...it's about GDP...
...from the manufacturing sector. We don't produce and export; we die.
Even the White House is finally acknowledging the Tman wisdom...
“We’ve got to go back to making things”
Posted by Katelyn Sabochik
May 26, 2010 at 05:46 PM EDT
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/ ... ing-things
Great first step!! Acknowledge the economy will not stabilize by the govt. training 3 million high school dropouts how to install insulation and dual-pane windows in existing residential.Today, President Obama visited Solyndra, Inc. in Fremont California – a solar panel manufacturer that is building a new facility (and creating new jobs) thanks to funding from the Recovery Act. So far, construction of the new facility has created over 3,000 construction-related jobs and the new factory could create up to 1,000 long-term new jobs.
During his remarks at the Solyndra facility the President stressed the importance reviving our economy by spurring innovation and creating new manufacturing jobs:
"So we recognized that we’ve got to go back to basics. We’ve got to go back to making things. We’ve got to go back to exports. We’ve got to go back to innovation. And we recognized that there was only so much government could do. The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra, will always be America’s businesses.
But that doesn’t mean the government can just sit on the sidelines. Government still has the responsibility to help create the conditions in which students can gain an education so they can work at Solyndra, and entrepreneurs can get financing so they can start a company, and new industries can take hold.
So that’s why, even as we cut taxes and provided emergency relief over the past year -- we also invested in basic research, in broadband networks, in rebuilding roads and bridges, in health information technology, and in clean energy. Because not only would this spur hiring by businesses -- it would create jobs in sectors with incredible potential to propel our economy for years, for decades to come. There is no better example than energy"...
...The Department of Energy closed a $1.4 billion dollar loan with Nissan North America to retool their facility in Smyrna to build advanced electric automobiles and batteries. Nissan has put that money to work by producing its all-electric vehicle, the LEAF, at its existing plant in Smyrna. The loan will also help Nissan will offer 150,000 electric vehicles to fleet and retail customers annually. Nissan has already created 250 jobs to retool the factory and anticipates the project may result in an increase of up to 1,300 jobs when full production is reached.
Obama touts stimulus, green jobs in Fremont
By Josh Richman
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 05/26/2010 12:07:21 PM PDT
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-new ... ck_check=1
Utterly clueless.Obama toured Solyndra Inc., a solar-panel company that last year received a $535 million loan guarantee through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to build a huge manufacturing plant down the road from its existing facility. It was in that incomplete plant — which eventually will employ about 1,000 and whose construction has provided work to about 3,000 — that he spoke to a few hundred employees, construction workers and local dignitaries.
The plant shows that the promise of new energy isn't science fiction but "is happening right now. The future is here," Obama said.
The president's visit seems to be part of a full-court press on the economic recovery. Elsewhere Wednesday, Democrats were touting a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showing that the Recovery Act in 2010's first quarter has raised the nation's gross domestic product, lowered the unemployment rate, and increased the number of people employed by more than 1.2 million.
U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will be in Hayward today to visit Plastikon, a former NUMMI parts supplier that's working with federal, state and local governments to save jobs...
...Other nations can't be allowed to get ahead of us in securing the jobs and economic benefits of new, cleaner energy, Obama said.
He vowed to seek comprehensive energy and climate legislation — "We're going to try to get it done this year" — but said the nation has already started down the right path by investing in businesses such as Solyndra, whose new plant will produce enough solar panels over its projected life span to replace eight coal-fired power plants...
...Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, was at the Solyndra speech and called the president's visit "a great day for Fremont, for the Bay Area and for California" underscoring the region's and the state's green economic futures as well as a need for quality higher education required to train such a work force.
Torrico, a primary-election candidate for state attorney general, has been touting an oil-severance tax to fund higher education. After the president spoke Wednesday about lessening the nation's reliance on oil, Torrico said the tax would be "a short-term, much-needed investment in higher education." Nobody would be happier than he to see oil extraction end as the nation shifts to cleaner energy, Torrico said, but for now California should be taxing the way all other oil-producing states do.
Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council — a public-policy advocacy group consisting of executives from the region's top employers — called the president's speech "really encouraging."
"It's amazing to see the effects of the stimulus package taking root right here in the Bay Area," he said, in a way that will "not just produce dollars-and-cents results but also good results for our society — it's not often you get to do that."
State Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, said the president's visit and comments are "proving the naysayers wrong: Protecting the environment is good for the economy."
Dear Mr. President;
Here's what's wrong with this picture:
1) If these were sound investments, why is the Federal Government having to provide the $535 million and $1.4 billion in loans to facilitate these factory upgrades and expansion?
2) Based upon the job projections, the Solyndra jobs will cost $535,000 per job, and Smyrna $1,000,000 per job TO CREATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why???????
You've just spent $1,935,000,000 taxpayer dollars to create 2,300 jobs. And you feel this is a "sustainable" plan to re-establish some of the 9,000,000 jobs lost over the past 2 years? Even though you call this a "loan", let me clue you in to something: If the govt. loaned me $2 billion to create 2,300 jobs, I'd take part of that loan, hire an army of lawyers, and utilize their services to forestall repayment...
...at least until AFTER I had paid off my vacation homes in Aruba, Costa Rica and Portofino, and stashed my first 5 years net in an offshore acct....After that, I could give a friggin F what the govt. did.
If the taxpayers are dumb enough to allow their govt. to spend $500,000 to $1,000,000 to create one job...well, a fool and their money...
3) In your remarks, you recognize, "Around the world, from China to Germany, our competitors are waging a historic effort to lead in developing new energy technologies. There are factories like this being built in China, factories like this being built in Germany. Nobody is playing for second place. These countries recognize that the nation that leads the clean energy economy is likely to lead the global economy. And if we fail to recognize that same imperative, we risk falling behind. We risk falling behind."
So why does it cost so much to construct new facilities, re-tool existing facilities and why does it take so long? And further, how do you expect America to be competitive with labor costs 3 to 9 fold over other industrialized nations?
If you really are sincere, Mr. President, answer these questions, and tell America what you propose to do to correct these problems.
Otherwise, go back to school and get out of the way of the Captains of Industry who KNOW what needs to take place to make America competitive again.
Sincerely,
Tman
