Ugly Campaign Battle Over Outsourcing Isn’t All Bad

The Obama and Romney campaigns are slinging mud at each other over outsourcing jobs. What most people would think is just an ugly brawl of a typical campaign battle; I consider it a positive development when the national dialogue turns to keeping jobs in America. Preventing the outsourcing of U.S. jobs must be an issue that is seriously debated by the presidential candidates. Whether or not Mitt Romney created jobs or outsourced jobs while at Bain Capital is irrelevant. The issue is which candidate will be most effective at creating markets and increasing demand for our manufacturers and incentivizing them to keep jobs in America. Or more importantly, which candidate is best at back shoring – bringing overseas jobs back home. In 2011, after surveying employment data by some of the nation’s... Read More

Small Business Gets Punished by Supreme Court Ruling

The ruling by the Supreme Court that found Obamacare constitutional sent a message to small business that free enterprise no longer exists and the government is now in charge of their future. For the nation’s job creators, this ruling is devastating news for business and worse news for the 25 million Americans unemployed or under-employed. The ruling by the Supreme Court said the law’s “requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax. Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom.” What folly. The Democrats are celebrating the ruling, all the while complaining that Obamacare isn’t a tax. In fact, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew declared... Read More

Egypt Needs a US History Lesson

The good news is that Egypt has held its first democratic election. The bad news is that they held their first democratic election. If Egyptians were looking for change, they are getting it, but not what they had envisioned after the Mubarak government was toppled by a popular uprising. The military appears to be in charge and can veto anything that the new leaders propose. Many of Mubarak’s confederates remain in power. And there will not be a parliament or constitution for years. If Egyptians wanted to see how a revolution is carried out so the rights of the citizens are protected, they need to open a U.S. history book and read about the American Revolutionary War and the government that followed it. In building a new government, our Founding Fathers understood the importance of establishing... Read More

The Ghost of the Marshall Plan Hovers over U.S.

Try to guess who said this and when: “The modern system of the division of labor upon which the exchange of products is based is in danger of breaking down. The truth of the matter is that Europe’s requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products — principally from America — are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character.” The answer is then-Secretary of State George C. Marshall, describing in 1947 the goals of the Economic Recovery Plan, later to become known as the Marshall Plan, which helped give hope and assistance to 270 million people in 16 nations living in Western Europe. The Marshall... Read More

Union Loss Is America’s Gain

The failure of the vote to recall Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker sends two distinct messages: the majority of voters want their elected officials to maintain a government living within its means; and that unions can no longer dictate how a government operates. Now that Walker has become the only sitting governor to defeat a recall vote, many are counting on him to carry Wisconsin this November for Mitt Romney. This would be the first time Wisconsin voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984. But it is bigger than this. The Democrat “blue wall” of rust belt states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin has been ruptured. White working class voters are leaving Obama in droves including many union households. That’s bad news for Democrats,... Read More

Overregulation and Job Creation Can’t Work Together

Several weeks ago, I wrote that as of 2008, small businesses faced an annual regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee, according to an SBA regulatory impact study published two years ago. The Office of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that the annual cost of federal regulations in the United States increased to more than $1.75 trillion in 2008. On the heels of this data, I came across a 2009 study from the California State University’s College of Business. This study measured and reported on the cost of regulation to small business in the State of California. The study found that the annual total cost of regulation to the State of California is $493 billion which is five times the state’s general fund budget, and almost a third of the state’s... Read More

Do Something to Send a Message to the Do-Nothing Congress

A Washington Post column recently suggested that “to call this 112th Congress a do-nothing Congress would be an insult — to the real Do-Nothing Congress of 1947-48. That Congress passed 908 laws. To date, this one has passed 106 public laws. Even if they triple that output in the rest of 2012 — not a terribly likely proposition — they will still be in last place going back at least 40 years.” Most people agree that the 112th Congress is the worst Congress in U.S. history. If we could point the finger at one party, this might clear things up. But both parties are culpable in today’s Congress. In the Democratically controlled Senate, they have not passed a budget resolution in three years and have yet to vote to extend the payroll tax cut for a full year. According to... Read More

Crushing Regulations Kill Job Creation

As of 2008, small businesses faced an annual regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee, according to an SBA regulatory impact study published two years ago. That’s 36 percent higher than the regulatory cost facing large firms (defined as firms with 500 or more employees). And since 2008, the situation has grown worse as the regulation factories in Washington have been working overtime since the Obama Administration has come to town. The Office of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that the annual cost of federal regulations in the United States increased to more than $1.75 trillion in 2008. The report noted had every U.S. household paid an equal share of the federal regulatory burden, each would have owed $15,586 in 2008. By comparison, the federal... Read More

Obama’s War on Coal Claims Its First Victim

I have previously addressed Obama’s war on the coal industry. But now it has claimed its first victim: himself. The United Coal Mine Workers of America, surprising Obama supporters in 2008 by supporting him, are turning their backs on a president and administration that seems committed to putting them out of business. Despite all the warning signs of his anti-domestic energy positions, Obama still received $884,000 from the oil and gas industry during the 2008 campaign, more than any other lawmaker except his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain. In hindsight, you can bet that the oil and gas industry wish they had their money back. According to reports, Cecil Roberts, president of the United Coal Miners of America union, went on a radio show recently and said “The way Mr. Obama’s administration... Read More

Rescuing the Lost Generation

With 25 million unemployed or underemployed Americans, there’s a segment of the population that is generally being ignored: today’s youth. The unemployment rate in April of this year for 20- to 24-year-olds is 13.2 percent. According to a Pew Research Center study completed in December of 2011, the share of young adults aged 18 to 24 currently employed of 54 percent is the lowest since the government began collecting data in 1948. And the gap in employment between the young and all working-age adults—roughly 15 percentage points—is the widest in recorded history. If that news isn’t depressing enough, nearly 22 percent of female veterans — or an estimated 50,000 women — who served during in Iraq and Afghanistan were unemployed in December 2011. What’s the upshot of living with... Read More