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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on July 14, 2010, 04:57:59 AM
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JOBS FOR AMERICA:
An Open Letter to the President of the United States, the United States Congress, and the American People
Eighteen months ago, during the greatest economic crisis since the
Great Depression, the business community stood united with Congress and
the President behind our shared goal of rescuing the U.S. economy and
putting Americans back to work. We supported programs to stabilize our
financial institutions, bolster key industries, and aid the unemployed.
Working together, we succeeded in stabilizing the economy and
preventing another depression. But once accomplished, the congressional
leadership and the administration took their eyes off the ball. They neglected
America’s number one priority—creating the more than 20 million jobs we
need over the next 10 years for those who lost their jobs, have left the job
market, or were cut to part-time status—as well as new entrants into our
workforce. Instead of continuing their partnership with the business
community and embracing proven ideas for job creation, they vilified
industries while embarking on an ill-advised course of government
expansion, major tax increases, massive deficits, and job-destroying
regulations.
This approach has failed to return our economy to a path of robust
growth, which is a critical prerequisite to significant private sector job
growth. In some cases, wrong policy choices are actually eliminating good
job opportunities for American workers. By straying from the proven
principles of American free enterprise, policymakers are needlessly
prolonging the economic agony of the recession for millions of Americans
and their families
Today, more than 16% of American workers are unemployed,
underemployed, or have simply given up looking for a job. Consumer
confidence remains low, housing prices are still depressed, the stock market
has trended downward, the global recovery is sputtering, and there are
growing concerns about the prospects of a double-dip recession.
Uncertainty is the enemy of growth, investment, and job creation.
Through their legislative and regulatory proposals—some passed, some
pending, and others simply talked about—the congressional majority and the
administration have injected tremendous uncertainty into economic decision
making and business planning. This is why banks are reluctant to lend and
why American corporations are sitting on well over a trillion dollars. It is
why America’s small businesses and entrepreneurs, the engines of
innovation and job creation, are starving for capital and are either struggling
to survive or unable to expand.
In the process, we are also eroding our competitive position globally,
as other nations take steps to cut taxes, reduce regulations, and restrain the
appetites of government. Some are making serious headway in efforts to
upgrade the skills of their students and workers, while we have yet to make
significant progress. For all these reasons, the known and unknown costs
that come with expanding operations and adding to payrolls in the United
States are simply too high.
As the President has said repeatedly, and as every economist knows,
prosperity and job growth come from the private sector, not from the
government. Government’s role is to establish the right conditions in
which the private sector can do what it does best—foster economic
growth, create innovative products and services, generate wealth, and, in
the process, produce expanded revenues to educate our children, care for
the sick and poor, and defend our nation.
Yet who in our government today recognizes that every bill—
proposed, considered, or passed—is a “jobs bill.” Government can either
help the private sector create jobs or it can drive jobs away. No matter how
well intentioned or politically popular a proposed law or regulation appears
to be, the question must always be asked, What will the impact be on jobs?
We fear that this consideration is routinely ignored in the halls of our
government today. American workers and those who are struggling to keep
them employed deserve better.
Fortunately, it is not too late to improve the economic environment,
forestall another downturn, and revive the job-creating capacity of our
nation. We call upon policymakers of all parties and philosophies to end the
finger-pointing and work constructively with the job creators to reduce
uncertainty, restore confidence, and restart the recovery. It’s time for some
different approaches to unlock frozen capital and jolt our economy back to
life.
Create a Growth and Jobs Tax Policy—Some $700 billion in tax
increases have already been passed to pay for health care and other
programs. Proposals in the capital markets, energy, and climate change
arenas would raise hundreds of billions more. On top of all this, just six
months from now, Americans will be hit with the largest tax increase in
history in precisely those areas that would have the greatest negative impact
on investment and jobs— individual tax rates, dividends and capital gains
taxes, the death tax, and the alternative minimum tax.
We understand that the political battle lines have long been drawn
over which of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts should be extended. Yet the “facts
on the ground” must take precedence. Our precariously weak economy—
and especially our all-important small business sector—simply cannot sustain
such massive tax hikes at this time. We therefore urge Congress and the
administration to immediately support at least a temporary extension of all
the tax relief passed in the prior decade. In one bold, swift move, this would
substantially boost investor, business, and consumer confidence and would
infuse our economy with fresh momentum.
Congress should also reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate, which is
among the highest in the world, and address the fact that the United States is
the only major economy that double taxes overseas earnings. Taking these
steps would make our companies more competitive on the world stage and
help spur investment and job growth here at home.
Restore Fiscal Health—Meanwhile, spending is going through the
roof and deficits right along with it. On its current course, government debt
will rise from nearly 41% of GDP in FY2008 to 63% in FY2010 to 90% in
FY2020. By crowding out available capital for business expansion and
eventually triggering increases in interest rates and inflation, rising deficits
and debt add to uncertainty, inhibit growth, and smother job creation.
No one we know of has a full or easy answer to America’s debt crisis.
The Chamber looks forward to the report due later this year from the
National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. However, we
already know that mandatory spending, especially in entitlements, is the
primary culprit. And the situation will only get worse as the population ages.
Instead of expanding entitlements, as the administration and Congress have
been doing, we must modernize those programs without further delay.
We also know that without sustained economic growth, we can never
restore our nation to fiscal health. A growing economy produces more
government revenues, which can substantially reduce the deficit—if and
only if these revenues are accompanied by serious spending restraint.
Still, our fiscal hole is so deep that we will also need to generate
additional revenues. Our policy challenge is to do so in ways that do not
undermine economic growth or competitiveness. For example, there are
numerous oil, gas, and shale leases on our lands and off our shores that are
currently inactive. Some estimates show that they could generate as much as
$1.7 trillion worth of royalties over the next 10 years. Tapping these reserves
would create direct federal revenues and hundreds of thousands of jobs,
while indirectly swelling the tax base and spurring economic development.
Furthermore, more than 80% of national forest lands are currently
closed to timber harvesting. Opening these lands would generate direct use
fees as well as thousands of jobs and would add billions of dollars to the tax
base. Such initiatives must be undertaken with full and, where necessary,
improved environmental safeguards and sound resource management.
Embarking on this path would create growth, jobs, and tax revenues while
boosting our nation’s energy security.
Expand Trade and Export-Driven Jobs—The President has said that
millions of American jobs can be created by doubling U.S. exports in five
years, and we agree. We must now have an aggressive trade expansion
agenda to make it happen. If Congress really cares about creating jobs, it
will pass pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South
Korea now. Failure to act quickly will cost Americans many new job
opportunities. But that’s not all. At least 380,000 existing jobs will be lost to
our competitors in the EU and Canada, which will soon implement free
trade arrangements in these markets.
We should not stop there. American leadership is needed to revive the
Doha Development Round, which would expand the economy worldwide
and open new markets to our exports. The President should be given fasttrack
trade promotion authority, and he should use it vigorously to strike
additional bilateral and regional trade and investment deals that open foreign
markets and boost U.S. exports and jobs.
America’s intellectual property must be better protected at home and
abroad, and export control rules should be immediately revised to allow our
manufacturers to sell high-tech and other products to customers that can
already acquire them from our competitors.
Rebuild and Expand America’s Infrastructure—Millions of jobs, as
well as our global competitiveness and quality of life, depend on
modernizing all forms of the American infrastructure, including surface and
air transportation, ports, inland waterways, water and power generation
facilities, and broadband capacity.
Much of this important work can be done with private investments,
but governments at all levels must first remove the regulatory, legal, and
financial roadblocks. If America’s transportation and water infrastructure, for
instance, was fully open to private investment, the $180 billion available
today in private capital could generate more than 1.5 million jobs over 10
years. Greater private investment in broadband would also foster economic
development and create jobs. To ensure that all Americans fully benefit from
this technology, federal policies should foster private sector investment in
broadband infrastructure and minimize regulatory uncertainty.
Incentives and legal surety for investment in clean coal technologies,
carbon capture systems, and massive expansion of nuclear power would
also create hundreds of thousands of jobs at all skill levels while helping
address environmental challenges.
Congress must also quickly pass a multiyear federal surface
transportation bill. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, each
$1 billion in federal highway investment accompanied by the required 20%
state match supports nearly 35,000 jobs, with similar figures for public
transportation capital investment.
Ease the Regulatory Burden—There must be a recognition by the
administration and Congress that the regulatory burden they have imposed
on the U.S. economy has reached a tipping point. Unless the cumulative
impact of existing regulations, newly mandated regulations, and proposed
regulations is seriously addressed, the economy will not create the jobs
Americans need. We will lose even more jobs. They will simply disappear or
be sent offshore.
In recent months, the House passed a climate change bill that would
create nearly 1,500 new regulations and mandates and carry a price tag of
well over a trillion dollars. The Senate is considering similar legislation. The
Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with 29 major economic
rules and 173 major policy rules, an unprecedented level of regulatory
action. The Labor Department is considering dozens of new, restrictive
workplace policies while the newly appointed National Labor Relations
Board is expected to make sweeping changes governing every facet of
union-management relations.
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The soon-to-be-finalized financial regulatory reform legislation creates
over 350 regulatory rulemakings, 47 studies, and 74 reports—dwarfing
anything in Sarbanes-Oxley. The massive health care bill, with its
unprecedented and confusing employer mandate and hundreds of billions of
dollars in business taxes, will require thousands of pages of new regulations
to be followed by individuals, businesses, health care industry providers,
and the states.
Uncertainty—You can find in these numbers a principal reason why
businesses are so reluctant to make investments and create jobs. Each time a
new regulatory proposal is even floated in Washington, investors in the
potentially impacted industries close their wallets. Uncertainty forces them to
do so.
These new regulatory burdens fall heavily on new and small
businesses, but they hurt larger companies too. And when larger companies
are hurt, the small businesses that supply them, depend on them for sales,
and service their employees suffer even more.
Creating sufficient economic growth to put Americans back to work
in good-paying jobs and rewarding careers is the U.S. Chamber’s top
priority. The citizens of our country have repeatedly said that it is their top
priority as well. It is imperative that during these difficult times, business
and government leaders work with each other, not against each other. The
American people expect us to find common ground and get things done
to grow this economy and create jobs.
The business community shares the view of most Americans that the
current approaches are not working. We are offering an achievable road
map to greater economic growth and more jobs, and we don’t care who gets
the credit. We invite leaders in government and citizens across the nation to
support it.
The Chamber of Commerce of the United States
________________________ ______________________
The sad part of this is that myself, others, etc have said exactly this same thing well over a year ago.
The Trifecta of ObamaCare, Cap & Trade, and the bogus Stim Bill are destroying or will destroy the nation.
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U.S. Business Groups Air Policy Concerns
By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
www.wsj.com
AFP/Getty Images
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks on the economy and jobs creation at Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Missouri, July 8, 2010.
WASHINGTON—Washington's major business groups plan a united front Wednesday in their confrontation with the Obama administration over economic policy, calling on the White House to cut taxes and curb its regulatory agenda.
Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Federation of Independent Businesses will air a list of concerns about government policy at a "Jobs for America Summit" at the Chamber's offices Wednesday.
Open Letter to President Obama
.The Chamber will issue an open letter to President Barack Obama asking that the administration cut taxes, act on pledges to expand export markets, and streamline government rules, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Summit participants include legislators with leadership roles on business-related congressional committees, including Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.); Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.); Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.); and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
Also attending from the administration side are Erskine Bowles, President Bill Clinton's chief of staff and former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson (R)—the two men co-chair Mr. Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
"There's a lot more unanimity than you may have seen over the past year" among business leaders, particularly in their opposition to tax and regulatory policy, said Stan Anderson, executive director of the chamber's Campaign for Free Enterprise, which promotes its job-creation policies.
"We are not going to engage in a debate over whether the White House is pro- or anti-business. We really want to talk about policy."
The White House will issue a written response to the chamber's concerns, an administration official said Tuesday.
The Obama administration, struggling with a 9.5% unemployment rate in a congressional election year, has made a series of economic announcements in recent weeks that have so far failed to quell business groups' furor.
Mr. Obama last month pledged to renew efforts to move a South Korea free trade agreement through Congress, and to work on treaties with Panama and Colombia. This week, administration officials said they've asked business leaders to submit specific regulations that inhibit economic growth, and are open to a broad regulatory review.
In the letter, which was sent to the White House Tuesday, the chamber says this Congress has passed $700 billion in tax increases, and demands that all tax cuts passed in the previous decade be extended, including those to individual, estate, capital gains and alternative minimum taxes. "In one bold, swift move, this would substantially boost investor, business, and consumer confidence," the letter reads.
To reduce the deficit, the chamber urges the government to trim entitlement spending, expand logging in national forests, and revive inactive leases on oil, gas, and shale reserves.
It urges passage of free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, estimating that 380,000 existing U.S. jobs will be lost to Canada and the European Union should they conclude agreements with the three nations before the U.S. does.
On the regulatory front, "What we're looking at here is a tsunami of regulations coming online slowly because of legislation that has either been enacted or legislation that people expect in some form will be enacted," said Bruce Josten, the chamber's chief lobbyist.
The letter points out that the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with 29 major economic rules (a major rule would have an impact on the economy of at least $100 million) and 173 major policy rules.
Legislation overhauling financial-markets regulation now nearing passage in Congress would create more than 350 rule makings, 47 studies and 74 reports.
"You can find in these numbers a principal reason why businesses are so reluctant to make investments," the letter reads.
The nation's biggest business groups have become increasingly vocal in recent weeks, issuing public demands that the administration trim rules, speed trade deals and limit its intervention in private industry.
"I think the concerns have always been aligned but it's really just a matter of tone and tenor," said John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, which encompasses the nations' biggest multinationals. Last month the roundtable, usually more friendly to the administration than the chamber, gave the White House a 54-page report detailing policies that it said are inhibiting growth.
Some in the White House express frustration with growing demands from businesses that it do immediately what takes months to accomplish in Congress.
"This economy is in a transitional phase and transitions engender uncertainty," said Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
"Addressing the long-term fiscal challenges, as well as the excesses of the financial sector, was essential."
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
________________________ ________________________ ___________________
"This economy is in a transitional phase and transitions engender uncertainty," said Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
No kidding - collapse here we come.
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AAAWWWWWWW Poor baby Barack.
FUBO! ! ! ! Its about time more people start fighting back against this disastrous admn.
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W.House Disappointed By Rhetoric Of Some In Business
Reuters ^ | July 14, 2010
Posted on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 3:41:40 PM by reaganaut1
The White House said on Wednesday it was "surprised and disappointed" by attacks on its policies from some corners of the business world, as it pushed back hard against criticism from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"The stakes are far too high for us to be working against one another," White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama's top adviser, said in a letter to the chamber, a top lobby group for U.S. businesses.
"That is why we were surprised and disappointed at the rhetoric we have heard from some in the business community -- rhetoric that fails to acknowledge the important steps this administration has taken," they said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
The chamber, which is hosting a jobs summit on Wednesday, has accused Obama and his Democrats in Congress of neglecting job creation and hampering growth with burdensome regulatory and tax policies.
Recalling the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the White House said it would not "stand by" while the energy industry fought tighter regulations to improve environmental safety, and stressed its duties went far wider than the business lobby.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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Anyone who is not illegal, muslim, or lives on welfare, and recieves government aid all their life, should not expect shit from this president. Except to have their money redistributed to worthless people who think they are entitled to your money that you work hard for. And if you dont support that you just are racist towards hussein. ???
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Does this guy ever stop whining like a girl?
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BF - check out the thread billy started. You won't believe it. I posted the article itself. Check out the comments at the link.
Note to Obama supporters - if you don't want to be offended stay away, ABC is now virulently against Obama. Over 500 comments trashing this admn.