour again next year.

Bad Jobs Report but Good News Too?

This is the first in a series about jobs and job creation.
  
Last Friday the Labor Department released the latest report on job creation and the news did not look good.  It showed another month of weak growth as only 80,000 jobs were created closing out the weakest quarter of job growth since 2010.  Predictably, Republicans were quick to pounce on this with Mitt Romney calling it "a kick in the gut".  According to the Wall Street Journal, however, there were actually some encouraging signs if you really looked into the data.   

Just Can't Escape it!

No use in ducking Mitt...



Personally, I think he should be bending over more because that's where he's really getting this!