Posted by
Jack Cruger on Sunday, March 02, 2008 12:36:22 AM
Houston We Have a Problem
We’ve all heard the saying “Houston we have a problem”, well it’s just not Houston. It is the whole United States of America. Unfortunately it’s not just “A” problem but a lot of problems all of which can be solved if it weren’t for people who think they know it all and have a venue to make it sound like they know what they are talking about. I’m talking about the Hollywood elite, Politicians, former Politicians, environmental-save the planet nuts, and our elected liberal officials. “Save the planet, by killing all the people on it”.
Let’s start with the energy problem. We have all these Do-Gooders (DGs) telling us what not to do as well as what to do. These people and organizations really have no horse in the race because they are, for the most part, millionaires.
These so called experts usually have but one agenda about one issue and never understand what far reaching effects their issue affects in the long term when it is mixed with the other so called agendas. You have what we can now call a trickle down effect, however with the supply side part of the equation gone.
Our Country is a full of expertise and we are deploying it all over the world, in other countries to solve their energy problems. By deploying this same expertise in this Country it could translate into millions of jobs here and diminish our reliance on foreign countries. We import 20% of our energy which depends on fossil fuel from other countries, some not so friendly. We not only import oil but also refined gasoline. Have you ever asked yourselves why, when we certainly have at our disposal, enough oil, natural gas, and coal within our jurisdictions, to fulfill all of the country’s requirements?
Back to the (DGs). Some of these people and organizations decided we could pollute the areas where we would drill and go to liberal Judges they know who support their premise. The consequence of doing just this alone has made us hostage of the oil cartels, (OPEC) who can cut back the oil supply anytime, raise the cost per barrel and cause the price of gasoline and home heating fuel to skyrocket. That’s is just for starters, they, the DGs, or somebody like them also decided, what the hell since we are not drilling for any more oil in the States, we shouldn’t have a need for any more refineries, because they may pollute the air. Again they got the Judges involved. We have one refinery being built which replaced one that was involved in “Katrina”, the only one in 30 years. DGs also decided, along with Harry Reid (D-NV), that coal should not be used because it is dirty even now when we have a clean way to burn it. This is what I mean trickle down effect with no supply if you knew how much of the country’s manufacturing of the goods we use and consume that are dependent on oil and gasoline you would be amazed. The answer is everything.
So instead of our government passing sensible laws that will stop these nuts from controlling our lives they decided to placate them by directing the auto makers to produce bio-fueled cars, or for the time being, Hybrids. The DGs say this is great and thousands of jobs will be created although labor unions say technology reduces jobs and fight and impede the progress. Here we go again, what produces the bio-fuel, corn and soy beans. What do cows, cattle, pigs and chickens eat? Corn. What do humans and other animals eat? Corn. Instead of just the gas and home heating fuel skyrocketing now the price of the food we consume skyrockets because we won’t be able to grow enough to meet the food and energy demand collectively. Now, the local environmental nuts don’t want the corn and soybean refineries near their homes, “not in my back yard syndrome”. If you look at just about every food label, a corn product is part of ingredient list. Bio-fuel is not the answer in this Country. We still would have to import refined bio-fuel gas and corn before we even get started. Still the environmentalist’s think it is the best thing since sliced bread.
The millionaires don’t care. They can afford the higher prices. They are “doing the in thing” by supporting the Green Earth, Global Warming thing Ha, Ha. What they think are little raises in the consumer prices, the blue collar slob sees them as a collective crisis. A lot of these millionaires have their money invested in offshore accounts to get around our great tax system, now estimated at about 12 trillion dollars, with about 8 hundred million more being invested every year. I said before they don’t have a horse in this race.
Can our Country get out of this mess? I think it certainly can. Some President has to have the balls to proclaim that our current energy problem is one of our biggest national security problems and should be considered vital to our Country’s survival. Remember the great blackout of August 2003 that darkened the homes and workplaces of 50 million people in parts of the Midwest, Northeast and Canada. That was a technical glitch which was fixed. Just think if OPEC shut off just 50% of our oil supply. That would give us about only 25% (example) of essential services, which can’t be fixed. Transportation would come to a halt brining and our nation to its knees. Millionaires would just make more money with their money in the energy sector. The supply would go down and the retail prices and oil company’s profits would skyrocket as long as the current reserves last. You can imagine what other things would happen.
We should make energy independence one of our highest National Security priorities and write new laws that would allow us:
To drill for oil offshore near Florida and anywhere else we can fine it.
Build new oil refining plants in each state.
Start producing vehicles that will get 50 MPG.
Build new power plants, coal, nuclear in each State.
Make money available to Technology companies, not oil companies, for fuel cell research for auto, business and home use.
Another crisis is the way we solve our problems by the way we tax.
One of the big issues now being debated in the Democrat campaigns is the NAFTA. This was supposed to open the flood gates for trade and commerce across the borders of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and in some cases it did. This is one of those solutions that our Government fostered that have what is termed, unintended consequences. What has happened, businesses, large and small, took advantage of the free trade agreement by replacing jobs here in the U.S., sending the work to Mexico and other place, in many cases moving their entire manufacturing production across the border. I had a customer, who had their headquarters on the border in Arizona with their manufacturing facility across the border, within walking distance, in Mexico. They actually had golf carts for the people to crisscross the border.
The labor unions have given so much money to the Democrat politicians over the past twelve years just to fight NAFTA it would boggle your mind. In my opinion they were one of the biggest contributors to what caused the ‘unintended consequences” but not the real reason. Yes, their demands force the business owners, in order to make a profit, hunt for cheaper labor and lower cost associated producing their products. The business owners were also looking to get out from under the corporate taxes imposed on them by the U.S. Federal and State Governments which is the real reason.
Much of the information I am about use comes from Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder’s just published book “THE FAIR TAX: THE TRUTH”. This quote comes from that book. The question it answers is WHO PAYS TAXES? “ALL TAXES ULTIMATELY---THE CONSUMER PAYS THE TAXES. NOBODY ELSE PAYS THE TAXES. CORROPORATIONS DON’T PAY TAXES. THEY COLLECT THEM BUT THEY WON’T PAY THEM”. (Dr. Milton Friedman). Why won’t corporations pay their taxes? The answer is they pass them on, or embed into the retail or purchase price we pay as consumers.
Let me say this article is not intended to support “The Fair Tax” although I personally do. The books have a lot of information that saves me from looking everything up on the Net.
How much of a role do taxes really play in the cost of a product? Let’s use the example used in “The Fair Tax: The Truth” book.
You have just purchased a loft of bread. You paid some amount plus tax depending on where you live.
A mining company digs iron ore.
Iron is used in the making not only the massive shovels that dig the ore but the giant trucks that take it to the smelter to separate the sludge from the iron ore. It is also used in the tractor that plants the wheat seed and harvest the wheat.
The mining, smelter, road and rail, steel, foundry, truck, tractor, harvester, parts, wheat farm, bakery, distributors, and all other company’s involved in the supply chain collect, pay and pass these corporate taxes on.
I think by now you are getting the drift of this. These costs are called “embedded taxes”. When you buy the bread and you pay a price which includes the embedded taxes, which is in the store’s wholesale costs, plus the store’s margin, then you get to pay the State and local area’s sales tax. What is embedded in the price you pay is all these taxes collected and paid by all the supplying companies and passed on to us consumers which amounts to about 24% of each item you buy.
This example illustrates the major reason why American companies shift their manufacturing, jobs goods, and services offshore. The only savings they can really control is their labor costs and when that’s not enough they offload goods to be assembled offshore and then finally all the manufacturing. In some cases the whole company goes. It has nothing to do with, as John Edwards has been saying, corporate greed. It has to do with GOVERNMENT GREED and CONTROL.
NAFTA is not the problem TAXES are. A lot of companies in Europe and even Asia adopted the Reagan “supply chain model” have cut their corporate taxes as well as wealth and death taxes, some already twice. Take a look at the value of the Euro, now $1.50. If we eliminated all the corporate taxes the cost of doing business would go down 24%. And if we eliminated the income and payroll taxes, each person would have all of their earnings available to them. We could get rid of most of the IRS as well.
Remember that $12 trillion in those off shore accounts and the $8 hundred million coming in each year. With the tax burden lifted that money would come back onshore an invested, creating jobs, brining back the jobs we let go, and the workers would not be taxed more when they made more money. Foreign investment would skyrocket allowing us to eliminate the trade deficit. The world currencies would equalize with our dollar and so many other financial negatives would turn to pluses.
How would the government get the money it needs to run the country? If the 24% of cost were no longer applied to the retail price then why not leave it in the equation. We would be paying the same amount for the things we buy. The Federal Government would still get their 24% which they would get when we bought or consumed the things want. The point of sale merchant would then send the 24% to the Federal Government and the consumer would not be affected.
This is in my opinion is the best advantage. Everybody who bought anything at anytime they wanted, including all tourists, drug dealers, illegal aliens, ETC. would be contributing the 24% to our government. These groups don’t pay any income or payroll taxes. Until the worst of these problems are solved we will at least get taxes from their purchases.
Again the two books, THE FAIR TAX BOOK, FAIR TAX: THE TRUTH, explain this tax model in detail, or go to FairTax.org.
With the increased flow of money coming into the Federal Government we can have a true marked driven society and many of the other problems can be solved.
Healthcare would be market driven and people could purchase their own. The Federal Government could prebate a portion of their premiums. Social Security and Medicare would be opened to many more options from which the people could chose.
I am no expert in any of the solutions, and for that matter the problems, but I do know that a market driven society, one which the people make their own decisions make more sense than the having the Federal Government be in our lives with a “one size fits all size solutions” and have people sitting around waiting for their Government checks.