hfojvt
hfojvt's JournalDave Spence has a jobs plan
or so he says on TV. So I thought I would check it out. What is this jobs plan?
http://www.spenceforgovernor.com/jobs-plan/
Well, one big part of his plan seems to be
1. Hiring or appointing a bunch of Chamber of Commerce type people - to come up with a plan.
"He will also address a major shortcoming by recruiting a team of top Missouri executives and managers (people with no financial interest in state business) to evaluate the Department of Economic Development and make recommendations for better management practices and restructuring."
I guess you could call that a plan, of sorts. Kind of like a pig-in-a-poke plan. vote for Spence and he will create a commission of fat cats who six months later will tell you what you voted for.
But you already know what you will be voting for - a Government of the Fat Cats, by the Fat Cats, and for the Fat Cats.
2. Asking small business owners what should be part of the plan
"Spence is committed to personally calling small business owners and executives to identify their problems and find solutions."
So, here, once again, there is no plan. Only a plan to come up with a plan. By asking small business owners (and executives). I sorta wonder how "small" a business is which has an executive. Spence mentions that there are 133,215 business in Missouri, 94% having fewer than 50 employees. Suppose he calls all of them and spends two minutes talking to them. A mere two minutes with 124,282 business owners would be 248,546 minutes or 4,142 hours, or 518 work days (with no breaks).
So obviously, he cannot personally talk to ALL of them. So which ones will he talk to? This is just a guess, but I would say - the biggest ones, the richest ones will probably get the lion's share of his time, which is only smaller than the Rotarian's share of his time (rim shot). The Fat Cats.
3. In order to create jobs, Spence wants to make sure the Fat Cats retain power - even if they lose the elections. He proposes making it a law that only a super-majority can increase taxes on the Fat Cats.
"making it more difficult to ever raise your taxes. Spence will work to require at least two-thirds support from the legislature to put any tax measure on the ballot."
In other words, even if "we the people" win 65% of the elections, that will not be enough to out-vote the Fat Cats, because you need 67% in order to raise taxes on them. So if they pass a piece of crap like Brownback just did in Kansas - to cut taxes for the rich and raise them on the poor, it would take a 2/3 majority to undo that.
4. Like Brownback, Spence has a plan to make taxes "fairer" and to create jobs. Which is how Brownback described his own monstrously evil plan. And like Brownback, Spence apparently has no intention of telling you what it is - until AFTER you have voted. Again, his plan is to "come up with a plan"
"Upon election, he will immediately appoint an independent panel of experts to look at our outdated tax system and make recommendations for reforms ..."
Yeah, sure, an independent panel of experts. Right. Care to name that panel now? Is there any chance at all that Spence considers Arthur Laffer to be an "independent expert" just like Brownback, who paid Laffer $75,000 of Kansas taxpayer money to come up with a monstrously evil plan to increase taxes on the poor and cut them massively for the rich. Any chance of that? Or would we just get random "experts" from Heritage, Cato and Americans for the Prosperous?
So, there seems to be Spence's jobs plan - to hire some Fat Cats to come up with a plan to benefit Fat Cats.
Although, to be fair, Spence does specify some things before the election, like this step which is sure to create thousands of jobs (maybe in Fantasy Land)
"Some of his ideas include: mandating drug tests for unemployment recipients and revoking benefits for those who fail..."
He files that under "using common sense". Common sense might realize that in order to GET most jobs, a person must pass a drug test. And some employers, like the Water Department, where I am on the board, will test their employees at random, about every other year. Yet Spence seems to feel that many people, having lost their job, had their income cut by 2/3 or so, will rush right out with their (extra?) money and buy some drugs.
This is common sense?
Doesn't look like it to me. What does make sense - don't vote for Spence.
The Republican recession vs. the Democratic recovery (updated)
Republicans continue to push the message that "the stimulus failed". I, being the economist that I am, continue to claim that it worked. That our current weak economy is not because the stimulus didn't work, but because we never got another round of stimulus. If you are driving up a steep hill, hit the gas and get halfway up the hill. You don't take your foot off the gas and say "well, apparently hitting the gas didn't work, we are still only partway up this hill". No a sensible person would GIVE THE CAR MORE GAS.
But if the Repiblican-controlled Congress did that, then they would not have a bad economy that they could blame on Obama, and Democrats, from now until November.
As I said last time http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002129028 , some probably will not like the word "recovery" but I would say that even with the last three months of slow job growth, that positive job growth is still positive. So here, are the updated numbers of job gains (or losses) by quarters.
First the Republican recession - a very severe one
2008
1st (93,000)
2nd (573,000)
3rd (1,002,000)
4th (1,895,000)
total (with Bush as President) (3,563,000)
2009
1st (2,258,000) note - Obama was sworn in as President and the stimulus passed in the middle of this quarter
2nd (1,433,000)
total (in Obama's first five months in office (3,691,000)
Then the Democratic recovery (starting by slowing the freefall)
3rd (780,000)
4th (310,000)
total of the last half year (1,090,000)
That the economy was no longer losing 1,000,000+ jobs every quarter is a very positive thing. The economy was in free fall and the stimulus was like a parachute. When you open a parachute, you keep falling, but at a much slower rate so that the landing does not kill you.
2010
1st +118,000
2nd +543,000
3rd (137,000)
4th +385,000
total 2010 + 909,000
2011
1st + 497,000
2nd + 290,000
3rd + 441,000
4th + 412,000
total 2011 + 1,640,000
2012
1st +677,000
2nd +225,000
Amazing though, almost a million jobs created so far this year, and to hear the media tell it, we are doomed, oh, the economy is so horrible. They even put this little nugget in their story, a story where they paint a gain of 80,000 jobs as a negative. "And the scheduled expiration of tax cuts at year's end has increased uncertainty for U.S. companies, making many hesitant to hire."
Oh no, the "uncertainty" of the end of the Bush tax cuts on INDIVIDUALS is making COMPANIES hesitant to hire.
What that really means is that the top 1% is sorta holding the economy hostage. They won't hire unless they are assured of billions in tax cuts. And the media (which coincidentally they happen to own) is helping them to make their case.
Another point I would make is that the Government, thanks to Republican philosophies, has CUT 49,000 jobs in the last three months. If they had instead just done nothing, the economy would have gained 274,000 jobs (at least, since those extra 49,000 working people would have spent their money, further stimulating the economy). The economy runs on consumer spending and consumers are spending less. Why? I would point to at least a couple of reasons. First, political doom and gloom rhetoric does not increase confidence. Second, Republicans continue to push for cuts in Government jobs which further reduces both confidence and consumer spending. If not for the cutbacks in government spending that Republicans have been demanding, the economy would have added another 187,000 jobs over the last year (on top of the 1.76 million that it added, almost 200,000 more would have put us over 2 million as well as further stimulating consumer spending).
As these Republican candidates run around promoting a return to Reagan/Bush policies as a cure for what ails the economy, they should constantly be reminded of 2008, that the economy went down on Bush's watch. That it was Bush's leadership and Republican pokicies that created the mess we are still digging out of.
"rich people are not Democrats"
Sure like I said that.
And as for Balloon-Juice, I said 2006 or 2007 because Cole himself wrote this "Again, as a former wingnut and lifelong Republican until 2006 or 2007, I am fucking begging- treat a win like a win and use it to your advantage."
Now, as for rich people. I did not say anything about destroying capitalism. What I am talking about is Democracy, where our government is a government "of the people, by the people and for the people." Except when conservative policies win, whether they are promoted and passed by Republicans or DLC Democrats our government becomes a government of the rich, by the rich and FOR the rich. That is, policies, conservative policies from conservative Democrats, primarily benefit NOT the bottom 50% of Americans, but rather the top 20% of Americans.
And yet, a supposed "former" conservative, who is probably part of the top 20%, looks at a policy coming from the Democratic Party that benefits the rich (the top 20% that he himself belongs to) and calls that a win.
I call that a loss. I call that a betrayal of the highest order.
The trouble with a former conservative, especially one who was a conservative so very recently, is that they still have conservative baggage that they don't realize is there. They have not changed their mind about everything. They are probably still "fiscal conservatives" just like many conservadems. So while they may be able to explain Republican BS, some of it, they still have swallowed and occasionally will regurgitate for your consumption, other conservative BS. Only they don't think of it as BS, because they still believe it. They still believe, probably, that the middle class makes $120,000 a year, for example.
Or your nonsense line that "you have to pay for your coverage like everybody else".
Nonsense, because everybody else does not pay for their coverage. SOME people have good jobs - ones where their employer provides health coverage, or one where their employer pays for most of their health coverage. Other people, such as say, myself, for almost two decades, are not fortunate enough to have such a good job. Well you don't make their life any better by forcing them to buy something.
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: South - Carolina and Dakota
Home country: Oz
Current location: Kansas
Member since: Mon Nov 15, 2004, 04:30 AM
Number of posts: 37,573
