Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America by welcoming former U.S. trade representative Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, who is a Senior International Partner for Wilmer-Hale, which offers legal representation across a comprehensive range of practice areas. She joined the firm after serving as the U.S. Trade Representative—the chief trade negotiator and principal trade policymaker for the United States—from 1997 to 2001, and acting as deputy USTR from 1993 to 1996.
In his introduction Neal emphasized how important a role she had as a U.S. Trade Representative because when she can promote U.S. products overseas, it helps create U.S. jobs.
Barshefsky is working with the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, which is the first international commercial agreement pursued by the Obama administration to date, and would be the largest one since the 1995 World Trade Organization. It would link Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada into a “free trade” zone similar to that of NAFTA.
“This agreement will open markets for U.S. goods, services and agriculture in Asian markets, and will concentrate on high end manufacturing, communications and biotechnology. These industries support 55 million U.S. jobs, and 45 percent of all private sector jobs. And equally important, it will protect U.S. intellectual property from theft,” said Barshefsky.
She reported that this agreement would impact 1/3 of all U.S. trade when it is expected to take effect in October of 2013. She is particularly proud that it will include Thailand and Malaysia, two of Asia’s fasted growing markets
Neal asked how this can happen if President Obama has never asked for trade promotion authority to negotiate these types of agreements.
Barshefsky is confident that this will happen and that Congress will support this agreement and other Free Trade Agreements.
Neal and his co-host Dr. Rich Roffman turned the conversation to the looming fiscal cliff and the fact that even some Republicans are caving in by supporting a proposed rise in taxes that would impact small business, the nation’s job creators.
“I agree that we can get rid of some loop holes, and that maybe we need to raise the age when people can qualify for Medicare, but what we really need is a fair tax code. I’m willing to pay more for some social services, but I want to see the government agree to take some of this bad medicine, too,” said Neal, who added this his own company’s health insurance is going up by 20 percent.
Co-host Dr. Rich Roffman agreed that the Obama administration has put nothing on the table and wanted to know when they will tell Americans where the money will go.
“The dynamics have changed. We’re talking not about billions of dollars, but about trillions of dollars. But Obama doesn’t deal directly with Congress. Instead he goes to the media and they carry the water for him. He blames Congress, but he is really blaming the House, because it is held by Republicans,” said Dr. Roffman.
Neal’s next guest was first time guest Scott Mackey, an economist and partner at KS Partners LLP in Montpelier, VT. He authored a new report: A Growing Burden: Taxes and Fees On Wireless Service, that contends among other things that: consumers in 47 states now pay wireless taxes, fees, and government charges that exceed the general retail sales tax rate; and that the average consumer pays over 16 percent of their wireless bill in federal, state and local taxes, fees and surcharges. For other goods and services, the average tax rate is only 7.4 percent.
He proposes that these taxes are totally out of control, but nobody is advocating on behalf of consumers. But he notes that there is some progress being made. For example, a new website mywireless.org explains state-by-state the taxes that consumers are paying.
“The most promising progress being made about rising wireless taxes is the bi-partisan Wireless Tax Fairness Act, which will create a five year time out on raising new taxes. But unless people get creative and engage in stopping these taxes, nothing will get done,” concluded Mackey.
Lowell Ponte, Radio Host, former think tank futurist, former editor of Reader’s Digest Magazine, and a columnist at Newsmax.com, joins Neal to discuss: “Should America secede from the dollar?” Made in America’s final guest was first time guest Fred Wszolek, from the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI), an organization committed to educating voters, employers, employees and citizens about issues affecting the workplace.
Wszolek proposes that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) used to be fair minded. But now it is stacked with union stooges and sides with unions.
“Now the NLRB ignores the advent of micro-unions, which are small unions within a company and could be as small as five people,” warned Wszolek.
Hostess, according to Wszolek, is an example of a company that got into financial trouble due to its unions. He revealed that Hostess has 372 different labor agreements, to the point where drivers could only deliver Twinkies, but not bread. Yet, Hostess in Canada, a non-union company, is doing well and still manufacturing Twinkies.
In his weekly cronyism report, Dr. Roffman reported that PCG, a company in Nevada, which was supported by Harry Reid, received a $737 million loan from the Department of Energy to produce electricity. While the deal was promoted because it would create 146 jobs, based on the amount of the loan, each job was created at a price of $16 million.
“But Harry Reid is not the only person with his finger in the pie. Nancy Pelosi’s brother is the executive director of PCG. I don’t think this is a coincidence,” said Dr. Roffman.
Dr. Roffman continued his concern about the troubled battery operated GM Chevy Volt, which has been subsidized by the government but has been known to catch fire and can only travel a short distance before a new charge is required.
“Now they are building a Cadillac version of the Volt and creating a mini-car called the Spark, which is ironic since the Volt is known to catch fire. And worst of all—it does not have a gas tank, so if the car stalls and you aren’t near a charging unit, you are out luck,” said Dr. Roffman.
Neal noted that the GM bailout and the PCG loan are examples of out of control cronyism, which “decays a country, if it continues, and could bring down the U.S. as it has other countries.”
Each week Neal Asbury’s Made in America provides Neal’s insights into the week’s top news stories and their impact on the worlds of entrepreneurship, small business ownership and the overall economy. Neal’s analysis, together with co-host Dr. Richard Roffman, a veteran 30-year publisher with extensive domestic and international experience, takes a non-biased approach based on real life experience in business as an American manufacturer and exporter. Made in America airs nationally each Saturday from 7-8:00 PM on Radio America. Link to Made in America at http://www.nealasbrysmadeinamerica.com.
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