www.saveamericanow.us.com

Just when the Obama administration thought that they could start to claim victory about the economy, it seems to be headed in the wrong direction again.

The Kiplinger Letter of April 8, 2011 made these comments:

“Though US exports continue to grow …. the nation’s share of global trade is waning… In 2000, 35% of the world imports and exports originated or landed in the US. This year’s share: about 11%. … While law makers in the USA dally … Other countries are racking up trade deals.”

Let me add that if the USA grew exports by 100%, that would only take us to 22% which would still be a far cry from 35% in 2000. Also, the world competitors are not about to allow the USA to grow 100%. They will adjust.

So who are those law makers who dally? Democrats were in control of Congress from the end of 2006 until 2011 and are still in control of the Senate, the State Department, and the White House.

From Kiplinger: “US economic prowess … China overtakes it in 2020…. GDP growth in the US appears to be slowing… 1.5% if exports drag … on the heels of a 3.1% uptick during the final 3 months of 2010.”

So why is this happening?

GDP growth in the last quarter of 2010 was an aberration. Even at 3.1%, it was not the 5% minimum needed to come out of this economic slump. 3.1% is much less than the traditional minimum of 10% that followed most other recessions. The 3.1% was artificially created by government spending. So now we are paying a price for not curing the root causes to our economic problems.

What are those root causes? Soaring oil prices. Costs to Implement Obamacare. Uncompetitive pricing of US products because of high labor rates and roll up of taxes throughout the manufacturing supply chain. Only one quarter of the engineers per capita as in the countries with growing export business. A birth rate too low to sustain the distribution of consumers and workers in our society. Too much dependence on immigrants to fill low paying jobs.

Many Americans miss this point: there is no amount of service revenues that can offset the loss to the economy from a diminished manufacturing industry. The multiplier effect from manufacturing is 15 times greater than from service industries. And the USA has reduced the impact of manufacturing on the GDP by more than two thirds in the last 40 years. Service industries have grown while manufacturing has shrunk which is the exact opposite of a thriving economy.

What does the USA have to export? Lawyers? Accountants? Government bureaucrats? Sociologists? Bankers?

Who wants them? No one. No one will trade their manufactured goods for services from these “professional” industries.

The Obama administration is trying to convince us that the USA can replace the lost consumption from the low birth rate in the USA with more product exports. China, Korea, Brazil, Germany, and all the others will react to increased competition from the USA. Those competitors make better products at lower prices. They will not give up any of the advantages that they gained while the USA let costs get out of hand. If the USA tries to get more competitive, then those other countries will react by getting more competitive also.

So what can the USA do?

1. Get this current group of liberal arts intellectuals out of our government and put some street wise business people in charge who will cut the effects of unions, cut the corporate taxes that are rolled up in the end products, and increase the amount of engineers graduating from our universities.

2. Breed. Make more internal consumers and workers so immigration is not necessary and so exports are not as necessary.

3. Drill for oil and build more nuclear sites and dig for more coal.

4. Reduce spending by our government on services because that adds very little to the multiplier effect for our economy. And put the money in the hands of the private sector because it consumes manufactured products with much greater multiplier effects.

Michael Master is the author of “Save America Now!” It can be ordered at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616235756

Many of our friends have asked us about our trip to Jamaica, so this is a recap.

We just spent five weeks working with Monsignor Albert and his team in Kingston, Jamaica at St. Patrick’s Foundation. Of the five weeks, we did get to go to Ocho Rios one day and to Strawberry Hill another day. Both are beautiful. The car ride to Ocho Rios was through the rain forest. That trip through the rain forest was most intriguing. The roots of the trees grow out of the ground about 20 feet high like huge statues and the canopy of leaves gives everything a green tone. Even the river reflects the green as it appears to have an emerald color.

This trip all started because of a conversation with Monsignor Albert, founder, and Mark McKenzie, Chairman, at Jamaica Night at St. Luke’s Catholic Church last November. They explained the help that is needed for the people in Jamaica. We called them in December about going to help them and by February 19 we were on our way for five weeks of work, fun, tears, smiles, and lots of new friends.

St. Patrick’s is famous in Jamaica. The Monsignor is famous in Jamaica. Of the four million people who live in Jamaica, most all know who “the Monsignor” is and what St. Patrick’s does.

You can learn more by going to this web site: www.stpatricksfoundation.org. You will learn a lot by just clicking on the 13 minute video done by “60 Minutes” about Monsignor Albert. Then you can click on the individual centers to learn what each center does.

There is so much to say about St. Patrick’s that it is impossible to put it into one article. St. Patrick’s is helping the most disadvantaged people in the world. The most poor in the USA live better than the average person in Jamaica. By Jamaica standards, there are no poor people in the USA.

St. Patrick’s cares for 1500 children from homes that would be condemned in the USA and for 40 adults who were abandoned by society to die because of leprosy, AIDS, elephantiasis, cholera, blindness, and just plain old age. Some homes are build from tin, others from cardboard, some from discarded shipping pallets, and some of poured concrete. Many are without any running water or plumbing.

We wondered what we would have to offer in this setting. And it ended up that we could do a lot to help.

First: they need money. Every dollar that is sent to St. Patrick’s goes to good use for books, computers, supplies, tools for wood shop and cosmetology, and food. For many of the children, the meal provided by St. Patrick’s is the only meal that they get all day. To teach 1500 students and to care for 40 patients requires $70,000 per month (only $45/each). St. Patrick’s is the type of group who needs our charity rather than send money to foreign dictators, Planned Parenthood, NPR, GM, unions, banks, and all those groups who lobby our politicians.

Marcia runs the foundation HQ. Junior runs Riverton for the children between 3 and 6. Pauline runs the skills center. Suzanne runs the teaching center for remedial children. And Joy runs the nursing home for the abandoned. They are all true professionals. They love their work, the children, and the abandoned. They get paid so very little for what they do, especially when compared to teachers in the USA. They do it “to make a difference.”

A sign at one of the centers reads: “Skill is power.” We Americans have been led to believe that knowledge is power because we live in a society of lobbyists and lawyers and journalists. We forget that America was built by the people who did stuff. Entrepreneurs, factory workers, engineers, doctors, and farmers. Well, St. Patrick’s is helping children learn to do stuff. “Skill is power.” The students learn to cut hair, to work computers, to do wood working, to answer telephones, to read, to multiply, to do engineering, to worship God and Jesus, and to cook. When the children leave the program, they get jobs as beauticians, help desk operators, carpenters, cooks, receptionists, secretaries, and electricians. And that is the objective of St. Patrick’s: “to teach these new members of society to take care of themselves.”

One of the items that St. Patrick’s believes is necessary to survive in life is faith in God and Jesus. At each school, all students participate in the morning devotion, in prayer, and in learning the word of God. Wasn’t that what our own founding fathers also believed? The children learn that abortion is wrong, that coveting is wrong, that theft is wrong, and that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman. It was refreshing to watch all of it.

So how did we help? Teaching how to speak Spanish. Teaching how to read, write, and do arithmetic (the young children are doing math and reading by the time they are 5 years old). Teaching how to use Power Point, Word, and Excel. Helping high school students learn how to interview. Helping install computer systems. Helping build a new library. Reading to the elderly. Holding the hands of ones who may soon die. There was a lot to do.

We are glad to be home with our friends in the USA. But we also miss our new friends in Jamaica. They reminded us of what America once was before we in America got the “entitlement” disease. Jamaicans accept responsibility for their own lives. The people in Jamaica appreciate everything that we can do for them.

The people in Jamaica gave us much more than we could ever return to them.

A sign in the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Kingston reads: “John 5:36: Doing the work of the one who sent me.” Monsignor Albert and his staff are doing the work of the one who sent them.

Some about our experience in Jamaica is included in “Rules for Conservatives.” You can check it out at www.saveamericanow.us.com.

Dear President Obama: "We are not racists"

The headline in the March 3 US News & World Report reads: "Obama Says Race a Key Component in Tea Party Protests"

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/03/02/obama-says-race-a-key-component-in-tea-party-protests_print.html 

The article references statements made by President Barack Obama at a White House party least year, as reported by White House Correspondent Kenneth Walsh in his new book "Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House".

Walsh reports that at the party one of the guests suggested that when Tea Party activists say they want to "take back" their country, their real motivation is to stir up anger and anxiety at having a black president. Walsh goes on to state that President Obama didn’t dispute this notion. Obama reportedly agreed that there was a "subterranean agenda" in the Tea Party movement—a racially biased one—that was unfortunate. According to Walsh, President Obama continued by telling his guests that race was probably "a key component in the rising opposition" to his presidency from conservatives, especially the right-wing activists in that Tea Party movement. But President Obama sadly conceded that there was little he could do about it.

My wife and I are proud Teapartiers. We have met hundreds of other Teapartiers and dozens of Tea Party leaders. I’ve addressed thousands of Teapartiers as a speaker. And we’ve mingled with over a million from all 50 states at four different Tea Party gatherings on the Washington DC Mall. We have yet to encounter a single Teapartier who we believe is a racist.

We have four married children and ten grandchildren. Both my wife and I proudly share our Tea Party activities and experiences with them. With the reports about President Obama’s beliefs now viral on the Internet, I am deeply saddened and offended that my grandchildren will inevitably learn (perhaps from their classmates) that our President suspects our involvement is racially motivated, or that my wife and I are associating openly with racists.

The Tea Party movement has nothing to do with race. It’s about out-of-control government spending and debt.

The Tea Party supported many of the  32 African-Americans who ran in 2010 for Congress as Republicans; the largest number since Reconstruction. Herman Cain, an African-American business leader and radio talk show host, recently won a Tea Party straw poll for potential Republican candidates for president.

In November 2009 Republican African-American candidate Charles Lollar addressed several hundred thousand Teapartiers at the US Capital. He said:  “Some are wondering why an African-American is speaking at a Tea Party gathering. Well I’m NOT an African-American – I am an American”. The roar of approval could be heard at the White House. Lollar, who subsequently lost to Steny Hoyer in Maryland’s Fifth District, was saying it’s time to drop the “hyphens” that categorize and divide us, and come together as Americans.

In August 2010, on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech, his niece Alveda King spoke to over half a million cheering Teapartiers at the Lincoln Memorial. Alveda reminded us that her uncle called for a focus not on the color of one’s skin, but on the honor and character of the individual. She said we were gathered not to divide, but to unite.

Perhaps the most popular of all Teapartiers today in Congress is Republican African-American Col Alan West. In response to charges of racism in the Tea Party, West has stated: "The Tea Party is a constitutional, conservative grassroots movement — and that’s it –the Tea Party stands for three things: they want to see effective, efficient constitutional government, they stand for national security, and they stand for free market, free enterprise solutions. That’s it." 

Teapartiers have earlier been called racists by the likes of Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann and others in the media. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have cast more subtle but still offensive aspersions.  I hope that President Obama has been mis-quoted in Walsh’s book, that he understands Teapartiers are not racially motivated, and that he will now use his bully-pulpit to put an end to these despicable and totally unfounded accusations.

Jack Tymann retired as Westinghouse’s President, International, where he led business development in 75 nations. He chaired the Clinton-Mubarak Middle-East Presidents’ Council, meeting regularly with Arab and Israeli leaders, and speaking at various World Economic Forums. Jack is currently Chairman of Sustainable Energy Partners, LLC in Naples. He is a frequent contributor to the Naples Daily News, a weekly guest on Naples WGUF Talk Radio, a frequent lecturer in SW Florida, and was the keynote speaker at the initial Naples Tea Party gathering in 2009.

Jack focuses on the need for limited government and a strong free private sector, and on national security issues, including an unsustainable national debt, the need for energy independence, and the threat of global Islamism. Email Jack atcommongoals2009@aol.com. 

ATLAH High School Students, Men Of The East Preach The Word at the ATLAH World Missionary Church. Recorded on 19 February 2011.

www.saveamericanow.us.com

Boehner, Cantor, and McCarthy met with Obama on February 9, 2011.   Joe Biden was there and so was Bill Daily (to provide a little Chicago strong arm?).  After the meeting, they were all grins and said that they are looking for common ground to cut expenses from the budget.

The Republican leaders think that their deal with Obama to cut $100 Billion from the current budget is a big deal.   It is less than 3% of the current budget and less than 7% of the deficit.   The Republican leadership failed and the new Tea Party Republicans are angry about it. 

Obama is on every TV station every day.   The media is selling him again.  McCain announced last week after meeting with Obama that Obama is becoming a centrist.  Like he did in the 2008 elections, McCain is also selling Obama again.  And Bill O’Reilly interviewed Obama just before the Super Bowl and never asked Obama one tough question.  Even conservative media like O’Reilly are selling Obama again. 

Hey Bill, why didn’t you ask Obama these questions?

“Why are you not being transparent to America by sharing your college documents, your passports, and your long form birth certificate?”

“What is it that gives you the authority to tell Mubarak, the head of a sovereign nation, to step down?”

“How do think that future generations will ever pay back the debt that you created?”

“How is it that you claim that taxes have not been increased and that Obamacare is deficit neutral when the OMB now says that Obamacare will increase the debt by one trillion dollars if the taxes in the legislation are not implemented?”

Obama has failed continually for the last two years.  His administration is dysfunctional.  His policies have divided America rather than unite America.  His czars are unconstitutional.  His appointments like Van Jones are horrible.  Obamacare could be unconstitutional because of mandatory insurance.  He did not keep unemployment under 8% as he promised.   He did not withdraw from Iraq or close Gitmo in the time frames that he promised.  Iran and North Korea are more of threats today than they were two years ago.  He supports the efforts of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.  The deficit was increased by more than a trillion dollars with no results.  And the media and Republican leadership continue to allow him to get away with it.

Barack Hussein Obama is destroying America.

What would the board of directors do with a president of a company who failed as much as Obama has failed over a two year time period?

It would fire him.

What would a competing company do to a company who is as dysfunctional as Obama and the Democrats?

The competing company would steal all of the dysfunctional company’s customers and put it out of business.

So why are Republicans not putting Obama out of business?  RINOs are snatching defeat from the jaws of the Tea Party victories.

The USA government needs to cut spending and help the private sector increase jobs all at the same time.  It can do that if it stops spending so much money on services and starts spending money on products made in the USA with American made sub components that have long supply chains.  That will stimulate the economy with a manufacturing multiplier effect that cannot be achieved by spending on services.

The services that need to be cut are government employees … cut their pay.  A 5% cut (government employees already get paid much more than private sector) would save $100 Billion. 

As Rand Paul says:  Let’s cut $500 Billion now (15% of the budget).  Then cut the budget back to 2008 levels for 2012.  And we can start by eliminating the Federal Department of Education ($80 Billion).  Because education is the responsibility and authority of the states, the Federal Department of Education is redundant with the states and should be eliminated.   All redundant federal departments should be eliminated.

It is obvious that the media, including O’Reilly, and RINOs like McCain, Boehner, Cantor, and McCarthy are trying to prop up Obama.  They made another deal.  And taxpaying Americans will suffer because of their “deal.” 

Why? 

We keep hearing from all the media, especially O’Reilly this week, that Obama is so smart.  If Obama is so smart, then why is he hiding his college applications and transcripts? 

Someone needs to tell it like it is:  Obama failed.  Obama is not so smart.  And he lacks business understanding and experience.   

Rather than prop him up, Republicans and the media should make Obama sit out the remainder of his contract in his office like so many other presidents who fail must do … and they should not allow Obama to take credit for fixing the problems that he caused.

Obama had two years.  It is time to move him aside… make him irrelevant … as any sane business would do.  Republican leadership doesn’t seem to have the courage to do it.  So who will do it before Obama causes more destruction to America? 

Michael Master is the author of “Save America Now!”    It can be ordered at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616235756