Congratulations to Herman Cain for his big win of the Florida Straw Poll. In celebration I thought I’d post his TV ad again…
Taxes
Frank Hyland’s Food for Thought: The Most Closely Held Secret
-By Frank Hyland
On the night of January 20th/21st, 2009, a large, dark SUV pulled onto the White House grounds and disgorged the deepest, darkest secret of the administration – In addition to Barack H. Obama, his twin brother, Tele P. Obama, resides in the White House and has covertly exercised the responsibilities of the Presidency ever since, whenever he could get away with it. The existence of Tele P., of course, has been kept a closely held secret by the President’s senior staff. But a review of the President’s actions over the past almost-three years has thrown a feared and unwanted spotlight on Tele P. In the process, the reputation of the President’s senior staff, which has been much maligned as a lying bunch of Chicago thugs, has been restored. Just a brief review of the ill-considered, amateurish actions of Tele P. will quickly convince you of his existence:
** Barack told us all this August that he would unveil his Jobs Plan soon, in order to deal with the urgency of the situation. While Barack remained in the White House working feverishly, Tele P. was photographed on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard and telling us that he would give the speech when he returned, thereby destroying the sense of urgency expressed by Barack.
** Actually, Tele P. began countering Barack from the very beginning. Tele P. ignored the concerns of the American people and, while Barack was in his office working long and hard on a jobs program, Tele P. emphasized a healthcare reform package and targeted banks and Wall Street.
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Frank Hyland’s Food for Thought: The Most Closely Held Secret”
Illinois at Bottom of Favorable Business Climate List
-By Warner Todd Huston
Thanks to Illinois Democrats and Governor Pat Quinn, Illinois now sits among the worst states in the country for jobs and business. Texas and North and South Carolina rank as the best.
Illinois is the state with the third worst business climates in the country. Only New York and last rated California are worse in the survey of 322 corporate executives conducted by Development Counsellors International (DCI).
The survey, taken every three years, asks the executives a series of questions meant to discern the most effective tools for marketing and business that leads to deciding where to open new offices and expand business. Executives cited low operating costs and a pro-business climate as the chief reasons for looking upon a state favorably.
California remains the worst state, the survey found.
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Illinois at Bottom of Favorable Business Climate List”
Obama’s Mounting Scandals
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Heritage Foundation has a post giving a run down of some of the scandals mounting in the Obama administration… you know, the most ethical administration ever? Yeah. That one.
Most of them have to do with Obama’s penchant for crony capitalism. Like the good socialist he is, Obama wants to pick the winners and losers in the world of business so he shovels mounds of the taxpayer’s cash to the companies of pals and donors so that they will… well, apparently so that they will give him money back in donations and then just go bankrupt!
The post at Heritage details the crony capitalist scandals of failed companies like LightSquared and Solyndra.
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Obama’s Mounting Scandals”
A Blueprint for Illinois Job Creation
From the Illinois House Republican Caucus…
We traveled around Illinois this week introducing our new jobs plan to several communities in an effort to become more competitive with other states in order to retain and grow jobs.
Media Round-up:
- Read about the jobs plan in Decatur (Decatur Herald-Review).
- Watch our efforts on a television station in Peoria (WEEK-TV)
- Listen to a radio show in Chicago (WIND radio-560 AM).
We’ve all seen the news. Mounting debt, sluggish consumer confidence, zero jobs created in August – the first time since World War II that the U.S. economy had a net zero jobs created for a month – and the Illinois unemployment rate at a staggering 9.9%, nearly a full point higher than the national average.
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A Blueprint for Illinois Job Creation”
Obama: The Economy Isn’t My Fault, I SWEAR TO GOOOOOOOD
I have to apologize to Freedom Works. I stole their video and added the Jake Blues apology scene into it. Freedom Works did not add that scene from the movie, but I just couldn’t resist it.
President Obama’s NLRB & Their Summer Assault On American Jobs
-By Warner Todd Huston
Obama pretends that he wants to cut regulations and make it easier for businesses to make jobs. Unfortunately, what he says and what he does with his powers to regulate are two very, very different things.
From the Workforce Fairness Institute:
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President Obama’s NLRB & Their Summer Assault On American Jobs”
Chicago: Union Members Collect Millions in Tax $$ With Sweetheart Pension Deal
-By Warner Todd Huston
Now this is the sort of corruption we are used to seeing in Illinois, eh? This week the Chicago Tribune and WGN TV has found up to 23 retired union operatives that are collecting millions in taxpayer dollars because they had pals in government tweak the state’s pensions laws to favor them.
These former government workers that were government union members got pliant politicians to alter the pensions laws to say that their pension remuneration would be calculated not on the lower pay they received when they retired from government, but from the much higher salary they received when they worked as union operatives. These folks worked as union bosses at the same time as working on the clock for government.
The “luck” of former union boss and Dept. of Streets and Sanitation worker Thomas Villanova is a typical example. Villanova last worked full-time for the city in 1989 and made $40,000-a-year. But he was also a union big wig making $198,000 annually upon his retirement in 2008 at age 56. His city pension, it appears, was calculated on the union salary of $198,000 instead of his real salary of $40,000 — itself obviously a no-show job in the first place.
Villanova stands to make millions off the taxpayers.
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Chicago: Union Members Collect Millions in Tax $$ With Sweetheart Pension Deal”
Did 85 Democrats Vote In Favor of Government Shutdown?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Back on August first the whole country was waiting for the House of Representatives to raise the debt ceiling and offer a continuing resolution to prevent a feared government shutdown. That was done with the support of 95 Democrats who claimed they were desperate to prevent that shut down. (Relevant amendment)
However, in a follow up vote on Sept. 21 on another bill (H R 2608), 89 of those same Democrats reversed their vote and have essentially voted in favor of a government shut down by voting “no” on the latest continuing resolution to keep the government’s doors open.
Of course, Democrats voted against this bill because increases in budgets (such as that for FEMA) were offset with cuts in other areas. Democrats simply want to increase spending without the fiscally responsible act of cutting spending elsewhere.
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Did 85 Democrats Vote In Favor of Government Shutdown?”
Cook Commissioners Refuse to Take Furlough Days?
-By Warner Todd Huston
News today had it that two Cook County Commissioners have refused to take the agreed upon furlough days as required by the 2011 budget, days meant to save the county money. Both William Beavers and Earlene Collins have both refused to take the 10 days off.
Collins claimed on Chicago’s WLS AM 89 radio that she shouldn’t have to suffer the indignities of the cut in salary that the days off would mean. She says her base pay has never risen since she was first elected to office and that she has already cut out much of her office allowances and other staffing funds so she should not have to take a cut in pay, too.
In fact, claims Collins, she’s already made cuts that amount to more than the some $9,000 that her 10 day furlough would add up to.
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Cook Commissioners Refuse to Take Furlough Days?”
Obama Donor, Now Medical Records Czar Gets Little Gov’t Job BIG Gov’t Contracts
-By Warner Todd Huston
Must be nice to be a member of the “in” crowd, the crowd of crony capitalists to whom President Obama has given so much of the taxpayer’s money. And not just money but positions of power in the government.
Take, for instance, Obama’s newest czar, Judith Faulkner, recently named Obama medical records czar. She was not only put in charge of deciding which company would be used for Obama’s official electronic medical records system, but she also just happens to have an electronic medical records company of her own. And, gosh, it seems her company is suddenly quite busy and just might be in line to become THE electronic medical records company. Imagine that.
Only a few weeks ago news of Faulkner’s elevation to Obama’s Health Information Technology Policy Committee. This committee is charged with deciding how $19 billion in Obama bucks is spent on healthcare IT systems.
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Obama Donor, Now Medical Records Czar Gets Little Gov’t Job BIG Gov’t Contracts”
Now Is the Time
-By Frank Salvato
Unless you’ve been living under a soundproofed rock for the past two and a half years you know that the approval rating for our nation’s politicians is pathetically low. President Obama’s approvals are hovering around 44 percent while Congress’ approval rating hardly shows-up on the radar screen at 13 percent, and rightfully so. Those elected to federal office (and for that matter, the many State houses) have ignored the basic responsibilities of their offices – to represent their constituencies – and have, instead, arrived inside the Washington DC beltway to execute their stations in the best interests of their political parties and associated special interest groups.
Incredibly, some in the political talking-head and spin doctor class try to explain away the dismal approval ratings as repercussions from the maladies of our time; they try to rationalize that the cause of public discontent, where their elected officials are concerned, is more about an unsophisticated and less realistic interpretation of all the bad news emanating from across the world. These contentions might very well be true if it weren’t for the truth of extremely elevated non-approval ratings received by the elected class. President Obama’s negatives are over 50 percent and Congress’ negative rating is at a stunning 83.5 percent. In fact, the only leader not to have a negative rating over 50 percent is House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who stands at 41 percent.
Keep in mind that, traditionally, approval ratings can bounce up and down quite erratically, but once a voter has established a negative view of a candidate it is very hard to flip that view to the positive. It is for this reason that a unique opportunity presents itself; an opportunity that even the doomed politician can use to throw a lifeline to his or her legacy.
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Now Is the Time”
Illinois Jobs Need to be Job One
-By Illinois GOP House Leader Tom Cross
For nearly 100 years, Modern Drop Forge employees have been manufacturing metal forging tools in Blue Island. In August, the company announced it was moving to Indiana and taking 240 jobs with it. The reason: Illinois’ “poor business environment”–specifically, workers compensation laws and high taxes.
How many more companies and good jobs are we willing to let go before we get serious about workers compensation, regulatory, tort and tax reform?
In January, after Illinois’ governor and Democrats in the General Assembly passed the largest income tax hike and corporate tax hike in state history, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels actively began recruiting Illinois businesses. He isn’t alone. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey came to Illinois and ran TV ads after the tax vote marketing his state to businesses.
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Illinois Jobs Need to be Job One”
Intimidation: Obama’s Dept. of Labor To Supply Replacement Worker’s Names AND Addresses to Union Thugs
-By Warner Todd Huston
“Since 1975,” a study of union violence says, there has been “more than 9,000 reports of union violence.” With that in mind, wouldn’t it scare you if you were told that your name and address would be made public knowledge if you were hired as a temporary or replacement worker during a union strike? If you had any sense you sure would.
Well, now that is exactly what the Obama administration wants to do. Obama’s Department of Labor wants to make a new rule that businesses must disclose the names and addresses of individuals that are hired during strikes to replace unionized workers, whether permanently or temporarily.
With the long, long history of murder, property damage, beatings, and general harassment that unions have engaged in since unions came to this nation, the idea of having a worker’s name and address released to these union thugs so that unions can create hit lists of employees to attack is unconscionable.
Obama plans to put the property, family, and the very lives of thousands of workers in danger just so he can again give a big payoff to Big Labor.
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Intimidation: Obama’s Dept. of Labor To Supply Replacement Worker’s Names AND Addresses to Union Thugs”
Roskam Statement on Obama’s Debt Plan
From the office of Rep. Peter ROskam (Ill., 6th District)…
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06), issued the following statement in response to the President’s debt plan:
“It is disappointing that with our economy on the verge of a double-dip recession President Obama is proposing trillions in higher taxes. Small businesses are already begging for mercy from Washington’s high tax and regulatory environment. Higher taxes – and the uncertainty caused by the threat of them – is the last thing American small businesses and job creators need to endure. It’s unfortunate but this latest proposal is predictably sad and sadly predictable from an Administration that has over-taxed, over-regulated, and over-spent our way to nine-percent unemployment and $14 trillion in debt.”
Roskam Statement on Obama’s Debt Plan”
Obama Proves His ‘Jobs Bill’ Is Just Politics
-By Warner Todd Huston
President Obama just proved that his supposed “jobs speech” is nothing but the first part of Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and no effort to work with anyone to solve the nation’s economic woes.
But Obama’s pretended focus on “jobs” has always been a head fake. First off he ran for president in 2008 as the jobs president claiming that he wanted to put American back to work. Repeatedly during his first two years he claimed he was all about jobs. Yet it took to year three for him to finally bother to get around to that all important “jobs speech.” Then he scheduled a joint session to Congress that he didn’t arrange properly with Congress and had to move it to the next day. He finally gave the speech but even after telling Congress to “pass this bill” about 50 times, he didn’t have any bill to give them. That, he said, would come in a week or so. Now we finally have some semblance of a bill — even though the Senate agrees the bill is not fully written — and the Senate now says it won’t take it up for a while…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com
Illinois Congressman Apologizes to Muslims for Being Discriminated Against
-By Warner Todd Huston
Mike Quigley, the Democrat Congressman from the Chicago area’s 5th Congressional District thinks he needs to apologize for America. Why? Well, because we have been so darn evil towards Muslims and all, dontcha know? And why are we so mean to Muslims? It’s because Republicans want to cut the budget.
It looks like Quigley has taken a page out of President Obama’s world apology tour playbook by going back to his district to attend the American Islamic College Conference in Chicago where he felt compelled to apologize for America.
After a long winded wind up saying that the “war” we are experiencing between the diverging ideas about the economy is an “ideological war,” and it’s one that is causing us to somehow lash out against Muslims! Never mind that Muslims declared war on the U.S. long before the U.S. had any major economic troubles. He capped that surreal assessment with his grand apology…
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Illinois Congressman Apologizes to Muslims for Being Discriminated Against”
Obama’s Pleas for Civility Don’t Apply to Union Leaders
-By Warner Todd Huston
Michael Barone, one of America’s premier political analysts, unleashed a corker this week looking over how sold out to unions our president as been. It is something that union watchers such as myself have been saying since day one.
It’s bad enough that Obama has been so bought and paid for by union bosses, but his hypocritical calls for “civility’ while he encourages unions, some of the most uncivil voices in politics, to continue their bellowing their rage and hatred is hypocrisy unmatched in any White House.
Barome says that Obama acts less like a president of the United States and more like a “shop steward in chief” as he panders to unions at every opportunity. He doesn’t just pander, either.
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Obama’s Pleas for Civility Don’t Apply to Union Leaders”
Obama, Teachers Unions and Tax Evasion
-By Larry Sand
President Obama has talked a good education reform game, but when push comes to threats, he is above all a good union man.
On August 25th, AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka uttered a few words that seemed to resonate with President Obama. He said, “The AFL-CIO has not yet decided if it will participate in next year’s Democratic National Convention, as labor union members ponder whether President Obama has earned their support.…” He said the major economic speech the president has planned for early next month will tell union members what they need to know about whether he will be worth supporting.”
Trumka has a history of following through on his threats. As president of the United Mine Workers in the spring of 1993, he wanted to ensure that no one would be able to find employment as a miner without paying union dues to the UMW. Accordingly, he proceeded to order more than 17,000 mine workers to walk off their jobs, and told the striking miners to “kick the sh– out of every last one” of their fellow employees and mine operators who resisted union demands. UMW thugs dutifully responded by vandalizing homes, firing gunshots into management’s offices, and cutting off the power supply to another mine, temporarily trapping 93 miners underground.
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Obama, Teachers Unions and Tax Evasion”
Hultgren Huddle: Americans Speak Out
From the office of Rep. Randy Hultgren (Ill., 14th District)…
“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing.” –Thomas Jefferson, 1789
“Only a constitutional amendment will do the job. We’ve tried the carrot, and it failed. With the stick of a Balanced Budget Amendment, we can stop government squandering, overtaxing ways, and save our economy.” –Ronald Reagan, 1982
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Hultgren Huddle: Americans Speak Out”
Rep. Walsh: Obama’s Jobs Speech, It Was Political
From Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill., 8th District)…
Last week, I announced that instead of attending Obama’s political speech, I would host a small business job forum. I told you I would not be a political prop in Obama’s latest campaign game.
It looks as though I have been proven correct.
The Democratic National Committee just released their latest web ad promoting Obama. What is the topic? You guessed it: Obama’s joint session. The video is titled “14 Months”, the remaining time until the next election. As reported by “The Daily Caller”, it is evident the ad’s purpose is to raise money for the democrats.
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Rep. Walsh: Obama’s Jobs Speech, It Was Political”
Friedman: Over 105,000 Jobs Lost Since January Tax Hikes
From the Dr. Arie Friedman for Illinois State Senate campaign…
Illinois lost another 16,183 jobs in August, according to figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Illinois State Senate candidate Arie Friedman called the report “another call to action by state policymakers to repeal those ill-considered income tax hikes they passed last January.”
“What is it going to take to alarm our elected officials in Springfield?” asked Friedman. “The Democrats are not grasping the true meaning of Illinois’s steady drop in jobs. What will it take? Do they have to lose their own?”
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Friedman: Over 105,000 Jobs Lost Since January Tax Hikes”
The Loser In Chief
-By Warner Todd Huston
Over at The Corner, Robert Costa has a great little postette — I say postette because it is just a shorty. It is a quote from George Will from his appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.
I kind of wish that Costa had fleshed out the Will quote, though, as there is far more to the ineffectiveness of this president. But first, the quote…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
Peter Roskam: Creating Jobs
From the office of Rep. Peter Roskam (Ill, 6th District)…
America needs real solutions that will help private-sector businesses grow and create jobs. Yet, even with 9+ percent unemployment, Democrats continue to force Washington-imposed excessive regulations on our economy.
The disappointing reality is that what may seem like a faceless regulation to most actually has a devastating effect on our local economy and our everyday lives. Read my latest op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times about the severe effects of what excessive Washington-imposed regulations are doing to Chicago-area jobs.
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Peter Roskam: Creating Jobs”
Ill. Policy Institute: IL has the most people in poverty since 1992
From the Illinois Policy Institute…
Poverty is on the rise in Illinois. In 2010, almost 2 million Illinoisans lived in poverty – the highest number since 1992. What have politicians proposed to reduce poverty and put Illinois back to work? Unfortunately, only increased spending and higher taxes.
You and your family are affected everyday by failed,
government-centric policies handed down by Washington to Springfield.
But after the pain of the recession and the absence of a real recovery, we all know there’s no way more government spending will turn the economy around. In fact, higher taxes are only going to hurt struggling families.
If you’re tired of footing the bill for politicians’ reckless ways, check out my latest blog about Obama’s most recent effort to employ the same tax, spend and borrow policies that have sunk the state’s economy for years.
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Ill. Policy Institute: IL has the most people in poverty since 1992”
The Town Government With More Cars Than Employees
-By Warner Todd Huston
There is a town in Tennessee whose government owns more cars than they even have employees to drive them. This is the sort of excess that every anti-big government activist points to in order to show the bacchanalia of spending to which governments in our fair country are prone.
The Times Free Press of Chattanooga, Tennessee reports that the city of East Ridge made a startling discovery. Town fathers realized the town government owns 149 vehicles. Turns out they only 119 employees. They do indeed have more cars than employees.
Two months ago City Councilman Jim Bethune noted that the city seemed to have an awful lot of cars sitting around that are never used. So, they decided to sell a few to help make up for budget shortfalls and to get rid of the needless vehicles.
City officials made the surprising discover when they finally rounded up all the city’s vehicles. Then they got another surprise. The town had been so slipshod in records keeping that they couldn’t even locate the titles for 11 of those cars. The city had to pay the state $121 to file for each missing title.
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The Town Government With More Cars Than Employees”
Rep. Peter Roskam to Deliver the Weekly Republican Address
From the office of Rep. Peter Roskam (Ill, 6th District)…
Chief Deputy Whip Will Discuss House’s Efforts to Address Excessive Regulations That Hamper Job Creation
WASHINGTON, DC – Delivering the Weekly Republican Address, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) will provide an update on the House’s efforts to address excessive federal regulations that hamper job creation in America. Last week, Roskam recruited job creators hurt by Washington overregulation to attend the president’s address to Congress as guests of Speaker Boehner.
“Small business owners are fighting to create and innovate every day, but continue to be shackled by excessive regulatory barriers to job creation,” Rep. Roskam said. “Appropriate and responsible regulations help protect our health and safety, yet Washington has turned rule-making into an assault on American businesses and the jobs they create. Small businesses already struggling in a down economy are facing the additional burden of job-destroying regulations written by unelected bureaucrats at federal agencies in Washington. That’s why House Republicans are taking action to grow our economy, voting all this fall to stop some of Washington’s most excessive regulations. I hope this address helps shed light on excessive federal regulations, and the need to get government out of the way of America’s job creators.”
Peter Roskam is in his third term as Congressman for the Sixth District of Illinois and is the Chief Deputy Whip, a member of House leadership. He is a member of the House Ways & Means Committee and is the co-chair of the Republican Israel Caucus. Roskam has emerged as a leading advocate for fundamental tax reform and passing the three stalled free trade agreements.
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Rep. Peter Roskam to Deliver the Weekly Republican Address”
Kinzinger… IL Democrat to Taxpayers: Send More Money
From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill., 11th District)…
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Adam Kinzinger spoke out against Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky who yesterday advocated for more of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to be sent to Washington.
When asked about the President’s job proposal, which will cost nearly $450 billion and includes an estimated $467 billion in permanent tax increases, Schakowsky defended the plan and later added: “You don’t deserve to keep all of [your money] and it’s not a question of deserving because what government is, is those things that we decide to do together.”
“Unfortunately Congresswoman Schakowsky has proven herself to be vastly out-of-touch with Illinois families and believes more money from taxpayers, more government and more of the same failed policies of the last two+ years are the stepping stones toward prosperity and job creation,” said Kinzinger. “The fact of the matter is, 31 months ago, the President stood in front of Americans and pledged under his near-one trillion dollar stimulus package, unemployment would not rise about eight percent. The President got his stimulus and here we are today with unemployment above nine percent.
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Kinzinger… IL Democrat to Taxpayers: Send More Money”
Fox Business Network Takes on Regulations Burying the Open Road Trucking Industry
-By Warner Todd Huston
Much of what you eat, wear, read, play with, drive, and ride gets to your hometown store via a truck of some kind so the open road trucking industry — as well as local, short distance haulers — is a vital link between all of us and the necessities of life. That is why the constant wave of new regulations that roll over truckers like a killer tidal wave is something to which we all need to pay more attention. So, it looks like Fox Business Network’s Adam Shapiro has been doing some of that attention paying.
These jobs killing regulations need to be reassessed because small business owners — called owner-operators — are being priced right out of the business leaving only the giant trucking firms that can afford to pay all the fees, licenses, tags, and stickers while at the same time being able to have the legal advice to satisfy all the mounds of regulations as well as the yearly and multitudinous changes in same that happen every single year.
Remembering that President Obama keeps claiming that he wants to eliminate regulations, even though his own regulatory powers grow by the day, regulations in this country are killing businesses and smothering any possible recovery. Nearly every day we hear of a new major regulation the Obama administration wants to add to the pile.
Worse, every single year there are hundreds of new regulations and thousands of alterations to regulations that we never hear about, changes that affect nearly every American business. Changes that ultimately make our lives more difficult and costly, changes that cost jobs.
Fox Business Network has been doing a special entitled Regulation Nation that explores the litany of regulations that inhibit the stimulation of the economy and one of the particular issues has been those regulations that affect the trucking industry.
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Fox Business Network Takes on Regulations Burying the Open Road Trucking Industry”