And Now We Know

There will be no mining in Wisconsin.  Every Democrat in the Wisconsin State Senate, including the one who calls himself a Republican, just voted against the Mining Bill and the thousands of jobs it would have created in some of the most impoverished communities in our state.  They killed it.  

For the past year we have had to endure an endless barrage of gas-bagging from the socialists in Madison, but when it came time to quit talking about the working man and actually do something to help him, Democrats closed ranks and voted against jobs, job creators, and the people who work.

There is an old saying that when elephants fight, the grass dies.  It is not always so easy to know which side to be on when the two parties start screaming at each other. Ever since the 2010 elections, both parties have accused the other of waging war on the middle class, war on the working class, and war on work.  We independents had to guess at which side was telling the truth, or perhaps I should say which was the less untruthful.    

And now we know.   

That is the importance of the vote on the mining bill today.  Oh, yes, and Governor Scott Walker was just declared the winner in his upcoming recall election.  He already had a double digit lead in the polls and a growing coalition in his favor – everyone who voted for him the first time plus everyone whose taxes went down with his budget reforms, everyone who got a carry permit, everyone who likes school choice, everyone disgusted with the antics of his opponents, everyone who opposes the idea of election do-overs on principle, and everyone who opposes rampant election fraud. 

Now he can add all those reliably Democrat and underemployed voters in the northern counties who just got shafted, along with all those private sector union members who just got kicked in the groin by the same Democrat state Senators whose Illinois hotel bills they picked up year ago.  When you reach reflexively for that Kathleen Falk lever in a few weeks, comrades, just remember who it was that played you for a sucker.   

In an irony of pure coincidence, the Wisconsin Mining Bill was killed on the very same day that our company was invited to come to Latin America to discuss new mining projects in Chile and Argentina.  Among other things, we make mining equipment in our Wisconsin and Michigan factories and half of it is now exported to other countries.  Good for us that our state’s mining equipment companies are still kicking; sad for us that our miners and mining towns aren’t.   

And in another irony that is not at all coincidental, we received a bulletin today from the National Mining Association (NMA) alerting its members that the Obama administration has proposed new changes to the Surface Mining And Control Act that would effectively ban mining of up to 40% of coal reserves, cost 270,000 jobs and cut federal and state tax revenues by up to $5 billion per year.  Most of the jobs lost will be in impoverished rural Appalachia. 

Democrats just don’t like miners.  Mining towns in rural areas are where the bitter gun and bible clingers the President backhanded in 2008 lived; and those were Democrats he was talking about at that fundraiser in San Francisco.  Like his counterparts in Madison, the President does not seem to care about the actual working men and women who make up the working class they claim to represent.  

Business is hard enough without government making it harder.  The competition is fierce, customers are fickle, employees’ expectations rise constantly, new technologies threaten, credit is the tightest when you need it the most, the economy is unpredictable, and markets turn without warning.  There is no guarantee that any business, no matter how well established, how well run, or how profitable, will survive from one year to the next.

Our country is not creating new businesses at anywhere near the rates that made us the envy of the world for two centuries.  We have ceased to be the most desirable place to do business in the world, and we can thank our government for that.  Wisconsin has one of the worst rates of new business formation in the country. Why is that?  Just try and start up a mine here…

…and then you will know.  

 

Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment and order Tim’s new book, “BRING IT!”