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Is it just me, or is all this fighting about tax cuts/increases diverting our attention from structural economic problems that are not going to go away no matter what we do.
Some of the problems I'm thinking of:
--High health care costs (driven by: lack of true competition in the health care market place; greedy insurance companies; trial lawyers; defensive medicine, which results in too many tests & procedures; extraordinary measures taken for those at the end of their lives; and last but not least...an abundance of low quality and processed foods that create a lot of unnecessary cases of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, & high blood pressure).
--A need for a more qualified work force to take the jobs that pay middle class wages, which means reforming schools as well as finding ways to upgrade the skills of adults quickly and more cheaply than we do now.
--To some extent, I agree with those who say China is cheating us by manipulating its currency and demanding technology transfers if we build factories in China.
--Our dependency on foreign oil, which is perhaps the only thing that can be partially solved by a tax increase on gas/fossil fuels. 1/2 of our trade deficit is oil.
In general, I'm all for low taxes, but I really don't think they are going to fix all that ails us.
It's not really about just taxes, but more about job base. You have to have a middle class job base, but it's going away due to costs. Most people want things cheaper.
The structural issues are what we have to fix. Health care benefits and their cost are a big one. Health care cost alone make us unaffordable as workers. If you add any wage at all forget about it we cost to much. Add in worker's comp local state regs EPA ect it is just more cost. And you know what even if we put taxes to 0 and cut red tape it would not matter. They can sent almost everything overseas IT engineering R&D your x rays you name it. A good engineer here 80 to 100k a year. India 20 to 25k China even less. Forget worker's comp health benefits ect that is their issues. Somebody lost an arm because your plant is unsafe. No big deal they can no one can sue you anyway . Those profits you made overseas can not be taxed till you bring them back to the US. Which never happens ever. It is just parked in a overseas bank. Most of the time in a island with no taxes of any kind. We have 27 worker visas to bring in workers from overseas. Guys in the trades engineers IT nurses teachers. The idea is to drive down wages over the long haul. People in the US do not get it. It is all about taxes or the Dem vs Rep thing. If you even bring up bigger issues no one cares. It is so beyound tax rates.
--Our dependency on foreign oil, which is perhaps the only thing that can be partially solved by a tax increase on gas/fossil fuels. 1/2 of our trade deficit is oil.
Taxing the oil is out of the question.
You now import foreign oil not for cars but for the petro-chemicals that rule your world.
You tax oil, then you cause the price of food to rise, not because it increases the cost of transporting foods to wholesale/retail outlets, but because the oil is in your food.
The artificial colorings, flavorings and preservatives in your food and beverages is oil and not just any oil, foreign imported light oil.
Sorry, but you can't make the chemical stocks to send to Wild Flavors or Givaudan from Prudhoe Bay Heavy, California Heavy, East Texas Sour, West Texas Intermediate or Illinois Intermediate.
It's Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Tia Juana Light (Venezuela), Bonny Light (Nigeria) or bust.
You do understand you have refineries like the Murphy Oil Company in Meraux, Louisiana that refines 120,000 barrels per day and not a single gallon of gasoline, and the Chevron refinery in Saint Rosen, Louisiana that refines 30,000 barrels but produces no gasoline (and both refine foreign imported light oil).
They make petro-chemical stocks.
The cost to the pharmaceutical industry would be devastating and even more devastating as the cost of prescription drugs skyrockets.
Every single drug on the market since 1994 has foreign imported light oil in it and so do many OTC drugs.
You'd be affecting about 8-10 Million "core jobs" and then as many as 40-50 Million related jobs.
If you cut off the flow of imported foreign light oil, then there is no Wild Flavors or Givaudan.
They lay off their employees and close their doors (and move to another country and set up operations and then export the finished product to the US).
Without artificial flavors and colorings etc etc etc nearly 100 other businesses would be affected. All that stuff in your grocer's freezer case that you pop in the microwave is full of imported foreign light oil and without any, they can't manufacture their foods stuffs because you won't eat it if it isn't full of foreign imported light oil.
And then all the Subway's and other franchise restaurants that rely on employees coming for lunch go under and it's a mess and it snow balls from there.
You now import foreign oil not for cars but for the petro-chemicals that rule your world.
You tax oil, then you cause the price of food to rise, not because it increases the cost of transporting foods to wholesale/retail outlets, but because the oil is in your food.
The artificial colorings, flavorings and preservatives in your food and beverages is oil and not just any oil, foreign imported light oil.
Except we don't need to eat artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. I understand what you mean, but these are not necessary to live, and I usually buy items without them.
Well I can tell you if they don't do anything about the Bush tax cuts I will end up paying anywhere from $2,500 to $4,900. That is money I definitely can use elsewhere. Knowing that if they don't renew the taxcuts I will be even more conservative with my money in 2011.
They already tax oil enough. I really don't feel like giving government anymore money until they prove they can spend it wisely and it actually does something productive. We should all expect the same from our government when we send money...that there are results otherwise they have no reason to ask for more.
You do understand you have refineries like the Murphy Oil Company in Meraux, Louisiana that refines 120,000 barrels per day and not a single gallon of gasoline, and the Chevron refinery in Saint Rosen, Louisiana that refines 30,000 barrels but produces no gasoline (and both refine foreign imported light oil).
Murphy's southeastern refinery is located at Meraux, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, LA. From this refinery, Murphy has direct access to the Colonial and Plantation Pipelines (Collins, MS origin), as well as a river dock facility on the lower Mississippi River, which can handle both shallow and deep draft vessels. The 125,000 barrel per-day Meraux refinery produces a full slate of conventional gasoline and distillate products, as well as ultra low sulfur gasoline and diesel, which Murphy actively markets in the Southeastern United States. Murphy Oil USA, Inc. owns several terminals throughout the Southeastern United States and also markets product in terminals located along the Colonial and Plantation Pipelines. In addition, Murphy Oil USA, Inc. has exchange agreements to lift products at various southeastern U.S. terminals owned by other companies.
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