Filling in a hole

LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson

As a veteran of a rural environment, I have embraced the language practices of an earthy upbringing.

Clichés were part of that, a kind of pithy observation cautionary in its meaning.

One of my favorites is “If you’re already in a hole, don’t keep digging.”

There is a point, of course.

Here ’tis: America is in a great big hole, but politicians are still digging with the industry of crazed gophers, as if, somehow, a miracle is going to occur to reverse the trend.

Well, that’s not happening. The reason is the primary shovelers are the ones who could stop the digging, but haven‘t. Instead, they are tossing dirt as if their efforts are causing no harm.

Obama’s current bloated budget proposal is a perfect example of his indifference to overspending.

Here’s another example, and one that has yet to be mentioned by Obama, HRC, or Bernie Sanders, socialists one and all. That’s because they helped design the problem.

According to Debt Clock, in 2000 there were 19.6 million manufacturing jobs in the United States. Today, there are 12.3 million jobs left, a loss of 7.3 million jobs in 15 years.

That loss has had a tremendous impact on middle-class income, on cities such as Detroit, on security, retirement, purchasing power, on personal and social growth.

It is one of the most significant issues of our time because those jobs are not being replaced.

As you know, Japanese auto manufacturers sell millions of units in the United States every year. By comparison, Ford recently shut down sales operations in Japan. Japanese trade rules make it impossible to do business there.

We have felt a similar impact locally. Drive east of town. Take a good long look at the future.

Now, several things can contribute to the decline in production: competition may force reduction, consolidation, or closure; obsolescence may render a product useless; the cost of technological advancements may outstrip a company’s ability to keep up.

Those things may be beyond the ability to adapt as the hole gets deeper.

But what if you have a government that is more concerned about the redistribution of existing assets and “social justice” than the livelihood of middle-class workers in America?

What if the primary concern of said government isn’t workers in this country at all, but the well-being of those elsewhere?

America has the highest corporate taxes, 35 perent, of any country in the world. Most corporate taxes in other nations are around 15-20 perent. We aren’t competitive, nor will we be as long as this situation exists.

Ronald Reagan was the last president to lower the corporate tax rate over 30 years ago. It needs to be lowered again if we are to have any chance at all of keeping manufacturing jobs at home.

Jobs, you see, are leaving this country by the tens of thousands. Cost of labor, high taxes, the crush of regulations, and clueless, ineffectual leadership on this critical matter is why.

Now, how do those facts fit with the rosy employment figures we are getting from Washington?

Unemployment, we are told, is around 5 perent.

Several factors render this figure a falsehood.

One is the measurement for full-time employment has changed. It used to be, prior to the implementation of ObamaCare, 40 hours per week. Now it is 30.

States the IRS website: “For the purposes of the employee shared responsibility provisions (health insurance coverage) a full-time employee is for a calendar month employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week, or 130 hours per month.”

You see, if a liberal government has a statistical problem, it just changes the numbers. You have a lot more people employed fulltime at 30 hours per week than 40.

The official unemployment figure is 7.8 million. Debt Clock puts the actual number at 15.4 million.

Bill Clinton performed a similar exercise back in the day when the standards for inflation were changed to reflect a more favorable economy.

We no longer include the cost of gas or food in the inflation table, even though those things obviously contribute to the cost of living of former factory workers.

The hole gets deeper as the middle class shrinks, as if by design.

Understand, those digging the hole will not be the ones to fill it in.

There’s one more reason why we need new leadership. Only The Donald seems to care about the gravity of this expanding situation for Americans.

That’s because he’s a businessman, not a politician spewing philosophy.