Jobs & The Economy, Really?

Tim Dukes  So, all I have heard from Republican law makers during the break in the General Assembly, is how we need to focus on jobs & the economy. Really?   I personally attended a meeting of the Western Sussex Republican Club, where House Minority Leader, Rep. Danny Short spoke, and Sen. Brian Pettyjohn was in attendance, at which Rep. Short emphasized the need for the Republicans to focus on the issues regarding jobs and the economy. That the Democrats had been able, due to being the majority, to keep the focus on social issues, all the while the deficit grows.

So imagine my surprise, when right out of the box, we have a House Bill sponsored by Republican Representative, Tim Dukes. HB 239.  http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis148.nsf/vwLegislation/HB+239/$file/legis.html?open

This bill, named Brock’s Law, would make it a class B felony for drug dealers who sell drugs, resulting in a death.

Maybe I am missing something here. Can someone explain to me how such a law will create a single job? Or how it will improve the economy? Anyone?

First of all, how can this even be enforced? How will the drug be traced back to the dealer, if the user is dead? I have openly admitted my past use of drugs, and in all my years, and all of my buys, not once was I given a receipt.

Let us first look at this from a conservative point of view, after all, Rep. Dukes is considered by many to be a conservative. Well in my view of conservatism, the number one principle is personal responsibility. So, again from my personal experience, the dealer almost never sought me out, I sought them out. Meaning, drug use is the choice of the user. If they choose to use dangerous drugs, then the risk of death is also their responsibility.

The other thing that strikes me as a conservative, is how much this resembles the argument  anti-gun advocates use so often. Does this not sound like those who want to do away with guns because someone chose to point and pull the trigger? If guns don’t kill people, then dealers don’t either.

And by the way, if the dealer is responsible for the users death, if the user uses a State of Delaware supplied needle, is not the state just as responsible? But of course the state is immune from prosecution, isn’t that precious?

I am so tired of these types of bills, I am especially taxed when they come from Republicans, but I guess when you are in the minority, you have to do something to get your name on a bill.

Again I ask, can someone tell me how this will stop overdoses? Since this law, is a law enforced after the death, it will do nothing to stop overdoses. The people selling drugs are not frightened now by jail time, what makes law makers think this new law will change that?

I can not imagine how hard it is, to sit in a room with parents who have lost their child, to this type of crime, which I would assume at some point Rep. Dukes did. But is mediating someone’s grief a reason to pass legislation? I don’t believe so. And the reason you personalize it by calling it Brock’s Law? Obviously to build sentimental support for the bill.

For the past two years I have been present at Legislative Hall on the final night of the session, yeah night, that’s funny. Until six in the morning last time. And why? Well maybe, just maybe, because the first half or more of the session is taken up with this type of legislation that does nothing to solve the looming deficit, it creates no job incentives, and helps the economy not at all.

I can only wait for the resolutions to begin, you know, for the official State of Delaware cheese day, and then we will need an official state cheese of course. Maybe we could have state blue ink day, after all I really like blue ink.

Of course this bill will pass, after all, isn’t that the real goal here, to get a bill passed which  makes it look like  Republicans can actually get something done? And who has the guts to say no to this piece of fluff, do nothing bill?

Oh, and by the way, there is a companion bill in the Senate, SB 174 http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis148.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+174/$file/legis.html?open

This bill would create a commission to investigate drug overdoses in order to enforce HB 239.

So, not only are we creating an empty law, we are growing government along with it. Now there is some good old-fashioned conservatism for you.

  JOBS & THE ECONOMY, REALLY?

 

34 Comments on "Jobs & The Economy, Really?"

  1. Chris says:

    Nice article. The analogy with gun control was especially on point.

  2. Fish Bites says:

    What happened to Pat Fish?

    Did they take her fence down, and she wandered off and got lost in the woods?

  3. fightingbluehen says:

    Yeah, this HB 239 seems a bit far fetched. I think a more realistic and effective approach would be to do something like mandatory minimum sentencing for dealers and possibly even users who are caught with Fentanyl laced heroin.
    If the word gets out that dealing in Fentanyl laced heroin will get you years in jail, then maybe it would help to reduce it’s presence in the market place.

  4. Tara says:

    Fantastic article.

  5. mouse says:

    I’m going to start asking for a receipt that lists the origin so they can go after the grower too.

  6. Rick says:

    The analogy with gun control was especially on point.

    There is no analogy; guns are a legal product, heroin is not.

    This bill is a waste of time. It is self-serving legislation, designed to give the impression that our politicians are doing something about Delaware’s drug problem.

  7. Pat Fish says:

    They tore down my fence and made it into a gallows.

    On February 19 I am scheduled to be hung from this gallows made of my fence for the crime of building my fence on my neighbor’s land fifteen years ago when his lot was but butterflies and foxes while I was living here peaceably loving my land. As determined by the Sussex county Superior court of NO JUSTICE!

    Well somebody asked.

    This is really a great article, Frank, and especially germane due to your drug past.

    Now how about that apology for slavery?

  8. mouse says:

    Weed is going legal, nah ha

  9. fightingbluehen says:

    “nah ha”?

  10. Frank Knotts says:

    Rick, the analogy was not between guns and drugs, but the arguments being used.

  11. mouse says:

    Aren’t most conservative republicans against legalizing

  12. mouse says:

    The conservative republican right would never win another election without all the dog whistle issues that appeal to mostly working class whites. Racism, xenophobia, religious resentment, fear and the like. It’s always those issues that crowd out discussion of anything that really matters.

  13. Fish Bites says:

    “for the crime of building my fence”

    I thought you said it was there when you moved in?

    Anyway, I gotta find my black hood!

  14. Rick says:

    Rick, the analogy was not between guns and drugs, but the arguments being used.

    Yes, I know that. But since manufacturing guns is legal and selling dope is not, the arguments cannot be analogous. But who cares anyway?

  15. Rick says:

    The conservative republican right would never win another election without all the dog whistle issues that appeal to mostly working class whites. Racism, xenophobia, religious resentment, fear and the like. It’s always those issues that crowd out discussion of anything that really matters.

    Not really. The first concern of the blue collar worker is jobs and income. And this includes minority blue collar workers.

    Corporations are moving operations offshore, wages are stagnent and the majority of jobs “created” by Obama are in fast food. Blacks from disparate backgrounds (Travis Smiley, Spike Lee and so on) have stated that black Americans are worse off, economically, under Obama. Like Trump says, “we are being led by very stupid people.” And I think the American people are starting to agree. I believe in ’16 we will witness a resurgence of the “Reagan Democrat” coalition, united behind Trump with the economy and jobs as the paramount issue.

    Related, from today’s Politico;

    …William Doddridge, the CEO of the Jewelry Exchange, one of the country’s largest jewelry companies, told POLITICO late Thursday that had decided to start TrumPAC, an outside group focused on helping the real estate mogul win the White House.

    “Trump’s business acumen sets him apart from the field and is exactly what we need in the Oval Office. I have talked to so many friends and colleagues who want to get involved supporting Donald Trump, and TrumPAC is a great way for them to do just that,” Doddridge said in a statement. “I’m proud to work with our grassroots leaders to support this movement.”

    Working alongside Doddridge will be Amy Kremer, a key leader in the tea party movement who formerly served as chairman of the Tea Party Express and will serve as TrumPAC’s spokeswoman and co-founder. The group’s attorney will be Dan Backer, a prominent conservative election attorney who represented GOP activist Shaun McCutcheon, who brought a case to the Supreme Court challenging the limit on overall campaign finance…

    There is a storm brewing, and it bodes to be an ill wind for Socialist-Democrats.

  16. Fish Bites says:

    “Yes, I know that. But since manufacturing guns is legal and selling dope is not, the arguments cannot be analogous.”

    There are a lot of legal drugs. Regulations require they be provided in bottles that are child-resistant – unlike guns, which kids find and shoot themselves with all of the time:

    http://www.khou.com/story/news/local/2016/01/21/4-year-old-boy-who-accidentally-shot-self-dies-hospital/79146436/

  17. delacrat says:

    “Corporations are moving operations offshore,…” – rick

    They are not moving operations to GOP controlled states.

  18. Rick says:

    They are not moving operations to GOP controlled states.

    GE just left Connecticut, thanks in large part to Massachusetts’ Republican governor.

    Texas’ economy has been booming.

    Foreign companies- Mercedes Benz and BMW, for example- built huge new factories in the South.

    I notice that New York finally figured out that in a country with the highest corporate tax rate in the world, states need to provide incentives if they want new business.

    Cities like Murder Town are dying. Most Democrats just don’t get it.

  19. mouse says:

    Trump said that you people make too much money. If you were truly focused “jobs and income” instead of resentment and racism, Trump would not be your candidate.

  20. mouse says:

    Google effective tax rates. Most of your beloved corporations outsource jobs to Chinese kids for slave wages and pay little or no taxes. You people parrot any BS malicious lie from the people who pander to your pathetic bigotry and steal your kid’s future. And yet you people lack the moral and intellectual development to even feel shame at your moral and mental failings.

  21. Rick says:

    Google effective tax rates.

    Forget the ambiguous “effective.” What is the corporate and state tax rate in the U.S.?

    Most of your beloved corporations outsource jobs to Chinese kids for slave wages and pay little or no taxes.

    Okay, “most” corporations “outsource jobs to “Chinese kids” and “pay little or no taxes.” Name a few.

    And yet you people

    Who are “you people?” The people of thirty-three states who have Republican governors?

    lack the moral and intellectual development

    What is “moral development?” Learning to steal from the productive?

    What is “intellectual development?” Memorizing the left-wing media’s talking points?

    Try to think for yourself. Right now, you sound like a parrot.

  22. mouse says:

    Google Maslow’s hierarchy

  23. mouse says:

    Effective tax rates are what companies actually pay. You can’t just “forget that” unless your goal is to spread the misinformation of the people you shill for. Are you so deluded or dishonest that you parrot the the rhetoric of the people who steal you’re kids future just to support your tribal ideology? See this link for a list of companies. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/corporation-tax-rate_n_4855763.html

    I think you’re projecting. Just because you have nothing but the misinformation from talk radio et al to parrot doesn’t mean I am parroting anything. I may be parroting reality and not the myopic, angry paranoid, selfish, racist, mean spirited, bigoted crap you lower middle class uneducated types thrive on. But that’s the problem with you people, you reject anything that doesn’t fit your small talk radio minds, be it empirical science or education. And in the process, you make life more difficult for your kids and their kids at every turn just to satisfy your primitive hate lust!!!!!

  24. delacrat says:

    “Texas’ economy has been booming.” – rick

    The only thing booming in Texas are massive layoffs.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/massive-layoffs-manufacturing-texas-164435388.html

  25. Rick says:

    The Texas economy has been booming for sever years. Low oil prices are a bump in the road, and won’t last forever.

    Effective tax rates are what companies actually pay. You can’t just “forget that” unless your goal is to spread the misinformation of the people you shill for.

    Check what Exxon paid and get back to me. Ditto Walmart and Apple.

    You know as much about economics as you do Maslov. Going to Wikipedia and gazing at somebody’s bullshit pyramid doesn’t even come close to comprehending Maslov’s motives.

    Are you so deluded or dishonest that you parrot the the rhetoric of the people who steal you’re kids future just to support your tribal ideology?

    Corporations are owned and run by people. They employ millions of people. And their profits are shared by people.

    Why do you hate people?

    If you want to talk about stealing our kid’s future, talk about the IOU’s in the Social Security “trust fund,” or the 19-trillion-dollar deficit, or borrowing currency with a purchasing power of X and paying it back with a much-diminished purchasing power of Y. Organized theft.

    My “tribal ideology” built the United States. Yours will destroy it.

  26. Rick says:

    There has been a lot of pressure applied to Walmart over the past few years. The know-nothing left has been clamoring for them to raise wages. So, they did. And now, the results are being realized. They are closing stores, particularly inner-city locations. So, their workers go from ten dollars an hour to no dollars per hour, and residents will now have to shop at expensive convienence stores. What a victory for the working man.

    The latest margin data I could find on Walmart was 2014, 3.3%. This is low, but is assuaged by the huge volume of sales. Nevertheless, profit-per-employee is dwarfed by a company with much higher margins, like Ford. There isn’t much room to work with.

    Another problem is growth, or the lack thereof. Investors- people- expect growth. But Walmart has put stores everywhere, and thus, the opening of new stores has necessarily slowed. They’ve tried moving-in to the cities, and have generally been met with the usual contempt exhibited by political and labor leaders.

    Like McDonald’s, Walmart provides a service that people need. That is why they have grown to be world leaders in their respective markets. When a single mother has twelve dollars in her purse, that value menu looks pretty good. And when her kids need new jeans and t-shirts, Walmart’s prices make that mother’s life somewhat easier.

    Yet, to the Bernie Sanders’ of the world- and naive saps like 90% of his followers- Walmart is an enemy. They are mean, angry, heartless. If Bernie had his way, the government would run Walmart. And rest assured, rather than earn a modest 3.3%, it would follow the model of the government’s other “private” endeavors- Amtrak and the USPS. Which mean it would be unable to function without massive largesse from the taxpayers.

    And to the left, that would be “progress.”

  27. Honi Soit says:

    Rick says that Walmart is closing stores particularly in inner-city locations and are doing this because higher wages forced its hand. I looked into this a bit.

    Of the 154 closing stores, nearly all are in places I never heard of. Most of affected stores are Walmart Express stores (102). The states most affected are mostly in the south: Alabama (8), Arkansas (10), Georgia (7), Kansas (7), Louisiania (8), Mississippi (6), North Carolina (16), and Texas (24). Walmart is closing them because the mini-mart/convenience store model didn’t work out for them.

    In the next year, Walmart announced it will open 50-60 Supercenters, 85-95 Neighborhood Markets and at least 7 Sam’s Clubs. They will be opening about the same number of stores that they are closing–and possibly more.

    For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015, Walmart increased net sales by 1.9% to $482,2 billion and returned $7.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Walmart ranked first on the 2014 Fortune 500 list of the world’s largest companies by revenue.

  28. delacrat says:

    “When a single mother has twelve dollars in her purse, that value menu looks pretty good.” – rick

    If Walmart and McDonald’s paid the single mother a decent wage, she’d have more than $12 to spend at McDonald’s and Walmart.

  29. mouse says:

    Increasing moral and intellectual development is key for human culture and human long term survival. It also helps you mature out of the angry boy talk radio phase.

  30. Rick says:

    From 105.9 news site…

    Jack Markell has signed legislation revising Delaware’s corporate income tax system to eliminate disincentives for multi-state firms to hire workers and invest in property in the state.

    The bill signed Wednesday revises how the state apportions income tax, using a formula that is based on a company’s payroll, property holdings and sales in Delaware.

    The new law reduces the weight given the property and payroll factors until, by 2020, a company’s Delaware corporate income tax would be based solely on Delaware’s proportion of total sales. Officials say that means companies won’t be penalized for adding workers and property in Delaware.

    The change follows similar moves by other states.

    Officials estimate the change will cost the state more than $48 million over the next three fiscal years.

    I wonder why he did that, since corporate taxes are too low?

    Walmart ranked first on the 2014 Fortune 500 list of the world’s largest companies by revenue.

    I’m sure they employ more than almost anyone, too. But, their margin is only 3.3%.

    If Walmart and McDonald’s paid the single mother a decent wage…

    “Decent wage” as defined by whom? You? Bernie Sanders?

    In life, there is competition. It’s straight out of the hero of the anti-religion left, Darwin. Walmart or McDonald’s doesn’t hold a gun to anyone’s head and say “work for us.” People work at Walmart and McDonald’s voluntarily. If the single mother wants a higher wage, she needs to find a higher-paying job. This means she might need to acquire some skills to compete for a better job. Darwin.

    At the end of the day, only one person is responsible for the individual working at the minimum wage- that individual who works for the minimum wage.

  31. mouse says:

    Darwin was not anti religious, in fact just the opposite. And I would be embarrassed to so abuse and misrepresent the writings of Charles Darwin. Maybe if you actually read something he wrote, it might help.

    Stay in school kids or you might become a bitter conservative and unknowingly make yourself look foolish posing inane banalities on some blog lol.

  32. delacrat says:

    ““Decent wage” as defined by whom? You? Bernie Sanders?” – rick

    Letting the likes of McDonald’s and Walmart define a decent wage is a demonstrably bad idea.

    Wages paid to Walmart and McDonald’s employees are so meager, that “Wal-Mart employees are the largest group of Medicaid recipients” and “McDonald’s has a “McResource” line that helps employees and their families enroll in various state and local assistance programs.”

    “The two biggest welfare queens in America today are Wal-Mart and McDonald’s.”

    http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-11-13/how-mcdonald-s-and-wal-mart-became-welfare-queens

    So to answer your question as to whether delacrat or Bernie Sanders, or even your hypothetical single mother could better define a “decent wage”, it’s hard to imagine that we could do worse than Walmart or McDonald’s.

  33. mouse says:

    Decent wage: A wage that allows one to live without having taxpayer support for survival just to increase profits

  34. mouse says:

    I would respect you guys a lot more if you would just be honest and admit that you really admire the outsourcing child labor exploiting robber baron and believe if you shill for him, it will somehow enrich you too. Or that you really don’t care about your kids’ future for education, jobs, social security and medical coverage and you would rather obsess on your racist, misogynist and xenophobic bigotry and resentments. It’s fairly obvious anyway

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