As you will see, his plan lowers the tax on corporations, and "Small Businesses." Keep in mind that a small business does not mean small revenue, it means how many owners there are. The Koch Brothers have a net-worth of billions and annual income of billions, but since the two brothers are the only owners of their massive energy and chemical empire, it is legally defined as a small business and would receive the extra tax credit and reduced tax rate. So understand who he is talking about, because it's not the actual small business that we normally think of, that being the small shop on main street or the local auto mechanic or plumbing company or local grocery store or bakery or diner.
Most economist and governance experts agree that a "Balance Budget Amendment" would cripple the country in times of war, natural disasters and financial collapse of the markets, which all of them we have seen in the recent past. If the country is unable to borrow money and must use only revenue available, then when such needs arise, vital services would have to be curtailed in order to pay for the emergency. This of course is the intent of his amendment. He knows that such events will happen and so more government services would be eliminated and turned over to private companies, like our national parks, the military, and elimination of all regulatory agencies. Remember a Conservative is an Anarchist by definition, the elimination of government because as Reagan said "It is the problem."
Included in his amendment is a provision to nearly prohibit raising of taxes on anyone, especially the wealthy, unless there is a 2/3rds vote in the senate to approve it and approved by 2/3rds of the state legislatures. It sounds tempting, but that is not how fiscal matters should be handled. If congress can't manage the money, which is obvious by now, then they should be removed and new people elected who can better manage the money. Why do we keep reelecting people like Hatch who authorized borrowing trillions of dollars for two wars, Medicare Part D, and expanded government like the Home Land Security Department, all of which nearly tripled our national debt and claims he is a good money manager and should be reelected?
Trade agreements can be good or they can be very bad. NAFTA for instance facilitated the demise of many of the labor unions in America because jobs and plants were moved to Mexico - just across the border. Many of the big three auto makers took advantage of this and moved several parts suppliers down to Mexico, also many other manufacturers moved there as well which eliminated many GOOD PAYING jobs here. The trade agreements may open their markets to our goods, but for the most part they are producing them cheaper in their own countries or near by. South Korea is a major manufacturing country now, much like China is. Labor laws are lax and they can use child labor there. Why would they buy more expensive products from the USA that they are not already buying? Same with Columbia and Panama, which are perfect centers for cheap and plentiful labor with few regulations.
I agree that the tax code must be overhauled, but not for the reasons Sen. Hatch wants it. I want the elimination of all itemized deductions and special interest credits. Government should not be subsidizing companies and all these special interest groups. Lowering business taxes will not change our competitiveness. A recent report showed that most companies that trade internationally only paid an effective tax rate of 17%, not the 35% of their current tax rate. Why? They have many tax loop holes and credits that reduce their taxes. By reducing the tax rate to say 20% and if they still get all the deductions and credits they enjoy now, they will end up paying literally no tax at all. Even at the current rate our effective tax rate is lower than most European countries that do not have all these loop holes and credits. That is why you don't see companies going to these countries. They do go to off shore island nations because they have nearly zero taxes and no regulations. So they have a post office box in a small building in Nassau, Bahamas, but have a huge office tower with thousands of employees in Manhattan, NY. They also hide their money in these offshore banks. Lowering their tax rate will not change anything regarding employment, just reduced revenue to run the country, thus having to eliminate more government services like national transportation funding for highways. Of course your state taxes will climb very high to take over maintaining the infrastructure that the federal government use to pay for. Lower populated states will be hit the hardest, like Utah, because we get more money back from the federal system than we pay into it. So your taxes will ultimately be much higher than they are now combined.
Repealing The Affordable Healthcare Act "ObamaCare" is not the right approach. Yes, there are flaws in the program and it needs some serious revisions to make it work better and take on the actual cost issues more directly. But to repeal would be to go back to the private insurance industry and watch as they weed out the unhealthy and raise the premiums even more on the healthy - that can afford the premium. The rest of us will be without any coverage and must pay everything out of pocket. The health insurance industry has decimated the health care system with their corporate greed. His position is that if you can't afford to buy insurance then seek care from a charity organization, like your church, if you belong, because it's not government's job to provide charity to the poor and elderly.
To repeal Dodd-Frank would be to give the financial institutions the OK to do what they did before that created this financial mess. The elimination of regulatory laws since Ronald Reagan is the root cause of the banking and housing market failures, investments banks troubles and the world economy teetering on a major depression.
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President, said: --“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
As for his energy policy, it is right out of the oil, gas and coal industries wish list they published during the Bush Administration. It is also the platform for Gov. Perry's jobs plan. It is drill baby drill anyplace you can find a speck of oil, even if its in the Grand Canyon, or Zions NP, or in the Everglades. Lets consume every drop we can find. Oil is a fungible commodity and we export as much as we import. To say we can reduce foreign oil is ignorance of the market and will not necessary add many jobs nor reduce energy costs. In fact it most likely would increase energy cost because it is getting more costly to get access to these reserves, since we have nearly depleted what you might say is the low hanging fruit, easy accessed oil, gas, and coal. We need to keep up with Europe and the rest of the world who are moving much faster to renewable energy and will be able to reduce their energy costs as we increase ours. That means our products will naturally cost more than theirs, thereby reducing production output for exports and thus reducing the need for labor and jobs. It will also entice companies that have not moved their factories offshore to move them to a country with lower energy costs to keep their products competitive in the world market.
The last thing on his list is eliminate the national labor relations board and to eliminate the minimum wage. This would then allow companies to pay so little that a family would need 4 almost full time jobs just to live a very modest life and not be able to save for retirement or children college. There is not enough hours in the day to earn enough, even if both parents are working and then what about the single parent homes and single people? Abuse and harassment would return as the norm. There would be no place for a worker to go if he/she is abused on the job by a national corporation.
So you can clearly see that Orin Hatch is not the working person's representative. He is for big business and the banking industry. He is for the wealthiest of us and he does not care about you and your family. Why would anyone reelect this guy? Gaddafi was in power for 42 years, Orin Hatch has been in power for also 42 years. Both need to go, Gaddafi has now gone, it's time for Hatch to leave office, but with is life in tack.
Here is his e-newsletter:
Fellow Utahns-
While Utah’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average, it’s still far too high. The overwhelming majority of Utahns I’ve talked to understand that spending more money we don’t have on another Washington stimulus package isn’t the answer - I couldn’t agree more.
That’s why I’ve introduced a comprehensive, common-sense 10 point jobs plan to restore our nation’s promise. This proposal requires Congress to recognize some hard truths and make some difficult decisions by getting government out of the way to get Utahns back to work.
Please take a few moments to review the plan below. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on my proposal and how we can work together to strengthen our economy. To send me your thoughts click here. Please also take a few minutes to answer some brief poll questions here
Sincerely,
Senator Orrin Hatch
Below is a summary of the plan:
1. Restore Fiscal Sanity in Washington
- Find real savings and spending cuts in the short-term via the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
- Ensure greater fiscal discipline in the long-term by passing and ratifying a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
2. Expand U.S. Export Markets
- Approve pending trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama.
- Renew Trade Promotion Authority to facilitate new free trade agreements in the future.
3. Reform the U.S. Tax Code
- Simplify the code and lower rates in order to allow American companies to compete with foreign competitors on a level playing field.
4. Repeal ObamaCare
- Eliminate harmful and heavy-handed mandates as well as new taxes to relieve burdens on individuals, employers, and state governments.
5. Repeal Dodd-Frank
- Eliminate excessive and misguided regulations and mandates to unfreeze credit and allow businesses to expand and create jobs.
6. Make Our Regulatory System More Jobs-Friendly
- Require by statute that all federal agencies perform a cost-benefit analysis when drafting new regulations.
- Pass the REINS Act (S. 299) to give Congress more authority and oversight in the drafting of major regulations.
7. Develop America’s Energy Resources
- End the Obama Administration’s stall tactics on domestic energy projects.
- Pass the 3-D Domestic Jobs, Domestic Energy, and Deficit Reduction Act (S. 706) and the American Energy and Western Jobs Act (S. 1027) to reverse the President’s attacks on domestic energy production.
8. Help America Compete
- Modernize and make permanent the research and development tax credit to incentivize more innovation in the U.S. economy.
- Ensure our trade partners recognize and enforce U.S. intellectual property rights.
9. Allow Small Businesses to Create Jobs
- Provide a 20 percent tax deduction for small businesses on their income.
- Repeal the three percent withholding requirement for federal contractors.
10. Reform America’s Labor Laws and Reign in the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
- Pass legislation to give more oversight, accountability, and judicial review of the NLRB’s decisions.
- Pass the Employee Rights Act (S. 1507) to protect the rights of workers.
- Repeal the prevailing-wage requirements in the Davis-Bacon Act.
Again he completely fails to grasp the seriousness of the current situation and what is needed to improve our economy. He has no clue how to stimulate job growth or that we have too many workers and not enough jobs because of outsourcing, technology replacing human labor and workers wages remaining stagnant for 30 years while the upper 1% have had a 400% increase.. If he can't grasp these three simple principals as to why we have stagnant-high unemployment, very low economic growth and an angry constituency, then he needs to be removed from office.
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