Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Thank you Democrats!

In part 2 in a series of "tongue-in-cheek," snarky, smug, sarcastic remarks, I wanted gleefully offer up a hearty thank you to the Democrats. Yesterday, my salaciousness was directed to the corrupt, liberal Mainstream Media, for essentially distorting and filtering the news, as well as verbally fellating one President-Elect Barry Obama.

Today, my sardonic and caustic wit is directed to the Democrats, once a proud party of the working class. This group of out-of-touch politicians are doing everything within their party to destroy the very fabric of this country.

And it seems we're powerless to stop them.

Two examples come to mind.

First is the issue of "climate change." What this amounts to is nothing more than pandering on behalf of the Democrats, in this case to the environmentalists. In this article, courtesy of Townhall.com, President-elect Obama promises global leadership on climate change.

Why?

So much of the "consensus science" utilized by global warming fanacists is faulty AT BEST, doctored at worst. When will these "scientists" (I use that term loosely, as it seems many of a political agenda) realize that instead of getting warmer, the planet is actually cooling, that Arctic ice has been restored to its pre-2002 levels, and CO2 levels were higher (exponentially) than they were prior to the existence of humans (furthermore, CO2 levels on Mars are high as well; where are the humans?).
In the roughly four-minute message, Obama reiterated his support for a cap-and-trade system approach to cutting green house gases. He would establish annual targets to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them another 80 percent by 2050. Obama also promoted anew his proposal to invest $15 billion each year to support private sector efforts toward clean energy.

At a news conference Tuesday, a coalition called the U.S. Climate Action Partnership _ made up of 32 leading corporations, including electric utilities and oil companies, and environmental groups _ urged Obama to press Congress to approve legislation next year for a mandatory cap-and-trade system to limit the release of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and other greenhouse gases. Opponents of such action argue controls on carbon dioxide emissions will increase energy costs.

Under a cap-and-trade program, the government would establish a ceiling on the amount of carbon dioxide that can be released into the air from burning fossil fuels. A utility or industrial plant would have to purchase emission allowances for every ton of pollution released. Anyone who exceeds the cap must either make pollution reductions or buy additional allowances, while those who cut emissions below the cap would be able to sell allowances. Initially the cap would be relatively high and then be lowered gradually to achieve the targeted pollution reductions.

So guess who suffers? The average American...how do you think these companies will pay for these allowance or penalties, by either laying off workers or RAISING PRICES on their wares.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Second pertains to this autoworker's bailout plan. On top of a $700 billion "crap sandwich" (catchphrase courtesy of Michelle Malkin) taxpayers will soon be on the hook for an additional $25 billion to the struggling "Big 3" automobile manufacturers. Once again, the Democrats are pandering to the special interests: this time it's the unions.

Can someone tell me why we should bail a confederation that refuses to embrace what the marketplace dictates? Furthermore, why should the average American pay for a vehicle that costs thousands of dollars MORE compared to a foreign model yet is does not possess the features NOR quality that the aforementioned foreign car has?

Yet the Left implores us to "buy American!." Listen, we would all LOVE to buy American, but why? All we do is enable these auto manufacturers and unions in their "entitlement quest." Instead, it's time we hold them accountable (same with the idiot who bought a $300,000 home on a $30,000 wage, but that's another story for another time).

Ken Blackwell sums it up perfectly:

The Big 3’s woes are largely self-created. For years now their management has been criticized as ineffective. But two numbers tell the story of the primary cause of their insolvency: 73 and 48. The average hourly cost of an hourly wage worker for the Big 3 cost $73 per hour, while the average cost at Toyota and other foreign automakers with production facilities here on American soil is $48 per hour.

What accounts for this disparity? It’s the massive healthcare and pension costs and other benefits that the workers at the Big 3 get through their union-negotiated contracts. These contracts, primarily secured through the United Auto Workers, have created massive obligations. Consequently, the Big 3 either offer a product that is equal in quality and features to their foreign counterparts, but several thousand dollars more expensive per car, or they offer a product for the same price but with fewer features.

There’s no way to escape the plain truth. The costs unions have written into their contracts with the Big 3 must be passed along to consumers. As this either increases prices or decreases value, the Big 3 lose sales to foreign competitors, and so revenues for the Big 3 have dropped. As revenues drop it becomes even more difficult to pay these union-created obligations, so the situation worsens.

1 comment:

David said...

I am convinced that American consumers can stop this recession dead in its tracks. While there are many great products made abroad. We also import a lot of crap for lack of a better description. In the process we have closed our factories for many consumer products categories and moved very close to becoming a purely serviced based economy. A country that manufactures nothing is doomed to permanent decline. Do you want to be left with a country where are kids are doomed to careers flipping burgers in fast food restaurants?

While we don't have choices to buy American products in certain categories such as televisions, where choices are available, we must as consumer patriots think hard and fast about purchasing a foreign alternative. Sure, as individuals, we have the "right" to buy the very best for our selves, but we owe it to our selves, our fellow citizens and our children to make the sacrifice and buy the best possible American made alternative in available. When we buy American but we are helping support American jobs, American companies and our tax base. The more often that we do this, the closer we get to the resurrection of the American manufacturing sector. Paying more for American goods is a great long-term investment. With more Americans back at work, all of our businesses will have more paying customers. By purchasing the BEST AVAILABLE "made in the USA" product in a category, we will support the free market forces Darwinian forces that will bring about innovation and great new American products.

We stupidly ran off to Walmart the last 30 years and destroyed our manufacturing sector. We can fairly quickly undo the error of our ways by making a concerted effort to buy American. Pretty soon it won't be a sacrifice to make that choice. Sure, we never will be the low cost supplier. We pay our factory workers an order of magnitude more than does China (and we certainly don’t want to fall to their standard of living). But, we can become the supplier of the highest quality and “best value for the quality” products in the world. Who knows, maybe we can even reverse the trade deficit and turn it into a surplus.

As a small shameless plug, my blog, http://www.AmericanBoom.com/blog is devoted to the rebuilding of our manufacturing sector by developing a grassroots effort to get everyone on board to "buy American." We welcome contributing authors to tell the story of great innovative all-American companies that need our support.