Posted on 09/04/2003 10:53:43 AM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
The demise of the Pillowtex Corp. and other manufacturers has brought heartache to thousands of workers and their families, who now find themselves looking to tomorrow with anxiety and uncertainty. It is a difficult time for those who earned their livelihoods at these facilities in North Carolina, and in other states as well. As Secretary of Labor, I want all of these workers to know: This administration is deeply committed to helping you get the resources you need to transition to new careers and brighter futures.
Last month, along with Rep. Robin Hayes and Gov. Mike Easley, I announced that the Department of Labor was awarding more than $20 million in special transition assistance grants to help North Carolina's trade-impacted workers get back on their feet. In addition, another grant of $4.6 million was just announced.
This includes a National Emergency Grant of up to $13 million to provide employment transition assistance for 4,000 workers from the Pillowtex facility in Kannapolis. This grant will provide Pillowtex workers with employment counseling and placement assistance, supportive services such as child care and transportation, skill assessments and job training for new careers.
Still, job training and placement services are often not enough. Working families making the transition to new careers frequently need help keeping up with health-care costs. That's why I also approved a second National Emergency Grant of $7.6 million to assist those affected by the Pillowtex shutdown with health-care coverage.
The three N.C. grants announced in the past few weeks come on top of more than $17 million in other National Emergency Grants benefiting more than 7,000 additional North Carolinians since April 2002.
We also know that workers who have lost jobs due to bankruptcy face a number of special concerns, especially when it comes to the fate of company-provided health and retirement benefits.
The Department of Labor has dispatched experts from our Employee Benefits Security Administration and Employment and Training Administration to help workers sort through their options and protect the benefits they have earned. We are coordinating closely with state officials to make sure that workers have opportunities to meet with our experts and get answers to their questions.
It is understandable that in this situation workers may feel discouraged, but these types of training and transition programs can and do work. Since January 2001, more than 42 million Americans have visited One Stop Career Centers funded by the Department of Labor to access job training and education services. Seventy percent of these individuals were connected to new jobs, with an average earnings increase of over $1,800.
Workers should also take advantage of another service provided to all Americans by the Department of Labor: America's Job Bank. By calling (877) US-2JOBS or by visiting www.ajb.org on the Internet, workers can access more than 1.1 million job listings in a wide variety of industries. These jobs are available to workers with a broad range of different skills and levels of education.
Change can be difficult, and losing a job is among the most stressful changes a worker -- and a family -- can experience. My hope, and the hope of the entire administration, is that the package of transition assistance we have designed will bring those who have lost their jobs at Pillowtex some peace of mind. We will continue to work closely with state officials and other organizations to provide assistance in the months ahead.
Remember that as you look ahead to the future and seek new opportunities, you do not have to do so alone.
Elaine Chao is U.S. Secretary of Labor. Write her at the U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Suite S-2514, Washington, DC 20210.
We'd be much better off with a true conservative who would downsize Big Government, starting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's fiefdom which works overtime to undermine domestic industries.
The private sector would be capable of taking care of itself, if only the Adminstration didn't pursue a tax policy that favors foreign production over domestic. We need a shift in tax policy. Federal revenues should be raised by implementation of a relatively low, flat-rate "revenue tariff" as preferred by our Founding Fathers. The proceeds could be used to offset reduction of other, more onerous forms of domestic taxation that hamper domestic industries. And this can be done WITHOUT placing our Treasury in ever-increasing deficit and Debt.
Still, job training and placement services are often not enough. Working families making the transition to new careers frequently need help keeping up with health-care costs. That's why I also approved a second National Emergency Grant of $7.6 million to assist those affected by the Pillowtex shutdown with health-care coverage.
More money thrown for votes bump. I bet if we could get Giddy to work in the mills as she said she did on her TV ads for office, and I believe everything Giddy says, we wouldn't have to worry about this loss of textile jobs state wide
NC state ping
Oh, now this is getting weird.
Coming up folks--negative income taxes, minimum incomes, radial changes to the earned income tax credits. Ten years-maximum--is my guess.
Wow, I knew they weren't going to expand in California, but....
-OR-
Federal revenues should be raised by implementation of a relatively low, flat-rate "sales tax" as preferred by our leading economists. The proceeds could be used to offset reduction of other, growth inhibiting forms of domestic taxation that hamper domestic industries. And this can be done WITHOUT placing our Treasury in ever-increasing deficit and Debt.
What shall we tax, income, spending or trade? Any tax reduces the activity which is taxed. Taxing income causes people to work less. Taxing trade causes people to trade less. Taxing spending causes people to spend less.
I prefer taxing spending, because the alternative to spending is saving, i.e. capital formation. When you tax spending, tax avoidance behavior causes capital formation and then an improved economy. It is the only one of the three taxation mechanisms whereby the act of tax avoidance improves the economy.
Taxing trade makes people trade less, so that every exporter and every consumer is harmed. Taxing income makes people less motivated to work, harming overall productivity and workforce engagement rates.
What shall we tax? As long as we're having pipe dreams here, I recommend taxing spending.
Tariffs are merely a sales tax on imports.
They are preferable because they alone give Americans FREEDOM to trade among themselves, FREE of the burdens of taxation on both incomes and spending!
In addition, by retaining the cash flow within our domestic economy, it is the form of taxation that is most conducive to DOMESTIC capital formation!
Yes, they're unabashedly pro-American.
I have no problems with that.
That ain't freedom, it is coercion.
It doesn't restrict your freedom whatsoever.
You're always free to emigrate and buy whatever foreign goods you want.
That's right, she did say she worked in a textile mill in NC. What was it again? stuffing paycheck envelopes?
Beau Regards,
Az
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