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I had the honor of joining the phenomenal Shannon Bream on Fox News at Night on the Fox News Channel, Friday, June 15, 2018.
We discussed the homeless calamity affecting so much of the West Coast (Seattle had a potential convention complain), the impending SCOTUS decision on unions (Janus v. AFSCME Council 31), and Senator Lindsay Graham telling people off regarding working with Trump where they agree.
Here is a clip:
And here is the full segment:
Do you support free trade? What about labor unions? Or how about environmental and labor laws?
Another 1,400 manufacturing and distribution jobs lost. I am angry, I understand the pain of the workers. Why did the giant military-industrial supplier United Technologies think it was best to move the jobs to Mexico?
The cost of energy, taxes, transportation, environmental mitigation expenses, and actual labor laws here in the United States. Oh yeah, and greed. Corporations don’t have loyalty to anything other than money. People are who have ethics and need to be in charge.
There is also the fact that many workers at this facility are in the United Steelworkers Union. What did the union do to help keep their workers competitive? Did they constantly ask for more money or less work? Or did they spend the dues collected on political donations and other crony actions?
Think about those factors are you support “free trade” in conjunction with labor and environmental laws we pass here. When we protect the environment and workers rights, we become uncompetitive in a global market, working against manufacturing jobs in the USA. And no, a centrally planned economy for you Socialists and Communists, will never work either (see Venezuela and their rationing of everything since their re-nationalization has broken their economy).
Look, I want Mexico to have a growing economy with jobs for their people. What I don’t want is American jobs lost for that result. It does not need to be a zero-sum process, their is room for both countries to grow manufacturing jobs.
However, the contradictory stances of people here in the United States is pushing this process along. Either stop supporting “free trade” or stop supporting labor and environmental laws. They ARE mutually exclusive unless the trading partner supports labor and environmental rules as well.
If you are unhappy with this move to replace American workers with workers in Monterrey, Mexico, then boycott Carrier & Bryant heating and air conditioning systems. But, you also have to be consistent in what you are supporting.
My thoughts are similar to some of the expletives said by workers in this video.
The media, particularly the left, keep telling us the Koch brothers are what is destroying America with money in politics. Yet here we have a Democrat, Tom Steyer, that is singlehandedly closing the gap with a $50 million war-chest to attack Republicans. Add in the unions and the Koch brothers are small-time.
Depending on how you measure, the Koch brothers spent $39 million in the 2012 elections. Add in their extended network of businesses, friends, associates, et cetera and that number balloons to $490 million according to PolitiFact.
The unions, according to PolitiFact and The Huffington Post, spent up to $1.7 billion in the 2012 elections and lobbying.
Basic math says that 1.7 billion (union spending) is more than 490 million (entire Koch network).
According to OpenSecrets.org this is the breakdown of money in 2014, and you can clearly see that money apparently corrupts Democrats more than Republicans:
| Total Raised | Total Spent | Cash on Hand | Debts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | $409,979,764 | $299,203,635 | $84,192,958 | $15,847,651 |
| Republican Party | $315,899,997 | $264,969,148 | $76,147,210 | $1,987,309 |
| Democratic National Cmte | $91,909,513 | $86,534,041 | $10,334,717 | $14,125,405 |
| Republican National Cmte | $105,991,576 | $99,180,379 | $13,031,082 | $0 |
| Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte | $99,420,682 | $60,669,018 | $40,239,885 | $0 |
| National Republican Congressional Cmte | $81,706,152 | $52,093,966 | $31,146,797 | $0 |
| Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte | $74,074,362 | $53,662,738 | $22,221,584 | $0 |
| National Republican Senatorial Cmte | $53,146,828 | $40,659,255 | $15,868,362 | $0 |
Money is NOT speech. Corporations, unions, and non-persons should NOT be able to participate in political campaigns, only individuals.
How about we change the laws that campaign limits apply to Social Security Numbers and nobody else can donate? That is the way to protect our country from the corruption of money in politics.
Revolutionary idea, I know. Just a thought as we all deal with the frustrations of watching our country convulse under the weight of special interest money and election campaigns.