Small Businesses

Jobs will be the focus of the Obama administration in 2010. In his State of the Union Address, he called upon Congress to help create the conditions necessary for businesses to expand and hire more workers.

Small businesses have historically been the engine of job creation in this country. Therefore Obama is proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. Many small companies have weathered the recession and are ready to grow, but the banks on Wall Street are mostly lending to larger companies.

President Obama is proposing a new small-business tax credit, for small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. He wants to eliminate all capital gains taxes on small-business investment and provide a tax incentive for all businesses to invest in new plants and equipment.

Unquestionably, we must put more Americans to work building clean-energy facilities and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean-energy jobs. Obama wants to encourage businesses to stay within our borders, and has insisted, that the time to slash tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas is long overdue.

The House of Representatives has passed a jobs bill that includes many of these proposals, and it’s time for the Senate get to work on a jobs bill, because so many Americans are out of work and hurting.

These steps won’t make up for the 8 million jobs that have been lost over the last two years, but it’s the only way to move towards full employment and will begin to lay a new foundation for long- term economic growth, while addressing the problems that America’s families have confronted for decades.

James Barr III

In a letter published in the Oneonta Star on 2/3/10, James Barr of Hobart wrote: “This past October, the village of Hobart encountered a problem with the Maple Avenue bridge. I was advised to contact State Sen. John Bonacic and Congressman Scott Murphy for information. It took one phone call to Sen. Bonacic's office to receive a response, and his office continues to be very helpful. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for our congressman, Scott Murphy.

“I personally contacted Murphy's office in Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls, Clifton Park and Washington, D.C., a total of 17 times, along with two e-mails through his website.

“As of Jan. 22, I still had not received a return call. Recently, when Scott Murphy took the time to campaign in Stamford, he was asked about all the phone calls that were made to his office and went ignored. He replied, “I’m not sure what happened, but give me the telephone number and I’ll make sure he gets a call first thing tomorrow morning.” Here we are weeks later and still no contact made.

“According to my research, a congressman’s base salary as of 2009 was $174,000 a year without travel expenses, etc. I know if that were me, I would do everything I could to make sure everyone who contacted my office had the courtesy of a reply. Apparently, Scott Murphy doesn’t really care about this area. He just cared when he was looking for votes. I hope you’ll think twice next election!”

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James Barr claims, that he was advised to contact Congressman Scott Murphy concerning a problem with the Maple Street bridge in Hobart. Who gave, that advise and what kind of information is he seeking? Since, State Senator John Bonacic office has been very helpful providing “information,” he has found a solution to his problem.

Members of Congress shouldn’t allow themselves to be distracted by those with political agendas or issues, that are the responsibility of a village, town, county or state government. Contacting Rep. Murphy’s office 19 times demonstrates, that Barr is harassing Murphy’s staff. Perhaps, Barr’s political agenda from the very beginning was to write the Oneonta Star and tell readers: “Scott Murphy doesn’t really care about this area.”

Some are claiming, that our Democratic representatives in Congress don’t really care about the people in Delaware County, but the facts prove otherwise.

Congressional Democrats made that clear a year ago, when they passed the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, that provided help to millions of Americans throughout this country. Although, Congressman Scott Murphy was not yet in Congress to vote, he did support the legislation because it address the economic challenges facing upstate New York.

The Recovery Act was passed without the vote of a single House Republican and only 3 Republican Senators (only 2 now). The bill, include $27 billion for highway and bridge construction projects. The person in charge of deciding which transportation projects would receive funding is Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who is a former Republican Congressman.

Recovery Act legislation extended or increased unemployment benefits for more than 18 million Americans. It made health insurance 65 percent cheaper for families who get their coverage through COBRA, and passed 25 different tax cuts. There are million Americans working today, who would otherwise be unemployed. Two hundred thousand are working in construction and clean energy. Three hundred thousand are teachers and other education workers. Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, and first responders, who remain employed.

The Recovery Act included $86.6 billion for Medicaid, $100 million for meals programs for seniors, such as Meals on Wheels, $100 million for free school lunch programs, $1.3 billion for medical care for service members and military families, $1 billion for the Veterans Health Administration, $44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to prevent layoffs and cutbacks, $2.1 billion for Head Start, $19.9 billion for the Food Stamp Program, $14.2 billion to give one-time $250 payments to Social Security recipients, and veterans receiving disability and pensions, $3.95 billion for job training, $500 million for vocational training for the disabled, $120 million for subsidized community service jobs for older Americans, and much more.

I suspect, that these services are being used by more than a few residents of Delaware County. It’s important to remember, that except for 3 Republican Senators every Republican member Congress voted “NO.”

Not Waiting

During, the last decade, jobs grew more slowly than during any prior economic expansion. The income of the average American household declined while the cost of health care and college tuition reached record highs. Prosperity was built on a housing bubble and financial speculation.

According to President Obama, some political advisors have insisted, that our political system is gridlocked and that Democrats should just put things on hold for a while. Obama responded by asking: “How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?”

For decades, some in Washington have claimed, that our leadership wait, but waiting has only allowed our problems to grow worse. China, Germany and India aren’t waiting to revamp their economy and they’re not playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They're making serious investments in clean energy because they want the jobs of the future.

As uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may become, it’s time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering America’s economic growth.

Obama insists, that he isn’t interested in punishing banks, but serious financial reform is needed. We must insist that Congress begin protecting our economy by ensuring a healthy financial market. A market, that will make it possible for businesses to access credit and create new jobs. A market, that will channel the savings of families into investments that raise incomes and guard against the recklessness that nearly brought down our entire economy.

The House of Representatives has already passed a financial reform bill with many important changes, but lobbyists are trying to kill it. Obama has promised, that if a bill ends up on his desk that doesn’t meet the test of real reform, it will be send back until Congress gets it right.

Moving Forward

When President Obama and his Cabinet took office a year ago, they faced an array of historic challenges: an economy in freefall, job losses averaging almost 700,000 a month, a middle class under assault, two wars and badly frayed global alliances, and a staggering $1.3 trillion budget deficit.

Faced with these unparalleled challenges, Obama and his Cabinet went to work. They’re attempting to rescue our country from a potential second Great Depression. Our economy needs to be rebuild, so that businesses can thrive and middle class families will be more secure. The ultimate goal is to restore America’s leadership in the world, as our government grapples with the global challenges of the 21st Century.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research this recession began in December 2007. There are 7 million fewer jobs and many Americans are enduring extreme hardships on a daily basis. Fortunately, we’re no longer seeing the severe deterioration in the job market that we saw last January.  According to the Congressional Budget Office the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,”  has already created and saved up to 2 million jobs.

Small businesses have continued to find it difficult to get the loans they need to start up or grow.  Obama wants to increase the guarantees for Small Business Administration backed loans, and has asked his Treasury Secretary to make plans to transfer the remaining TARP funds to alleviate the difficulty, that small businesses are having getting loans.

Obama pointed out: “And when we walked through these doors last year, our first and most urgent task was to rescue our economy, to give immediate relief. These steps have saved or created about two million jobs so far. But more than seven million have been lost as a consequence of this recession, an epidemic that demands our relentless and sustained response.”

Racists?

About 10 miles south of the North Carolina border just off Interstate 95 is the community of Dillion, South Carolina. Dillion is considered by some to be the focal point of a so-called Corridor of the Shame. The Dillion Central school has about 50% of their students reading two or three grades below level and a dropout rate of 50%.

South Carolina’s Lt. Governor Andre Bauer wanted the state legislature to kick Marc Sanford out of office after his Argentinean affair. He made the following comment regarding families who are in the government’s free or reduced-price school lunch programs: “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals.  You know why?  Because they breed! You’re facilitating the problem.  If you give an animal or a person ample food supply, they will reproduce, especially ones that don‘t think too much further than that. And so, what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior.  They don’t know any better.”

The recession has had a sever impact on South Carolina. It’s jobless rate is at 12.6, and 58% of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Lt. Governor Andre Bauer is completely out of touch in suggesting that the government should treat its citizens like animals. 

Last summer, Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina insisted: “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo.  It will break him.” 

On 1/25/10, Senator DeMint sang an entirely different tune on ABC’s “This Week”. He was asked: “Did you break him?  And is that really how Americans want you to behave here in Washington?  Break the president?” Sen. DeMint responded: “I didn’t want this to be the president’s Waterloo.  But, pushing through a massive government takeover of our health care system was certainly not a good idea.” 

Apparently, a majority of the voters of South Carolina “don’t know any better,” because they keep voting for Jim DeMint and Andre Bauer.

Universal Jurisdiction

“Universal jurisdiction is the well established legal principle that some crimes can be tried outside of the boundaries of the country in which they were committed, if they can be considered crimes against humanity or war crimes. It was expressed in the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals at the end of the World War II.

“The Nuremberg judges concluded that the trials were ‘not an arbitrary exercise of power on the part of victorious nations,’ but were ‘the expression of international law.’ This principle was confirmed by the United Nations in 1946 and it was expressed in the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel for his part in the Holocaust. In 1998, the House of Lords upheld the principle in the case of former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet, who had been arrested in London.

“With regard to war crimes, the Geneva Conventions require signatory nations, such as Britain and the US, to pass the necessary laws and ‘provide effective penal sanctions’ for persons ‘committing, or ordering to be committed’ any ‘grave breaches’ of the Conventions. Crucially, Article 129 goes on to state that each signatory ‘shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts.’

“Following the Davids Commission report, the Dutch government should therefore feel itself obliged to issue arrest warrants--not only for Balkenende, but for Blair and his cabinet, as well as all the senior members of the Bush administration, including the former president. Naturally, it has no intention of doing so. But that is far from being the end of the matter.

“In its modern form, universal jurisdiction is a democratic principle that arises historically from the bourgeois revolutions of the late 18th century, when it was established that sovereignty resides in the people and not the state. It implies that no one is above the law and that a minister, civil servant or military officer cannot claim immunity from prosecution for crimes committed against humanity because he was acting on behalf of a state. That is why individuals and groups can, at present, apply, as Palestinians have done in the UK, for an arrest warrant against even the most senior representative of a government or the armed forces.

“This situation is becoming intolerable for the international league of war criminals who head the governments of the world’s major powers. It has led to repeated efforts to curtail universal jurisdiction by the US, Israel Belgium, Spain and now Britain. In doing so, these governments and their representatives only place themselves more firmly on a collision course with the mass of the world’s population, who continue to believe that those responsible for the crimes committed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere must be brought to justice.”- Ann Talbo

“Actively Conspiring”

In an article entitled,“New Smoking Gun Disclosures,” Tom Burghardt reports, that a month after passengers foiled an attempted suicide bomb attack aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit on Christmas Day, new information reveals that the White House and U.S. security agencies had specific intelligence on accused terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, far earlier than previously acknowledged.

New reports suggest that the administration’s cover-up of the affair has very little to do with a failure by the intelligence apparatus to connect the dots and may have far more serious political implications for the Obama administration, and what little remains of a functioning democracy in the United States, than a botched bombing.

The New York Times claimed, that Michael Leiter joined the staff of a commission, appointed by President George W. Bush, to examine intelligence failures leading up to the war in Iraq. That led to a series of jobs in the intelligence world, and in 2008, Bush appointed him director of the counterterrorism center.

One subject barely explored by corporate media throughout the Flight 253 affair, is the unsettling notion that the aborted Christmas day bombing may have been a move by rightist elements within the security apparatus to destabilize the Obama administration.

It becomes a painfully simple matter for the enemy to gain advantage and change their tactics, when those charged with protecting the public actually facilitate their entrée into the country for some undisclosed reason.

Burghardt wrote: “As events continue to unfold and new information shreds the official story, is Leiter’s chilling testimony that suspected terrorists are allowed to enter the United States ‘because we have generally made the choice that we want them here in the country for some reason or another,’ merely a banal slip or something far more sinister that betrays the real order of things in post-democratic America?

“Relevant questions begging for answers include: Who made the decision not to ‘connect the dots’? Are right-wing elements and holdovers from the previous administration actively conspiring to destabilize the Obama government? Was the attempted bombing a planned provocation meant to incite new conflicts in the Middle East and restrict democratic rights at home?

“As with the 9/11 attacks, these questions go unasked by corporate media. Indeed, such lines of inquiry are entirely off the table and are further signs that a cover-up is in full-swing, not a hard-hitting investigation.

“In truth, what we are dealing with here as we stagger into the second decade of the 21st century, is not a conspiracy per se but a modus operandi as the World Socialist Web Site has argued, rooted in a bankrupt system quickly reaching the end of the line.”