posted Jan 19, 2012 8:17 AM by Erik Smitt
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updated Jan 19, 2012 9:39 AM
]
After three years of permitting and sixty days extra, the Obama administration has failed to move forward with the Keystone XL pipeline. Obama's indecision is caught between environmentalist wishes to prevent additional carbon based fuel from coming to market and the need of the nation to have jobs and energy independence.
The Canadian border is the longest, undefended border in the world; Canada is an energy partner; we share cultural and political ties with our neighbor. Currently, pipelines run across the border as well as throughout the US; pipelines are safer, more environmentally favorable transportation than tanker ships.
At this moment the USS Abraham Lincoln and the US 5th Fleet are defending free and unfettered access by world trade (oil) in the strait of Hormuz; besides the threat of a shooting war with Iran, we share few values with Saudi Arabia and the oil states. Venezuela and Nigeria are not our political soul mates.
Obama called Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who told the president Canada will seek to diversify its energy exports after Keystone was rejected. Harper “expressed his profound disappointment” with the Keystone decision, according to a statement from his office. Canada will seek to export to China.
To those who are unemployed ... find a government subsidized job at the next Solyndra, because President Obama won't let you have a real, market driven job on the Keystone XL pipeline.
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posted Nov 26, 2011 10:02 AM by Erik Smitt
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updated Jan 19, 2012 10:11 AM
]
Need a job?
I returned to my roots in North Dakota a year ago (10/2010) ... born in Williston during the first oil boom, Williston is booming again; "help needed" marked local business signs. Jobs at $22/hour, 12 hours per day, seven days per week, developing the oil fields. US jobs ... reduced oil imports.
Forget 'clean energy.' Oil and gas are boosting U.S. employment.So President Obama was right all along. Domestic energy production really is a path to prosperity and new job creation. His mistake was predicting that those new jobs would be "green," when the real employment boom is taking place in oil and gas. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that the U.S. jobless rate remains a dreadful 9%. But look more closely at the data and you can see which industries are bucking the jobless trend. One is oil and gas production, which now employs some 440,000 workers, an 80% increase, or 200,000 more jobs, since 2003. Oil and gas jobs account for more than one in five of all net new private jobs in that period. The ironies here are richer than the shale deposits in North Dakota's Bakken formation. While Washington has tried to force-feed renewable energy with tens of billions in special subsidies, oil and gas production has boomed thanks to private investment. And while renewable technology breakthroughs never seem to arrive, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have revolutionized oil and gas extraction—with no Energy Department loan guarantees needed. The oil and gas rush has led to a jobs boom. North Dakota has the nation's lowest jobless rate, at 3.5%, and the state now has some 200 rigs pumping 440,000 barrels of oil a day, four times the amount in 2006. The state reports more than 16,000 current job openings, and places like Williston have become meccas for workers seeking jobs that often pay more than $100,000 a year. Or take production in Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale formation, which the state Department of Labor and Industry says created 18,000 new jobs in the first half of 2011. Some 214,000 jobs are now tied to a natural gas industry that barely existed in the Keystone State a decade ago. Energy firms are also rushing to develop the Utica shale in eastern Ohio, and they are expanding operations in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, among other places. Good news? You'd think so, but liberals can't seem to handle this truth so they are now trying to discredit the jobs that accompany it. The American Petroleum Institute recently commissioned a study by the Wood Mackenzie consulting firm, which estimated that better federal energy policy would create an additional 1.4 million jobs by 2030. This has caused a fury on the political left, which complains that the study included estimates of direct and indirect jobs (such as equipment suppliers) but also "induced" jobs, or jobs created when oil workers spend their salaries at, say, hotels, restaurants or bowling alleys. It seems these claims rely on—drum roll, please—"multipliers" to produce estimates of knock-on jobs. Liberals know all about multipliers, which are the central operating conceit of modern Keynesian economics. The entire public justification for the $820 billion Obama stimulus was the claim that every $1 of spending would have a multiplier effect of 1.5 or more and thus create millions of new jobs. That looks like a joke now. But Democrats and liberals continue to cite the black-box multiplier claims of Moody's Mark Zandi, who says the latest Obama jobs bill will create 1.9 million jobs. Some 750,000 of those jobs are supposed to appear merely from extending the payroll tax holiday for workers, giving them more money to spend on, say, hotels or restaurants or bowling alleys. All such multipliers are suspect, but the liberals can't have it both ways and invoke them to justify government spending but then repudiate them for private business. In any case the beauty of the oil and gas boom is that multipliers aren't needed to predict job growth. It's happening right before our eyes. And it stands to reason that if the Obama Administration dropped its hostility to oil and gas energy, even more jobs would be created as the industry invested to exploit other areas with new technology and production methods. Yet earlier this month the Interior Department released a new five-year plan that puts most of the Outer Continental Shelf off-limits for oil drilling. And the Administration has delayed for at least another year the Keystone XL pipeline that is shovel-ready to create 20,000 new direct, pipeline-related jobs. The Office of Natural Resources Revenue recently noted that federal revenue from offshore bonus bids (from lease sales) in fiscal 2011 was merely $36 million—down from $9.5 billion in fiscal 2008. The Obama Administration has managed the nearly impossible feat of turning energy policy into a money loser, pouring taxpayer dollars into green-energy busts like Solyndra. The Washington Post reported in September that Mr. Obama's $38.6 billion green loan program had created a mere 3,500 jobs over two years. He had predicted it would "save or create" 65,000. Mr. Obama nonetheless keeps talking about "green jobs" as if repetition will conjure them. He'd do more for the economy if he dropped the ideological illusions and embraced the job-creating, wealth-producing reality of domestic fossil fuels. Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
posted Nov 17, 2011 7:26 AM by Erik Smitt
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updated Nov 26, 2011 5:05 PM
]
You and I take a pay cut due to the economy and budgets ... the State Senate gives its own, raises ... this is what's wrong with government!
California's chronic budget problems haven't stopped the state Senate from giving some of its own staff members a bump in pay, handing out raises averaging 7 percent to dozens of workers in recent months. The Senate increased the pay of at least 169 employees – nearly one-fifth of the staff – during a three-month period ending October 31. The raises affected staff members serving in many levels of Senate operations, including Capitol security technicians, printing specialists and district workers. The changes also boosted the paychecks of some of the Capitol's highest-paid aides. Nine chiefs of staff, including the top aide to Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, saw their six-figure salaries rise by as much as 10 percent. At least 10 additional staff members are making more money because of changes to their job classifications, with promotions leading to salary increases of more than 25 percent in some cases. Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost cited several factors for the salary increases. She said some were merit-based raises, while others resulted from increased hours or added responsibilities. A full breakdown was not available Wednesday evening. Trost defended the merit-based increases as "reasonable" considering most Senate staffers have not received merit raises or cost-of-living adjustments since 2007. "Even with these increases, the Senate has reduced its overall budget this year by millions of dollars," she said. Still, one good-government advocate said that given the state's fiscal troubles, now isn't the time to raise staff salaries. "Nobody's getting rich being a Senate staffer, and the amount of money is minuscule in the scheme of things, but it sends the wrong message," said Robert Stern, a former legislative aide who served as president of the recently shuttered Center for Governmental Studies. "Agencies are being cut, welfare recipients are now getting decreases and everyone is tightening their belts except, it sounds like, the Senate staffers." The raises, reported in salary data posted on the Senate website this week, come as schools and colleges across the state brace for mid-year cuts due to lower-than-projected revenues. Some Democratic lawmakers have renewed calls for tax increases to help fill a projected $13 billion deficit and avoid more cuts next year. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association, said moves such as staff raises could make it tougher for lawmakers to make the case for those taxes. Coupal said that while the amount of money in question is "negligible" compared against the total deficit, increases in staff salaries are the "kind of thing that voters are going to look at when they are asked to raise taxes." "There's not a lot of sympathy from people who have lost jobs to hear someone say 'I haven't had a raise in (several) years,' " he said. The Assembly has not given any raises unrelated to promotions since August, when payroll data for the first eight months of the year was last made public, according to Assembly administrator Jon Waldie. He said any decisions on merit-based increases would likely be made in the next couple of months. More than 200 aides in both houses saw their salaries jump earlier this year. At the time, leaders in both the Assembly and Senate said many of those increases were tied to job changes or increased hours. © Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved. |
posted Nov 9, 2011 4:10 PM by Erik Smitt
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updated Nov 26, 2011 5:08 PM
]
30 Oct 2011 Sac Bee article: Latino numbers are up; why isn't their clout
Three
thoughts on clout:
First
is the Sacramento redistricting orchestrated by the Council Six (Cohn, Sheedy,
McCarty, Pannell, R Fong, D Fong) clearly marginalized the Latino vote; I
testified and marched in opposition to this illegal gerrymandering.
Second,
I am late to being a political activist.
Others will decide our laws, opportunities and futures unless each of us
are willing to get involved and support campaigns of those we identify with. Get involved ... bring your friends.
Third,
my values are post racial; I support candidates and causes independent of race
or ethnic origin; I do not vote for or against a candidate based on race. I am white … I am running for office to
change the direction of our government and would hope that Latinos would vote
for our common values and not by race.
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posted Nov 9, 2011 4:02 PM by Erik Smitt
6 Sept 2011
There is no bigger issue
to be addressed than redistricting. This
redistricting battle is at the core of one man, one vote and representative
democracy in Sacramento; we are not talking about Africa or Alabama ... we are
in Sacramento. There was a back room
meeting that skirted the Brown Act (Open Meetings). This was the typical "Smokey" back
room deal, obscured from public
view. Don't think that a no smoking ordnance and a voting rights act, changed
anything ... do not be fooled, the objective was still safe seats. The Council Six (Cohn, Sheedy, McCarty,
Pannell, R Fong, D Fong) voted their own personal interests ... to get
re-elected to their current seats and future office ambitions. This is the fundamental reason for the fight
over the medical center, rail yard, etc. (follow the money). The Council Six were simply insuring their
futures by gerrymandering.
To
execute their plan, they disenfranchised the residents of Oak Park. The proud, emotional and massive response by
Oak Park residents before the council will fade over time; they do not have the
political muscle (money), so treating them as second class citizens will not
require the Council Six to pay a price.
The
Latino community was advantageously carved up to insure minority status across several
districts. Thus, creating an obstacle
for any Latino candidate to mount a challenge to an incumbent. This is illegal ... little matter to the
Council Six.
Unprincipled,
self serving, politicians ... out for their own interests rather than serving
the public interest of the citizens of
Sacramento. To quote one presenter ...
if it quacks like a duck ... if it walks like a duck ... it is a duck. As Mayor Johnson noted, no one is
fooled.
I
thank Angelique Ashby for voting NO
on this map. |
posted Nov 9, 2011 4:00 PM by Erik Smitt
11 Aug 2011 The City Council is tone deaf (excepting Angelique Ashby and
Kevin Johnson who voted no).
Californians in general have lower incomes and have tightened their
belts; the council increases executive pay and benefits as well as making them
contractual for the first time ever ...
ever!
In a time of low pay and high unemployment this is
wrong. It is elitist ... and out of
touch with the citizens of Sacramento. |
posted Nov 9, 2011 3:47 PM by Erik Smitt
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updated Nov 26, 2011 5:10 PM
]
I certainly do not want the federal government to default on its financial obligations. However, I find it typical Washington, the demonizing of the freshman House members. Federal representatives: Harry Reid, 28 years; Mitch McConnell, 27 years, Nancy Pelosi, 24 years, John Boehner, 21 years, Chuck Schumer, 31 years, George Bush, 8 years; Barack Obama, 6 years, Doris Matsui, 6 years (plus thirty for her late husband) ... these are the officials that got us into this mess ... it was on their watch. Does anyone really think that they would be leading us out of this??? Only the bond rating agencies (reality knocking on the treasury's door) and the election of the new freshmen who campaigned on this issue, has focused these bureaucratic, safe seated representatives on the problem ... spending. The American people spoke in the 2010 election ... their voice will be louder in 2012. |
posted Jul 29, 2010 2:05 PM by Erik Smitt
The vote was 11 to 5 to continue wasteful spending ... is there any wonder why we are in an economic downturn? Keynesian economics was never to be stretched this far ... if spending more money than we could afford were a good thing, why did overspending bring us into this recession?The defence spending needs to be curtailed also. Americans have had to tighten their belts ... the government must do so also by eliminating wasteful projects.Erik Smitt
Today, in an 11-5 vote, the House defense appropriations committee approved
the purchase of a second engine for the F-35 jet fighter, despite the
Pentagon explicitly saying that the engine is a big waste of
money. In fact, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called the second engine
“costly
and unnecessary,” and has repeatedly recommended that President Obama veto
the 2011 defense spending bill if it ultimately contains the funding. U.S. Air
Force Secretary Michael Donley has referred to the engine as “another
rock” on top of the F-35 program.
Making matters worse, Congress’ insistence on funding the wasteful program
comes at the same time that deficit hysteria is preventing any and all measures
to combat the Great Recession from easily moving on Capitol Hill. And one of the
loudest voices fearmongering about further spending is House Minority Leader
John Boehner (R-OH). “Republicans are offering better solutions to cut spending
now and provide
the fiscal discipline economists say is needed to put people back to work,”
Boehner has claimed.
But when the opportunity to discard a program that the Pentagon has said
isn’t worth it comes along, where
is Boehner?:
The engine’s supporters, who include the House Republican leader,
John A. Boehner of Ohio, contend that competition could produce better
engines and reduce the risks of problems with the Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35,
a single-engine jet that represents the Pentagon’s largest weapons
program.
And Boehner’s insistence on perpetuating the wasteful program stands in stark
contrast to his proclamation earlier this year that all wasteful Pentagon
spending “ought
to be eliminated”:
I don’t think any agency of the federal government should be exempt from
rooting out wasteful spending or unnecessary spending. And I, frankly, I would
agree with it at the Pentagon. There’s got to be wasteful spending
there, unnecessary spending there. It all ought to be
eliminated.
Regarding Boehner’s argument that competition will produce better engines,
Pentagon officials have responded “while competition would be nice, the
alternative engine program does
not guarantee sufficient benefits to risk additional cost hikes or
developmental problems.” But Boehner’s love for the F-35 second engine is almost
certainly due to the fact that it
brings jobs to Ohio. General Electric — which produces the engine — has a
plant right
outside of Boehner’s home district.
Boehner’s position on the second engine makes him — like many in the GOP — a
deficit peacock, willing to use the deficit to score political points but
not willing to make the necessary choices to eliminate it. As House Majority
Leader Steny Hoyer said, “any conversation about the deficit that leaves out
defense spending is seriously
flawed before it begins…I fear that if we can’t decide what we can afford to
do without today, we’ll be forced to make much more draconian cuts in the years
to come.” |
posted Jun 9, 2010 11:17 AM by Erik Smitt
I would like to thank the people who came out to vote for my candidacy. In the end it was not enough to prevail.
The best part of the election process has been meeting with individuals of all political persuasions and discussing what is important in our country.
At this point I will return to my small business. I will continue to work on delivering a better economic future for all Americans.
This is the end of the campaign ... for now. |
posted May 17, 2010 4:18 PM by Erik Smitt
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updated May 23, 2010 10:10 AM
]
The United States of America is a nation of mostly immigrants. There are few who can trace their ancestry back to the native, North American population. This country has always been the land of opportunity; the statue of liberty stands in testament to this heritage. My father was an immigrant; there was no greater patriot than my father. He came here as so many do to start a new life and have an opportunity for a bright economic future. Today we have ten to thirteen million illegal immigrants in the US that came to our country for the same reasons my father did. The problem comes from not complying with the laws of the US; the bypassing of the legal process is the issue. It is worsened by rising Sacramento unemployment from about 4 ½ percent in 2006 to over thirteen percent today.
I like to travel to other parts of the world; Mexico is one of my favorite destinations. Reviewing the economy in Mexico, America is still the land of opportunity. A person in Mexico, who is unemployed, with little hope, will look to America as our forefathers have. They may decide it is worth the cost to pay a “Coyotaje” and risk life and limb to cross into the US illegally. We must deter this person; we must convince this person that the risk and cost are too high; we must convince this person that a life in the shadows is not possible.
Stopping the flow of illegal immigrants requires more than a higher wall and more guards at the border. Arizona passed a law a couple years ago to prosecute employers who hire illegal aliens; it has received little attention in the media. In my years in business, we always followed the law requiring Form I9 Employment Eligibility; everyone, including myself. The I9 document system is dated and subject to fraudulent papers. E-Verify, an online verification system, is essential to the smooth operation of the employment community. This is not rocket science; I can travel anywhere in the world and use my ATM card; if the bank knows who I am, the government should know if I have the right to work in the US. Employers that do not follow the law must be prosecuted.
Have you read the Arizona law (it is quite short)? If the law were written about bank robbers, dead beat dads, drunk drivers or people with traffic offenses, there would be little notice. My California driver’s license is ample ID to comply with the law. The specter of racial profiling has fed this uproar. The root issue with racial profiling is whether we have faith in our law enforcement to fairly pursue the law or not; trust in law enforcement is a larger issue than illegal immigration. An unspoken matter is whether or not the illegal immigrant issue should be addressed; more, less, amnesty, open borders, etc. Arizona moved forward; the Arizona law is a deterrent to those in foreign lands that wish to come here illegally; certainly, Arizona will not be first choice on a destination list.
We need to address the millions who have been here for a long time. The amnesty program of the past has not prevented the problems we face today. A guest worker program will bring people out of the shadow economy to be legal members of our society ... to pay taxes. This is not amnesty; it is a resolution process.
We are a nation of laws. Some we like and some we do not; however it is the law that keeps our society together. We as citizens can change our laws, but we must follow them as they are until then.
Erik Smitt
Some thoughtful articles: How can we reform our immigration laws?
The Conversation: Open borders? Numerical limit? Must pick one
The Conversation: Pass AgJOBS plan to allow seasonal workers
The Conversation: A national ID card would keep work force legal
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