8/28/2006 11:20:00 AM Eating the seed for next year's crop
By BILL HORNE
Folks, a couple of columns back I shared some thoughts with you concerning the fact that tax payers, you and me, have to pick up the health care tab for people who work for some of our largest corporations. These are corporations that pay wages below the poverty level.
In that column I stated that "I have always considered benefits as part of the total compensation package. And, so does everyone else - and I mean everyone else - that I have talked to."
Well now, my editor, that would be Rory Ryan, came out of his corner throwing jabs, right ones and wrong - er - left ones. He was quoting IRS codes 125 and 129 and ranting and raving about what the IRS considered compensation and if we call benefits compensation the IRS will confiscate even more of our pay. Of course, as soon as he finished with all of this he left town for parts unknown - geesh!
Had he had time before he skipped town he probably would have also mentioned that small business owners, including farmers, can only show a percentage of health insurance costs as expense. The rest of the health insurance cost must come from after tax income. The same is also true of the upper management of larger companies, if they don't provide their employees with health insurance benefits.
First, the IRS is just a tool of "we the people." It does what "we" tell it to do. By "we" I mean the elected officials that we send to Columbus and Washington, D.C. Second, if our elected officials betray us and tell the IRS or the Ohio Department of Taxation to increase our taxes, or if they begin taxing us on things that we have not been taxed on in the past, items like food and services, and they have done both to us recently, then, well, we know what to do.
If Rory ever comes back to town maybe we can discuss this further. In the mean time, I still consider health insurance coverage and other benefits as part of my total compensation package.
Folks, this week I want to share some thoughts with you about the selling of our country. We really do seem to be killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
We are buying communist China rubbish by bartering away our good USA companies.
Three years ago, August 2003, we had a trade deficit from the month of $40 billion. This month, August 2006, just three years later, we have a trade deficit of approximately $65 billion.
We have a trade deficit because we are buying, from foreign countries, more than we are selling to them in goods and services. This means that we don't have enough goods and services that foreign countries want or need, so they wind up with a lot of our U.S. dollars in their pockets.
So far this year, foreign countries, particularly Japan and China, have accumulated one half of a trillion U.S. dollars in trade surplus. It doesn't do them any good to keep those dollars in their pockets. So, they come here and buy our assets. They buy our land and our buildings and our companies.
It is the loss of our companies that I want to discuss with you. The profits from those companies are also used to buy more of our companies. And, it is not just the companies that we are selling but all of the trade secrets and newly developed technologies that these companies owned that we are selling.
During the past 10 years foreign investors have used their excess trade dollars to buy more than 8,000 U.S. companies. Companies like Chrysler, Amoco Oil, part of Gillette, RCA, Frigidaire, and locally Airborne. And, this doesn't count the companies that turned traitor and left our country for a communist country just so they could make more money.
As an example, communist China bought one of our multi-million dollar oil companies this past May.
Folks, this is like eating our seed for next year's crop.
Charles Wilson, about 50 years ago when he was the CEO of General Motors, said, "What is good for America is good for GM and vice versa."
Well folks, GM is on the verge of bankruptcy and that is not good for America.
I know, some people are going to say that the GM situation is the fault of the workers - the union. That is a bunch of malarkey. This is a company that has spent more time lobbying our government for breaks and government help than it has in trying to compete. This is a company that wants free trade, except for itself. GM even upset President Reagan when they double-crossed him after he helped them.
We are keeping our economy running by selling our industries. Economists call key industries "chokepoint industries." These are industries like cement, coal mining, pharmaceuticals, and/or metal ore mining. These industries are owned, from 40 percent to 80 percent, already by foreign companies.
It sure seems to me that before all of this free trade and the World Trade Organization, when we produced our own goods, we were better off.
Now, we have enormous debit, both federal and trade, that is growing uncontrollably and we are using our assets to purchase consumable goods. We better wake up and get our house in order.
