I am a business owner.
I keep hearing from the Republicans and the Tea Party faction of that party that business owners need a tax cut. That in order to improve the economy, to create jobs that no tax increases are needed. Well, let me say as a business owner that they couldn't be any more incorrect. As a business owner I need customers. What good does it do me to decrease my taxes or even increase my taxes, without customers I don't have any revenue to pay taxes on. So, lower my taxes...raise my taxes, it's meaingless to me without paying customers.
This is why I have absolutely no use for the Republican Party or the faction within it called the Tea Party. They don't speak for me. They don't understand my issues. Basically, they are ignorant or completely immoral. Maybe both. It's obvious to a blind person that all the Republicans care about and cater to are the extremely wealthy. Those that have spent immense amounts of money to purchase politicians and a political party. They've done this to insure that they will be allowed to steal from THEIR customers and clients with impunity and have ready made lackeys to provide them a smooth road to taxpayers money, to implement laws to allow them to steal, and to have the tax payers pay the consequences (and to keep repeating how the victims are trhe culprits). They purchased a whole political party to insure that they would put a quick stop to any investigations into their practices, to dismantle any consumer safe-guards and regulations. They got their money's worth with the Republican Party. Listening to them would make you believe that the victims of the mortgage fraud put over by the lending institutions was the sole fault of the borrowers and the lenders were the victims. They paid the Republicans to keep drumming the same tune...that regulations created the financial crisis of 2008.
But as a business owner, what do I see needs to be done to help the economy? Jobs! People need jobs. Corporations that use jobs as punitive action against the society that wants to hold them accountable must be dealt with swiftly and firmly. As an example, the financial industry and the National Association of REALTORS® would have you believe that the Qualified Mortgage Rule (QMR) within the Dodd-Franks Act was directed at consumers. They want everyone to believe that the law would require the anyone buying a home to put down 20% in order to get a mortgage loan to buy a house. The truth is that the provision is directed at LENDERS and not consumers. It will require mortgage lenders trying to put together mortgage-backed security (you remember, those instruments that that got us into the financial crisis) could only sell them as "low-risk" if the mortgages in the package had 20% downpayments. Otherwise, the lending institutions couldn't sell them as "low-risk" and they had to retain a certain percentage ownership of them. Both of which is unacceptable to the financial industry. They want to be able to lie, do and say whatever they needed to to make a profit. And the other factor that was totally unacceptable was that they had to retain a percentage ownership fo the instruments. They don't want to own any portion of the junk they sell. They want to get rid of it as quickly and compeltely as possible. So, they convince the National Association of REALTORS® to carry their water and convince their members that the Dodd-Franks Act targets their customers, or the financial industry will destroy whatever is left of the real estate market by requiring ALL loan applicants to come up with 20% downpayment. Blackmail has worked for them in the past...remember TARP?
Now, why is there no buyer confidence? Because there are no jobs; in that the financial industry is sitting on the money until they get what they want. Ability to lie and steal with impunity. They are not going to lend money out to anyone unitl they have what they want. No jobs...no prospect of jobs...the consumer doesn't want to get into a situation where they could end up on the street. Additonally, and less spoken about, is that consumers have seen the consequences of the last outcome from the financial industry's fraud...the lending institutions weren't prosecuted, they walked away with tons of tax payer money (they got TARP money and paid out record bonues), and the borrower ended up paying the consequences and being labelled as the perpetrator of the fraud instead of the being the victim. The Republicans and Tea Party faction want you believe this just like they want you to believe that people who are conned out of their money by unscrupulous home-improvement con-artists were the cause of the crime and not the victim.
Yes, to have the economy recover we needs jobs, lots of jobs. Jobs that pay decently and are secure. Not any that still puts stress on the employees that they may end up without one in a week, a month, or a year. The corproations need to be put under control. The other issue that consumers need to see is that the proper people pay for the consequences of their actions. The financial industry still needs to pay for their crimes and sins. Until this happens, consumers are not going to be that trusting of the marketplace. With jobs they may end up venturing cautiously out into the market...but there needs to be some safe-guards in place for them. And the financial industry and corporations will have none of that.
How is the eceonomy to recover? JOBS! Let's start there. Get people back to work. Redirect the money for the good of the public and not the good of the obscenely wealthy.
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