Obama Close to Shutting Down Alaskan Pipeline
The entire NPRA area joins ANWR in now been deemed "Off Limits' by the Obama Administration
President Obama is campaigning as a champion of the oil and gas boom he's had nothing to do with, and even as his regulators try to stifle it. The latest example is the Interior Department's little-noticed August decision to close off from drilling nearly half of the 23.5 million acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
The area is called the National Petroleum Reserve because in 1976 Congress designated it as a strategic oil and natural gas stockpile to meet the "energy needs of the nation." Alaska favors exploration in nearly the entire reserve. The feds had been reviewing four potential development plans, and the state of Alaska had strongly objected to the most restrictive of the four. Sure enough, that was the plan Interior chose.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says his plan "will help the industry bring energy safely to market from this remote location, while also protecting wildlife and subsistence rights of Alaska Natives." He added that the proposal will expand "safe and responsible oil and gas development, and builds on our efforts to help companies develop the infrastructure that's needed to bring supplies online. The problem is almost no one in the energy industry and few in Alaska agree with him. In an August 22 letter to Mr. Salazar, the entire Alaska delegation in Congress:
The Areas we WERE drilling were relatively tiny, in comparison to the size of Alaska or even the U.S.A.
Senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski and Representative Don Young—call it "the largest wholesale land withdrawal and blocking of access to an energy resource by the federal government in decades." This decision, they add, "will cause serious harm to the economy and energy security of the United States, as well as to the state of Alaska." Mr. Begich is a Democrat.
The letter also says the ruling "will significantly limit options for a pipeline" through the reserve. This pipeline has long been sought to transport oil and gas from the Chukchi Sea, the North Slope and future Arctic drilling. Mr. Salazar insists that a pipeline could still be built, but given the Obama Administration's decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline, Alaskans are right to be skeptical.
Alaskans also worry that the National Petroleum Reserve will become the same political football as the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, or ANWR, which Washington has barred from drilling because of dubious environmental objections. The greens now want Congress to rename the energy reserve the "Western Arctic Reserve" to give the false impression that it is a fragile wildlife area. Some parts of the area are environmentally sensitive, but those 1.5 million acres (around Teshekpuk Lake) had already been set aside. Most of the other 11.5 million acres are almost indistinguishable from acreage owned by the state that is being drilled safely nearby.
The feds and Alaskan officials disagree about how much oil and natural gas is in the petroleum reserve. Some early federal estimates put the range between six and 15 billion barrels of oil, but in its latest survey the Bureau of Land Management projects closer to one billion. State officials and industry experts put the figure much higher based on the earlier surveys and improved drilling techniques.
The truth is no one knows. Prudhoe Bay turned out to be much more productive than originally believed, but surely the best strategy is to allow private drillers to risk their own money to find out. The oil and gas industry isn't in the business of drilling dry holes on purpose.
The Interior power play couldn't come at a worse time for Alaska, whose economy and government are heavily reliant on oil jobs and revenues. As recently as the 1980s, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline carried some 2.2 million barrels of oil a day from the North Slope to the port of Valdez. Yet as the once-rich fields of Prudhoe Bay and the Kuparuk River have declined, oil flow has dropped to one-third of that volume. North Dakota recently passed Alaska as the second highest oil-producing state behind Texas.
The problem isn't that Alaska is running out of oil but that federal rules are preventing the state from developing those resources. No matter what Mr. Obama says now, in a second term his great Alaska energy shutout will continue.
This story originated on WSJ
Posted by Juan Fermin at Monday, October 15, 2012 No comments:
Labels: Alaskan Oil Pipeline, ANWR, Drill Our Own Oil, National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, NPRA, Oil Pipeline
The Five Trillion Dollar Lie
Romney is planning on cutting taxes by 20% across the board, in conjunction with eliminating some tax deductions. The plan is to broaden the number of people who the Government collects taxes from while at the same time lowering the overall rate.
Obama counters by asserting that this amounts to a Five Trillion Dollar give-away to the rich over the next 10 years.
The problem with Liberals is that they see taxation as a zero sum game. They fail to realize that cuts in taxes produces more economic activity that produces more taxes
The whole thing reminds me of the Reagan era. Let's face it, Reagan had a plan to cut taxes from 75% to 50%, then subsequently to 28%. So overall, he cut the rates by 67%! Or more than THREE TIMES what Romney's proposing. If Obama was running against then "Candidate" Reagan, he would have claimed that Reagan's plan would cut taxes by 15 Trillion in today's dollars. However, the truth is, that Reagan's plan DOUBLED total revenue for the Federal Government over the 8 years that he was President.
In fact, if you look throughout history, every time that tax rates have been cut, Federal Revenue's end up increasing. Why? Simple. When Job Creators get to keep more of their money, they create MORE JOBS. With more jobs, the government needs to support less people and instead collect taxes from more people Not just Income taxes, but sales, gas, Import, ... everything.
If we look to history as our guide, when Harding cut taxes from 75% to 25%, unemployment went from near 14% to less than 2% over the next 4 years AND paid down all the debt the Government had racked up from WWI!
When Hoover increased taxes from 25% to 63% in reaction to the Market Crash, instead of the anticipated boom in Revenue, revenue PLUMMETED with new company creation coming to a halt, and unemployment hitting 15%
When FDR increased the rate to 90%, revenue fell even more and unemployment hit nearly 1 in every 4 workers! A stat that stuck for nearly an ENTIRE DECADE! Only the War ended up pulling us out of that malaise.
Tax cuts passed after FDR eventually got the economy going again, but since they kept going up and down over the next several decades, not until Reagan was elected did we see another "Harding Style" revival of the economy.
Let's also not forget that the last time the budget was balanced was when Clinton cut the capital gains rate from 28% to 20%. Sure he increased the "INCOME" tax from 28% top rate to 39%, but that happened during his first term and DID NOT close the budget gap, instead it widened on his first term!
The problem with Liberals is that they see taxation as a zero sum game. They fail to realize that cuts in taxes produces more economic activity that produces more taxes, more jobs and removes people off government doles. Increased taxes have the opposite effects, Job creators move to other countries or change operations to get out of paying the increased taxes. Apple is a perfect example. Apple used to manufacture most of their components here in the U.S. With the tax and regulatory environment here in the U.S. becoming increasingly unfavorable, they moved their operations to the Asian rim, where the top rate is 25%, Capital investments are fully tax deductible and Capital Gains taxes are half what they are here and also tax deductible. What good does it do California and the Federal Government to have an effective rate of nearly DOUBLE, when they've moved their operations offshore? They now can't collect it.
There is one thing though that's undoubtedly true about that Five Trillion Dollar Number, while Bush added 4 Trillion in debt in his two terms as president, Obama has added 5 Trillion in new debt in just his first term.
Posted by Juan Fermin at Sunday, October 07, 2012 No comments:
Labels: 5 Trillion, 5 Trillion Dollar Lie, Mitt Romney, Obama Lie, Romney Character, Romney Lie
Blacks: 'SLAVISH DEVOTION TO THE DEMOCRAT PARTY'
The Bishop E.W. Jackson, founder of Chesapeake, Virginia-based Exodus Faith Ministries, recently released a controversial video calling for African Americans to make a mass exodus from the Democratic Party. Throughout the clip, Jackson delivers stinging blows to both liberals and the African Americans who continue to support them, while decrying what he sees as a "slavish devotion to the Democrat Party."
They have insulted us, used us, and manipulated us. They have saturated the black community with ridiculous lies," he said, speaking directly to the black community. "They think we are stupid and that these lies will hold us captive while they violate everything we believe as Christians.
"Jackson went into detail in the video, taking aim at the "unholy alliance" that he sees between Democrats, faux-civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood.
"The Democratic Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions," he proclaimed. On the morality front, Jackson took issue with the party's internal debate over "God" being dropped from its platform and derided the notion that homosexuality should be equated "with being black." He called the later tenet of the Democratic Party an "outrageous lie."
"We as Christians ought to know better. Shame on us for allowing ourselves to be sold to the highest bidder," Jackson continued, telling his fellow black pastors that they, too, would need to make a decision between supporting Democrats and embracing Jesus.
Blacks should be OUTRAGED by the fact that "Margaret Sanger" is an AWARD that the Democrat Party still gives out, and yet she was one of the BIGGEST racist in the country. She STARTED Planned Parent hood to "exterminate" the Negro population and would often speak at the women's branch of the KKK!
Posted by Juan Fermin at Tuesday, October 02, 2012 No comments:
Labels: 2012 Election, Black Democrats, Black Pastors, Christian Blacks, Democrat Party
We're Supposed to Believe a JUNK YouTube Video Did this?
Think about this for a moment. In countries where the majority of the people don't even have computers, supposedly they're all sitting around watching YouTube Videos disrespecting Mohammed? Anyone who's seen this video can see that it's CLEARLY an amateur job that could have been put together by kids, yet this is the video that's causing mass rioting all over the world?
In the meantime, when Bill Maher put together a professional FULL FEATURE FILM absolutely SLAMMING Islam, nope, nothing nada! How does this make any sense folks? No it seems to me that these people are being purposely riled up to protest on this garbage video while the majority have not even seen it. In the mean time, instead of our leaders condemning the Riots, the Killing and the all out chaos, INSTEAD .... they're out there "apoligizing" for this video, as if "WE THE PEOPLE" put this dammed thing together! The truth is that this is something that is being used to manipulate people. To what end, I have no idea but even the Libyan President is saying that all of this was planned!
Posted by Juan Fermin at Monday, September 17, 2012 No comments:
Labels: 2012 Election, Libyan President, Made In America, Mohammed video, Uprising Setup
Romney Can't Help Himself, He Sees a Problem He Fixes It.
On the night of July 6, 1996, 14-year-old Melissa Gay, daughter of Bain Capital executive Robert Gay, went missing in New York City, after going out without permission. Gay went to Mitt Romney, his business partner, and explained the situation. Mitt Romney, immediately took charge and paid for his 50 employees to fly to NYC and put them all up in a Hotel to assist in the search.
"And so I said," Romney recalled when asked about the incident during a town hall meeting in March 2012, "'Let's close the firm, let's close the company. Let's all of us fly down to New York and try to find her.' And so we closed the business, we went home and packed our things, we got a hotel near the airport where we all went to, we set up a headquarters, we met with the detectives with the New York City Police Department, we hired a private investigative firm to help guide us through this process."
Gay, Romney, and team literally fanned out on the streets of Manhattan in suits and ties, distributing 300,000 fliers and asking passersby point-blank if they had seen the missing girl. Their efforts quickly paid off in the form of a phone call from a private residence in Montville, New Jersey, where it turned out Melissa was staying, after going to an all night Rave Party without her parent's permission. She was retrieved by police and reunited with her parents in the early morning hours of July 12.
"She's OK," Robert Gay said in a statement to the Associated Press. "How can you ask for anything more than that?"
Yet people say that "Romney can't relate to people with problems"? Just watch the video and judge for yourself.
Labels: 2012 Election, Bain Capital, Missing Girl, Mitt Romney, Romney Character
Here Comes Inflation, AGAIN!
Here we go again guys, the Fed is up to no good, and on a Rampage printing money as fast as it can run the presses. I guess we learned nothing from the 70's and how Inflation got out of control with excessive Government spending. With all this money flooding the system, Food, Gas and Energy prices, which are already at an all time high are going even higher! This action will undoubtedly Further push down American's disposable income, which in turn will cause even more job losses! I mean let's face it, if you're having to spend $100.00 in gas just to go to the restaurant, you probably can't afford to go to that restaurant anymore right? As Investors business Daily says,
The government's addition of $1 trillion a year to our nation's debt hangs over this economy like a dark cloud, keeping entrepreneurs and big businesses alike on the sideline. The "fiscal cliff" we're about to go over will sock Americans — especially entrepreneurs — with a tax hike of almost $1 trillion. That's why the economy's dead — not insufficient Fed money printing."
But don't worry there's a bright side to all this money printing, I'm sure that within just a few years of the coming inflation, we could do like the Germans did in the 1920's and use all that extra cash as a heating source for our homes. Hey at least no one will freeze to death in the Winter of 2016!
Labels: 2012 Election, Ben Bernanke, Federal Spending, German Marks, Inflation, The Fed, U.S. Dollar
Government Motors Losing Almost 50K on Every Volt
Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts.
Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher. There are some Americans paying just $5,050 to drive around for two years in a vehicle that cost as much as $89,000 to produce.
At this price as little as $199 a month for the lease, it represents an absolute bargain for the Driver, but an absolute Boondogle for the Taxpayers who funded not only the development of the car, but also Government rebates handed back by the Government! ~ Added by NoSocialism.com
And while the loss per vehicle will shrink as more are built and sold, GM is still years away from making money on the Volt, which will soon face new competitors from Ford, Honda and others.
GM's basic problem is that "the Volt is over-engineered and over-priced," said Dennis Virag, president of the Michigan-based Automotive Consulting Group.
And in a sign that there may be a wider market problem, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi have been struggling to sell their electric and hybrid vehicles, though Toyota's Prius range has been in increasing demand.
GM's quandary is how to increase sales volume so that it can spread its estimated $1.2-billion investment in the Volt over more vehicles while reducing manufacturing and component costs - which will be difficult to bring down until sales increase.
But the Volt's steep $39,995 base price and its complex technology — the car uses expensive lithium-polymer batteries, sophisticated electronics and an electric motor combined with a gasoline engine — have kept many prospective buyers away from Chevy showrooms.
Some are put off by the technical challenges of ownership, mainly related to charging the battery. Plug-in hybrids such as the Volt still take hours to fully charge the batteries - a process that can been speeded up a bit with the installation of a $2,000 commercial-grade charger in the garage.
PLANT SHUTDOWN
The lack of interest in the car has prevented GM from coming close to its early, optimistic sales projections. Discounted leases as low as $199 a month helped propel Volt sales in August to 2,831, pushing year-to-date sales to 13,500, well below the 40,000 cars that GM originally had hoped to sell in 2012.
Out in the trenches, even the cheap leases haven't always been effective.
A Chevrolet dealership that is part of an auto dealer group in Toms River, New Jersey, has sold only one Volt in the last year, said its president Adam Kraushaar. The dealership sells 90 to 100 Chevrolets a month.
The weak sales are forcing GM to idle the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant that makes the Chevrolet Volt for four weeks from September 17, according to plant suppliers and union sources. It is the second time GM has had to call a Volt production halt this year.
GM acknowledges the Volt continues to lose money, and suggests it might not reach break even until the next-generation model is launched in about three years.
"It's true, we're not making money yet" on the Volt, said Doug Parks, GM's vice president of global product programs and the former Volt development chief, in an interview. The car "eventually will make money. As the volume comes up and we get into the Gen 2 car, we're going to turn (the losses) around," Parks said.
"I don't see how General Motors will ever get its money back on that vehicle," countered Sandy Munro, president of Michigan-based Munro & Associates, which performs detailed tear-down analyses of vehicles and components for global manufacturers and the U.S. government.
It currently costs GM "at least" $75,000 to build the Volt, including development costs, Munro said. That's nearly twice the base price of the Volt before a $7,500 federal tax credit provided as part of President Barack Obama's green energy policy.
Other estimates range from $76,000 to $88,000, according to four industry consultants contacted by Reuters. The consultants' companies all have performed work for GM and are familiar with the Volt's development and production. They requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their auto industry ties.
Parks declined to comment on specific costs related to the Volt.
The independent cost estimates obtained by Reuters factor in GM's initial investment in development of the Volt and its key components, as well as new tooling for battery, stamping, assembly and supplier plants — a price tag that totals "a little over" $1 billion, Parks said. Independent estimates put it at $1.2 billion, a figure that does not include sales, marketing and related corporate costs.
Spread out over the 21,500 Volts that GM has sold since the car's introduction in December 2010, the development and tooling costs average just under $56,000 per car. That figure will, of course, come down as more Volts are sold.
The actual cost to build the Volt is estimated to be an additional $20,000 to $32,000 per vehicle, according to Munro and the other industry consultants.
The production cost estimates are considerably higher than those for the Chevrolet Cruze, the Volt's conventional gasoline-engine sister car, which Munro estimates at $12,000 to $15,000 per vehicle.
Production costs typically include such items as parts, material, labor and the cost to run the factory, according to manufacturing expert Ron Harbour, who heads the North American Automotive Practice at Michigan-based consultant Oliver Wyman.
COST PENALTIES
The Volt costs more to build for several reasons, mostly related to the car's richer content, complex technology and still-low sales and production volumes.
The basic model has a higher level of equipment and features than the Cruze, which is assembled in Lordstown, Ohio, and has a starting sales price of $17,925. The Volt also has a number of unique parts, including the battery pack, the electric motor and the power electronics.
Some of GM's suppliers also impose cost penalties on the automaker because the Volt's production volume remains well below projections.
Still, as the company wrestles with how to drive down costs and increase showroom traffic, Parks said the Volt is an important car for GM in other respects.
"It wasn't conceived as a way to make tons of money," he said. "It was a big dip in the technology pool for GM. We've learned a boatload of stuff that we're deploying on other models," Parks said. Those include the Cruze and such future cars as the 2014 Cadillac ELR hybrid.
The same risky strategy — gambling on relatively untested technology — drove massive investments by Toyota Motor Corp in the Prius hybrid and Nissan Motor Co in the Leaf electric car.
Toyota said it now makes a profit on the Prius, which was introduced in the United States in 2000 and is now in its third generation. Sales of the Prius hybrid, which comes in four different versions priced as low as $19,745, have almost doubled so far this year to 164,408.
Other such vehicles haven't done nearly as well. Nissan's pure-electric Leaf, which debuted at the same time as the Volt and retails for $36,050, has sold just 4,228 this year, while the Honda Insight, which has the lowest starting price of any hybrid in the U.S. at $19,290, has sales this year of only 4,801. The Mitsubishi i, an even smaller electric car priced from $29,975, is in even worse shape, with only 403 sales.
Toyota's unveiling of the original Prius caught U.S. automakers off guard. GM, then under the leadership of Rick Wagoner and Bob Lutz, decided it needed a "leapfrog" product to tackle Toyota and unveiled the Volt concept to considerable fanfare at the 2007 Detroit auto show.
The car entered production in the fall of 2010 as the first U.S. gasoline-electric hybrid that could be recharged by plugging the car into any electrical outlet. The Obama administration, which engineered a $50-billion taxpayer rescue of GM from bankruptcy in 2009 and has provided more than $5 billion in subsidies for green-car development, praised the Volt as an example of the country's commitment to building more fuel-efficient cars.
NEXT-GENERATION CAR
GM's investment in the Volt has so far been a fraction of the $5 billion that Nissan said it is spending to develop and tool global production of the Leaf and its associated technologies and the reported $10 billion or more that Toyota has plowed into the Prius and various derivatives over the past decade.
But there will inevitably be more development costs for future generations of GM plug-ins and it could still could be years before GM sells enough Volts to bring the cost down to break even.
The average per-car costs for development and tooling will drop as sales volume rises. But GM will need to sell 120,000 Volts before the per-vehicle cost reaches $10,000 — and that may not occur during the projected five-year life cycle of the first-generation Volt.
Parks said the company also is continuously reducing production costs on the current Volt and its successor. "There is a strong push on the cost of the Gen 2 to get the car to make money and to be more affordable . . . Virtually every component in the next-gen car is going to be cheaper," he said.
One obvious way to pull down costs is to push up volume — but GM is paying a hefty price to do so.
The automaker just ended a special Volt lease program that offered customers a low monthly payment of $279 a month for two years, with some high-volume dealers dropping the payment to $199 a month after receiving incentive money from GM, with down payments as low as $250. The company said about two-thirds of Volt customers in July and August leased their vehicles, compared with about 40 percent earlier this year.
Before GM resorted to discounting Volt leases, sales were averaging just over 1,500 cars a month. A huge part of that reason was consumer push back over the price, according to Virag of Automotive Consulting.
Volt's nearest competitor, the Prius, is priced at $24,795, with a newer version, the Prius Plug-In, starting at $32,795.
Parks said the sales pitch for the Volt was "difficult" because of the sticker price and the car's technical complexity. But the discounted leases have helped lure more non-GM buyers into Chevy showrooms. Their number-one trade-in: Toyota Prius.
Raymond Chevrolet, in suburban Chicago, sells an average 1,000 Chevys a month, including three to seven Volts. Dealership president Mark Scarpelli said that "some people who like the concept of an electric vehicle find it cost-prohibitive."
(Reporting by Paul Lienert, Bernie Woodall and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Martin Howell & Theodore d'Afflisio)
Labels: Auto Bailout, Chevy Volt, GM Volt, Government Motors
Boyfriend, You Know When It's Over
Labels: 2012 Election, Barrack Obama, Dump that Boyfriend, Hope and Change
The "Big Tent" Party. Democrats Include ... Everyone?
Even the Daily show, a bastion of the Left is rethinking the Democrat Party Platform of "Inclusion".
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Posted by Juan Fermin at Friday, September 07, 2012 No comments:
Labels: Big Tent Party, Bigotry, Daily Show, Democrat Party, Hatred, Party of Inclusion
New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism - Washington Times
I don't think Obama is a REAL socialist, he's more of a Statist, kind of like how the Nazi's treated the economy. You have Government working very closely with big business, where profits are private, but losses become Public. Very similar to Bush's "Too Big to Fail" policy with the banks.
In a way, it's almost a "Reverse Robinhood". Robinhood stole from the wealthy tax collectors, who had "stolen" their wealth from the poor. Robinhood gave that money BACK to the poor, and while Obama talks about taking money from the wealthy and giving it to the poor, instead he's given his biggest campaign contributors such as the CEO of Solyndra, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
In a way, I think it's an insult to "true" socialists and "true" communist to call Obama a Socialist, because indeed he is not.
How the U.S. Tax Code is destroying Manufacturing
Another Abandoned Factory Building in America
We have a Crisis here in America, and while it's something that many are talking about, the solutions that are being proposed will not help and will only exacerbate the situation and make it much, much worse.
Manufacturing in the U.S. is in STEEP decline, but not for the reasons we've been told. The truth is that most politicians don't want to talk about the real reason, mostly because of how our media here in the U.S. will handle this kind of coverage.
According to The American Prospect, between 2001 through the end of 2009, American Manufacturing has lost over 42,400 factories. YES that's not a typo, Factories not jobs. Each of these factories employed an average of around 400 employees! While there are no good statistics between 2009 to current, a trip through places like Ohio and Michigan will tell you that the situation has only deteriorated.
Almost every article that you read on this issue will tell you that the reason manufacturers are leaving the U.S. is because labor costs are cheaper in China. While this may be true for low cost, low tech products, the truth is that U.S. manufacturers enjoy a MASSIVE edge in efficiency that translates to lower total manufacturing costs in the U.S. vs overseas counterparts. A look at the Steel industry confirms this. The Chinese use over 10X the man hours to produce a ton of steel vs. the U.S. and similar comparisons can be made everywhere. If the issue was simply labor costs being cheaper in China, you would see the Ship building industry in Norway decimated, since they have some of the highest cost of labor in the world. Same for the Japanese and the Germans. They are not what you would call "Low Cost Labor". Yet their Manufacturing sectors remain extremely robust.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines provides a fantastic reference point for this. They recently purchased 2 ships in Norway costing upwards of 1.5 Billion Dollars each. Think about this, the average U.S. Dock worker gets a total compensation of around $80K a year, including benefits. They are considered one of the most efficient in the world, requiring less man hours for production than almost any laborers in the world. Why then would the ship building company not have these ships built in the U.S., considering that in Norway similar workers cost a total of around $120K per employee in total compensation and in U.S. Dollars? It's very simple, it has to do with our expensive and extremely complicated Tax code. Norway actually has one of the highest individual tax rates in the world. Most middle class families pay between 40 to 60% of their income in taxes (Including SS). However, not wanting to kill the Golden Goose, Norway keeps Corporate taxes fairly low at an average of 28%. Additionally, capital expenditures and interest payments are fully tax deductible. What does this mean? Well, Let's say that there's a ship builder here in the State of NY. Between City, Local and Federal taxes, that ship builder will have to pay around 45% in taxes. Additionally, capital expenses must be depreciated over a 5 year period. This means that if the manufacturer has to upgrade their facilities every year in order to stay competitive, that company STILL must pay taxes on 80% of the money used in the capital expenditure. This is a HUGE competitive DISADVATAGE that our companies have to bear here in the U.S. Not only are we telling our companies that they have to pay taxes on improvements to their facilities, but additionally we're going to charge them more than just about any other country in the world.
Why Nothing Is Done
The reason why we don't see anyone doing anything with this is very simple. Instead of talking about the real reason why manufacturing is declining in the U.S. Politicians would rather paint enemies and talk about how this person or that company is "exporting" jobs. If anyone dares talk about reducing tax rates on Corporations, they are considered a "Shill" for the rich and the "Right Wing Extremist" and dismissed as idiots. If we can't, as Americans face reality and realize that we're giving away the store, by keeping manufacturing tax rates so high here in the U.S. We're going to continue losing more and more jobs to countries overseas that have much friendlier policies towards Corporations. For those of you who say that it's still more patriotic to keep the jobs here and not to be so "Greedy", I'm sorry but in the world of manufacturing simply does not cut it. When Sony or HTC or Samsung upgrades their product line every 6 months, the ONLY way that a U.S. company can stay competitive is to at least match the same upgrade schedule. If Japan, China or Korea allow these companies to fully deduct those capital expenditures, yet here in the U.S. we won't, then guess what. Zenith, Motorola and RCA end up having to shut down their U.S. Operations because they simply CANNOT compete.
A Plan like 9, 9, 9 would definitely go a long way towards fixing a lot of these issues, but with Cain out of the race, the truth is that his plan is a long shot for anyone to pick up. Not because it's a bad plan, but because most Politicans don't want to be seen as ripping off someone else's idea. Well, here's an idea that any politican can rip off from me and I won't say a word. The 10, 10, 10 Plan with no national sales tax:
10% Flat Corporate Tax Rate
10% Flat Personal Income Tax
10% Flat Import Tax
It has all the advantages of Cain's plan, without the disadvantage of the National Sales Tax, while giving our manufacturers a slight edge over imports, while at the same time eliminating the taxation barriers they previously had to overcome.
Posted by Juan Fermin at Sunday, July 01, 2012 3 comments:
Labels: Corporate Taxes, Decline of Manufacturing, Economic Recovery, Eliminate Taxes, Excessive Taxation, Manufacturing, Taxes
For 600,000 Germans - Green Energy Is Just Too Expensive
Hundreds of thousands of households in Germany can not pay their electricity bills anymore and are therefore suspended from the grid. The rising prices of the energy transition have exacerbated the situation and while some get their Electricity restored, after saving their pennies, on any given day about 600,000 Germans are living without electricity.
Just to give you a comparison of how high German rates are, consider this. At the end of this article it says that they're looking to keep rates at around 3.6 cents per KW. This translates to roughly 4.5 cents per KWh. Here in South Florida we pay 0.08527 per KWh for the 1st 1000KW, then it JUMPS to 0.105234 once you go over. Now, there's also an additional $5.90 Billing fee, but either way the German rates are at least FOUR TIMES what we're paying here in the U.S. Kind of like how Obama PROMISED that our Electricity rates would sky rocket under his policies. Let's all thank GOD he hasn't had a chance to implement most of those policies!
Many people in Germany can not pay their electricity bills. And energy prices continue to rise unabated. The President of the Association of Social VdK, Ulrike Mascher, accuses the federal government of not properly thinking through the social dimension of it's energy policy.
"For low income households, the rising electricity costs is more than they can handle," said the head of Germany's largest social group. The board of the Consumer Rhine-Westphalia, Klaus Mueller estimates: "Ten to 15 percent of the population struggling to finance the ever-rising energy costs."
Each year, hundreds of thousands of households are disconnected from the grid, because they can't afford it any longer, and while many get their power restored, many endure weeks and even months with no power.
Renewable Energy Leaves Many Poor Germans with No Power
Here are low-income earners and pensioners even more than the recipients of Government low cost heating programs. "Previously, energy poverty was a marginal phenomenon, but now it has become for many an everyday issue," said Mueller.
According to the survey of consumer protection at the utility is locked at around 600,000 households per year due to unpaid bills of electricity.Mainly due to the strong expansion of renewable energy sources, electricity prices had increased in 2011 by around ten percent.
400 energy suppliers have raised prices
According to a survey of the price comparison portal Verivox. The figures show that already some 400 utilities in the first half of 2012 their prices by an average of 3.5 percent, have raised or announced plans to do so. In the coming year is likely to be Verivox specification, inflation accelerated again. "For the foreseeable increase in network charges and the EEG surcharge, you can expect price increases of about 4.6 percent," said a spokesman Verivox.
According to the newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" from the federal policy would be if only the so-called EEG surcharge to subsidize the consumers with the supply of green electricity in the coming year once again clearly today 3.6 to up to 5.2 per cent kilowatt-hour increase.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) was announced but not in the past year, the cost burden on consumers by the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) should "not exceed permanently" 3.6 cents per kilowatt hour.
Künast makes the government responsible
The President of the Greens, Renate Künast gives the federal government to blame for the increase in energy poverty. "Black and Yellow has energy-intensive firms in the network charges a massive relief - this loss of revenue drives up costs for consumers and SMEs in the air," said Künast. "This social imbalances are consciously organized."
The FDP's top candidate for the upcoming state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Christian Lindner, accuses the CDU to belittle the problem of rising energy prices. This power remains affordable, it need new coal-and gas-fired power plants and a permanent monitoring of the impact of the Renewable Energy Act.
"If necessary, must be adjusted again here," says Lindner. "In fact, rising energy prices, the economy take the pliers because they increase the one hand, the production cost and limit the other hand, the massive purchasing power of consumers." This is a vicious circle.
I've tried to clean up the Google Translation, but didn't know where to go with it so I left some part of this article a bit murky. You can see the original German article here.
http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article106236425/Strom-ist-fuer-viele-Deutsche-unbezahlbar-geworden.html
Posted by Juan Fermin at Sunday, June 24, 2012 No comments:
Labels: Barrack Obama, Electricity Rates will Skyrocket, German Electricity, Green Energy, Green Energy Leaves Poor in the Dark, Green Poor, Obama, Obama Promises Higher Energy Cost
Greece: A Precursor For Things To Come?
I'm always looking for good stories and came across this one by Rich Hoffman. The accompanying video is a bit long... Sorry guys, not a 30 second sound bite, but well worth the view. Is this what we have to look forward to in America?
To those who wonder why I personally spend so much time writing about the evils of socialism and the general degradation of the human race the world over, I would like to direct your attention to the clip below. The video I have in mind is at the 4 minute mark, but the whole bit by Glenn Beck on his GBTV show sums up quite wonderfully what drives me.
I remember very well when Beck over a year ago on his Fox Television show predicted much of what is now going on in Greece and Egypt. Many in the industry wanted his head for his wild speculations about socialists and Nazis in Europe working their way into American politics. The clip above shows just how real the situation is.
It is not my fault that most people cannot add up the facts of what they see. Even worse, many people have a hard time even seeing the facts for their true worth. Glenn Beck obviously does not have this handicap which is a relief. I have never had it, and have spent much of my life spotting problems well before anyone else even thought there was a problem. Make no mistake, communism is here in America. It's in our businesses, our schools, and our government. Socialism was brought to America by naive politicians after World War II as presidents like FDR experimented with socialism and over a long period of time people gradually accepted it. But the end game is what we can see in that video. That is what tomorrow brings if it is not stopped right now. It is to avoid that future shown in the above video that I put forth so much effort, because understanding it now will alleviate a lot of violence later. There is no denying that the world is fracturing even though most people chose not to see it. For those who do refuse, or are so tainted by ignorance that they cannot see, send this story to them so they can learn, and understand what the cost of compliance is. Refusing to act when decisions are required is the same as taking aggressive action in favor of turmoil when surrendering decisions lead to the perpetuation of tyranny among free people.
Posted by Juan Fermin at Saturday, June 23, 2012 No comments:
Labels: Greece, Hate, NeoNazi's, Violence
Obama nearly loses to an inmate?
No, this is NOT a joke. The President was on the Ballot in West Virginia for the DEMOCRAT Ticket, and an INMATE was able to garner 40% of the vote! An INMATE.
I just have to repeat this part, because this is the most shocking part about this. There were no Republicans involved in this. This was the DEMOCRAT ticket. It just goes to show you how badly things must be in West Virginia, with the President's war on Coal, for the people over there to nearly choose an incarcerated inmate over the POTUS.
Obama nearly loses to Inmate #11593-051
Posted by Juan Fermin at Thursday, May 10, 2012 No comments:
Labels: Barrack Obama, Elections, Keith Judd, Presidential Election, Votes
Top 10 Most Polluted ... Socialist Bodies of Water
Environmentalist love to talk about how the Western World, and particularly the United States is causing such mass destruction of the planet, yet when one looks around the world what we find is that everywhere you see Socialism, you see an environment under assault. If anything the Free Market ideals that have made the U.S.A. the most advanced and prosperous country in the world, also makes it one of the cleanest. Why? Our political system wouldn't allow for someone who allows the destruction of their ecosystem to stay in power, as they so easily do in Socialist countries.
Let's just take a look at the top 10 most polluted bodies of water in the world, and every time, it's Socialism that has allowed the destruction of that body of water.
#1. Lake Karachay.
The most polluted place on earth - Russia
Lake Karachay in Russia looks FANTASTIC from this photo, yet it's the most polluted place on earth. While Russia is no longer part of the U.S.S.R, truth is that the United Soviet Socialist Republic not only gave us Chernobyl, they also gave us many, many, many of the most polluted places in the world, this Lake at the top of them. The Soviet Union used this lake as a dumping spot for all of the nuclear waste from their largest nuclear production facilities called Mayak.
In 1968, following a drought in the region, the wind carried radioactive dust away from the dried area of the lake, irradiating half a million people. Love that socialist Utopia!
#2. Matanza-Riachuelo River
Translates into "Slaughter Creek"
Socialism for foes and Capitalism for Friends is practically the National Anthem in Argentina. The victim here is Matanza-Riachuelo River in Buenos Aires. Pictured here on the left, the "flows" of garbage is just one example of the type of "water" that feeds into this disgusting river. 3.5 million people live in its contaminated basin. Something like this would NEVER be allowed to stand in the U.S. What's worse is that according to Argentine newspaper, Página/12, $250,000,000 was set aside for a cleanup project in 1993, but only $1,000,000 was actually used to improve the conditions of the water. The rest was "misappropriated." In other words, STOLEN by the Socialist Scumbags that run the country. While every country has it's share of cronyism, backstabbing, skimming and outright bribery, only the corruption of a socialist lets you have 99.6% of the money for a project easily stolen by the Political Elites and have them simply get away with it. Were are the rapid Corporate Raiders demanding "Social Justice" from those who stole this money and left this slimy mess they call a River?
#3. Citarum River
West Java, Indonesia
While Indonesia is no longer considered a Socialist Republic since the old rulers literally drove the country off a cliff and destroying their currency, direct elections were only recently held for the first time in 2004, so they haven't yet had time to deal with all the corruption the Socialist legacy has left them with. Let's face it, rapid population growth over the last 20 years is no excuse for letting the Citarum River get into the shape that it's in, which threatens the health of everyone who comes in contact with the waters of the River.
#4. Buriganga River
If you were to look at an article by "Socialism Today", you would think that the reason there is such poverty in The People's Republic of Bangladesh is because of a failed "Capitalist Experiment". Yet in their own article they speak of how when they won independence, the first thing they did was to nationalize most major industries. Does that sound Capitalist to you?
The picture on the left shows you the yet another way that Nationalization and Socialism have taken yet another country down the road of destruction. Not only financially, but environmentally.
All they can do is talk about excuses, there are never any results where they can point to a socialist system and say, "See those people over there, they are living better because of Socialism".
#5. Ganges River
Allahabad, India
India, a constitutional Socialist Republic, where the practice of taking from the poor and giving to the rich is practically legendary. Slums that have been in place for decades are torn down and the lands given to the rich to redevelop. While some of the former slum tenants are given free apartments in the new developments, many others are turned away to look for residence in other slums. The vast majority of the lands are owned by the Government and generally the only real beneficiaries, just as in any other Socialist State are those who are well connected.
For the next 5 most polluted bodies of water, we have to go to China, the worlds biggest Socialist country, then back to India, then back to China, then to Israel. What? Oh, I'm sorry, did you think Israel was a western style Capitalistic country? Practically the entire country is on the Dole! No, the Labor Party over there is firmly in control, even if they're not in control of the Government. Kind of like here in the U.S. Even if we have some leaders on the right, the Establishment that makes all the REAL policies is ALWAYS on the left.
Finally there's the Mississippi River in the U.S.A. WHAT?!? We're talking Socialism here? YES, it's true. The Socialist Policies of the U.S. when it comes to subsidizing Corn and Ethanol is what gave rise to the MASSIVE level of pollution in the Mississippi, and especially the dreaded "Dead Zones" in the Gulf. Ending these Socialist policies would go a LONG way towards cleaning up this mess. Remember it's not Capitalism that brought you these messes, it's Socialism. So the next time some Enviro-Wacko tells you that we need to end Capitalism to save the planet, you remind of of Chernobyl.
#6. Yellow River – Lanzhou, China
#7. Yamuna River – New Delhi, India
#8. Chaohu Lake – Anhui Province, China
Jordan River – Israel
#10. Mississippi River, United States of America
Posted by Juan Fermin at Sunday, April 22, 2012 4 comments:
Labels: 48 Liberal Lies, Big Government, Environmental Disaster, NoSocialism, Socialism
Big Business Using Big Government to Bulldoze The Little Guy Out
California Truckers are taking the EPA to court over new trucking regulations. Let's see if Occupy Wall Street picks up on this one. As is typical of big business coziness with Federal Regulators to winnow the field for them, the ATA is fully on board, since most of their dues are paid for by the big national operators who have the most to gain from these rules. These new rules will be devastating to most smaller operators, since they will be forced to upgrade their fleets. Many of these smaller operators already reeling from higher fuel costs that have been difficult to pass on in this tough economy.
The EPA claims that they're trying to get the trucking industry to lower their "Carbon Footprint", even though this whole Global Warming fiasco has been shown to be little more than a MASSIVE Hoax, created to line the pockets of the very people pushing the agenda.
As the Government continues to push an agenda that benefits big business while hurting small business, it's no wonder that there are so few businesses willing to invest in this economy. It seems more and more clear as the days go on, that unless you're somehow "connected", you Goose is cooked and others are ready and waiting to eat your lunch.
Until we the people choose to roll back the size and scope of this Government, we will see more and more examples of our businesses, our neighborhoods and our homes being sacrificed to the alter of the "Connected Partners" in Government. Those who are "in" will always have the advantage over us, and nothing will change. Always vote for the smallest government guy you can find when choosing elected officials and let's get rid of all these guys who think they can micromanage our lives and our businesses. I'm an adult, I don't need "Big Brother" looking out for me.
Posted by NoSocialism.com at Friday, January 06, 2012 No comments:
Labels: Big Government, Regulations, Trucking
How to "Fix" the Real Estate Market
It's simple, you tax an activity that you want LESS, and then you'll get more of that activity. It's one of the reasons people delay marriage these days, you get more government goodies by staying single, especially single mothers... But that's a discussion for another time.
Let's take a look at the past, since there are many lessons to be learned. When Reagan became President, the Economy was in a full blown tail spin. We had record unemployment, record inflation, housing was practically worthless and the morale of the U.S. was an an all time low. One of the effects of the Recovery Act of 1981 was not only to lower the top marginal rates from 75% to 50%, but it also created a MAJOR loophole to where income derived from Real Estate Investments were not taxable as long as the profits were reinvested in Real Estate.
The problem wasn't that it didn't work, the Reagan Revolution created over 2 MILLION Jobs a Year! Compare that to these days' anemic job numbers, such as last August where there was effectively Zero job growth for the entire month and at best we've seen no more than 100,000 jobs created per month (with a THIRD higher level of population!). The real problem was that there was so much jealousy created towards the few people who didn't pay taxes that they destroyed the whole system, along with an entire banking sector, just to make sure that a small minority of people were paying their "Fair Share" of taxes, instead of putting that money into the evil pockets of their employees, construction workers, delivery men, bankers, the Furniture guys and anyone else who profited from the massive construction boom under way. The 1981 Tax Act was responsible for DOUBLING Federal Revenues by the end of Reagan's term, yet was considered a failure because a few people didn't pay taxes. Incredible.
The same is happening today, where even Obama famously said in response to a question on Capital Gains taxes, that even if the economy was negatively affected by higher taxes he would still increase those taxes because it was the FAIR thing to do.
If we can put these types of idiotic reasoning's behind us and pass a tax reform act that makes investments in Real Estate and Manufacturing a tax free enterprise, we would put MILLIONS of people back to work. Let's face it, manufacturing and real estate is where the real money is. Both of these industries are dying anyway and so you can't sit there and say that we would "Miss Out" on taxing these guys, because the truth is that the government would be better off collecting taxes from all the employees, than giving them unemployment benefits as they're doing now. Let's take the handcuffs off, forget about the fact that YES, there will be some people that won't be paying taxes, but who cares, those same people will be putting their capital to good use and employing millions. To me getting more people OUT of unemployment is the FAIR thing to do. So let's DO it!
Posted by NoSocialism.com at Thursday, January 05, 2012 No comments:
Labels: Economic Growth, Fix Mortgages, Fix Real Estate, Fix the Economy
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