Host Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America (now on 69 stations) by proposing that President Obama’s executive order to grant “green cards” to 5 million undocumented immigrants is probably unconstitutional. Worse, it means more competition for American citizens looking for work, especially among blacks that have an unemployment rate near 20 percent. Neal agreed with the common consensus that this executive order is nothing but a political move to garner Hispanic votes.
Joining Made in America was Andrew Evans, an assistant editor of National Affairs, who wrote in The Federalist that even a progressive like Woodrow Wilson would have disagreed with Obama’s executive order when it comes to his immigration policy.
“One tenet of Wilsonian progressivism was a strong belief in the capacity of the administrative state. Better administration was the cure for society’s ills, but Wilson also warned that America must be limited by the liberal principle of democratic rule according to a set system. ‘Liberty cannot live apart from constitutional principle,’” wrote Evans, quoting Wilson.
Evans thinks that Obama’s political moves are “bizarre,” as Obama keeps proposing that Congress must follow his direction, even when what he is doing could be unconstitutional. Obama has ignored the separation of powers when it comes to immigration policy and is setting a precedent that will have long-term implications. Although Evans believes that a lawsuit may be forthcoming, he doesn’t see Republicans moving toward impeachment or shutting down the government.
Joining the show was Sam Kazman, general counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who is part of the legal team that is bringing suit against the government agencies charged with supporting Dodd-Frank.
“Our organization has joined with other associations, 11 states, and the State National Bank of Big Springs (the lead plaintiff) to try and overturn a previous ruling by a circuit court that determined it was premature to bring up the suit since no damage could be proven. Now we can prove damages, and the National Bank of Big Springs has stepped up as the lead plaintiff. We brought the suit before an appeals panel, which looks like they are favorably disposed toward our suit,” said Kazman.
Neal noted that overturning Dodd-Frank is important because Dodd-Frank is making community banks extinct – the very financial resource that small businesses depend on for capital so they can grow and hire.
The next guest on Made in America was Dan Simmons, VP of policy for the Institute for Energy Research, who is confident that once the new Congress takes shape next year, the Keystone XL Pipeline will be approved and will be sent to the president for passage; which he will probably veto.
“It’s very difficult to override a presidential veto. If you can’t find the Democratic votes this year that want to support job creation, why would we expect to find any support next year? Even though 70 percent of Americans want to see the Keystone XL Pipeline built, it continues to get vetoed by rich Democrats who will make more money off of rail shipments of oil than if the pipeline was built,” contends Simmons.
Simmons believes that environmentalists have been able to skew the argument that the pipeline is dirty, when in fact using the pipeline to ship oil is cleaner and more environmentally friendly than rail. The real issue is that there are people who don’t support oil of any kind, even if it would help reduce our energy dependency on foreign oil while also bringing down energy prices.
The final guest on Made in America was Zack Colman, an energy and environmental writer for the Washington Examiner, who echoed Simmons’ contention that anti-oil and coal proponents are driving the dialogue. Harry Reid recently told a crowd that “coal and oil make us sick. We should stop using coal.”
Colman noted that such stands are killing communities whose livelihoods depend on coal. He visited Logan County, West Virginia, a coal mining community that has lost 28 percent of its population since 2000. Nearly 31 percent of its inhabitants live below the poverty line. The population of Logan County, founded in 1824, dropped from a high of 77,391 in 1950 to 36,743 in 2010.
Colman reports that while residents could see the downturn in coal coming, they didn’t fully comprehend that “Environmental regulations, stoked by fears about climate change, are accelerating a long-term decline in demand for coal. Emerging economies such as China are trying to use less coal to reduce air pollution. Cleaner fuels such as natural gas and solar power, which is getting cheaper by the day, divert buyers away from coal. And markets and financial institutions, seeing the spread of regulations internationally, are starting to give coal the thumbs down,” wrote Colman, who added that such regulations are leaving residents angry and frustrated and believe that they are being kicked around when they are already down. While some residents have training in skills adaptable to non-coal industries, they don’t want to be forced to leave the only town they’ve ever known.
Joining the show by phone, co-host Dr. Rich Roffman conversed with Neal to continue their long-running weekly segment identifying rampant cronyism.
As part of his ongoing segment on the rise in the development of robots to replace human workers, Dr. Roffman pointed to a new hyper human robot being manufactured in Japan that can replace humans on the job, and even off the job, serving as sex surrogates.
And companies can purchase robot drones to shoot video at a fraction of the cost necessary to take these shots using a helicopter.
On the cronyism front, there’s a reason that the nation’s insurance agencies have embraced Obamacare – they are making billions of dollars as they raise premiums and reduce coverage.
No cronyism report would be complete without returning to solar energy, where companies that support Obama have reaped billions of taxpayer dollars creating solar projects that are almost always destined for failure. In this case, California’s $2.2 billion Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System needs another government transfusion because there hasn’t been enough sunlight to make the plant profitable.
“Even without the sun, we should have seen through this solar disaster,” quipped Dr. Roffman.
Each week Neal Asbury’ 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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