Tag: economic meltdown

Posted on

Preemptive Outrage – Wilson’s Sandwich Shop may close

During the day I like to check out my hometown newspaper the Findlay Courier. This afternoon there was a breaking news item that Wilson’s Sandwich Shop might be closing down. For those not from the area Wilson’s is a Findlay institution having been around since the Great Depression. The unique part of the place is they make their own hamburger patties fresh every day and sell them as cheap as possible. It was one of the hamburger shops Dave Thomas visited when developing his Wendy’s chain of fast food restaurants.

Needless to say the closing if it happens would be sad indeed.

So I am reading the article posted online – the full article and more details will be published Wednesday in the print edition – and the writer brings out two points.

The restaurant has been having bad times due to the economy and lack of business. The manager is quoted as saying the business has lost money at least for the last five years.

The second point the article makes is:

Perhaps the last straw will be $2,100 in proposed fines it faces from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Employees have been exposed to several risks involving a hamburger patty molding machine, the federal agency reported: potential finger and hand pinches; electrical shock; and increased risk of electrocution.

Fenbert has referred the allegations to an attorney, and is “doing away with the (patty-making) machines,” he said. He said he cannot afford to take the equipment precautions and offer the training the safety administration would require.

“I am going to buy patties until we close down,” he said. “That is not the way we have done it for 50 years. We made our own hamburgers.”

http://www.thecourier.com/

I know Findlay so well that I can tell you the online comments and letters to the editor won’t talk about the down economy and lack of business it will rant about how the government is forcing them to close with the ridiculous regulations by OSHA as if that will really help them stay in business.

If they can’t afford to protect their employees from what looks like old equipment then how will that help them stay in business to get rid of the regulation. Could Wilson’s survive a lawsuit if an employee gets hurt because they can’t afford to update their equipment?

If it weren’t for OSHA and employee safety regulation we still might have children working coal mines for just one example.

*Update*

Since I wrote the text of this post earlier today, the situation at Wilson’s doesn’t seem as dire. The business is owned by 3 families and the manager, Mike Fenbert, represents only one third of the ownership. The other 2 families were not aware of the OSHA fine and told the Courier they plan to do what they can to keep the business open.

I also should note that OSHA just doesn’t pop-in for a visit at a work place. Usually they are responding to a complaint phoned in my a worker or investigating after an injury has been reported.

I still believe the public reaction will be to complain about the government rather than taking responsibility for the business trouble themselves – ie. lack of business and loss of income.

Posted on

Failed CEO peddles book on economic policy on former investor’s TV channel

Bill Diffenderffer was CEO of SkyBus airlines that was based in Columbus in 2007. It was billed as a value no frills airline that had limited $10 tickets and cheap regular fares. The airline went belly up in 11 months. Now the same guy that couldn’t run an airline is pushing a book he wrote that complains about President Obama’s economic policy. The even funnier bit is he did an interview on Channel 10 whose parent company was an investor in the failed airline.

The problem, besides a failed CEO trying to lecture on economic policy, was that during the broadcast it wasn’t mentioned that Dispatch Printing Company, parent of WBNS 10TV was one of the investors. The article on the website does mention it.

Then there was this:

“I wanted a president that came in and said ‘We need to fix some things’ – health care needs to be fixed – that doesn’t mean government should manage a health care system; they don’t know how.”

Diffenderffer said the same holds true with the bailouts of automakers and the banking industry.

“They don’t know how to run a company, so why have a car czar? They don’t know how to run banks yet they all have these people now telling them how they should be run,” Diffenderffer said. “I think we have to let the big companies fail so the newer hungrier new models can come in a replace their old models that aren’t working.”

Skybus CEO Speaks On Why Airline Failed

It is understandable that some one who couldn’t run a successful airline might get the actual economic policy he is complaining about wrong. The government isn’t planning on managing the health care system or running the auto and banking industry.

Taking advice on economics from this guy is like taking relationship advice from Tiger Woods.

Posted on

Hite against delay in tax cut even with $900 million state budget hole

State Rep. Cliff Hite (R-76th District) was in the news today for a couple of state issues. While I didn’t agree with his overall comments I do give the man credit for acknowledging that alternatives for the budget issues facing Ohio would not be painless.

In an interview on WFIN’s morning show Hite said that the Republicans had ideas to help fill in the approx $900 million budget gap after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that allowing video slot machines had to be voted on by the public. He said that one was restructuring state government by reducing the number of departments. The example he gave was eliminating the Department of Agriculture and absorbing the work into multiple departments. Such a change would lead to the loss of many state worker jobs.

Another suggestion was reducing Medicaid benefits which would hurt those who get those benefits.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has said he wants to postpone the 4.2% tax reduction scheduled to take place in 2009 for two years. Some Republicans are against the delay because they feel the tax cut was meant to make “Ohio more competitive for jobs.” Hite is also against a delay.

I will credit Rep. Hite, that unlike the previous guy to hold his seat, he at least acknowledges the Republican alternatives aren’t perfect.

I disagree with Hite’s view on postponing the tax cut and changing state government.

It makes no sense, when one is losing revenue, to cut your revenue further. Ohio has made massive spending cuts in the past so any more cuts will be hitting bone.

The fact is that Ohio isn’t even in the top 10 for personal income tax and the corporate tax rate is only 5.1% for those that actually pay it. The argument that our taxes are too high is not supported by the evidence. The tax cut that Strickland wants to delay was passed in 2005 before the economy tanked and was to be phased in 4% a year with this year being the last of the 21% cut.

It is good to know that Hite isn’t a plain Jane Republican ideologue. Picture Robbie the Robot waving arms and saying “Must cut spending must cut spending must cut spending must cut spending…” and ignoring reality like Mike Gilb and Lynn Wachtmann use to do.

In an article in The Findlay Courier Rep. Hite said he favored State Issue 2 which supposedly creates yet another state board to prevent groups like the Humane Society from getting laws passed in the state to protect farm animals from cruel treatment.

So smaller government is good for business unless you can use it to protect business, then it needs to be larger.

It doesn’t make sense to me either.

Posted on

Teabaggers can’t handle the truth

The best part of this past week’s Tea Bag protest sponsored by Fox News happened in Pensacola Florida when a person who agreed to speak told the crowd the truth. That those making less than $250,000 will be taxed less and the blame for the economic crisis we face lies squarely on the Republican party and the Bush administration.

Sinfonian, a blogger at Blast Off!!! blog, has the details:

Seriously — I didn’t realize there would be an opportunity to speak, but they were practically begging folks to come up and say a few words … and I was right there…

I enjoyed the part when I asked, “How many here make less than $250,000 a year?” and there’s a big cheer … then it goes quiet again when I tell them they’ll pay less in taxes under the Obama plan. That’s about when the murmuring started …

My favorite part, though, is as I continue to gripe about the years from 2000 to 2008 (yeah, it’s ’01 to ’09, but you have to “speak to your audience,” y’know), and then I hit them with “place the blame where it belongs: squarely on the Republican Party and the Bush administration,” they pretty much lost their shit at that point. That was fun.

DFH blogger speaks at Pensacola Tea Party … and lives to tell the tale

Here’s the video of the event:

Now we know why the Republican party requires you to sign a loyalty oath before being allowed to attend one of their events. How else to you suppress the truth?

My only other comment about the events on the 15th is that it made me sad to see so many ignorant racist people involved with the protest. I know it will take time to reverse the Alfred E Bush dumbass effect from the past 8 years but it still makes our country look bad.

*Update 4/18/09*

Actually I had planned not to make any more comments about the Fox News Teabag movement until I came across a great point by writer Matt Taibbi:

In other words teabaggers don’t mind paying taxes to fund the salaries of Bolivian miners, Lou Gerstner’s stock options, deliveries of “sailboat fuel,” the Hermes scarves on Sandy Weill’s jet pillows, or even the export of their own goddamn jobs. But they do hate it when someone tries to re-asphalt their roads, or help bail their slob neighbor out of foreclosure. And God forbid someone propose a health care program, or increased financial aid for college. Hell, that’s like offering to share your turkey with the other Pilgrims! That’s not what America is all about! America is every Pilgrim for himself, dammit! Raise your own motherfucking turkey!

Oh, and there’s one other thing. I heard today from Steve Wamhoff of Citizens for Tax Justice. He had an interesting tidbit to offer on the teabagging movement. According to his research, 39% of respondents with incomes below $30,000 told the Gallup agency that they felt that federal income tax levels were “too high.” Which is interesting, because only 32% of respondents in that income category will pay any federal income taxes at all on their 2008 income. You can draw your own conclusions.

The really irritating thing about these morons is that, guaranteed, not one of them has ever taken a serious look at the federal budget. Not one has ever bothered to read an actual detailed study of what their taxes pay for. All they do is listen to one-liners doled out by tawdry Murdoch-hired mouthpieces like Michelle Malkin and then repeat them as if they’re their own opinions five seconds later. That’s what passes for political thought in this country. Teabag on, you fools.

Teabagging Michelle Malkin

I agree with Taibbi. Everyone at those Teabag parties are absolute morons…..

Posted on

Don’t they know what it means to Tea Bag someone?

There is this “movement” going around by rich white guys who hate change and drawing on their peons of bigots, religious zealots, and freaky militia types to protest “high taxes” and “run away” spending by the current administration of President Obama. They will be holding tea parties across the country and asking people to “tea bag” Congress – by sending them a tea bag – to harken back to the Boston Tea Party during the American Revolution. Besides being a silly protest, not to mention the funny of using “tea bagging”, it shows how inept the conservatives are and how they can’t even come up with any new ideas.

Fox News – you know the guys who are looking out for the common man – is hyping the tax protests to take place on April 15th.

Today, in our time, we need to make a similar point in the face of arrogant power. And you can, too, on April 15, when millions of Americans will gather in peaceful protest across the country, protesting against the evils of over-taxation and its wicked handmaidens, over-spending and over-regulation.

If you visit the Web site of Tax Day Tea Party, you will find plenty of information on how and where to get connected to a tea party–or how to start your own tea party.

Plenty of big names will be involved, ranging across the country. Glenn Beck will be in Texas and Newt Gingrich will be in New York City. Sean Hannity will be in Atlanta. Neal Cavuto will be in Sacramento. And many, many more–FOX News and FOX Nation folks will be providing full coverage.

Tea Parties: A Great Part of American History–And America’s Future

Of course it is a silly protest.

It is protesting the rise in taxes of those who make more than $250,000 a year. Under Obama’s plan, that segment is the only one who will see their taxes go up. But don’t let the facts get in the way of the thick heads at Fox and their peon fans.

They still think it is cool to claim that there are high taxes or run away spending but I wonder where they were when Bush demolished a budget surplus he got in 2001 and ran up a huge deficit.

Also the people at Fox and their fans still haven’t offered any evidence that “we” pay too much in taxes or that spending is running away. They just don’t like Obama and his plan. It is a simple protest against a Democrat.

What does this say about conservatives when they lose at the ballot box and they talk about “revolution”, “tea parties”, “taking the country back”, “gun ban”, and on and on and on – instead of figuring out why their message failed to gain them votes in 2008. It is a bit childish to me.

No one has proven that taxes are too high, have never offered any comparison, or why anyone should care.

I also like how people’s brains turn off when they think “tax cuts” will solve the economic crisis we are in when they didn’t help in the first place and may have actually led to the crisis in the first place.

They need to grow up and take some ownership of the problem and work on REAL solutions and stop crying in their pillows.

These “protesters” also have a problem with talking about tea bags:

About Proudly powered by WordPress