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Democrats Only Want to Hear About Jobs in the State of the Union

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I will agree, import less or export more, just as long as we correct the trade imbalance.
I don't mean to imply that an assembly worker's wage should be a minimum wage, just that we've got to find ways of being an inexpensive producer through cost reductions so that businesses can be profitable. Profits then encourage owners to hire more (jobs) and thereby produce more. But, the other side of the equation is, as you mention, the ability to sell. No consumption means excess inventory. The more we export/sell, the more competitive we become.
Collective greed from wall street to mainstreet is what has brought the nation to it's knees.
I take exception to Democrats because they tend to enlarge government inorder to solve social problems rather than let people themselves solve their own problems.
I take exception with Republicans who encourage and reward businesses that export American jobs.
I believe the role of government is to incentivize business, provide protection and safety (defense), and provide equality for all. I believe government's role is to be limited and non-intrusive. I believe government should not be involved in social engineering.
When people learn that government is willing to rob Peter to pay Paul. They quickly learn to become more like Paul.
Entitlement's have caused and will yet cause this nation severe problems. Try taking away Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security away from people. The vociferous complaints will be deafening. You can't because we've removed a collective sense of personal responsibility. Why save when I have social security? Why stay healthy when there's medicare/medicaid or Obama care? Why stay in school when I know that welfare net is there to catch me should I fail?
Today 1 out of 3 Americans, more than 100 million, who directly DEPEND on government for their physical and financial support. That's crazy and ridiculous!
I'm not going to say this is the fault of Dems or Republicans. But I will say it's the fault of government visa via elected officials who purchase votes by preying on people's insecurities about life.
Whatever happened to JFK's point when he said, "Don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences that come from dodging our responsibilities.

david of ID 3:34PM January 29, 2010

"Let's seize the moment" You say this allusion to a well-known phrase is an admission from Obama that things went all wrong. Yet that is not at all what Obama said in his speech. Instead he speaks of renewal and committment to the moment at hand. He stresses the importance of this time and this place--when forward movement must take place.
His theme is for a huge change for all of Congress on both sides of the aisle. If we are to regain strength as a nation, those in power must sever the bonds that constrain ethical action and stop moving only to the puppet master's strings. Our biggest deficit booster lies in health costs. The insurance lobbies dictate policy and many senators (and some reps too) try to justify voting against public interest to continue huge profits against public interest.

Gail of CA 3:10PM January 28, 2010

The same story that you are spouting about Obama can be made for almost (there are a few exceptions) any President. I can do the same song with how many others, so tell me what President do think was perfect? Let me know and I will play your same song back to ya for almost anybody that you choose. There are only a few that did not have some bad associations with the wrong people or did not make mistakes in choosing members of their staff or cabinet or mistakes in general. And as far as the Olympics go- who cares? What does that have to do with anything? And as resident of NJ- we did not slam Obama but slammed our former Gov. Obama came into office with a deficit or did you forget that it was Bush that came into office with a surplus and went out with a deficit- NEED I GO ON? And PLEASE do not speak for the majority of Americans, my friend, as you do not speak for me or most of the people that I know and believe me we are not "worshipping radicals" as far as I am concerned most politicians, Democrat or Republican are corrupt and liars!Now if you want to look at the issues and have an intelligent debate about that maybe it would have been more fun and entertaining to read your comments...

Dakota of NJ 2:25PM January 28, 2010

I agree with you that Detroit's UAW over-priced itself and made unionism a dirty word---soiling the fact that more moderate unions are the only reason America has a "middle" class. I do not agree with you that autoworkers on the assembly line there (or in the non-union auto plants of the South, for that matter) are "worth" minimum wage. You may be willing to accept the notion that American workers (in any industry) are suddenly worth next to nothing (because China, India and other places have gluts of cheap labor), but that Wall Street or other sharpie traders are appropriately "worth" hundreds of thousands to millions to billions if they can hoodwink somebody on a deal. I am not willing to accept that for this country. And, I believe that it is the duty of American voters to not allow such a mindset to rule the roost. If workers are worth nothing, then we'll need to
Perhaps instead of just seeking to export more, we'll need to import less. Oil would be the place to start. For starters, the infrastructure projects we need are those that can take us to complete energy independence. That would include wind, solar, and perhaps most especially, algae oil instead of Saudi oil. It might also importantly include nuclear energy from thorium---without the problems of meltdown risk and dangerous wastes that plague the current nuclear industry.
As for us somehow reviving the old American heavy manufacturing sector by tax breaks for entreprenuers, it ain't gonna happen.
Those days are over. Today's special tax breaks, it seems, are being requested by the "business community" for such things as movie-making. Yes, you heard that right. It's a huge debate here in New Mexico whether our state should continue rebating public dollars to producers for 25% of every dollar they spend here to make films.

Muser of NM 2:19PM January 28, 2010

“When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves.”
I agree with Obama that we need to double exports. I'd even say, triple exports. But, we have to be a low cost producer to export more than we import.
Here is the basic business equation: Total Revenue - Total Costs = Profits. Profits are the reason why people invest, why business owners sacrifice, and why workers are willing to trade their time for dollars.
That means Unions have to accept that the value of a $35 dollar per hour screw driver turner on a Detroit assembly line is really worth minimum wage.
That means government restrictions that increase costs have to be eliminated.
Businesses fail when total costs either equal or exceed total revenue. They simply cannot operate at a loss.
This is hard for Dems to accept because they have a historic precedent for government intervention and regulation.
I readily accept that some government regulation and intervention is needed and necessary, but this should be tempered as realistic and as non-intrusive as possible.
Muser believes in good old government investment like what happened in WWII.
Let's consider the World of WWII. WWII moved us from a largely aggrarian society to an industrial one. People found it paid better to build tanks than drive tractors. Gov't expenditure put idle production resources to work and society became more sufficient.
Following WWII, the United States was the only industrialized nation in the world left standing. Every industrialized nation's factories/labor/resources had been destroyed or used up. Consequently, there was huge demand for factory goods. The world literally purchased everything the United States made. Exports far exceeded Imports. Hence, government investment paid huge dividends.
But now, Muser, please elaborate. How are the precursors for prosperity during WWII the same today? What infrastructure needs building? We have the dams, roads, rails, airports, bridges, port facilities. Most just need repairs and maintenance. Therefore, upgrading and maintaining those does not a stimulus or job create, at least on the scale the nation requires.
If this nation wants out of it's economic funk, then the government has to incentivize the private sector and get out of the way.
A small business owner in Utah knows more about his business with its accompanying constraints, needs, and opportunity than any member of Congress and, for that matter, a President who never owned/ran a business in his life.

david of ID 1:25PM January 28, 2010

Obama couldn't let his speech go without saying that he still wanted Cap and Trade and the Public Medical Plan. This means that when everyone's guard is down, he will try to get Congress to slip in his plans. I noticed that he said that he would not diminish Social Security in 2011, whatever that means? Obama has already eliminated the COLA for Social Security Recipients for that year. It seems that Obama forgets what he has done. The Global Warming is still a fact in his little brain and that single brain cell that he has has accepted Global Warming as a scientific fact; too bad scientists don't go along with this story. This is a Gore Fact, just like Gore inventing the internet, so it must be true.
Another situation is that Obame gave Gore one-half a billon dollars to develop an electric car in Finland. It pays to be a buddy of Obama.

Robert L. Matarainen of NY 11:25AM January 28, 2010

Would you like them in the dot-com sector--drawing in your investment dollars just before vaporizing them, like in 1999-2000? Or maybe would you like a lot of real estate and mortgage industry jobs, causing people who could not speak any English (because they were not FROM here) to be building 2000 houses a month (with granite countertops, for sure) across the desert in Las Vegas in 2004---drawing in buyers like bees to honey, right before ruining all those trusting buyers (and not just in Vegas)?
I want jobs too. Preferably not in bubbles of erroneous national priorities. There is much to be said for the private sector, but one of those things is that it can froth itself up to grievous and unintended results. Let's try infrastructure---funded by the good old government, just like WWII was funded by the government. Worked then, will work again---but with less killing.

Muser of NM 5:16PM January 27, 2010