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Sunday, June 5, 2011

National Infrastructure

     What is going on with the president and congress? The president and democrats control two thirds of the government but the republicans still control the country. Everything is held hostage because the democrats refuse to outmaneuver the republicans. The GOP uses anything at their disposal to accomplish their ends, but the democrats tie their own hands behind their backs. The majority should stop allowing the minority from using parliamentary procedures and tricks to block the agenda that they were elected to carry out. In the house the republicans pass all of their bills with no votes at all from any democrats. The dems should do the same thing to the republicans in the senate. If it were the republicans they would do exactly that. They already have! During the Bush presidency they changed the rules in the senate to call for an up or down vote on every issue that came before the senate and rammed their agenda down the American people’s throats.  But the dems are unwilling to use a tool that has been proven to work and will definitely will get the job done. All it would take is a simple vote to change the rule. Force the republicans to play fair!
     The republicans have said time and time again that they will not allow the president to accomplish anything and no matter how many times they have broken their word in the past, they have kept their promise on this score. Even if it is on an issue they agree with, if the president puts it forth, they vote lock step against it no matter what. Here’s a good example. The individual mandate for for universal healthcare. I personally disagree with the president on the individual mandate but the republicans at first wanted to force everyone to buy individual insurance. Now that a law has been passed to require the insurance companies to include even those who have previous conditions, because the insurance companies can no longer rake in windfall profits the republicans claim to no longer in favor of the individual mandate as a way to try to dismantle the healthcare law altogether. If the insurance companies are against it, so are the republicans.
     Another point is that this certain party’s talking points is to keep repeating that “the government doesn’t create jobs”. When the Interstate Highway system was created was it the federal government that paid for it? Was it a job creator? Right now our Highway system is in almost complete disrepair. If we began to repair it today, who would pay for it? Would it create jobs? Besides infrastructure repair, what about our energy future? Not just oil and gas and electric, what about hydrogen and biofuels energy manufacturing bases? Shouldn’t our government be on the cutting edge of these future clean and renewable energy sources? This is a challenge for our country that is bigger than putting a man in space. Wasn’t it the government that put a man into space? How many more jobs will be created by improving our energy infrastructure than putting a man into space? Millions, I would bet. And it would have a more immediate impact. The factories are already in place, if empty. The infrastructure is already there. It just needs to be modified.
If the energy companies won’t take the lead in alternative energy, why not the government? The oil, gas and utility companies have no incentive to invest in energies that compete with them, They already pay no taxes. On top of that, receive $2 billion a year in subsidies. And what’s even more incredible is that the republicans in congress just voted to continue the subsidies without requiring them to help the situation, so yes the government should take the lead! That create many thousands of jobs?
     Now here is the point. Those millions of people who would fill these job slots will be tax paying Americans who would be able to support their families rather than having to depend on the government for help. And that money would just keep going in circles because the money these persons spend to support their families would create other jobs because of supply and demand which would create more employment opportunities.
So you see that the claim that government can’t or doesn’t create jobs is a deception that should have been exposed long ago by anyone who has any credibility. This would have only increased not decreased that person’s credibility.

James Francis, Lake Charles

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