Presidential Candidates, Talking and Shaking Hands?
By GLENN MOLLETTE
Guest Columnist
During the campaign trails of Trump, Clinton, Cruse, Rubio, Sanders and the others we hear a lot of talk and see a lot of shaking of hands. Talking and shaking hands is good if it leads to saving our country. We could use some talking to America’s businesses.
Federal and state leaders must ask our businesses to stay here. Cut their corporate taxes to 15 percent. Ask the cities and states to work in unison in creating work friendly states and communities. Simply waving goodbye to our businesses has to stop. It’s time to grab hold of real laborers and keep them here.
Ask our businesses to come home. They have fled everywhere. Is anybody talking to these people? A 15 percent corporate tax rate would help. Unions must work in cooperation. A factory will not come back if they have to face a union demanding $35 an hour plus defined benefit retirement packages and Obamacare along with our current tax rate. Many corporations are going bankrupt now for various reasons including paying their executives too much. However, one reason is promising future packages to employees that they will never be able to pay.
State and federal governments can only tax citizens so much to cover wages and pension promises. Many government employees have never contributed a dime to their retirement but yet are promised generous retirement packages that they collect for 20 to 30 years or more. These generous packages are funded by the government borrowing more with the hopes of collecting more taxes to pay for their promises. The future for more and more government promises to employees is bleak. Change has to occur if our country has any future of recuperating.
Jobs must be moved to hard-pressed areas. For example coal mining is doomed in central Appalachia. Federal government and state leadership must create incentive packages for real jobs to locate to depressed areas. Factories willing to locate in these areas must be given a pass on corporate and state taxes for at least 10 years or maybe more. The people who are put to work would at least be paying taxes instead of collecting welfare. This would be a win-win for everybody.
We are desperate to make stuff in this country again. There are lots of properties sitting idle in this country that could be bought by the state and sold or given to job creating entities that promised to stay and hire people for at least 25 years.
Medical crises continue to bankrupt families across America. We are way past the point of taking serious action. The Affordable Care Act has failed. We must create a four-fold medical plan. 1. Put the poor and truly disabled on Medicaid. 2. Allow those with pre-existing conditions to buy into Medicare. 3. Make insurance shopping available across state lines. 4. Make hospitals and doctors accessible across state lines. People in California should be able to go to a doctor in Minnesota if they determine that it is best for them. The insurance company or government should not make that determination.
Gaining control of our borders, spending billions on foreign aid and foreign wars and the continued decline of the morale of our military and veterans are big problems. This all contributes to the overall morale of the entire American people. Somebody running for President has a big job ahead of him or her. I hope they will do more than talk and shake hands. On the other hand, maybe that would be a start in turning this country around.
Glenn Mollette is an American Syndicated Columnist and Author. He is the author of 11 books and read in all 50 states. This column does not necessarily reflect the view of any organization, institution or this paper or media source.