Tag Archives: Economy

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama Wants A ‘Living Wage’, Wink To Big Labor

From The White House Monday, President Obama made another stab at spreading the wealth around. Using the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, the wealth envy warrior is pushing what he calls the Paycheck Fairness Act. President Obama said . . .

Now is the time for Congress to step up and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. … Now is the time to make sure that we are putting in place a minimum wage that you can live on.

There’s a couple of problems with that. First of which is, one has to have a job. You could have a $20/hr minimum obama_houdiniwage, but what good is it doing you if you don’t have a job?

Creating jobs used to be his priority. At least that’s what he’s been telling us for about 5 years now. His rhetoric alone seems to insulate him from any responsibility of his actions which, have given us nothing but trillions of so-called stimulus spending, over $16 Trillion in new and record debt, high unemployment and the lowest labor participation rate since Jimmy Carter. What jobs are being created are low paying, and not enough in number to break even with retirements and population growth.

Second, and more importantly, it is not the role of the federal government to mandate that employers pay “a living wage” to anybody. Playing on your emotions with the notion of something fair does not give him the Constitutional authority to compensate for his inability to set the framework for a vibrant and growing economy.

Now to the real reason the President is harping on raising the minimum wage. It is just another attempt at quid pro quo to BIG LABOR. Like any sleight of hand magician, when he is shows you one hand with the fairness appeal, look for what the other hand is doing.

Raising the minimum wage does nothing to create jobs. The result is that raising the minimum wage not only puts the poorest, and lowest skilled workers in the unemployment line, it ends up artificially pushing up ALL labor costs, causing inflation in every area of the economy. But it does mean pay increases for BIG LABOR. You see, the big contracts are tied to the minimum wage. When it goes up, their wages also go up. And in the case of the public sector unions, the taxpayers’ overhead also goes up. So the union “working people” with $22/hr jobs will get a raise. Isn’t that special?

Link: Obama calls on Congress to hike minimum wage, close gender pay gap  |  Labor Union Self Interest: Facts Behind Organized Labor’s Push to Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

 

Economy, Europe, Politics

Economic Imbecile Has Company

It doesn’t do any good to know that the U.S. isn’t the only country blessed to have an economic imbecile as its president. France has one too!

French President François Hollande said this during a state visit to Japan . . .

You must understand that the crisis in the eurozone is over.

If only to serve notice that the global economic problem just got more complicated.

via François Hollande: the eurozone crisis is over | World news | The Guardian.

Economy, Fair Tax

Leo Linbeck, Jr. Dies, Philanthropist, FairTax Co-Founder

More than just a co-founder of the FairTax. Leo Linbeck, Jr. was a visionary and philanthropist. It was his efforts along with two other wealthy friends, Robert McNair and Jack Trotter, that shared the vision of a tax system that was fair, simple, transparent, and conducive to economic growth. Never before has anyone thought that a tax system, by definition, could be conducive to economic growth. It was their joint efforts, and their $22 million that paid for the years of research that ultimately ended up as the FairTax. The most thoroughly researched tax system that treats taxpayers with respect, and none of it done with taxpayer dollars.

Statement from Americans For Fair Taxation® on the passing of chairman and co-founder

Leo E. Linbeck, Jr.

Linbeck-SMFairTax® giant devoted the past 20 years to championing fair and transparent federal taxation

HOUSTON, TX – June 8, 2013 – Americans For Fair Taxation® (AFFT) announced today the passing of its Chairman and Co-founder Leo Edward Linbeck, Jr.

“The American people have lost a giant who championed simple and fair taxation for everyone,” said Cynthia T. Canevaro, AFFT national campaign manager. “Leo Linbeck, Jr., has devoted 20+ years passionately advocating for fair and transparent federal taxation for all citizens regardless of income or social standing.  He was committed to replacing the income tax, a system that favors special interests while punishing taxpayers at every level, with a national consumption tax that taxes citizens not on what they earn, but on what they spend on new goods and services.”  The Plan includes the repeal of the 16thAmendment and the elimination of the IRS.

Linbeck was a nationally known Houston businessman and philanthropist.  He was a longtime Chairman of Linbeck Construction Corp., a firm founded by his father in 1938 and ranked in 2012 by ENR as the sixth largest building contractor in the U.S. specializing in general building construction for the private sector.  At the time of his death, he also served as Chairman of Aquinas Corporation, a holding company for the Linbeck Group.

In 1995, Linbeck joined forces with Robert C. McNair, founder, chairman and CEO of the Houston Texans NFL team, and Jack Trotter (now deceased), to found Americans For Fair Taxation®.  The grassroots organization works relentlessly to build national support for the FairTax®, a national consumption tax plan that treats every person equally and allows American businesses to thrive while generating the same tax revenue as the current four-million-plus word income tax code.

“Leo Linbeck recognized 20 years ago the destructive nature of the income tax and how unfair, overly complex, and impossible it is to administer.” said Canevaro. “He poured his time, resources, energy and unwavering passion into advancing the FairTax; a system that allows Americans to keep their whole paycheck while only paying taxes on what they spend, not what they earn.”  She added,  “We have truly lost an American hero and Patriot, one whose vision will live on among FairTax supporters nationwide. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Bette, the entire Linbeck family and the legion of friends who now mourn his passing.”

 

We at Fair Tax Nation are saddend by the passing of Mr. Linbeck, Jr. We will continue our work to make his dream come true — to pass the Fair Tax.

Marilyn Rickert

Economy, Florida, Media, Obamacare, Pensacola, Politics

In Support Of Private Sector Health Insurance

The hubris of supporters, media included, of the Affordable Health Care Act, aka Obamacare, never ceases to amaze me. It begins to look foolish when deception is combined with ignorance. Case in point is writers like these who demagogue the private health insurance industry, portraying them as greedy corporatist one-percenters. Their buzz words. Making money hand over fist.

The health insurance industry isn’t the one to demonize for having excessive profits. On its face, that anyone has the right to decide whether a profit is excessive is preposterous. That’s what fascist economic models are all about. In a free-market economy, consumers, not politicians,  decide who survives and who fails in the marketplace. And the profits, if any, are for the owners and investors, the ones who took the risk to offer a product, or service, to sell. Their profits do not belong to the government. Works that way in every industry not government-controlled. Former lefty talk show host Sen. Al Franken and current lefty talk show host Mike Papantonio can tell you about the ups and downs (mostly downs) of Air America Radio.

Lefty Huffington Post declares “Insurer Profits Are Up In The Wake Of Health Care Law They Oppose.” That, referring to a Bloomberg article entitled “Insurers Profit From Health Law They Fought Against.” Which morphs into this on far left Ring of Fire Radio1, “Health Insurance Make Threats to Spike Rate, Despite Record Profits.”

Faced with the reality that Obamacare is going to force insurance carriers to raise their premiums or go out of business, the meme is all about those mean rich insurance companies, already raking it in, and wanting to gouge consumers even more. One problem, and here’s where the ignorance and demagoguery comes in. The articles wrap their argument around net income and operating profit margins. Neither of which are net profit.

They don’t know what they’re talking about, and they’re spreading a false narrative to demonize insurers and idolize Obamacare.

What is a profit margin? It is the percentage of the income that is left over after all expenses. The numbers in the HuffPost/Bloomberg source are of operating margins and do not include expenses like interest payments, tax, depreciation, and amortization. After paying those expenses, you are left with the net, as in last, profit margin.

The profit margin for the Health Care Insurance industry is 3.5%. Ask yourself how they are to stay in business when the federal government under Obamacare expects them to hold or lower premiums, accept all pre-existing conditions, and add 20 or 30 million more policyholders on a 3.5% margin? It can’t happen. And that is Obama’s intent. It will cause the health insurance providers to drop that part of their business and insure something else or just fold. At that point, Obama reaches nirvana. A total single-payer government-run health care system that will be less efficient and more expensive than ever.

To add a little perspective that the Left doesn’t want you to know, here are the profit margins of other industries.

  • Beverages 25.9%. Included in that percentage are Breweries 37.3%, Soft Drinks 13%
  • Biotechnologies 16.1%
  • Banks 13.7%
  • Oil & Gas Drilling and Exploration 10.3%
  • Gas Utilities 7.7%
  • Food 7.2%
  • Electric Utilities4.9%
  • Oil & Gas Pipeline 4.1%
  • Health Care Plan Providers 3.5%

Law firms go from 5% to 60%, and average out at 30%. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how greedy, by their own standards, the Levin-Papantonio Law Firm is? Makes one wonder what their profit margin is?

endofstory

1Ring of Fire is hosted by Mike Papantonio, senior partner in the Levin-Papantonio Law Firm in Pensacola, FL. Specializing in mass torts, suing drug companies, car manufacturers, tobacco companies, personal injury, product liability, medical malpractice, slip and falls, and more.

Economy, Media, Politics

Obama’s Economy, Another Million Four Unemployed

The Dept of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report was “adjusted” upwards by 4,500.

In the last four weeks, 1,410,000 “workers” are out of work and have filed for unemployment.

In the week ending June 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 346,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 357,000. The 4-week moving average was 352,500, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 348,000.

That’s a recovery only Obama (and the MSM) can believe in.

Economy, Fair Tax, Politics

FairTax, The Right Alternative

Under the FairTax, all the controversy in the news today, from IRS abuse, to tax favors, to tax punishments, will disappear. Gone! The immense size of the IRS? Gone! The immense cost of compliance to taxpayers? Gone!

fairtax_pyramid

The term “take home pay” becomes obsolete. No more federal deductions. You take home everything you make. Can you handle that? Oh, and April 15th becomes just another day in paradise.

Under the FairTax, other terms like “tax exempt status” and “mortgage deduction” also become obsolete. Under the FairTax, no contributions you make or receive are taxable. And since your mortgage payment will now be made in ‘pre-tax’ dollars, you have nothing to deduct your mortgage interest payments from.

All the taxes you and businesses are paying now? Gone! What’s left is a simple, transparent, and fair consumption tax. Period. Fair to individuals and business. The FUD factor disappears. Business and individual investment decisions no longer include factoring in the Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt about tax consequences because those decisions become tax neutral.

The motivation to shelter trillions of dollars offshore disappears. That money can stay right here and be put to work without any tax penalty. All by itself, the FairTax is an economic stimulus that doesn’t involve spending, borrowing, or increasing the national debt.

The FairTax is the means to fund the government whose time has come.

 

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics, Supreme Court

SEC, Obama’s Back Door IRS

Having been caught violating the civil rights of thousands of Americans trying to assemble, contribute, and advocate a cause, the IRS

Mary Jo White, SEC Chair
SEC Chair, Mary Jo White

scandal has been shut down. That, after all, was just symptomatic of the way liberals play politics. They don’t compete in the arena of ideas, they use the government to intimidate the political opposition. And in this case, to help Obama get re-elected by harassing conservative contributors and PACs that would contribute to the Romney campaign. This is what the IRS inquiries into conservative non-profit applications was all about. And it worked. But don’t hold your breath for any lawsuits about their civil rights or First Amendment rights being denied.

But the political intimidation is not over. Liberals also use regulators like the SEC or EPA to do the job that the IRS can not. All of which was triggered by the Citizens United Supreme Court case that guaranteed corporations the same rights to exercise political speech as a person has.

The back door to what the IRS was doing, which was finding out the names and businesses that contributed to conservative organizations for conservative causes, and preventing as much as possible contributions to organizations that would advocate against a liberal agenda, a clear violation of civil rights, is now called the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Reacting to, ostensibly, a coalition of Democratic elected officials, activists and labor unions, the SEC is considering making up a new disclosure rule for publicly traded companies. The SEC is considering a regulation mandating that publicly traded corporations disclose all their political donations to their shareholders. Still a violation of civil rights of the shareholders and the corporation. It is Big Brother using the power of intimidation to shut down any and all political opposition. It is instructive too that the assumption is that corporations would not also give to liberals.

A petition to the S.E.C. asking it to issue the rule has already garnered close to half a million comments, far more than any petition or rule in the agency’s history, with the vast majority in favor of it. While relatively few petitions result in action by the S.E.C., the commission staff filed a notice late last year indicating that it was considering recommending a rule.

In response to the growing pressure, House Republicans introduced legislation last Thursday that would make it illegal for the commission to issue any political disclosure regulations applying to companies under its jurisdiction. Earlier this month, the leaders of three of Washington’s most powerful trade associations — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Business Roundtable — issued a rare joint letter to the chief executives of Fortune 200 companies, encouraging them to stand against proxy resolutions and other proposals from shareholder activists demanding more disclosure of political spending.

What we continue to see is the political warfare conducted by liberals. It is liberalism on display. It is what they do. They restrict rights, restrict liberties, ignore the constitution, depress economies, increase debt, spread misery all in the name of social justice. Social justice isn’t justice. It’s harassment.

Link: SEC nears decision on requiring businesses to disclose donations

Economy, Politics

Axelrod, Government Is Too Big

In defense of President Obama’s ignorance of what is going on in the Internal Revenue Service (and the State and Justice Departments), David Axelrod finds himself agreeing with what the Tea Party folks have said since the beginning of this administration. The only difference is Axlerod is attempting to excuse abuse by the embedded liberal government employees because, the government is too big. Whereas the Tea Party continues to say that because the government is too big and getting bigger, it is limiting freedom and liberty, by-passing the Constitution, and with Obamacare, is usurping one sixth of the private sector economy.

Axelrod said, “Part of being president is there’s so much beneath you that you can’t know because the government is so vast.” And that is exactly the way the community-organizer-turned-president wants it. He can accept, or reject, responsibility for whatever he chooses.

There is a dichotomy there that Axelrod is missing. Welcome to the Tea Party Mr. Axelrod.

http://youtu.be/mhd6XLbbtIY

Economy, Politics

Repeal Obamacare Begins Today

Today the House is expected to vote on H.R. 45 – To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in the Health Care fireworks1and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Regardless of what the Democrat-controlled Senate (53 D’s, 45 R’s, 2 I’s) does with it, at least Americans can see that their representatives in the House are listening to them.

Economy

835,000 Fewer ‘Workers’ In April

The DOL’s weekly update shows the unemployment rate fell .1 to 7.5%. This was not as a result of more people working however. It was a result of 835,000 people dropping out of the workforce.

This is a case, as it has been since Obama became President, what looks like good news really isn’t. The labor participation rate, the number of people in the country that are working, is at 63.3 percent. That’s Jimmy Carter territory.