USA Import/Export with Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, Germany and the UK

In 2016 the USA exported $3.51 trillion and imported $4.88 trillion dollars.  A difference or deficit of 1.37 trillion dollars. How many USA manufacturing jobs is that? I am not an expert and do not know.  I do know as a businessman I would not like to be buying 1.38 trillion dollars more of product than I was selling.

In 2016 we exported to Canada $266 billion and imported $296 billion; to Mexico exported $229 billion and imported $302 billion; to Japan exported $63.2 billion and imported $130 billion; to the UK exported $55.3 billion and imported $61.6 billion; to China exported $115 billion and imported $385 billion; imported from Germany $118 billion dollars and we exported less to Germany than Germany imported from the Netherlands, France, Belgium or Italy; we imported from France $36.1 billion and like Germany we exported to France less than they imported from Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

The USA are these six countries best customers for their exported products.  Yet, in most cases they buy (import) less from the USA than they do other countries.
Can you see why they do not like President Trumps rhetoric?  We mean far more to them than they mean to us.  They need us far more than we need them!

Previous Republican and Democrat Administration since 1965 have allowed these trade deficits to exist and to grow. The Citizens of the USA have sat by passively and allowed it to happen.  We watched in silence as politicians and political parties strangled our steel mills, textile industries, oil/gas/coal industries, automobile industries, and outsourced our jobs to foreign soil. We even like fools kept electing these same people to office term after term. It took its toll on our manufacturing industries and as a results the economy has plummeted. In 1965 53% of our economy depended on manufacturing jobs, in 1988 only 39% and by 2004 only 9%. When any country lacks a strong domestic manufacturing sector it quickly becomes dependent on foreign nations.

President Trump came to office and immediately began to try and address the problem and the foolish Liberals/Democrats and Rino's attack him. Those of us that are intelligent enough to know that we cannot continue to exist as a nation if we do not begin to make changes have sat  back and allow these fools to get away with it.

Since 1998 the USA has lost 3 million manufacturing jobs. Can President Trump correct the bad political decisions of the past.  I frankly do not know, but I know one thing no previous President Republican or Democrat, since Roosevelt, could or did and thank God President Trump is trying.

The Liberals, Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans are quick to criticize the President, but they have not done one damn thing to address the problems.  If these people criticizing the President are so damn smart why do they not run for the office of President? Why did the Liberals and Democrats not address the problems when they control the Office of President, House and Senate for two years? They only dug the hole deeper.

They could have fixed all the integration problems they now gripe and blame on President Trump. The truth is they do not care about the Black or Brown skin or middle class people and it seems that many in that segment of society are too stupid to realize it. The Liberals and Democrats only care about getting votes.

If America does not manufacture and sell goods, then money only leaves the country.  The USA now imports twice as much as it exports around the world.  This has resulted in a trade deficit that has ballooned to an unprecedented $800 billion on an annualized basis.  Unfortunately, this trend showed no signs of abating until President Trump took office.

Every time an American manufacturer closes and then reopens elsewhere, the foreign country gains American technology.  Not having to spend resources developing technology, foreigners can focus on improving or beating it. Boeing is especially guilty of this by their outsourcing labor in China, Japan and other countries.  They produce 70% of all their airplane parts abroad.

Do not let the globalization admirers fool you by saying only low skill jobs are going overseas because their people are unskilled. As of 2005 China will produce 3.3 million university graduates, all of who speak English.  India will turn out 3.1 million English speaking graduates. China will produce 600,000 engineers and India will produces 350,000 as of 2005.  Compare that to the 70,000 the USA produced as of July 2005.There are no difference in skills the difference is foreign workers will work seven days a week for $1.00 an hour.  Americans may be happier now that they can buy cheaper toys, but this will not last.  One day Americans will no longer be able to afford their toys regardless of how cheap the price.

I have seen what can happen when the USA loses manufacturing jobs.  My dad preached to me college and then go to work in the steel mill. He told me you will be set for life.  He was a Supervisor at Sheffield Steel in Houston, Texas.  They worked 3 shifts a day, 365 days a year.  It is now a rust bucket and has been closed for years.  My dad complained about the electric steel mills the USA give Japan after WWII, but he never dreamed it would be the end of the steel industry in the USA. The days when blue collar jobs were passed down the line to family members are over.

Corporate leaders that have moved their operations overseas for a quick profit are also fools.  They never stop to think that the Americans are the major buyer of their products and one day Americans will not be able to afford their products.  There was a time following WWII Japanese were willing to work for low wages and no benefits, but today their minimum wage is higher than the USA.  China and India will experience the same and then all their products will increase in price.

You had better remember as manufacturing jobs go so goes the nation!

More to follow in days to come.

John McCain is not a war hero!

“Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticizes US senator John McCain for getting captured during the Vietnam war. Speaking at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa on Saturday, Trump says he supported McCain in the 2008 presidential elections, but questions his status as a war hero. Trump is currently running at the top of most Republican polls.”

President Trump still continues to be criticized for that statement and few in the general public ever took the time to investigate and find out if what President Trump said is true.  John McCain is no hero in fact he may have been a traitor.  The only mistake President Trump made was to say “for getting captured during the Vietnam war.”

John McCain flew ground-attack aircraft from carriers in the US Navy. He was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and spent the next six years as a prisoner of the Vietnamese, whom he alleged tortured him. His mission when he was shot down was the bombing of a light bulb factory, a civilian target prohibited under international law. This means that rather than a “war hero” John McCain is in fact a “war criminal.”  Many will say he was only following orders and that is true he did not select the target.  But, the liberals did not give the Army and Marine Infantry soldiers the same break.  They called them MURDERS!

McCain didn’t just carry out such illegal orders himself, he willingly voiced support for them, specifically during the 1999 war against Yugoslavia when “water systems, power and heating plants, hospitals, universities, schools, apartment complexes, senior citizens’ homes, bridges, factories, trains, buses, radio and TV stations, the telephone system, oil refineries, embassies, marketplaces and more were deliberately destroyed by U.S./NATO planes in a ruthless 10-week bombing campaign.”

McCain is often called a “war hero”, a title adorning an unlovely resume starting with a father who was an admiral who graduated fifth from the bottom at the US Naval Academy, where he earned the nickname “McNasty”.  McCain flew 23 bombing missions over North Vietnam, (Air Force Pilots were required to fly 100 missions before rotating back to the States). each averaging about half an hour, total time ten hours and thirty minutes. For these brief excursions the admiral’s son was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Bronze Stars, the Vietnamese Legion of Honor and three Purple Hearts. US Veteran Dispatch calculates our hero earned a medal an hour.  McCain was shot down and parachuted into Truc Boch Lake, whence he was captured by Vietnamese, and put in prison.

On that gray morning more, McCain was knocked unconscious briefly when he ejected from his damaged bomber. Both his arms were broken, his right knee was shattered, and when he splashed into the middle of Truc Bach (White Silk) Lake, his 50 pounds of flight gear kept him from reaching the surface.  His arms and right knee was shattered because he did not follow proper procedures when ejecting from the plane.  In other words he SCREWED up.

Why did Senator McCain oppose releasing documents and information about American prisoners of war in Vietnam and the missing in action who have still not been accounted for.  His staunch resistance to laying open the POW/MIA records has baffled colleagues and others who have followed his career.  His anti-disclosure campaign successfully shut down the release of these documents. Literally thousands of documents that would otherwise have been declassified long ago have now been legislated into secrecy.  What was and is Senator McCain afraid may come out if these documents are released?  Is he afraid that if some of these returned prisoners debriefings were released they may reveal Senator John McCain was a traitor? Many former POWs, MIA families and veterans have suggested there is something especially damning about McCain that the senator wants to keep hidden. 

In 1989, 11 members of the House of Representatives introduced a measure they called “The Truth Bill.” A brief and simple document, it said: “[The] head of each department or agency which holds or receives any records and information, including live-sighting reports, which have been correlated or possibly correlated to United States personnel listed as prisoner of war or missing in action from World War II, the Korean conflict and the Vietnam conflict shall make available to the public all such records and information held or received by that department or agency. In addition, the Department of Defense shall make available to the public with its records and information a complete listing of United States personnel classified as prisoner of war, missing in action, or killed in action (body not returned) from World War II, the Korean conflict, and the Vietnam conflict.” 

This Truth Bill was bitterly opposed by the Pentagon, “The Truth Bill” got nowhere. It was reintroduced in the next Congress in 1991 — and again disappeared. Then, suddenly, out of the Senate, birthed by the Arizona Senator, a new piece of legislation emerged. It was called “The McCain Bill.” This measure turned “The Truth Bill ” on its head. It created a bureaucratic maze from which only a fraction of the available documents could emerge. And it became law. So restrictive were its provisions that one clause actually said the Pentagon didn’t even have to inform the public when it received intelligence that Americans were alive in captivity.

Boiled down, the The McCain Bill means that the Defense Department is not obligated to tell the public about prisoners believed alive in captivity and what efforts are being made to rescue them. It only has to notify the White House and the intelligence committees in the Senate and House. The committees are forbidden under law from releasing such information.

Then there is the Missing Service Personnel Act, which McCain succeeded in gutting in 1996. A year before, the act had been strengthened, with bipartisan support, to compel the Pentagon to deploy more resources with greater speed to locate and rescue missing men. The measure imposed strict reporting requirements.  Again what is Senator McCain afraid may come out?  Other than Senator McCain I do not know one veteran of the Vietnam “Conflict” that supports not doing all we can to discover the truth about these MIA.  I was in Vietnam when Senator McCain was shot down.

 One final evisceration in the law was McCain’s removal of all its enforcement teeth. The original act provided for criminal penalties for anyone, such as military bureaucrats in Washington, who destroy or cover up or withhold from families any information about a missing man. McCain erased this part of the law. He said the penalties would have a chilling effect on the Pentagon’s ability to recruit personnel for its POW/MIA office.

McCain has said again and again that he has seen no “credible” evidence that more than a tiny handful of men might have been alive in captivity after the official prison return in 1973.  One is one too many! He dismisses all of the subsequent radio intercepts, live sightings, satellite photos, CIA reports, defector information, recovered enemy documents and reports of ransom demands — thousands and thousands of pieces of information indicating live captives — as meaningless. He has even described these intelligence reports as the rough equivalent of UFO and alien sightings.  Again I ask why would a former POW work so hard and so persistently to keep POW/MIA information from coming out?

Some McCain watchers searching for answers point to his recently published best-selling autobiography, Faith of My Fathers, half of which is devoted to his years as a prisoner. In the book, he says he felt badly throughout his captivity because he knew he was being treated more leniently than his fellow POWs owing to his propaganda value as the son of Adm. John S. McCain II, who was then the CINCPAC — commander in chief of all U.S. forces in the Pacific region, including Vietnam.  Also in the book, the Arizona Senator repeatedly expresses guilt and disgrace at having broken under torture and given the North Vietnamese a taped confession, a confession he could not deny because tapes were available. The tapes were broadcast over the camp loudspeakers, saying he was a war criminal who had, among other acts, bombed a school. “I felt faithless and couldn’t control my despair,” he writes. What about the 32 tapes played on Vietnam radio where he said he was being treated well and that he killed innocent Vietnamese for the United States and if not for North Vietnam’s fine hospitals and doctors he would have never walked again.  John McCain on 32 radio taped broadcast praised North Vietnam and criticized the United States. A war hero I think not!

New York Times: “His (John McCain’s) most striking achievement came when he joined with another Vietnam veteran, Senator John Kerry (another traitor), to puncture the myth that Vietnam continued holding American prisoners.

The press corps, covering the state-by-state primary vote, made an assumption, based apparently on sentiment, that McCain, as the war hero, would capture the significant veterans’ vote by stunning margins. Actually, he didn’t capture it at all. When the states were tallied up, the veterans’ vote went to George W. Bush.

"When I was offered a chance to go home early from prison camp in Vietnam, I put my country first.  And I’ve been doing that ever since.  I had an opportunity at that time, when I was in prison in North Vietnam, to come home early because of the fact that my father was an admiral," McCain said. "And I chose not to, because I put my country first.”  If he had come home early he would have never been elected to any office in the United States.  He would have disgraced not only himself, but his family.  He certainly would not have been mentioned as a war hero.  He did not come home because he would have lost face.  It had nothing to do with loyalty to his country.  As usual John McCain was only interested in himself and his future.

I have far more to say about John McCain the war hero, but I will save that for a later date.

Paul Ryan's Health Care Bill is a joke not worth laughing at.

President Trump’s Health Care Bill – NOT – It is Paul Ryan’s Health Care Bill!

This is a failure for Speaker Paul Ryan on many levels. Paul Ryan wrote this bill!  As Speaker of the House he is supposed to create legislation that can pass. On this most basic task, Ryan failed, and failed miserably.  He rushed it through because his calendar was more important to him than health care.

I am not convinced that Paul Ryan did not deliberately sabotage the health care bill in order to hurt President Trump.  Never kid yourself Paul Ryan is President in waiting.  President Trump’s successes reflect badly on Paul Ryan because he did everything he could do to guarantee Trump lost the election.

Conservative Republicans will not vote for the bill because it has more bad policy than any bill that has come before the House or Senate before, even ObamaCare. This bill is a political disaster.  That is why I find it hard not to believe that Paul Ryan planned it to be a disaster.

Republicans were glad to see it die.

Ryan spent the latter half of Barack Obama’s presidency promising to repair the Republican Party’s relationship with the poor (remember Ryan’s “poverty tour”?).  He’s spent every day since the passage of Obamacare saying the Republicans could do better. This is what he came up with? The GOP put their greatest policy mind in charge of the House of Representatives and they got ... this?  I did not vote for Mitt Romney because I did not like him anymore than I liked Paul Ryan.  I have always thought Paul Ryan was a snake willing to destroy anyone or anything in order to advance Paul Ryan.  I have heard people commenting about his “beautiful blue eyes”  well I see his eyes differently – “shifty blue eyes”.

The Republican’s made the same mistake that the Democrats made.  They tried to rush a health care bill through and did not give enough time to debate the issues.  Mrs. Pelosi the Democrat genius in speaking about Obamacare said, “We had to pass it in order to know what was in it”.  If that is not totally asinine I do not know what is. 

I get the impression that President Trump is now disgusted with the health care issue and is ready to drop it and move on – a bad mistake!  If he does that he does not have the bal-s I thought he had when he was campaigning.

It is remarkable that after spending seven years establishing repeal and replace as their top priority, Republicans are abandoning the project less than 70 days after taking power. Doing difficult things in the American political system takes patience. 

If what I was told by a member of the House is true Obama threaten the House and Senate in order to get Obamacare passed.  I did  not know anything about this until he told me.  There was a bill that in 2014 would have forced the House, Senate and Federal employees to take the same health care policy the citizens had.  Obama was prepared to allow the legislation go into effect if they did not pass ObamaCare.  Obama in order to get the legislation passed had them declare Washington politicians and Federal workers as SMALL BUSINESS EMPLOYEES.  Small Business exemptions are for employers with 50 or less employees.  The last time I counted there were far more than 50 elected and salaried personnel working for the Federal Government in Washington D.C. 

I believe President Trump could use the threat of rescinding Obama’s ruling if they do not pass a workable health care bill.  He will not in my opinion because he would never get another piece of legislation passed while he is in office.   The elected officials would blackmail the President as they do the American citizens when they do not get what they want.  

The Republican line on the bill’s failure is it’s the Democrats’ fault. President Trump said, “We could have done this, but we couldn’t get one Democrat vote, not one,”. Of course, neither Trump nor Ryan nor anyone else ever tried to get Democrats support. They didn’t meet with Democrats, and from the beginning, they used the reconciliation process precisely because it meant they wouldn’t have to deal with Democrats. Trump is going to have a very difficult time if he does not try to get some Democrats behind him because he will never have the support from the majority of the Republicans in office that did everything to try and keep him from being elected.

I am a staunch REPUBLICAN.  I find nothing redeeming about the Democrat party.  I am even amazed that I feel the way I do about the Republicans and especially Paul Ryan about this health care legislation.

I do agree with President Trump when he says in time ObamaCare will explode.  It is impossible to fulfill all the promises in the bill.  We have already experience difficulty with the bill – higher insurance cost, less doctors involved, less insurance companies involved and higher deductibles.  Regardless of what happens with ObamaCare now President Trump and the Republicans will be blamed for not fixing it as they promised.

I think the first thing that needs to be done is to move health care away from an employer/employee relationship.  Citizens deserve the right to be able to afford and have healthcare regardless of who they work for.  It amazes me that in a Third World Country like the Philippines for $100 a year a citizens can have Phil Health which covers hospital and doctors.  The relationship is between the government and the citizens.  Why is that not possible in the United States?  I am not naïve I do not think it can be done for $100 a year.

Higher cost employer paid health care should be TAXED.  If you are receiving more than others I see that as a salary benefit and it should be taxed. 

I do not believe people that are able to work and choose not to should be covered by government health care.  I am sorry, I am for welfare when deserved, but not welfare give away.

Health care should not come under free market legislation.  Health care is not something you can choose to have or not have like an expensive car, house, boat, clothing, etc.  Everyone needs health care.  The government should regulate health care cost, insurance premiums and pharmaceuticals. 

The exact same medications I purchase monthly in the Philippines from the very same companies would cost me three to four times more in the United States.  I remember when I first came to the Philippines I went to get a heart medication refilled and when told the price it frighten me.  I ask is this the original or a knockoff and was told it was the exact same medication I received in the United States.  I was asked, “Why do you question the medication” and when I said what it cost in the United States the Pharmacist at Mercury Drug said, “Well if it will make you feel better we can charge you the same price as you pay in the United States.”  I was so unsure that I sent the box and bottle to my Cardiologist in the United States to have him inform me it was the EXACT same medication.  I then learned the Pharmaceutical companies have about four pricing tiers and depending on what country you live in determines what you pay.

Paul Ryan would like to eliminate:

Doctor visits - (I would to for those that abuse them, but how would you monitor that – doctors are not going to say a patient did not need to come to the doctor regardless if they did or not. The doctor wants to be paid).

Emergency room visits - (I feel the same about this as I do doctor visits.  If a person goes to an emergency room for something that could be treated by a physician in an office they should be turned away. I know for a fact the poor abuse this at University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.  I have witness it over and over)

Hospital visits - (If a licensed physician says a patient should be in the hospital the government should not be allowed to second guess that.  If they investigate and find the physician abused the system make him or her pay out of pocket or put them in prison for money paid out fraudulently).

Prescription drugs - (There should be a reasonable co-pay based on income)

Pediatric care - (I believe too much medicine is specialized.  Whatever happen to General Practitioners?  Does a child really need a specialist for flu or cold)?

Lab services - (If licensed physicians request it then it should be paid).

Preventive care - (Within reason).

Maternity care - (Depends on circumstances.  I find it difficult to pay for three or four babies from different fathers.  But, I also have a problem not protecting the baby).  As a staunch Catholic I still believe in mandatory tying their tubes).

Mental health care - (It is an illness as real as any physical illness and should be covered).

Rehabilitation services - (If prescribed by licensed physician it should be paid within reason).

These things should be debated not mandated by Paul Ryan.  I am sure many could find reasonable reasons to disagree with me and their concerns should be considered.

33 Congressional Republicans were publicly against Paul Ryan’s bill.  Health care has been an issue of singular importance for the American people for fifty years.  Societies across the world have had the same problems and societies across the world have instituted some variety of public health care, and have not collapsed financially or morally.  There is a solution, but Obamacare and Paul Ryan Care is not the solution. Paul Ryan’s solution is a compromise that nobody seems to want and that nobody can get excited about. 

THE TRUTH IN MY OPINION IS NO ONE REALLY WANTS HEALTH CARE TO WORK EXCEPT PRESIDENT TRUMP!

This is how our politicians spend our tax dollars.

Some of the stupidest examples of government waste this year include:

•A $375,000 National Science Foundation grant to study the dating habits of senior citizens. I am a senior citizen Obama could have just picked up his phone and called me or picked up his pen and wrote me and I would have told them for free.

•$200,000 spent by the National Endowment for the Arts for wordless adaptations of Shakespeare plays. I do not even no what this is - wordless plays!

•$283,500 spent by the Pentagon to study a small bird. I raise birds love birds, finches, parakeets, canaries and cockatiels. They can study my birds for $500 anytime they want as long as they do not hurt them.

•$1.2 million spent by the National Science Foundation to teach robots how to select outfit combinations and dress children and the elderly. I do not think I want a robot dressing me and I think the robot would cost more than my caregiver in the Philippines. "Children" implies young and cannot live alone - why can't the people taking care of the "Children" select their clothes? If they do not have sense enough to select clothing I would think they would be to stupid to care for children.

•$250 million spent to train only 60 Syrian rebels to fight ISIS — that’s $4 million per rebel. The worse thing about this waste is they all RAN when the fighting began.

I saw $105 billion dollars in what I consider obvious waste of taxpayer money and I am sure there is much more.  Yet, we have children in the United States going to bed hungry and going to school without breakfast.

Trump is reaping the benefits of the National Historical Tax Credit to the tune of $40 million to develop an old building into a luxury hotel.