Trump And Pence Buy 800 Jobs With Taxpayer Money

The Republicans and trumpistas are celebrating what they claim is a big victory for the incoming Trump administration. They are claiming that Trump and Pence have saved over 1,000 jobs from be ing shipped to Mexico by Carrier (a division of United Technologies).

Trump had used Carrier's decision to ship a couple of thousand jobs to Mexico as a campaign theme. He promised that wouldn't happen if he was elected. Did he keep his promise? Not really.

First, only 800 jobs were actually kept in this country thanks to the Trump/Pence "deal" with Carrier. The other 300 jobs they are claiming to have saved were research and headquarters position -- which the company was never going to export.

Second, Carrier didn't keep those 800 jobs in Indiana out of the goodness of its corporate heart, or because Trump asked them to do it. They are receiving a very nice payoff -- they get $7 million dollars in tax cuts over the next 10 years -- about $8,750 in tax breaks for every job. That's not a "deal" -- it's a bribe (which I guess we should have expected, since Trump is used to paying bribes to get what he wants around the world).

In addition, Carrier's parent company (United Technologies) gets assurance that Trump won't interfere with their $5 billion in federal contracts.

This is not just a bad deal -- it's a terrible deal. And it sends a signal to every other American corporation. If you still owe any taxes after all the loopholes and subsidies you normally receive, then just threaten to move jobs to a low-wage country. The Trump administration will be happy to give you more millions in tax breaks. It makes millions more jobs a hostage to corporate greed.

And who gets to pay for those corporate tax breaks? State and federal taxpayers do. This may be a good deal to Trump, but it's a horrible deal for American taxpayers.

Third, Carrier (United Technologies) still gets to ship 600 jobs to Mexico from Indianapolis, and another 700 from Huntington, Indiana. So, after Trump's "great deal", 1300 jobs will still be lost to Mexico.

Is that your idea of a great deal?

(NOTE -- The image above is from YouTube.)

Corporate Greed Kills

Thousands of people all over the developing world are dying to fatten the obscene profits of the giant corporations. Many of these deaths could be prevented. The corporations were asked to set up an independent organization to inspect the plants making products to import back into this country -- but they rejected that, whining that they just couldn't afford it (in spite of the fact that they pay these foreign workers abusively low-wages). The fact is that corporations do not care about human lives -- only the bottom line on their profit sheets.

The Truth

Corporations have been lying to Americans. They aren't outsourcing American jobs because the skills in other countries are better than here. They are doing it because the governments of those other countries will let them abuse those workers and pay them less than a livable wage. Instead of paying an American worker a decent wage with benefits, they can pay a foreigner next to nothing and put the difference in their pocket. It's called greed. And it will keep on happening as long as Republicans can block legislation to stop it. Democrats have tried to stop the tax breaks for corporations who outsource, but as long as the public is so dumb as to keep electing the corporate-controlled Republicans the outsourcing will continue (and the middle class will continue to shrink as their jobs go overseas).

AIG To Send Texas Jobs To The Philippines

Republicans have a very funny idea of "job creation". Consider the following. Here in one of the reddest areas (Amarillo) of one of the reddest states (Texas), our Republican leaders decided the city needed some job creation. In order to encourage that job creation, they gave AIG corporation a huge grant back in 2009 of $1.25 million and another grant last year of $530,000 -- all paid for with taxpayer money (a 1/2 cent "economic development" sales tax).

After receiving the 2009 grant, AIG (actually a subsidiary named Western National Life) moved 125 jobs from Houston to Amarillo. Last year's grant resulted in the same company moving 53 jobs from California to Amarillo. Now this doesn't sound like real "job creation" to me -- but just the shuffling of jobs from one American city to another American city to take advantage of free tax money given to the company by Republican officials. No new American jobs were actually created.

Now AIG is going to repay the generosity of Amarillo taxpayers, and American taxpayers (remember the billions of dollars the federal government gave AIG to keep them from going bankrupt a few years ago?) by shipping all the data processing jobs in Amarillo to the Philippines (where they can pay a much lower wage). They have assured the city that no jobs will be lost, since the current employees will be transferred to other jobs in the company. If you believe that, I have some ocean-front property here in Amarillo I'll sell you real cheap. Those jobs will be gone, either through attrition or layoffs, in the next year or two (because they are simply not necessary to the company's operation).

Personally, this doesn't sound like a very good deal for the taxpayers to me. After receiving billions of dollars from the federal government (under a Republican administration) and millions from the local government (and probably more from the state), AIG shuffles a few jobs from one place in America to another, and then outsources jobs to a foreign country. Does this sound like a good use of taxpayer funds to you?

Now the Republicans would like to reward this "job creation" by giving AIG and other corporations a huge new tax cut (and many Republicans don't want corporations to pay any taxes at all). As I said, the Republicans have a funny idea of what "job creation" is, and it's an idea this country can't afford. Taxpayers should not be subsidizing either the shuffling of jobs or the outsourcing of jobs.

Is It Fair To Criticize Romney For the Economic Crimes Of Bain Capital ?

Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) has been stung recently by all the revelations of the policies of Bain Capital (sending American jobs to other countries, putting companies out of business after sucking them dry of money, laying off thousands of workers, etc.). He first tried to say those things happened after he left Bain Capital, but recent revelations showed he had stayed in charge of the company for three years after he had claimed to have left -- making him responsible for all of the economic crimes committed by that company. Now he wants an apology from the president for pointing out the truth about Bain Capital and Romney.

That apology is not going to happen. And it's because it was the Romney campaign itself that chose to run on his record at Bain Capital. They had a choice -- run on his record as Massachusetts governor, or run on his record as the head of Bain Capital. They didn't want to run on his gubernatorial record, because the only accomplishment he had was instituting health care reform in that state (Romneycare) -- and his right-wing base is still angry about that. So they decided to run on his acumen as a businessman.

That was fine with the Republican establishment. They have long said the best training for a president was a successful business career. It's just a myth, of course. Running a corporation is nothing like running a government (and Romney's failure as governor should have illustrated that to anyone paying attention). Another example would be Herbert Hoover -- who was a very successful businessman and a terrible president.

Is it fair to criticize Romney for the economic crimes of Bain Capital? Absolutely. He chose to run on his business record. Now it's fair for anyone to point out just how bad that record has been for his fellow Americans.

U.S. Olympians Wearing Chinese Uniforms

The Uniforms pictured on the left are what the United States Olympic athletes will be wearing when they enter the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremonies in London this year. They were designed by Ralph Lauren. The men's uniform costs $1,945 each, and the women's uniform costs $1,473 each.

There are 530 members of the U.S. Olympic Team, meaning over $700,000 was spent for the uniforms. And that doesn't count the uniforms for the Paralympic Team, or the uniforms for the closing ceremonies for both teams (also done by Ralph Lauren).

Now one would think that with the huge amount of money being spent to clothe our athletes, the clothes could have been made in the United States by proud and talented American workers -- but that didn't happen. The uniforms were made in Chinese sweat shops (by workers who not only don't care about our athletes, but don't even make close to our minimum wage for their work).

Frankly, I am aghast at the thought that, in the middle of our current unemployment crises, the designer outsourced this job to China. The USOC tried to defend the designer saying, "Unlike most Olympic teams around the world, the U.S. Olympic Team is privately funded and we're grateful for the support of our sponsors. We're proud of our partnership with Ralph Lauren, an iconic American company, and excited to watch America's finest athletes compete at the opening Games in London."

Hogwash! A true "partner" would have dressed our athletes in American-made clothes. The truth is they are using our athletes to make money (there's a website up to sell Ralph Lauren Olympic clothing to the general public -- which I will not link to), and they are using underpaid Chinese workers to squeeze every penny out of the sales that they can.

Ralph Lauren did do something that many Americans didn't think was possible though. He brought the leaders of both political parties together to agree on something -- that having these uniforms made in China is outrageous.

The Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, said simply, "You'd think they'd know better." The Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, was a little wordier saying, "I am so upset. I think the Olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. I think they should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again."

I agree. I would rather our team enter the stadium wearing some cheap sweat suits made in the United States than wearing these Chinese-made clothes. Personally, I don't think they look all that great anyway -- especially the silly berets.

Romney Made Millions Outsourcing Jobs

Republican presidential nominee-to-be Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) would like for people to believe he is a "job creator". He and his campaign don't say much about the time he spent as governor of Massachusetts, because during his term that state sank to 47th among all states in new job creation. Instead, he has bragged about the time he spent as head of Bain Capital.

He first bragged that Bain Capital had been responsible for creating 100,000 new jobs. That was a ridiculous assertion and easily disproved -- and the campaign soon backed off that figure, saying "thousands" of jobs were created. That also seemed rather suspect, since it was learned that time after time Bain Capital had taken over companies, sucked them dry of money, laid off all the workers, and let them go bankrupt.

But we may have been wrong about Romney and job creation. According to a recent Washington Post article, there is evidence that Bain Capital did create thousands of jobs. The problem is that those jobs were not in the United States, but in foreign countries. It seems that Bain Capital was a big help in getting American companies to lay off American workers and send their jobs to other countries. Here is some of that article:

Mitt Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.

During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. . .

A Washington Post examination of securities filings shows the extent of Bain’s investment in firms that specialized in helping other companies move or expand operations overseas. While Bain was not the largest player in the outsourcing field, the private equity firm was involved early on, at a time when the departure of jobs from the United States was beginning to accelerate and new companies were emerging as handmaidens to this outflow of employment.

Bain played several roles in helping these outsourcing companies, such as investing venture capital so they could grow and providing management and strategic business advice as they navigated this rapidly developing field. . .

Romney campaign officials repeatedly declined requests to comment on Bain’s record of investing in outsourcing firms during the Romney era. Campaign officials have said it is unfair to criticize Romney for investments made by Bain after he left the firm but did not address those made on his watch.

The truth is that Romney's Bain Capital was interested in only one thing -- making millions of dollars. And they didn't care if they did it by bankrupting American companies (costing workers many thousands of jobs) or by outsourcing the work of companies (costing workers many more jobs).

Romney has said in his campaign that he will create new jobs and stop the outsourcing of jobs. But his record, both as governor and head of Bain Capital, shows something very different. This is just another "flip" on an issue -- which he will promptly "flop" on if elected.

Does This Make Sense ?

Republican politicians are still howling about undocumented immigrants, even though their flow into this country has virtually stopped because of the recession (caused by Republicans). But they are strangely silent about the outsourcing of good American jobs by the giant corporations (who are still creating many more jobs overseas than in the United States). In fact, the Republicans would like to reward these same corporations with new and massive tax cuts. Does that make sense to you? (Graphic was found at the blog of Yellowdog Granny.)

Corporations Are Hiring - Just Not Here

The picture above may be funny to many of you, but I don't mean for it to be. The fact is that it's far too close to the truth to be funny. Unemployment is still over 8% in this country and the millions of jobs that disappeared in the Bush recession have still not been replaced. The Republicans, who have blocked repeated efforts by the Democrats to pass a job creation program of any kind, tell us that the only way to create jobs is to cut taxes for the giant corporations (and some of them would like to cut those taxes to zero).

This position by the GOP has seemed ridiculous to many of us who are paying attention the economy. The giant American corporations are making record-breaking profits, paying a smaller tax rate than most middle class workers, and currently sitting on record amounts of cash. If the Republicans are right, then where are the new jobs. Why haven't these corporations been creating new jobs with all that new wealth?

We now have the answer to that question. They have been creating jobs. It's just that the jobs they've been creating are not in this country. In fact, about 75% of all the jobs created by the large American companies have been in foreign countries. While they are only creating a pitifully small number of jobs in the United States, these corporations are outsourcing like madmen.

And these are the corporations the Republicans don't think should have to pay taxes. Frankly, I'm fed up with it. If these corporations can't create any jobs in America, then the least they could do is pay their fair share of taxes (without subsidies or other tax breaks, and without hiding profits in other countries to avoid paying taxes on them).

It's time to stop the outsourcing. If companies want to shift jobs to other countries, they should be severely punished. Any tax breaks offered should only be to companies that bring jobs back to this country. And that's not class warfare -- just common sense.

A U.S. Government Loan To Create Foreign Jobs

There are some people who claim they don't understand why the Occupy Wall Street movement has become so popular with the public. After all they say, don't corporations have the right to make money. Perhaps the following story will give them a clue.

The car shown above is an electric car being built by a company called Fisker Automotive. A couple of years ago this company needed money to proceed with designing and building their electric car, but they couldn't find the financing. So they went to the American government. The United States government guaranteed a $529 million loan, and praised the company as being an example of a new company creating new jobs.

So what happened? Well, the company has hired 500 workers and they are currently hard at work building the new electric car. The only problem is that those 500 new jobs are in Finland. That's right, the corporation took the money and went to Finland to build their car -- which I'm sure they would be happy to sell to Americans (if any Americans could afford it since it costs about $97,000).

Now this wasn't money that the government pulled out of thin air. It was the hard-earned money of American taxpayers, and those taxpayers certainly didn't want to spend over $500 million to create new jobs in Finland. If this corporate mogul wanted to build cars in Finland, he should have asked the Finnish government to loan him the money -- except the Finnish government spends the bulk of its money on the Finnish people, not corporate giveaways.

It would be bad enough if this was a one-time deal, a rare occurrence -- but it isn't. This kind of corporate greed happens every day in this country. All kinds of corporations get tax breaks, loans, bailouts, and subsidies. Then they either put that money into executive bonuses or they create jobs in other countries (usually countries where they can underpay and abuse the workers). The one thing they don't do with that money is create jobs in America. And those corporations don't even need the giveaways, since they are already making record profits.

And to pay for those giveaways to the giant corporations, the government slashes social programs which are needed to help hurting Americans (and are even talking about abolishing or severely cutting Medicare and Social Security). The government, which is supposed to protect and defend the American people, has become little more than a conduit for funneling money to the corporations and the super-rich. And the politicians, especially the Republicans and Blue Dogs, just don't seem to care. They get too much money from the rich and the corporations for their campaign chests to bother with caring about ordinary Americans.

This has gone on for too long, and the people are angry. They want change and an economic system that is fairer to all Americans. They want the government to spend its money wisely helping people who need it -- not corporations who don't need it or appreciate it. That's why Occupy Wall Street has struck a chord with people all over this country -- and that's why it will continue to grow.

Outsourcing Of American Jobs Must Be Stopped

Have you ever called the customer service department of an American company and found yourself talking to a person who barely speaks English and clearly is speaking to you from a foreign country? This irritates me to no end. If I call an American company about a product or service I have purchased from them, I expect to be able to talk to an American who can help me -- not someone from the Philippines, India, South Africa, Indonesia or some other foreign country.

The reason that this happens (and it happens a lot) is because of American companies outsourcing American jobs. They have realized they can save money by sending those jobs to another country where they can pay wages that amount to only a fraction of what they would have to pay in this country.

That may make sense to the capitalists who care nothing about giving back to the country that made them great, but the continuing job drain is depressing wages and hurting American workers -- so the owners make huge profits while workers either lose their jobs or must work for inadequate wages.

During the 2008 campaign, President Obama and the Democrats promised to take steps to stop the outsourcing of American jobs. So far, nothing has been done. Hopefully, that is about to change. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is introducing a bill that would be a good first step in identifying and stopping some of this outsourcing.

Sen. Schumer's bill would do a couple of things. First, a customer service call could not be routed to a foreign country until the customer calling was first notified that the call was being rerouted out of this country. In addition, the company must pay a 25 cent tax for every call rerouted to a foreign country (and could not pass this charge on to the customer making the call). With the millions of customer service calls made each year, this tax could quickly take the profit out of the outsourcing.

This is a good bill, and I hope is it passed by the Congress and signed by the president. But it is not enough. We also need to do something about the many companies who have moved the production of their products to a third world country so they can abuse those workers by paying an extremely low wage (while taking jobs away from American workers).

When they try to import those foreign-made goods back into this country, they should have to pay an import tax -- a tax sufficiently high enough to make the cost of those goods the same (or higher) than they would be if made by American workers. When the cost of outsourcing no longer has any financial advantage, the outsourcing will stop.

This outsourcing has been going on for years now and has hurt American workers. It needed to be stopped anyway, but with the current recession this country is experiencing it is even more important that something be done to stop it.

Outsourcing Hurts Workers In Two Countries

In the last few years, American corporations have laid off millions of American workers and sent their jobs to lower-paid workers in foreign countries. The corporations can make even larger profits by selling their products in this country, but shipping their jobs to other countries.

It goes without saying that this is harmful to workers in America. Now we learn that it may also be harmful to the foreign workers also.

More than 1.6 million of these jobs have been sent to India. Most of the jobs, such as in call centers, are filled by young people in their 20's and 30's. They make a little more than many others in India, but they are beginning to experience health problems related to the work.

According to many Indian doctors (and several industry surveys), these young people are facing sleep disorders, strokes and diabetes, depression and family discord. These already cost the Indian economy $9 billion, but it is believed the outsourcing jobs could push this to over $200 billion in ten years.

It's time to put a stop to outsourcing. It's not good for anyone but the corporate billionaires.

American Company To Bring Jobs Back Home

For far too long, many American companies have been shipping American jobs out of the country to take advantage of cheaper foreign labor. This has been devastating to the job market in the United States. Now, an American company is trying to reverse that trend.

San Antonio-based ATandT says it is bringing 175 call-center jobs back to this country. The jobs will be based in their Arkansas headquarters in Little Rock. The move is part of the company's plan to bring back at least 5,000 jobs -- all of them to be union jobs.

Company president Ed Drilling said, "These jobs are currently outsourced to other companies and a lot of the work is actually done overseas. We're bringing these jobs as part of an ongoing commitment back into the country."

Of course, 5,000 jobs being returned is just a drop in the bucket up beside all the jobs still being outsourced by other American companies. But at least it's a step in the right direction. Now, other companies must be convinced to do the same.

These companies must realize that if they wish to be based in the U.S., sell to American citizens, and enjoy the fruits of this country, then they have a responsibility to the American community. They cannot keep sucking dollars from American consumers while shipping American jobs overseas.