Generation O, the group of young people that propelled President Barack Obama to victory in 2008, is demanding more jobs, the greener the better.
Generation O has been taught that government investments in green energy — an expansive term that embraces renewable energy, pollution reduction and conservation — will create jobs in America, lots of jobs. Now students are finding out that story so far is green science fiction.
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Proponents of the new health care law appeared to be on solid ground when they said that it would extend affordable health insurance to millions of Americans.No longer.At a hearing of the health subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Cornell University economics professor Richard Burkhauser showed that in 2014, millions of low-income Americans may be unable to get subsidized health insurance through the new health care exchanges.
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With Republican presidential primary candidate Herman Cain overtaking front-runner Mitt Romney in the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll, some Americans may be looking forward to a top income tax rate of 9 percent.
But are they ready for a new 9 percent national sales tax?
Cain’s 9-9-9 plan would replace all federal taxes with three flat taxes of 9 percent each — on individual income, corporate income and sales. He would abolish payroll taxes, levies on capital gains, estate taxes and all individual deductions except for charitable contributions.
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The late Steve Jobs demonstrated how one person’s innovation and creativity can launch a company and an industry of previously unimagined products.
Apple Computers was based in the Bay Area, not far from Solyndra, the bankrupt solar panel company for which taxpayers face a $528 million loss.
Unlike Solyndra, Steve Jobs didn’t get government loan guarantees for his first Apple computer, or for the Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad.
With Solyndra’s bankruptcy, surely September would have been a good time to halt the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program and understand why
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From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, America celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. How have Hispanics fared in America over the past three years, since they helped to send Barack Obama to the White House?
Like many Americans, not well.
When Obama was elected with 67 percent of the Hispanic vote, some Americans believed he was serious about his campaign promises of immigration reform, an important issue for many voters.
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Solyndra, a Fremont solar power company that filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, demonstrates the perils of “industrial policy” where the government decides which new industries or start-up companies to support with federal money.
But it’s not like the government wasn’t warned ahead of time.
Solyndra, in a public S-1 filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission in September 2009 before a public offering that was subsequently withdrawn, offered 22 pages of reasons why it might fail.
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Millions of Americans are looking for work, and the number in poverty, 46.2 million, is the highest since the Census Bureau began compiling such data 52 years ago.
The slow employment growth just might be connected to the $2,000 per worker business tax, to begin in 2014, enacted as part of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
The tax will be levied on firms with 50 or more employees who do not offer health insurance (or sufficiently generous health insuranceto meet government standards.)
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Contrasts between President Barack Obama’s job creation proposals and those of Republican presidential candidates have never been clearer. With Obama’s Thursday address to a joint session of Congress, following Republicans’ Wednesday debate, Americans have a choice of two divergent paths. The president’s path — more government spending — has not led to economic prosperity. The other — lower taxes and regulatory reform — just might.
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Don’t look now, but President Barack Obama is changing immigration policy by regulation.
We need more legal pathways for immigrants to enter America, but legislation is a better way to address the problem than executive action.
Last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano informed Congress that she is instituting a review of all individuals currently in deportation proceedings.
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Despite the gloomy economic environment, an outpouring of private generosity is making it possible for 18-year-old Josh Coyne, a gifted black musician, to enroll in New York’s Manhattan School of Music next month.
Josh, the adopted son of a single mother, graduated in June from Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Md.
Two months ago, Josh feared that his dream of studying music composition at the Manhattan School would be dashed by poverty.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has announced funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, so the agency will be able to resume collecting taxes on airline tickets.
But did you know that Europe also wants our travel dollars, by taxing airlines’ carbon emissions on trans-Atlantic flights?
The European Union wants to tax all flights into Europe, beginning on Jan. 1, on the basis of the miles they fly. The EU argues that because no global agreement on emissions reduction from aircraft is in place, it has the right to take the first step.
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Public attention is focused on the debt ceiling debate. But the risk to the economy is not that the United States will default on its payments to domestic and foreign bondholders, but that America’s debt will lose its AAA rating.
The Senate has not yet passed a bill that would cut spending. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that he would oppose Boehner’s Budget Control Act if it reached the Senate.
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Job creation is slowing, unemployment is high. Reasonable people might believe that President Barack Obama would do all that he can to help employers create jobs.
But his Spring Regulatory Agency, released in July and available at www.reginfo.gov, would hobble employers with additional costly regulations.
The contents of the Spring Regulatory Agenda are even more extraordinary in light of Obama’s stated pursuit of regulatory simplicity and reform.
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Most Americans know America’s biggest problem: too few jobs. Yet President Barack Obama could create more jobs by executive action, at no cost, generating billions of additional dollars in income tax revenues.
How? By instructing his Cabinet to hold off on job-killing regulations.
Our regulatory environment makes it harder to create jobs. Regulations are controlled by presidential appointees at the executive branch and independent agencies. Tougher regulations lead employers to locate elsewhere. Friendlier regulations draw them back home.
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The jobs numbers could hardly have been worse. Not only did the unemployment rate rise to 9.2 percent, and the economy create only 18,000 jobs, but the percent of Americans choosing to participate in the labor force declined to 64.1 percent, the same level as in March, 1984. Over 44 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or longer, making their reentry into employment even more difficult.
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/people/diana-furchtgott-roth
