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Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America (now on 44 stations) by wondering why in his State of the Union Address, President Obama failed to mention any initiative that would help the nation’s entrepreneurs — America’s job creators. It’s a repeating trend that Neal finds troubling. Returning to Made in America as a guest was David Harsanyi, of Human Events. He was previously Editorial Manager at the Mercury Ink imprint and a Columnist/Blogger at The Blaze, as well as an award-winning columnist for the Denver Post.
“In his State of the Union Address it was nice to hear President Obama talk about bringing back jobs, but he can’t accomplish this by raising the minimum wage and adding burdens like ObamaCare. Everything he does makes it harder to create jobs. He continues to spout populist nonsense which doesn’t make any economic sense,” said Harsanyi.
Harsanyi suggested that Obama speaks like he’s living in the 19th century when he talks about the economy and creating infrastructure jobs. His idea of job creation is to subsidize everything, which can’t make the economy grow.
“The American people are confused about Obama’s programs. They want to hear about manufacturing jobs, but Obama talks about green energy. They don’t like ObamaCare, but when you ask them about segments of it, they like it. What they really want to hear is news about prosperity, but he talks about growing the economy when all he’s really doing is growing the size of the government,” concluded Harsanyi.
Neal and co-host Dr. Rich Roffman circled back to a discussion of the State of the Union Address, which prompted Neal to remark that the President just doesn’t get it when it comes to job creation.
“Obama needs to be creating an environment where entrepreneurs can thrive. He needs to empower the risk takers and job creators. We can’t restore the Middle Class when they are relegated to $9.00 per hour jobs. We’re not creating a Middle Class; we’re creating the working poor. The U.S. has more people on food stamps than the population of Spain. We should aspire to more,” said Neal.
Speaking from his own experience as an entrepreneur and exporter, Neal noted that he’s trying to create good paying American jobs that pay $60 – $70,000 a year but can’t find the people he needs, like engineers. He wants to see American manufacturers bring back the right kinds of jobs, and that can only happen if the government limits onerous regulations, pushes back ObamaCare, and fixes the nation’s tax system.
Dr. Roffman added that the U.S. cannot continue to rack up incredible deficits. Even the GAO predicts that the county is on an unsustainable path.
“Obama talks about needing new taxes and a balanced approach, but won’t acknowledge that we’ve got a spending problem. He doesn’t understand how jobs are created, and can’t identify with guys like Neal and myself, entrepreneurs who create the jobs in this country,” said Dr. Roffman.
The show’s next guest was return guest Pat Michaels, Director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, who was disappointed that the Keystone XL Pipeline was not mentioned during the recent State of the Union Address.
“I didn’t really expect him to mention it – he doesn’t have the courage for that. Most people agree that there is nothing wrong with this pipeline. It will bring badly needed oil into the U.S and create thousands of U.S. jobs. But he has allowed global warming to overtake any decisions regarding energy,” said Michaels, who added that global warming has nothing to do with the Keystone XL Pipeline, which at worst, will raise temperatures by 1,000th of a degree over the next ten years.
One positive coming out of this is that it is doubtful that Cap and Trade will ever be reintroduced on the Hill after the Democrats lost The House the last time this idea was kicked around. But Michaels predicted that Obama will circumvent Congress and use the EPA to continue to enact stricter emission standards.
“Obama is always talking about the fact that more drilling is occurring in the U.S. than at any time in history. But he fails to mention that almost none of it is occurring on Federal land, where leasing permits are way down,” said Michaels, who added that as gas price continues to rise, energy will be a real issue in 2014.
Joining the show as a first time guest was Neil Jenkins, chairman of Gibbs Sports Amphibians, Inc., which manufactures the Quadski, an all-purpose vehicle that reaches speeds of 45 mph on both land and water and transitions between them in seconds—no stopping necessary. At the press of a button, the Quadski’s wheels retract after entering the water and deploy when approaching land. It has taken some $200 million and 15 years of hard work to bring the Quadski to market.
“I knew that it would take time to bring the Quadski to market, but I didn’t know how long it would take to comply with all the state and federal regulations. It took longer to pass the regulations than to design and build the Quadski,” said Jenkins.
He noted that the Quadski’s speed far surpasses anything on the market where the top speed for a land and water vehicle was only eight miles per hour, instead of the Quadski’s 45. If the Quadski takes off, it could create an additional 200 jobs in addition to the 120 workers already employed at the Gibbs’ plant in Michigan.
Dr. Roffman and Neal continued their ongoing segment on government waste and cronyism. Both agreed that the recent State of the Union served as a podium for promising money to Obama cronies.
“You’ve got $50 billion going to improve the infrastructure, where most of the work will be done by unions. Then there’s $15 billion to knock down homes – big union jobs. And $6 billion to communities that lose jobs due to business closing—most of which will go to unions,” predicted Dr. Roffman.
Unions also will prosper from the money going to green energy and to fund pre-school teachers, most of whom are unionized.
“All the money is going to unions, leaving millions of workers making $9 per hour. The cronies get the money, which filters back to the Democratic campaign fund. That’s cronyism in action,” concluded 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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