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WV is a red state. Have the Republicans done a good job helping West Virginians? It is about power -- the power of staying in office protecting the fat cats while selling the average West Virginian on guns, gays, and abortion.
West Virginia was a Democrat state on the presidential level only since 2000 and on the state level only since last year. Our state legislature was run by Democrats for 83 years as well as the governor's mansion. The GOP today is trying to lessen some of the taxes and overregulation and bureaucracy to make WV a more business friendly state. The GOP is trying to protect our natural gas, coal, and manufacturing jobs and also deal with some of the EPA regulations that are a burden on agriculture as well. For example EPA laws regarding streams and creeks is allowing the government to dictate private land use policies and control over private agricultural land. Democrats only redistribute wealth, not create any. Keep in mind the Baltimore area, where I used to live, was much better off before a lot of the manufacturing jobs left.
Coal is much cheaper than solar at this point. The government should not be subsidizing solar and wind using our tax dollars, those forms of energy should compete on the free market along with coal, natural gas, and oil.
Solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing pays nowhere as good as coal mining does, and there's nothing that says these solar panels can't be made in China or India like everything else is. And on that point it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA and Democrats who signed all these free trade agreements with China allowing them to compete with us even though China has no minimum wage and no environmental standards.
As for the insurance companies that will shut down if Sanders's plans go through, they employs millions more people than coal or natural gas does and the trickle down on the economy will not be good. There are many places in the nation where the insurance industry is very important to the local economy including swing states like Ohio and Iowa. I hope they realize what it will mean for them if Bernie Sanders is elected president and he gets to carry out his plans. Honestly, Sanders makes Obama look good.
The OP is wrong on many points. The first fallacy is that the Obama Administration is responsible for job losses in coal. The reality is that the free market has been the biggest enemy of coal. Oil and gas prices have fallen, making coal a poor competitor.
Instead of trying to prop up dying industries, like coal, progressives want places like West Virginia to diversify into other industries.
Second, Bernie Sanders cares about jobs lost as industries change. I am sure WV can be a place to manufacture wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars.
Third, nobody in the Democratic Party suggested that all energy come from renewable sources. We want to increase it, but there will be a place for some fossil fuels.
Not a Democrat but this is true. Taking down mountains to mine coal is a dirty expensive job. Easier to drill and frack for oil and natural gas. That job loss is about technological advancements - nothing else. Even China, which has lots of coal is moving away from it because it is dirty and expensive.
Obama, Romney, Trump whatever - none of them would be much different for the state.
Not a Democrat but this is true. Taking down mountains to mine coal is a dirty expensive job. Easier to drill and frack for oil and natural gas. That job loss is about technological advancements - nothing else. Even China, which has lots of coal is moving away from it because it is dirty and expensive.
Obama, Romney, Trump whatever - none of them would be much different for the state.
Democrats are against fracking too. A lot of Democrat areas have actually banned natural gas drilling completely like Maryland under Martin O'Malley who is also a terrible candidate.
Lastly there is the call for a single payer health care system. Aside from the fact that I do NOT trust government with my health care and that government is always less efficient than private industry, and aside from the massive tax increases this would require, would the insurance industry also employs millions of American workers who support their families on these incomes. If Bernie pushes through a single payer system, that means every single private insurance company will be shut down and millions of people will be unemployed. Do the Democrats expect all of these people to either go on unemployment despite their mortagages, etc or uproot their families to new areas that MAYBE have jobs?
Wrong on this one!
Health Care Insurance companies do not provide health care. They simply collect premiums from patients, pay doctors and hospitals, and keep the rest as profit.
If they did the job for a fee rather than 130 billion dollars the insurance premiums would be very low. And no one is saying these companies must close their doors. They will be free to compete in an open market. IN England you are free to use the National system or continue to buy private health insurance. IN Europe you can buy private insurance if you want to do so.
Loss of jobs due to changes in technology, trade, new ways of doing things, are nothing new. Yes, I feel bad for folks whose jobs are lost but at some point individuals need to accept change, however difficult and adjust. For some that means relocation, acquiring new job skills, more education, whatever it takes to adapt to a changing world. Coal is a problem and the coal industry is winding down, regardless of who our next president is. Many jobs will be eliminated in the next decade by robotics. People need to recognize this and plan accordingly. Our economy is always changing and those who succeed adapt to those changes, however difficult. That is the reality.
Remove all subsidies and get rid of the mandates like ethanol, so consumers will know the true price.
What a great idea.
You just figured out a way to employ all those out of work coal miners. They can calculate how much it is costing each taxpayer for a do nothing congress, the wars of choice, the true health cost of polluted water and air.
My morning paper informs me that the medical folks can now prove that Agent Orange has caused certain kinds of cancer in the soldiers who had to use it in Vietnam Nam.
The unintended cosquences just go on and on.
The citizens of this country need to start being as smart as we all think we are.
Loss of jobs due to changes in technology, trade, new ways of doing things, are nothing new. Yes, I feel bad for folks whose jobs are lost but at some point individuals need to accept change, however difficult and adjust. For some that means relocation, acquiring new job skills, more education, whatever it takes to adapt to a changing world. Coal is a problem and the coal industry is winding down, regardless of who our next president is. Many jobs will be eliminated in the next decade by robotics. People need to recognize this and plan accordingly. Our economy is always changing and those who succeed adapt to those changes, however difficult. That is the reality.
Easy to say when you yourself and your family are not among the coal miners and natural gas workers or insurance employees who will lose their jobs if the Democrats maintain control of the WHite House. Here in WV there are many families who have been here for generations, and you think their lives should be turned upside down, be forced to train for new jobs for an inefficient wind/solar industry that is not profitable, or have to move away, because Obama demands it? Because some Prius driving yuppies in Boston and San Francisco think they should?
Those stinking liberals also hated propeller planes and decimated the industry. They hated the telegram, and decimated the industry. They hated horses, and decimated the industry. Now we have jet planes, cell phones and cars. Did they for one second think about those jobs in the industries they decimated?
You do know that timing is critical to the intro of new technologies?
It must be economically feasible and have a broad market application as oppoesd to creating legislation which demands users employ technologies that don't exist as a way to eliminate new tech competition.
All the techs you mentioned were consumer driven instead of government imposed.
Lastly there is the call for a single payer health care system. Aside from the fact that I do NOT trust government with my health care and that government is always less efficient than private industry, and aside from the massive tax increases this would require, would the insurance industry also employs millions of American workers who support their families on these incomes. If Bernie pushes through a single payer system, that means every single private insurance company will be shut down and millions of people will be unemployed. Do the Democrats expect all of these people to either go on unemployment despite their mortagages, etc or uproot their families to new areas that MAYBE have jobs?
The only developed country in the world without National Healthcare insurance is the US.
The care will continue to be provided by the current doctors and hospitals, that does not change.
As in other developed countries the Private System is allowed to compete with the public insurance.
Private insurance makes billions of dollars a year from the premiums they collect from patients. The government could easily also make money with a good health plan.
There will be no loss of jobs, if anything more jobs will be created.
Why do you defend crony capitalism? Are you the CEO of Health United?
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