The Cost of Permanent Patients
The United States currently has an estimated 11 million immigrants who entered this country illegally. According to the National Research Council, the migration of these individuals into the United States costs American taxpayers $346 billion annually. Now we are starting to get a feel for the costs being absorbed by one sector — the U.S. healthcare system — to treat this population. And the cost is staggering. The Center for Immigration Studies... Read More
Congress Is Full of Hot Air
There are 26 million unemployed and underemployed Americans, and we’ve just suffered the worst terrorist strike in this country since 9/11. So our Congress has snapped into action by concentrating on critical initiatives to push our nation forward. Let’s begin with the House moving to reauthorize the Federal Helium Program. That’s right. America needs to marshal its forces to keep blimps in the sky with the production of helium.... Read More
The End of Outsourcing?
After years of building what they hoped would boost profits by enhancing overseas operations, many U.S. manufacturers have become disillusioned by the lack of return on investment they had anticipated. Instead of finding cost-saving benefits overseas through outsourcing, they are finding headaches, which have spurred a growing number of American companies to head home and build upon the sturdy and sure bedrock of American stability and predictability. This... Read More
How Congress Is Killing the Entrepreneurial Spirit
It is still galling that this nation’s entrepreneurs and small businesses — our country’s job creators — don’t get any support. Our political parties rail against each other, determined not to let either side win. This is a giant roadblock toward economic security. But elsewhere in the world, differences are being hashed out that are designed to help small businesses thrive. And it’s happening in an area that’s the least likely to promote... Read More
The United States of California
If you want to see where the country is headed under the Obama administration, look at California: a state in deep financial trouble that will collapse under its own weight if it does not wean itself off debt, excessive taxes and paralyzing regulations. The same forces that are hurling California toward insolvency are beginning to affect the rest of the country. I recently acquired a manufacturing company in the Sacramento area that is an incredible... Read More
The Rebirth of Vocational Schools
It took a moribund economy and unemployment combined with underemployment exceeding 25 percent for the United States to wake up to the realities of vocational schools. Apprenticeships and on-the-job training can be traced back to our nation’s founding. But as America prospered throughout the 20th century, workers turned their backs on manufacturing jobs, which they perceived as dirty and unglamorous. Today, the most glamorous goal for the 20 million... Read More
What America and India Have In Common
America has the largest economy in the world. India is ranked 9th. Yet, as a result of failed energy policies in both countries, America and India have more in common than you might think. We all read or heard about the huge power outage in India that impacted 680 million people late last month. According to news reports, it affected eight Indian states, equal to nearly double the populations of the United States and the United Kingdom combined. Trains... Read More
Some Olympic Lessons for the U.N.
As I watch the Olympics and marvel how nations around the world can compete in peace and without rancor, I wistfully begin to imagine what would happen if the Olympics and the United Nations traded places. The U.N.’s General Assembly meets in regular session each year from September to December. Over the past years, the U.N. has become hyper-politicized, attacking nations they don’t like and ignoring their charter to forge peace and end poverty... Read More
When a President Mocks Small Business
As an entrepreneur who has worked my entire life to create new businesses, hire more than 200 employees and risk everything I own on my companies, I join the chorus of Americans who are outraged by President Barack Obama’s recent outburst, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” This is clearly the most definitive proof that Obama does not understand small business, does not like small business... Read More
EU Turns Its Back on Intellectual-Property Theft
When nations such as Brazil, China and India steal our intellectual property (IP), they are stealing from American companies, their employees and from the American people. This should become an issue vital to every American. Our economy suffers, our employment picture suffers and our prestige suffers when our patents are stolen or ignored. So I was astonished and disappointed to see the European Parliament reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement... Read More