Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America (now on 44 stations) by calling on President Obama to exhibit some leadership and explain to the nation’s 25 million unemployed and underemployed workers why he can’t prevent sequestration from further eroding their chance of employment.
Joining the show as a return guest was Republican Representative, Blake Farenthold, a lifelong resident of South Texas, who represents Texas’ 27th district and who proposed that both Democratic and Republican voters are fed up with congress.
“Everybody is focusing on stopping sequestration, but letting it take place might be the way to go. We need to take a meat axe to the budget. If it was up to me I’d go to every department of the government and have them start cutting their budgets. We just have too much waste,” said Farenthold.
Farenthold noted that the House has proposed two replacements for sequestration but it was ignored by Obama. Even Democrats have given up working with Obama. He just gives speeches but he never explains the “hows” of his plan and how much it will cost.
“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road when it comes to our debt. Obama tried raising revenue through taxes to keep us from going over the fiscal cliff, but we’re no better off today. In fact, people are being forced to cut their household budgets by 3 percent to pay for rising gasoline prices. People in this country have lost confidence in this president and his policies,” concluded Farenthold.
Neal and co-host Dr. Rich Roffman circled back to what happens when a people have lost confidence in their government and cronyism guides their policies.
Neal sees some similarities between the United States and Japan, where since after World War II a single party, the Liberal Democratic Party, controls the country’s economy.
“Big Japanese companies have essentially put a wall around Japan forcing consumers to only buy products they manufacture…at inflated prices. They can do this because they have a cozy relationship with the LDP – the ultimate form of cronyism, since the profits that the companies make flow back to the LDP,” said Neal.
Neal suggested that this is happening in America where crony companies of the Obama administration are making big profits and having some of that money flow back to the Democratic Party.
Co-host Dr. Rich Roffman suggested that if you want to see cronyism in action, look no further than the cozy relationships between the Department of Energy and Green energy companies, many of whom are run by friends of Obama.
“American tax payers invested $90 billion and we got almost nothing out of it. In fact instead of creating jobs, we actually lost jobs,” said Dr. Roffman.
Joining the show as a return guest was Gretchen Hamel, Executive Director of Public Notice, which seeks to explain complex economic, regulatory, and budget issues to Americans.
“Sequestration is using a meat axe to cut spending. Yet, all anyone is asking the White House is to cut three cents out of every dollar the government spends. This should be easy to do. It really says a lot about Obama’s leadership. If sequestration does as much harm as some people say, the President will have a lot of explaining to do,” said Hamel.
Hamel suggested that the president doesn’t really recognize how concerned the American public is about out-of-control government spending. If sequestration occurs, it needs to occur today instead of months from now. The longer the delay the more drastic results it will have for the economy.
“Both parties need to talk about this issue and come to some compromise. When sequestration happens, it will look like it was the President’s idea,” concluded Hamel.
The final guest on Made in America was Ron Fournier, Editorial Director of National Journal, who proposed that the sequestration battle is exposing both parties as putting politics ahead of what is good for the nation.
“The White House is spending all of its time trying to demonstrate that they are willing to make more cuts in entitlements than the Republicans. The Democrats think they are winning the political argument and even think they will take back the House, but I don’t think so,” predicted Fournier.
Fournier proposed that both parties are locked in combat, and two major factors are influencing the battle: the redistricting of states that is almost guaranteeing a party will win; and the continued move by media to support certain political parties that reflect their philosophies.
Dr. Roffman and Neal continued their ongoing segment on government waste and cronyism. This lead to taking up the thoughts of Ron Fournier when it comes to media bias.
“You have Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos doing news on ABC and now Obama advisor David Axelrod has been hired as a news commentator on NBC. This is the height of cronyism when political advisors pose as neutral newsmen when they are supporting their old friends and political party. Even Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs is joining MSNBC,” said Neal.
Dr. Roffman said that this is a dangerous trend that is leading to one party rule.
“The political establishment is becoming the media establishment. Now you have news outlets working directly to re-elect the president,” suggested Dr. Roffman, who added that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
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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