Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America (now on 44 stations) by revealing that a new federal program provides an incentive of $3,000 for every newly legalized immigrant that a company hires. Employers who hire naturally born U.S. citizens receive no incentives, essentially putting new immigrants at the front of the line.
Neal’s first guest was Steven McNeely, who operates Service Pros landscaping businesses in Illinois and Florida and is a
frequent hirer of legal immigrants.
“I want to play by the rules so I use E-Verify to ensure that a job candidate is a legal immigrant. But that process can take two months, which means that some lawns go untended because we need more workers. It’s frustrating, especially when some competitors are using undocumented workers and paying them less money,” said McNeely.
McNeely likes E-Verify as a tool, but wishes it was more responsive, perhaps cutting the approval time to 24 hours.
Neal and co-host Dr. Roffman segued to a discussion of overlapping federal agencies that waste money by duplicating activities. In particular, as Neal covered in his book Conscientious Equity, there are currently 22 federal agencies with shared responsibilities in managing America’s trade infrastructure. This has created a bloated behemoth government infrastructure that is uncompetitive and inefficient, and deprives U.S. exporters with the support they need to combat foreign governments that erode our access to markets.
“While I disagree with most everything this Administration has done relative to our economy and getting this country working again, as an exporter, I do agree with the consolidation of our global trade infrastructure into a single powerful agency. But Obama ignored advice I gave to the commerce department and created the underwhelming Department of Business, which doesn’t adequately really address trade issues,” proposed Neal.
Instead, Neal advocates for the creation of a Department of Global Commerce, under the Secretary of Global Commerce –a cabinet position — that would provide America with leadership and would ensure that our manufacturers are competing in the world market on a level playing field.
He notes that Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China have comparable agencies that have the clout and power to drive global business, creating both revenue and jobs.
Dr. Roffman noted that duplication and replication of activities by federal agencies is pervasive. In the energy area alone, he noted that a GAO report identified 679 renewable energy initiatives at 23 federal agencies and their 130 sub-agencies where federal support is fragmented, costing taxpayers $15 billion.
“The Energy Information Administration estimated that federal agencies provided nearly $5 billion in financial support in fiscal year 2010 for research, development, and deployment of wind energy technologies, more than 75 percent of the total federal subsidies for all renewable energy used to generate electricity and over 10 times the support wind received in fiscal year 2007. In one instance, a wind energy project received the same grant seven times. A waste of money that could have been used to create more jobs,” suggested Dr. Roffman.
Joining the show was Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, a non-profit, nonpartisan government accountability organization that fights to protect economic opportunity when federal regulations, spending and cronyism threaten it.
After a 19-month investigation, Cause for Action found that Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program, a grant
program administered by the CDC for education on tobacco use and obesity prevention, used approximately 66 percent of these funds for lobbying on behalf of the Obama administration.
“All grant recipients are notified that it is illegal to use the funds for lobbying, but our investigation has uncovered seven new instances where your federal tax dollars were used to push for higher taxes and new ordinances. Our investigation shows how the CDC failed to conduct proper oversight of the CPPW program. This practice is illegal and violates federal law,” revealed Epstein, who added that $373 million of these funds were used to push a political agenda, which will multiply by six to over $1 billion by 2015.
The final guest on Made in America was Chip Knappenberger, the assistant director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, who coordinates the scientific and outreach activities for the Center.
Knappenberger, like many people, is frustrated that construction of the Keystone Pipeline is still on hold even after all the environmental objections have been met.
“The newest battle cry from environmentalists is that the pipeline will contribute to global warming. It will have zero impact on the environment globally or domestically. In fact, the oil coming into the country from Canada will just replace the oil we already use. Obama is digging in his heels and has made this about climate change – it’s really about the economy,” said Knappenberger.
Neal and Dr. Roffman concluded the show by returning to the topic of cronyism and how it wastes money and delays job creation.
“Cronyism is the gift that keeps on giving if you’re a friend and donor of the Obama administration. For the rest of us, cronyism wastes the money that should be going to taxpayers,” said Dr. Roffman, adding, “The $90 billion in grant money given to green energy companies whose executives are Obama cronies, in most cases lost all of it without creating the millions of promised jobs.”
In the most recent case of cronyism, longtime Democratic fundraiser Terry McAuliffe convinced the government to give GreenTech Automotive millions in grants, while also convincing the state of Mississippi to fund his electric car enterprise.
“GreenTech is going under, and with it, is the $5 million provided by Mississippi. McAuliffe also has been able to qualify for EB-5 visas,
which are earmarked only for Immigrant Investors who can obtain a green card for foreign nationals who invest $1,000,000 (or at
least $500,000 in a ‘Targeted Employment Area’ in the United States,” notes Dr. Roffman.
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.nealasburysmadeinamerica.com
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