Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America by reiterating what he predicted weeks ago that soon after President Obama’s reelection, unemployment numbers would rise; and they have. The new unemployment rate, according to Gallup, is 8.3 percent and will likely rise further after January 1 when the nation falls off the fiscal cliff.
“This is terrible news for the unemployed who believed that after the election things would get better. They’re not,” concluded Neal.
Joining the show as a first time guest was Bob Beauprez, Editor-in Chief of A Line of Site.com, a leading conservative website. He led off the discussion by characterizing the Renewable Fuel Standard as the biggest government boondoggle in history. Beauprez has written that the goal of the Renewable Fuel Standard “was to reduce American dependence on foreign oil and incentivize the fledging renewable fuel industry. But in the hands of the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it has become a nightmarish mess of out-of-control mandates, over-the-top bureaucracy, and out-and-out fraud.”
“Consumers are paying hundreds of billions of dollars for this failed mandate that raises costs at the gas pump and even the price of food. First, there is the mandate requiring ethanol to be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. A total of 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol must be added this year and 13.8 billion gallons next year. Combined with this summer’s drought, the ethanol mandate has pushed up corn and animal-feed prices, resulting in higher prices for food,” said Beauprez.
Beauprez added that another energy-related problem is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable identification numbers (RIN) program which was designed to ensure that refiners and other motor fuel suppliers buy RINs to help meet federal Renewable Fuel Standard quotas.
“The trouble is that this program is largely fraudulent, forcing oil companies to buy RINs only to discover that they aren’t authentic. Then they have to go back to buy genuine RINs. The government totally messed up this program,” concluded Beauprez.
Neal and his co-host Dr. Rich Roffman, resumed the conversation about the unemployment numbers.
Doing his best imitation of Jim Nabors as the old TV sitcom character Gomer Pyle, Neal proclaimed “surprise, surprise, surprise” when the new higher unemployment numbers were released.
“This is on top of unemployment being caused by the IRS, which is calling out industries with new tax mandates that are leading to even greater unemployment,” said Neal.
Dr. Roffman agreed, adding “we are heading toward an unemployment storm after January 1 when sequestering results in a $550 billion cut in defense budgets, causing contractors to lay off thousands of workers. And now we’re at an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, exactly where we were when Obama initiated his failed stimulus program.”
Neal’s next guest was first timer Angela Logomasini of The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty.
She discussed the perils of the government second guessing product manufacturers by establishing “hazard” mandates that cause manufacturers to pull products off the shelf that are essentially safe. This government promotion of “green chemistry” then forces manufacturers to reformulate products, often with inferior ingredients, but at higher prices.
Logonmasini recently wrote: “As the world reexamines Rachel Carson’s anti-pesticide legacy, (we have to) focus on the importance of chemicals designed for crop production. Unfortunately, the benefits of these agrochemicals are at risk as Carson’s legacy of misinformation lives on within the politically organized environmental movement.”
She notes that millions of people around the world are dying and crops are being destroyed by government mandates that pulled effective pesticide products off the market. She invited listeners to learn more by visiting safechemicalpolicy.org.
“What this does is keep innovators on the sidelines, especially insecticide manufacturers that could be helping to eradicate some crop-destroying insects. Essentially, our inventors will have fewer tools to succeed in the marketplace,” added Neal.
Made in America’s final guest was return guest Linwood Brooks, policy director for Public Notice.
“The country is experiencing deficits of $1 trillion or more every year, so raising taxes on the rich will not solve the deficit problem. We’ve already fallen off the fiscal cliff and we’re just lucky that the financial markets haven’t punished us yet. But that time will come,” predicted Brooks.
Neal agreed, adding “The democrats like to talk about not taxing the poor or middle class, but taxing the rich will only punish job creators while expanding entitlements.”
Brooks sees a back and forth battle between democrats and republicans to see who blinks first, although the democrats have the upper hand.
“Obama has made it clear that taxes will go up for the wealthy, and I don’t see him backing down. But I do think there will be an 11th hour compromise, probably after Christmas. Some kind of patch will be created to push this toward major reforms in 2013,” concluded Brooks.
In his weekly cronyism report, Dr. Roffman reported that ReVolt Technology, a manufacturer of zinc airflow batteries for electric cars, will go out of business after burning through a $5 million loan from the DOE and another $5 million loan from the state of Oregon.
“This pattern of government loans to failed companies continues. And of course the poster child is the Chevy Volt, which announced that after government subsidies ended in November, they sold 1/2 the number cars sold in previous months,” said Dr. Roffman.
“This government wants to control most industries, including energy, healthcare, banking and manufacturing. The democrats think America will be better off if the government controls everything. But free enterprise is what makes this country grow and creates jobs. Cronyism corrupts the system and we’re seeing the results,” added Neal.
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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