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Subscribe to RSSPELLA, Iowa -- Neither of the two front-runners for the GOP presidential nomination joined five other candidates Tuesday at a forum here at a large agricultural equipment plant on the future of manufacturing in America.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Texas Congressmen Ron Paul, and former speaker Newt Gingrich spoke at an event organized by the National Association of Manufacturers.
But notably missing from the stage were former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the two candidates with the most extensive business backgrounds, and the two candidates leading in recent polls of potential Iowa caucus-goers.
"It was unfortunate that Gov. Romney and Herman Cain weren't here," Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad told reporters after the event. "They missed out on the opportunity to address the number one issue in this campaign and that is creating jobs."
Over 500 people gathered at Vermeer Manufacturing for the forum, hosted by Branstad and Tom Hudson, a PBS anchor. Perry, who took the stage first, called the Obama Administration "irresponsible" for not using domestic energy.
"We have more energy locked up but recoverable, proven resources, proven reserves than Russia, than Saudi Arabia, then Venezuela, than Iraq all combined yet an administration not letting us use that energy, I happen to think that is irresponsible," Perry told the crowd.
Next was Santorum who said people want "Made in America again" and that America just "needs to beat" China.
"I believe we have to get rid of all tax incentives for all energy. I think we have to have a level playing field," Santorum said.
During Bachmann's turn on stage, she called on the federal government to get off the backs of Americans because it's making the country uncompetitive.
"The federal government hasn’t been helping to reduce costs on business. They’ve only gone the opposite way. They keep burdens on business,” the congresswoman said. "My approach as president of the United States would be to work with business and make their life easier. I want manufacturing to succeed wildly. I don’t want to see manufacturing be the servant to government.”
Paul addressed issues with opening international markets and said he would like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to announce he's "resigning" tomorrow.
"If you don't look at the regulations, the taxations, the trade policy, and monetary policy, this is going to get much worse," he said.
Gingrich spoke last and proposed attaching "a mandatory training requirement to all unemployment compensation" to help fix skills deficit.
The former speaker drew more laughs and applause from the audience than any of the previous candidates and even went on to call President Obama a "left-wing radical that believes in class warfare."
With just two months before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, Branstad, who has not decided to endorse a presidential candidate yet, was pleased with the forum.
"I am going to tell you, this thing is a wide-open race and I think the candidates that were here did themselves some good by addressing the issues directly," Branstad said.
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Are they building a bullsh!t factory?
I think their big manufacturing plan involves mandating changes in all US flags. The new flags will have, "In God We Trust," superimposed over the body of the flag in big purple letters.
The only hang up is the Republicans can't decide which factory in China should get the no bid contract to make the new flags.
lol. Corporate HQ is the White House
Lots of elephant dung!
Yeah, God forbid they actually create manufacturing jobs in the US...
I'll bet they wouldn't even build THAT here, despite a steady, cheap, and renewable supply of raw material in the DC area.
So all of the unloved republican candidates went there to talk about jobs? That is hard to swallow, since their plan is to kill them.
Wayne, please enlighten us on how they are killing jobs? Were you upset that they don't want to keep throwing money at the problem?
Not so. I love them all.
Do you hear me, Newt?
I LOVE YOU. Stay in the race.
Mark, you need to talk to a qualified economist. republicans have killed jobs directly in the public sector thus degrading public safety and education, which endangers our future as a nation. These people no longer pay taxes or take part in the economy. The jobs bill they killed is truly angering people in this country. So is giving tax breaks to corporations sending jobs overseas. If you are worried about money, where were you during the bush administration? If republicans had listened to the president during August and worked on the big bill, we wouldn't be talking about this now. Our rating wouldn't have been degraded either. republicans are hoping to destroy the economy altogether before November. They feel this will somehow elevate their standing at the polls.
Wayne, I would like to know which economic model that says raising the taxes will correct the economy...Kaynes or Orthodox? You do know that your spending bills actually have to be paid for don't you? Some people don't pay taxes, you are right here, but only 1% of incomes over 1 million don't pay taxes. There are 50% that don't, but that % is lower income and they feel that the rich aren't paying there fair share...please! You know why jobs are going over seas? One is corporate tax, the United States has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. As for Bush, I never once voted for him, but he was better for the job than Al "I invented the Internet" Gore, or John" Flip Flop" Kerry. Now if you did your research, you would know that the downgrade of the US was due to mounting debt, the same way your own personal credit would be downgraded according to your debt ratio. Republicans don't need to elevate themselves in the polls, they have a secret weapon called Obama to help them with that....
Great! The party that pushed policies that sent jobs flying off of our factory floors to off-shore locations now wants us to believe that the same policies will bring those jobs back.
I think that the only difference between these hucksters and those selling deeds to the Brooklyn Bridge are that those selling deeds actually make you believe that they can deliver.
Throwing money at the problem is no solution either. Tax those who off-shore out of the wahzoo and jobs will return.
Such BS, no actual plans to help manufacturing. This is from the party that supports outsourcing...
Forrest -- You funny funny man! LOL Hilarious......BS factory!!!!
How can the party of "let it fail" possibly create jobs.
Good post Forrest. Our politicians have no vision, or at least they aren't letting us know what, they are. Are we really getting our moneys worth from these people? We have got to start electing people with visions for our future. This republican party as of late is unnacceptable although believe their antics will have an affect on spending. Mainly on waste and corruption. lol...what am I saying?
Well, you can tell that an election is coming up. The political candidates are beginning to talk about what is important to the American people again. If I remember correctly, focusing on jobs, was one of the main issues in the 2010 election. Evidently, it wasn't enough of an issue for those elected to actually follow through on their promises. So why should the American people, believe that the current crop of candidates, will do anything different?
If you really want to know how bad this administration is for business and hiring, ask representatives of Boeing and Gibson Guitar.
They have first hand knowledge.
Boeing wants scab labor. What's Gibson's problem?
There must be more involved in the manufacturing of 'In God We Trust' buttons than I had immagined.
So new jobs can only be union jobs? As per ordered by the Obama administration?
Obama's Department of Justice keeps confiscating the wood they use to construct their guitars. Makes it hard for Gibson to employee people when they're not allowed to make their product
Source: http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/gibson-0825-2011/
Just askin' but is Boeing taking contracts from private or public entities?...An entity like the Government ...or what...oops!
All Gibson has to do is make sure to buy wood that is not violating the export rules of other countries. There is a reason why the export of certain wood types is restricted or banned.
JoAnnaSmith:
Boeing top executives stated in memos and email that they were moving to a "right to work state" just to break the unions. They said that union strikes are no good and are retaliating for strikes. Had they kept their mouths shut, the Labor Board would not have said a thing about Boeing building a plant in South Carolina. Gibson was busted for illegially importing wood from a restricted country. There was nothing about making their products, just stop using illegal wood.
"So new jobs can only be union jobs? As per ordered by the Obama administration?"
No. They just have to be good jobs paying decent wages with safe conditions. Apparently, you expect me to believe these will be created out of the goodness of the bosses' hearts! It didn't happen that way 100 years ago. What's changed?
"Obama's Department of Justice keeps confiscating the wood they use to construct their guitars. Makes it hard for Gibson to employee people when they're not allowed to make their product"
Even The Wall Street Journal compares the Madagascar hardwood trade to the blood diamond trade. Or, are you OK with financing terrorists?
Smiffy, no joe, and Spanky have been beating the dead Boeing and Gibson horse for quite a while now...it makes them happy to repeat bullcrap...
No joe don't tell me you can't answer the posts. My brother a Air Force Academy grad and former Pentagon employee was laid-off by Boeing after over ten years with them only to be hired back at a lower wage, reduced benefits and a re-location to boot. He's one of the lucky ones.
Boy, all those tax cuts didn't create jobs, why should we believe the Republicans about their beliefs about job creation.
Actually that statement right there sums it up. According to union lackeys, if you dont belong to a union, then you are obviously an unskilled, lesser human being. The amount of pure extortion happening in this country right now at the hands of the unions is appalling. Boeing is a private company, and can hire anyone they want.
Once again, I am going to ask this question because no one has been able to yet. What positive impact does the modern union have in todays workforce that is not covered by existing labor laws?
Gingrich spoke last and proposed attaching "a mandatory training requirement to all unemployment compensation" to help fix skills deficit.
Mandatory? But! But! Our Freedom! Our Freedom! This must be unconstitutional! The government can't make anything mandatory. What an ass.
Not to mention there Mr. Gingrich, we are BROKE ASS POOR! Will you bank roll that initiative sir? What of the unemployed with Master degrees? That would be a slap in the face to those professionals who lost their job through no fault of their own. A-Hole.
The double speak is peppered with phrases like "education" "job training" "high paying jobs" so hopefully no one notices the rest of the speech is cut, cap, defund, eliminate and destroy in an effort to convince the audience that to achieve the former the latter is the vehicle, when the two are incompatible.
Yeah!! Too many regulations insisting on minimum wage and safety for the workers and the surrounding community. Vote Republican in '12! They've got a foot on the accelerator in the race for the bottom!!
Auntie - I think you are missing the beauty of the Republicans insisting on less safety for workers.
You see, less workplace safety means more early deaths. That translates into less Medicare and Social Security recipients. Viola, cost savings!
And since poor people are not really people (since the only proper Republican way to judge people is by how much and what they own) who does it hurt? Nobody! At least nobody that is worth caring about.
Wait there is a flaw in that. If they kill all the poor workers who will pay taxes?
nisl and roadkilltd,
Worker safety has shown a steady improvement since the 1930's. There has been no change in the rate of job related accidents, even after OSHA came into existance. Just a steady decline in work related accidents and fatalities. Political parties have nothing to do with it.
Over regulation is a money buster for business ... we are over regulated.
Yeah, that's why the economy collapsed in 2008, over regulation of the financial sector. Those poor traders were forced by the nasty government regulators to create risky and hard to understand derivatives and S&P and Moodys were forced to rate them as sound investments. Everything will be o.k. if we just get the government out of their way and let them go back to what they were doing in the good old days before Obama and Dodd-Frank. Oh wait, that was when the market crashed. Never mind...
common GOP crap, a party that constantly contradicts itself hmm...smh
"There has been no change in the rate of job related accidents...Just a steady decline in work related accidents and fatalities" - Virgough
Mannie,
The graph shows a stady decline in the RATE of accidents and fatalities ... just a constant drop since the thirties right after the completion of the Empire State Building.
no joe, no bo, nj....you say this admin is bad for business..if that is so, how come all the CEO's made millions in pay and incentives the past few years? Even with a bad economy ? AS far as trickle down economics wanted by the tea party..where are all those jobs that were suppose to come from Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy ? Guess they all went to other country's because they sure are not here. And now, the republicans want more tax cuts for their wealthy friends...have to wonder just how much more of this trickle down this country can stand before China owns it whole? We need jobs.. we have lost way too many manufacturing jobs as it is...and the trade deals will cost us more...
ivan,
Don't know where you live ... my local paper has five full pages of job opportunities and many good jobs at that. Unfortunately people lack the qualifications, skills,or education to fill them. Jobs are there for those willing to qualify themselves.
You sound like Herman Cain. There are plenty of great jobs out there, but we have millions of Americans who prefer to live on the splendid allowance we call unemployment insurance. Tell that to the Whirlpool employees in Iowa whose jobs are being shipped off to Mexico.
CAL,
I' would tell those folks to learn a skill needed in their area. Throw the Mexicans off the roof their working on and pick up a hammer. Go to school and learn to be a nurse or PE. Deliver for UPS. Where is your immagination?
Did anyone hear/see the interview with the CEO of Starbucks?? They are starting a NEW plan them selves where they are going to give small business owners money to help them start hiring more people and even to some to start new businesses. They, Starbucks, hopes more BIG businesses will join their cause and help small businesses too. So they are going to GIVE MONEY to help small businesses. Where is the problem with helping people by giving them money so they can start a new business?
Didn't right-wingers just complete a generation-long project of exporting 20 million manufacturing jobs to Central America and Asia?
Shadowed that $11 TRILLION national debt they ran up in the same period.
None of this will ever get fixed if Americans keep voting for the hypocritical right-wing buffoonery that created the mess and spout that more of the same will make it better. The United States has had enough trickle-down dis-logic to last another two or three generations. I expect will take that long just to fix the nightmare the right-wingers built in the last three decades.
Our only option is to Vote. In every possible election we can.
Obama has incured more debt in his tenure than all the preceding Presidents before him combined. Note that the States in deepest doo doo are Democrratic strongholds. Want sombody to blame ... look in the mirror y'all.
Virgough you sure about that one buddy?? do you just say things that pop into your head with no basis cuz anyone with common sense would look to make sure they were correct. In what world do mathematics not matter, cuz im sure if you added it up you would find that you, sir, are an idiot
Virgough,
Check your facts. The Bush Fiscal 2009 budget (his last one) projected a debt of $12.8T and a deficit of $400B. At the end of the year, wr actually had a deficit of $1.4T, pushing the debt to $13.8T. A couple of little things Bush left of the budget, the cost of the wars and the Wall Street bailout. Obama added about $780B for the Stimulus, but recovered several hundred billions from the bailout to reduce the effect. In any case, it is obviously a lie that he has accumulated more debt than all his predecessors, when he came in with a $13.8T bogie and it is now only slightly above that. But hey, keep making up your own facts.
Cal USA,
virgough is a Faux news Lemming, he just blurts out a loosing compiled turd of bill orielly facts
Perry talking about untapped resources. Did you know that there are oil fields in Texas and other places that the government pays the company NOT to pump oil! Lets use what we have before we search for others. Does not make sense to me.
I see where Rep Eric Cantor finally summoned the courage to give a talk at the University of Michigan. Previously he would not give a talk anywhere the public was invited. I think these idiots are not paying attention in that the public has lost faith in "Trickle Down" economics. We have seen the "Down" but have yet to experience the "Trickle". The WMF (World Monetary Fund) just concluded a years long study where they came to the conclusion that Trickle Down DOES NOT WORK and in actuality the Keynesian Model is really how the world works. You give people more money and they spend more which creates more hiring and so on....I do not know how we can expect any of these Neanderthals to grasp that knowledge when they still think Global Climate Change, Evolution and Gravity are unproven theories or Liberal Propaganda. I am hoping the GOP is ready for the OWS Crowd at all of their Town Halls next year because it is going to make the Tea Party look like small potatos....
Rick,
If Keynesian economicsworked we'd be flush with jobs and money after the Presidents unpresidented flushing of tax money to all with a hand out. If the "Fleabaggers"of OWS show up, I hope they have the wits to bring along some functional ideas with them.
If you guys are so bright, why do you need to wait until the election to get anything done?
I really don't get the logic, if deregulation and lower taxes was the answer, then why did we have a recession in the first place, Bush was President for 8 Years 6 of those he had a majority in both houses, so when he left he should have left with a robust economy and millions of jobs created. Hmmm, since that was not the case, how can anyone believe that doing the same thing will produce a different result. Boggles the mind.
Retired Military-
To put words in the mouths of the GOP/Ters: "Logic? We don't need no stinking logic!"
(Apologies to other fans of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre)
We have more energy locked up but recoverable, proven resources, proven reserves than Russia, than Saudi Arabia, then Venezuela, than Iraq all combined yet an administration not letting us use that energy, I happen to think that is irresponsible," Perry told the crowd. Wow maybe Perry should let the oil companies now where all this oil is being hidden. lol. That Obama must have hid it from everyone!!! obviously the Keystone oil pipeline isnt needed either! Don't need any foreign oil after all. Oh wait this maybe another mindless Republican sound byte aimed at the ignorant!
You broke the code. We are expected to believe that the oil companies have been blocked despite the fact that they had two Texas oilmen in the White House for 8 years, a rubber stamp Congress for 12. They also had Dick Cheney's national energy "strategy", which was written by Congressman Joe You-Lie Wilson, then a lobbyist for Exxon. But the Republicans believe that if they repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth, and (unfortunately) it does seem to work.
Perry might be stupid, but he is right on that point about oil.Our current president's advisors would like to see our gas prices to match europe's.They think that their policies will bring that to pass.Then they can push thru their "Green Projacts"If you did your research you would already know that.You need to take a good look at who is ignorant.
I'm just talking plain common sense here.. Maybe they can frak some natural gas outta the ground but I still can fill my Ford with it!
And you don't create jobs by adding more robots to the floor, doing the work of ten humans. What jobs they don't shift overseas, they replace with robots where possible.......that's their idea of "trickle down" economics.
BTW, in case you all don't realize it, those same robots being installed on the manufacturing floors are also being made by robots, not humans, in many cases.
anti-trust, do you use an ATM? Do you shop online? Do you go to self service gas stations? Do you use the self check out at the supermarket? Yeah, I figured you did so you also are contributing to unemployment.
soazDan bank tellers (ATM), retail employees (shop online), gas station attendants (self serv gas) and cashiers (self check out) are all low wage jobs, paying an average of $8-$10 per hour. $8 per hour jobs are not difficult to find so much as you have to find 3 of them to be able to support a family.
The robots that anti-trust are talking about took jobs that pay $15-$50 per hour jobs with benefits that supported the middle classes for a generation.
Big difference.
No I don't use ATM machines and supermarkets (or even K-Mart) here in the USVI have NOT gone to any self-check lanes.....only the new Home Depot has done that, and I wouldn't use them IF I did shop at HD. All gas stations on island are self-service, with just the cashier to collect the money.
Yes, I shop online for some things, but there are also people filling those orders and shipping them, the same as a cashier or a stocker in a local retail store. I happen to manage two businesses for a friend (a retail and a wholesale store.....printing of paper and apparel products, as well as inkjet refill center, express embroidery, and other services.) I help to provide jobs for people.
These trolls are pathetic, they do nothing, Perry creates hamburger flipping jobs and touts it as a cure for our ills, they all want to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and will fight to the death for those tax breaks for the wealthy, as for the middle class and poor well we can all just pound sand!
The Koch agenda is so transparent and easy to understand. Their primary businesses are in oil and gas, and paper mills. Their hobby is acquiring indecent amounts of wealth. Therefore, they want all regulation and EPA rules regarding oil, gas and paper mills removed. They want no competition from alternative energy sources, therefore they want no government subsidies or gas tax dollars diverted to these. And finally, they don't want Obamacare because not only do they not want to have to provide health insurance to the roughnecks in the oil fields, they don't want to have their taxes increased when small businesses see the wisdom of switching to the public co-op plans.
Mr. Ron Paul, a physician by training, career, and livelihood before becoming a senator cannot profess to have even a thousandth of Dr. Bernanke's knowldege of public finance. He has no competence to criticize Dr. B.
Sujan - Have you even read any of Dr. Paul's books, or are you just assuming he doesn't know anything about economics and free markets? Do you even know which theory of economics Dr. Paul follows? (hint - it's not Keynes, but it was invented around the same time (1920's and 30's), in the same country (U.K.), but by an Austrian (google that - you'll surely find it). Please do a little homework before you claim someone has no competence.
When it comes to jobs, the GOP is all talk and NO action. They have yet to even introduce a jobs bill. There was little job creation under daddy bush, even less than bush jr-- whose record is worse than Hoover's. When will Americans stop buying this GOP crap and throw the bastards out??? Havent they done enough damage to this country???
Yes the Republicans will create jobs just like they always do, they create jobs in the unemployment offices, after all it takes more employees there to keep records of all the people that are unemployed by their failed policies. 14,000,000 unemployed by the last Republican Administration, not to mention those under employed.
And what has the current administration done besides waste billions of dollars?
stopped the country from losing 700,000 jobs a month. the private sector has seen more job growth than during the final Bush years. stopped negative GDP. regualtions for wall street so things like housing bubble dont happen again. wind down afghanistan and iraq which wasted ridiculous amounts of money. Bush "wasted" TRILLIONS vs billions if you really wanna go there
waste???? 1) the ecomony was growing at an average 3% rate until the GOP regained the filibuster.
2) the CBO study says that Obama's stimlulus package created at least 3M jobs
3) The GOP insistence on keeping the tax cuts for the rich and the corporate loopholes has added nearly $800M to the debt over it's 2 year lifespan.
4) they have tried to get jobs bills passed, aid to small business and other bills meant to improve the economy! The GOP has filibustered them, figuring if the ecomony remains bad, they can win in 2012!
Let the people suffer as long as they regain power and privatize SS, Medicare etc! After all, that's why they ran up 72% of out current debt and created this debt crisis......DELIBERATELY!
The GOP House has sent 15 bills to the Senate that are their ideas for creating jobs. Just about all are bills that want to kill regulations. Do they not know that regulations create jobs, deregulation kill jobs.
Point, if a group of people finds a problem with a car; air bags, child seats, lighting. They ask for a study to find a fix for the problem. The problem is resolved by creating a new regulation. The car companies needs to fix the problem by adding something NEW to the car, a NEW product, a new JOB, a NEW worker. Some one decides the problem isn't a problem anymore. Kill the regulation, Kill the product, Kill the new Job. This work with just about every regulation we have. PEOPLE finds problems that could hurt or harm people, so they ask for a fix, a regulation is generated/created, problem is fixed.
Ron Paul seems to have the only insight as to what is hindering manufacturing in America, unfair trade and monetary policies.
Ron Paul is both brilliant and crazy. It's the crazy that scares me. He wants to eliminate minimum wage which is the FIRST reason I will never vote for or support him. He has several other scary ideas that I just won't even touch. It is the brilliant that excites his fan base, but they aren't looking at the crazy.
Many economists believe minimum wages (a form of price control) actually destroy jobs, especially jobs at the low end of the wage scale (the people who need them the most).
Please google "minimum wage destroys jobs study" and see what you find.
If you believe in central planning, price controls, and forced redistribution of wealth, please see The History of the USSR. Sound good?
The class war has already been fought concerning wealth and prosperity. Of course the lower classes have won the class warfare concerning military service. Just as old Trent Lott said when he told how he couldn't serve in the military doing the Vietnam War. The lower classes have taken all the jobs in the military and the upper class can't join up.
Wrong war to use for that, BM. Remember, during that war, it was NOT a volunteer military. The DRAFT was still in existence, and THAT was why the lower classes "have taken all the jobs in the military".....the upper classes bought their way out of service in many cases.
The class war has already been fought concerning wealth and prosperity. Of course the lower classes have won the class warfare concerning military service. Just as old Trent Lott said when he told how he couldn't serve in the military doing the Vietnam War. The lower classes have taken all the jobs in the military and the upper class can't join up.
Companies move overseas to make products cheaper and make more profit. Ever heard of tariffs? All other countries have them. We used to have them long ago.
Is this group of clowns the best the dumb Republicans can come up with ? Romney is the best of the bunch and that's not saying much. Maybe the Oil and Mining companies can buy another puppet to put on show for the ignorant public. Corporations and their lobbyist have " bought and sold " politicians in both parties. America is a disgrace to the World.
Since 2010 the republicans started working on jobs for China in China and they have fullfilled their dream. The republicans are now working on a way to send the lower and middle class to move to China to fullfill these jobs. If they can get the supreme court involved in this all lower class and middle class citizens will be forced to move to China. We all know that the supreme court is under republican control regardless of what the constitution says. Hows democracy working for you, how much justice can you afford today.
Gary,
General Electric, who paid no taxes in 2010, outsourced thousands of jobs to China just since last year. The CEO of GE and around 12 other CEOs of major companies have laid off thousands of employees, and all of them were picked by President Obama to help create jobs. They serve on his jobs panel, yet are responsible for thousands of lay offs. Go Figure.
They didn't show because they have NO jobs plan.