Nevada has a distinction it probably doesn’t want: the nation’s highest unemployment rate — 14%. That’s up from 13.7% in April and 11.5% in May 2009 and an all-time low of 3.8% in April 2000. California’s unemployment rate decreased to 12.4 percent in May. April’s unemployment rate was 12.5%. The number of people unemployed in California, for May, was 2,277,000 – down by 21,000 over the month, but up by 212,000 compared with May of last year.
The Associated Press reported that President Barack Obama dashed into Ohio for the groundbreaking of a road project, hoping to remind Americans that the massive, costly stimulus act is still churning out jobs for a nation plagued by high unemployment.
In all of this political grandstanding there is one simple fact. The government has failed to take any consequential action that will increase the number of private sector jobs. The dismal reality is that no politicians have offered any new ideas to induce new job growth. That includes those who want to replace incumbents.
A good example is Carly Fiorina, Republican candidate for Senator in California. She is focusing on job creation in her campaign. The problem is that she sent 40,000 jobs overseas as CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company. Read her web site and you quickly learn she does not have one new or different idea.
The president is no better than Ms. Fiorina. His ideas are all about government jobs. When the money runs out what will happen to those government employees?
My idea (actually my wife’s idea) is the two tier business tax. Every dollar earned as the result of American made products will be taxed at a lower rate than those dollars earned from foreign products. That means Walmart, Toyota car dealers (some Toyotas are partially made in America), and other who rely on imports will pay a higher income tax rate on at least part of their earnings. That just might help bring some jobs back to America.
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