Host Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America (now on 71 stations) by characterizing President Obama’s new budget proposal as a run-up to the 2016 election.
“By proposing a large tax increase and vowing to asses large taxes on U.S. companies with an overseas presence, he’s going to start alienating a lot of voters,” proposed Neal.
Co-host Dr. Rich Roffman agreed, suggesting that the Obama team must have some kind of checklist where they identify groups of people they haven’t taxed yet. Dr. Roffman believes that the budget proposal is just a form of Democratic propaganda.
The first guest on Made in America was return guest Professor Peter Morici, of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, a recognized expert on economic policy and international economics, who takes great exception with Obama’s plan to essentially double-tax U.S. corporations doing business overseas.
“U.S. corporations with businesses in other countries pay that country’s taxes, and are still asked to pay U.S. taxes. Only the U.S. asks companies to pay double taxes, which only encourages companies to keep their earnings in the foreign country or re-invest it locally, depriving the U.S. of any tax revenue,” maintained Morici.
He would like to see the U.S. government drop the current 14 percent tax levy to maybe 5 percent, which he thinks most U.S. companies would pay. The high tax burden makes U.S. companies less competitive, while punishing U.S. investors. “Burdening U.S. companies with high taxes is like sending an army out without bullets. Good luck guys! Meanwhile, Obama’s focus is on infrastructure spending, while a good thing, is undermined if the money goes to privileged unions that support Democrats, which means that jobs will be destroyed, not created. The federal government is not very good at managing large infrastructure projects and just winds up giving away Grandma’s tax money,” proposed Morici, who adds that these kinds of poor choices are depleting the savings and benefits for the elderly and forcing even the elderly at advanced ages to go back to work.
Dr. Roffman characterized this is as “The Aunt Sophie Syndrome.”
Seton Motley, consultant, founder and president of Less Government, also was a return guest on Made in America, who is appalled by the ongoing phony job numbers being released by the White House.
“The White House keeps playing around with their job numbers. Even a census employee admitted that they fudged the employment numbers, ignoring the millions of Americans who stopped looking for work, while including workers in their employment figures who accepted poor paying part-time jobs. Only in Washington D.C. can you get credit for people giving up on jobs. It’s absurd. And a lie,” maintained Motley, who added that Republicans are in no hurry to correct the situation since the Democrats will be blamed for the poor employment figures.
Neal revealed that the Gallup Organization recently made the unprecedented pronouncement that the employment numbers are a “big lie.”
The next guest on Made in America was Andy Radford, senior policy advisor for the American Petroleum Institute, who refutes President Obama’s claims that he’s responsible for the recent “energy renaissance” and the low gas prices at the pump. “Our energy levels are going way down because all of the recent energy finds are from private lands. Almost nothing comes from federal land exploration. Even his proposal to allow Atlantic ocean drilling is not going to happen until 2021, long after he’s out of office. All Obama is doing is kicking the can down the road when it comes to domestic oil exploration,” proposed Radford.
Radford is particularly unhappy with White House claims that energy companies aren’t using all of the land leases they were rewarded. He notes that oil companies must pay for the leases upfront before they do any exploration; and if they can’t make the lease profitable, the government takes it back and resells it. Entering into the equation are energy reserves closest to the surface, which have all been tapped out, requiring much more expensive deeper drilling.
The final guest on Made in America was Marlo Lewis, from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who switched the energy conversation from oil to coal.
Neal noted that the FutureGen coal plant being built in Illinois at a cost of $1.1 billion, which would have been the model for clean burning coal, is being shut down due to money problems.
“If we lived in the real world, and not the Twilight Zone, a sensible government would know how to capitalize on the huge coal reserves we have in this country that could reduce energy costs and create jobs,” noted Dr. Roffman.
Lewis agreed, revealing that half of all states use coal as part of their energy program, and that 21 states get half of their electric power generation from coal.
“In the developing world, coal is the least costly energy option. By helping them use coal that is environmentally safe, it would help improve general health and get people out of poverty, especially in a country like China,” proposed Lewis.
Lewis returned to the FutureGen project, explaining that since the project fell behind schedule, the funding was no longer available. Lewis was greatly disappointed since if the FutureGen project was completed, it would contribute to safer and more cost efficient energy programs around the globe.
As part of his ongoing segment on the rise in the development of robots to replace human workers, Dr. Roffman noted that while AOL is laying off sales and marketing personnel in New York, they are replacing them with automated workers.
Internet giant Alibaba, according to Dr. Roffman, is all in on funding robotics and artificial intelligence developments. During the next 5-10 years, Alibaba is expected to invest billions in this area, following on the heels of several other companies that are seeing robotics as an area of growth. Apple, for example, is investing in driverless vans, along the lines of Google’s investment in driverless cars.
On the cronyism front, Warren Buffet, a big Obama supporter who is perceived as the champion of American business, is looking to buy some European companies to shelter some of his money from U.S. taxes.
And Democratic shill Reverend Al Sharpton has escaped the scrutiny of the Feds for not paying taxes on a number of failed for-profit enterprises.
“Does anybody know who ordained Reverend Al,” asked 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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