Trump’s Carrier Deal Is Big Problem Or Something

Now, let’s just imagine that it had been Mr. Obama who had made the deal to keep Carrier in the U.S. He would have been praised to high heaven. Trump making a deal (even before being inaugurated)? Well, there’s big problems, you guys! And we get this type of Voxsplainin’

This week, Donald Trump has been trumpeting an announcement by Carrier, which makes furnaces and air conditioners, that the company will be keeping about 800 jobs in the United States instead of moving them to Mexico.

This is obviously great news for the 800 American workers whose jobs will be saved, and it has already generated a lot of positive publicity for Donald Trump. But the announcement also illustrates an inherent problem with Trump’s approach to economic policymaking: As he focuses on small-scale, headline-grabbing deals, he’s neglecting the larger policy questions that will ultimately determine the success of his economic agenda.

Does Vox understand that Trump isn’t actually the POTUS yet? Doesn’t matter, because no matter what Trump does, there will be cause to find fault.

But a series of Carrier-like deals doesn’t add up to a viable economic agenda. For one thing, these deals are way too small. There are 150 million workers in the United States, and the US economy needs to create about 200,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. Trump would have to negotiate dozens of Carrier-sized deals every week to have a serious impact on job growth — and so far he’s announced only two deals in three weeks.

He’s not actually President. Anyhow, where was this concern over the last 8 years, when a goodly chunk of economic reports showed less than 200,000 jobs a month created? And I bet the people who kept their jobs do not see them as “way too small.”

The larger issue, though, is that governing through a series of deals creates serious perverse incentives. If Trump starts giving corporate welfare to companies that promise not to move jobs to Mexico, we’ll see a flood of companies threatening to move to Mexico in hopes of getting a handout. Taxpayers would wind up paying to save a lot of jobs that weren’t actually in danger in the first place.

They do have a point on offering incentives. The problem here, though, is that states and Los Federales have been doing this for a long time. Is it better to keep those jobs, or see them leave? For the most part, taxpayers do not pay. They are just tax breaks. Where’s the concern from Vox over the taxpayers actually paying for public and private sector unions?

Conversely, if Trump tries to punish companies that move jobs overseas — for example, by denying them federal contracts — companies will start looking for ways to hide the fact that they’re moving jobs overseas. An overly aggressive campaign could also put US businesses at a competitive disadvantage against foreign multinationals that are free to locate their factories in low-wage countries, resulting in US companies losing market share and eventually going bankrupt.

Has he done this? No. Interestingly, there was no condemnation from Vox or other liberal outlets when Democrats specifically threatened to punish companies that move jobs and/or their headquarters overseas.

All in all, the above and the rest of the article is simply a way to attack Trump for …… keeping jobs in the US. Seriously. That’s their concern. The next four years is going to be fun if we go by this standard. The media still doesn’t get that Trump beat them at the ballot box, and they continue doing the things that helped Donald beat them.

Meanwhile, you have Think Progress saying this was a bad deal. The NY Times finds a way to put a negative spin on the story, as does the Washington Post. Salon is having their usual hissy fit. The NY Times even finds a way to say that this shows that Big Government is great!

And Mr. Obama is probably sitting around in his office going “hey, guys? I’m still president. Have a little under two months left. Guys?”

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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26 Responses to “Trump’s Carrier Deal Is Big Problem Or Something”

  1. Jeffery says:

    Indiana taxpayers kicked in $7 million in concessions to Carrier. Carrier’s mothership, United Technologies, keeps its multi-BILLION dollar defense contracts. And Carrier is still moving 1300 jobs out, keeping a thousand or so in Indiana.

    If you asked Indiana taxpayers if they’d each give 5 bucks to a multibillion dollar corporation to keep 1000 jobs in the state for another year or so, they’d likely answer grudgingly, “yes”.

    It’s interesting that the promise of reduced corporate taxes and regulations from a Trump regime wasn’t enough, it took special concessions and a threat to the corporation’s gov’t contracts.

    Ah, the free market as practiced by insiders…

  2. Liam Thomas says:

    United Technologies only has to look at defense contracts and decide if its worth moving the rest of them overseas once Trump is ACTUALLY POTUS.

    I find it amusing that Jeffery is actually condemning Trump trying to keep JOBS from leaving the country when the left iswas all about jobs leaving the country.

    As Ive always said whatever one side believes….the other side is automatically against.

    The problem with the left is in the last 2 decades they have become so absorbed in SOCIAL ISSUE POLITICS and POLICY that they forgot about anything else.

    They dont realize they are slowly losing half their base to gays, lesbians, Muslims, radical Hispanics, atheists, GLOBAL WARMING LOONS….all of which have an agenda that does NOT PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE….

    there is an old axiom in politics the pocketbook is all that matters when it comes to pulling that handle….well this time the democrats convinced enough of their side to stay home or pull the trump handle…..

    We will see if that was a wise choice no matter the fact based??? gloom and doom preached by Jeffery types all over the nation right now.

  3. Rev.Hoagie® says:

    This explains Jeffery’s attitude:

    https://youtu.be/sW85ZcswiqM

  4. Hank_M says:

    “Now, let’s just imagine that it had been Mr. Obama who had made the deal to keep Carrier in the U.S. ”

    Obama didn’t have a clue what to do as he admitted in June. That and he didn’t care about American workers.

    Obama said: “He [Trump] just says, “Well, I’m going to negotiate a better deal.” Well, how — what — how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually, the answer is he doesn’t have an answer.”

    Turns out Trump did know what he was doing and did it. And approx 800 American families are better off today because Trump was elected President. Expect more when he’s actually sworn in.

  5. Liam Thomas says:

    Bill Clintons staff coined a phrase that got him elected twice.

    ITS THE ECONOMY STUPID!

    The democrats have lost sight of that in their elitist Social engineering, politically correct assault on morals and ethics that they forgot the base necessity of mankind and Americans….FOOD, WATER, HOUSING and a JOB……feel good about themselves…..

    Rust belters could give a flying FF about gays and lesbians humping each other in a transgender bathroom…….but to hear the left describe it…..the right is racists and homophobic because we are more interested in eating then Fucking.

  6. drowningpuppies says:

    Obama didn’t have a clue what to do…

    Future head of the DoD Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis once called Obama “an unwiped ass.”

    Kinda says it all.

  7. drowningpuppies says:

    Indiana taxpayers kicked in $7 million in concessions to Carrier.

    And the question is …
    “So What?”
    Over 1000 jobs were saved.

    President Unwiped Ass gave over $500 million to Solyndra and how many are employed there today?

  8. Hank_M says:

    I don’t know if the dems lost sight of the economy, Liam. Instead I think they’re too stupid to understand it.
    Hell, one commenter here thinks “We have regulated the US economy into the greatest economic engine in history.” I saved that one. You can guess who wrote that.

    Nancy Pelosi thinks unemployment insurance and food stamps stimulate the economy.

    Bill was right though, it is the economy and the modern day left has no clue whatsoever.

  9. Dana says:

    Timothy lee Voxplains:

    There are 150 million workers in the United States, and the US economy needs to create about 200,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.

    The Big News today is that the November unemployment rate dropped to 4.6%. Great, huh? Well, maybe not. Between September and November, just two months, the working aged population increased by 449,000, but the workforce — those people who are either employed or are actively looking for work — decreased by 421,000. The number of people employed increased by only 117,000 since September. That’s nowhere close to the 200,000 new jobs a month Mr Lee said we need, yet the ‘official’ U-3 unemployment number dropped from 4.9% to 4.6%.

    Me, I pay attention to the U-6 unemployment statistic, which stands at 9.3%, more than double the U-3 number. Looking back at the historical tables, I did not see one single instance, during good times or bad, during the Bush or Clinton Administrations — the tables on bls.gov only go back through 1996 — in which U-6 was double or more the U-3 rate.

    U-6 is defined as “Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force,” with Marginally Attached being defined as “those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule.”

    2003, a bad year for employment, never saw U-6 doubling U-3. 2009 and 2010, both horrible years for unemployment, never saw U-6 double U-3. But in 2015, there were four months (February, April, June and August) in which U-6 was twice (or more) higher than U-3, and three months this year, January, May and November.

  10. Stosh says:

    That dastardly President Elect, he actually in favor of taxpayers actually keeping more of their own money. It can only lead to the destruction of our government as it exists today…about time.

  11. Jeffery says:

    The PE is only interested in SOME taxpayers keeping more of their money. The Trump family would get a nice tax break (although it’s only a “paper” gain, since they pay little or no federal income tax). Corporations and the wealthy would get to keep more. The working classes – some would gain a pittance, some would even pay more. And once the House teabaggers get through with Medicare, Social Security, the PPACA and Medicaid the working classes and retirees will take an even bigger hit. To pay for the lost revenue in addition to gutting Medicare and SS, they’ll cut the EPA, IRS, food stamps, unemployment insurance, Clean Air, Clean Water etc etc and so forth.

    This has been the conservative wet dream for at least 35 years. Shift the tax burdens to those least able to pay and reward the wealthy and corporations – put the working classes to scrambling for whatever crumbs they can find. Labor costs for capitalists will drop! Yay capitalists.

  12. Jeffery says:

    Since Jan 2012 the US economy has added over 8 million jobs. We should all hope the economists are wrong concerning Trump’s plans.

    Why did he let Carrier send 1300 jobs to Mexico?

  13. Jeffery says:

    And let’s hope history is wrong.

    Since the Kennedy era..

    Dem administrations have averaged 2.4% job growth per term
    Rep administrations have averaged 1.2% job growth per term

  14. Rev.Hoagie® says:

    Since Jan 2012 the US economy has added over 8 million jobs. We should all hope the economists are wrong concerning Trump’s plans.

    Amazingly, over 94 million people didn’t get the memo. Obama lied, Americans are not getting jobs. There have been 9.3 million jobs added since 2010? Really? Too bad 18 million illegals arrived to snatch them up. Obama’s killing Americans. Thank God the stink bomb lost. Hahahaha.

    Trump will make America Great Again.

    In recent years relatively high numbers of Americans have been dropping out of the workforce. When President Barack Obama took office, 80,529,000 Americans were out of the workforce. That number has since grown by 14,526,000.

    The workforce participation rate also dipped in November, hitting 62.7 percent, hovering around levels not seen since the 1970s.

    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/12/02/record-95055000-americans-out-of-the-labor-force/#ixzz4RjROIlGA

  15. Jeffery says:

    Rev Fib,

    Every word you type is a lie, including “and” and “the”. In that way you’re similar to your god-king, the most dishonest politician in US history.

    You’re lost.

    Did you know that less than 2 million new jobs were created during the 8 Bush years (growth rate 0.1%)? That’s only 1/4th as many as during Obama’s last 4 years (growth rate 2%). Similar to Clinton, Obama cut the number of federal employees.

    Did you know that baby boomers are retiring at record high levels, therefore leaving the workforce?

  16. drowningpuppies says:

    Did you know that less than 2 million new jobs were created during the 8 Bush years (growth rate 0.1%)…That’s only 1/4th as many as during Obama’s last 4 years (growth rate 2%).

    More misleading bullshit from the lying little pussy… and he knows it.

  17. Jeffery says:

    Rev db,

    Trump is doing in spades what Rove and W did with the run up to the Iraq invasion – creating a “new” reality not based on facts. Trump lies about everything large and small alike. We might conclude that he is merely dishonest, but there’s method to his madness. Once the citizenry is so confused that they no longer can tell fact from fiction s demagogue like Trump can then create his own fantasy world.

    Once “truth” is dictated by the “leader” we’ve lost our republic.

  18. drowningpuppies says:

    President Unwiped Ass flips off America again..,

    In an unprecedented move, the U.S. State Department has classified details on refugees to be resettled in America via a secret deal made with Australia. The bi-lateral agreement, which Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a “one-off,” involves 2,465 people currently being held in Papua New Guinea and Nauru who will now be transferred onto U.S. soil.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/01/obama-administration-stiff-arms-lawmakers-questioning-secret-refugee-deal.html

  19. Saturday morning links

    Pic borrowed from Salt Water New England Resurrecting Honor  (h/t Am. Digest) One way to become poor What I Saw Tracking Down the Mentally Ill in Jail The truth about the Scopes trial A mystery:  driver decapitated after claiming ca

  20. Liam Thomas says:

    Dateline JUNE 6th, 2014……..Source LA TIMES.

    The nation’s employers created a solid number of jobs last month that pushed the economy to a milestone: It finally recovered all 8.7 million jobs lost during the Great Recession.

    But economists warned that it’s not time yet to break out the champagne for a labor market that has failed to keep up with population growth over the last 6 1/2 years and continues to struggle to create higher-wage jobs.

    So in essence it took 6.5 years to regain just the jobs lost.

    Source:National Bureau Of Economic Research.

    Workers’ earnings also have taken a hit. Those who were reemployed after losing a job during the Great Recession, on average, earned 17.5 percent less per week than in their old jobs. That was the largest decline since 1984. Among those who lost full-time jobs, the negative impact was even greater: they were earning 21.8 percent less. One reason for that larger loss is the move of many full-time job losers to part-time work. Of those who lost a full-time job and were reemployed, about one in five held a part-time job. Even among those who lost full-time jobs and found new full-time jobs, the overall loss in weekly earnings (including earnings increases they would have earned had they kept their original jobs) was about 11 percent.

    The Obama administration, which began in the midst of massive layoffs from the Great Recession, has presided over a job market turnaround. Overall employment is about 7 percent higher than when he took office.

    What they mention in the paragraph above is that Reagans recession was almost as bad as the Obama recession and they printed this…………. During the Clinton administration, total payrolls grew by nearly 21 percent, slightly better than Reagan’s 17 percent gain. The Carter administration had the third-best record, boosting payrolls by 12 percent.

    Source CNBC…..I always link Leftist organizations when I link stuff to get my point across……In the above scenario, REAGAN, CLINTON and CARTER all who began their terms with a recession way, way, way out performed OBAMA…..

    Defending the moron is futile…his policies were a disaster based upon one thing ONLY….the ACA combined with Dodd/Frank which put a chain around the economies neck.

  21. Rev.Hoagie® says:

    Yeah, yeah, yeah Jeffery. Everything I say is a lie. That’s why the people threw out that stinky old woman for president and elected Trump. That’s why so many states went Republican because the democrats and especially that lying bum Obummer are so phuking good. Right.. Keep drinking your Kool-Aid so we can win even more elections and get even more power. You’re so stupid that when you lose you double down on repeating the same stupid, lying crap that made you lose and you don’t even realize it. You are brainwashed by your little bubble. I realize you’re upset and scared by the election but that’s no reason to sound stupid. Relax, Trump is at heart a slimy democrat and slowly he’ll show it. Hell, just yesterday he tried to sell the crony capitalist tactic of screwing with the economy to help Carrier as good. I call it picking winners and losers and it sucks whether it’s a Republican trying to be popular or a democrat trying to buy off their union thugs. So sit tight, Trump is at heart a democrat. The only reason you hated him is because of that (R) after his name. It that were a (D) you’d be kissing his nuts like you do that stupid low-life Hussein.

  22. Jeffery says:

    Rev typed:

    Everything I say is a lie.

    It’s good that you recognize it. With the new Republicans lying is not a bug, it’s a feature.

    Once the populace is overwhelmed by misinformation and can’t tell the difference between facts and Republican fiction, we’ve lost our republic.

    Trump is unfit to be our president. As we’ve said many times, there is a slight risk that Trump will do something so inappropriate that it could lead to Armageddon. The not slight risk is that he will sign tea party legislation from the House, e.g., eliminating Medicare, privatizing Social Security, slashing spending, eliminating EPA etc – not to mention his Supreme Court picks. But elections have consequences.

  23. drowningpuppies says:

    But elections have consequences.

    And still Hillary will never be President.
    And the whining continues…

  24. Rev.Hoagie® says:

    The not slight risk is that he will sign tea party legislation from the House, e.g., eliminating Medicare, privatizing Social Security, slashing spending, eliminating EPA etc – not to mention his Supreme Court picks. But elections have consequences.

    From your lips to Gods ears, Jeffery. If Trump were to accomplish all that I would even become a Trump supporter! It would be an American miracle!

    Unfortunately, with the democrats controlling the education/media/entertainment complex the populace is overwhelmed by misinformation and can’t tell the difference between facts and radical leftist lies/fiction. We call that “fake news”. Thank God we beat that stinky Killary since we almost lost our republic. At least she’ll never be president. Hahahaha

  25. Jeffery says:

    Who wrote it Friday?

    “When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent. Meanwhile, the invisible hand that best orchestrates a free people’s free enterprise system gets amputated. Then, special interests creep in and manipulate markets. Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail.”

    Half-Gov Sarah Palin

    Who’s right? Half-gov Palin or President-Elect Plate of Mashed Potatoes?

  26. drowningpuppies says:

    So where’s the “crony capitalism” in the Carrier deal?

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