Welcome to the June Business “Boomers” issue of NorthBay biz. In addition to all our regular features and columns, this month’s issue also includes a special focus on health. Throughout the year, in every monthly and bonus issue, NorthBay biz’s mission is to provide coverage, analysis and insights on the topics that matter most to the business community in the North Bay.
This issue marks the 11-year anniversary of our acquisition of the magazine in June 2000. And if we’re to believe the feedback we receive from our readers and advertisers, we’ve managed to do a fairly good job of publishing a magazine that resonates with their needs. I’d like to thank you on behalf of my partners, Joni and John, for all the support you’ve given the magazine over the past 11 years. We continue working to improve the publication and reaffirm our commitment to delivering information and insight that serves your best interests and the interests of the entire business community in the North Bay.
“It was self-serving politicians who convinced recent generations of Americans that we could all stand in a circle with our hands in each others pockets and somehow get rich.” —American radio broadcaster Paul Harvey (1918 to 2009)
Here we go again. There are so many critical issues swirling locally, regionally and nationally that it’s difficult to focus on just one. So, in advance, I’ll apologize if this column rambles a bit.
You know though, maybe it’s just me. While I’m preoccupied with a stalled economy, a falling dollar, trillion dollar deficits, persistently high unemployment, terrorism, illegal immigration, failing schools and a new untenable national health care boondoggle, our diligent, always in-touch Sacramento legislators are perceptively working on legislation that will raise taxes on “sugary sodas,” ban sales of caffeinated beers, mandate an official “Parks Make Life Better” month, mandate the use of fitted sheets instead of flat sheets in California hotels and require all public school kids be taught gay history. Maybe my priorities are just messed up. Perhaps I’ve lost touch with what’s really important.
Along the same lines, what’s so wrong about mostly unelected bureaucrats enacting an endless stream of regulations that stifle business by imposing $1.7 trillion in compliance cost?
Just how important are all these surveys that are published each year that seem to indicate California has won the race to the bottom when it comes to job creation and business- friendly policies? Just because Chief Executive magazine rated California the worst state in the nation to do business in for the seventh year in a row doesn’t really signify anything important, does it? Over that same time span, Texas was rated the best state to do business in. Once upon a time, California actually was business-friendly and its economy soared—envied around the world. Today it’s at war with its own economy. “ABC—Anywhere But California” seems to be the motto of San Jose-based Cypress Semiconductor. The company has plants in 10 countries, but is shrinking its presence here. CEO T.J. Rodgers says about California, “It’s expensive, it’s hostile to business and environmental regulations are more of a drag on business than protecting the environment.”
Another thing that grinds my gears is government unabashedly picking winners. Excuse me, call me old-fashioned, but last time I looked, representatives were elected to represent all of us—not just small-but-powerful special interests that donate millions to their campaigns. Case in point: Organized labor threw its full support behind the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—ObamaCare to you and me. Speeches by labor leaders, rallies, demonstrations, testimony and lots of money. All of a sudden, after the bill became law and a few people began to read exactly what was in it and what it meant, behind the scenes and as quietly as possible, they applied for waivers to exempt themselves from the law that’s good enough for the rest of us. The Obama administration has exempted a total of 1,168 health plans covering almost 3 million individuals from the new law. Half of those are participants in union health care plans. Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government had this to say, “This is a glimpse into the future of ObamaCare with funding for the program on pace to run out twice as fast as planned. ObamaCare is nothing more than a future debt bomb sold as a low-cost alternative. The waivers for its labor union supporters are just one obvious example of Obama’s hypocrisy where the unions who support him get exempted from the oppressive costs that average Americans have been asked to absorb.”
As the class warfare heats up driven by crass politicians who believe their agenda will be better served by dividing the nation, some interesting facts emerged after the recently concluded tax season. The federal government is busily working to create and maintain a new entitlement group. It’s called the working poor. Driven by the Earned Income Tax Credit, more than 23 million tax filers were put on a form of welfare. In fact, 15.5 million filers actually had more money refunded to them than they paid in tax in this rendition of the spread-the-wealth-around scheme. In 2009, an incredible 51 percent of American households paid no federal income tax. The progressive’s dream is realized. More than half the country doesn’t participate in the cost of government. Fairly easy then to rally those who don’t have skin in the game to vote for the people who promise them more and more entitlements—in exchange of course for more and more control over our lives. As I’ve said before, when the takers outnumber the makers, everyone’s freedom is in jeopardy and the America we’ve known is no more.
That’s it for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
