Last week a caller commented on how much more efficient the Medicare program is administered than private insurance. Whenever anyone claims that government does something more efficiently than the private sector be suspicious! There are two great reports that are interesting and can be found at http://www.heartland.org/pdf/32923a.pdf and http://www.heartland.org/pdf/32924b.pdf on the Heartland Institute website.
I want to thank Cheryl Lepsch from Jammies for GI’s for being a guest on my show. Her unrelenting quest to help returning and injured soldiers with WHATEVER they need is amazing. I received an e-mail right after the show from a man who said he was going to open his wallet wide and wanted her phone number. For anyone who is able to pick up electric razors, portable DVD players for soldiers limited to their beds or break away pants she can arrange for them to be picked up. Call her at 695-6867. We will make sure that our troops get them. She has a way for everyone to help. Please go to facesforfundraising.com for an opportunity to purchase a 16 x 20 poster of the American Flag that is made up of faces colored by all of you. They cost $25.00.
I also want to thank Lenny Roberto from Primary Challenge for being a guest. Primary Challenge is looking for voters who will spend fifteen hours per year to help pick and endorse candidates. Have you ever gone into the voting booth and wished there were better candidates to choose from? This is how you can help. You can call Lenny Roberto at 683-3484 or 207-7138 or go to primarychallenge.org. All they need is your name, address and political affiliation. Primary Challenge needs good democrats and republicans to step up and be part of the solution.
The topic for the show was our worsening economy and the unions that must recognize signs that companies are going to fail if major changes aren’t made. In a March 1, 2006 Wall Street Journal article by Jeffrey McCracken the Jobs Banks are detailed. “Since 1990, GM’s union payroll including former subsidiary Delphi Corp. has fallen to about 137,000 from 358,000.” This is a huge decline and caught in this decline are scores of workers who sit in rooms called “rubber rooms” where they do nothing all day. This is not their fault; it is in their contracts. “GM employees constitute slightly more than half of the 14,700 auto workers in the Jobs Bank. In second place with 3,600 Jobs Bank workers is auto parts maker Delphi.” This total number is expected to rise to 17,000 next year. Detroit will trim 60,000 more jobs this year. There is not way GM will be in existence in five years unless the Jobs Bank is completely eliminated and costs are brought down so the company is profitable. People who sit in these rooms cost the employer between 100,000 and 130,000 (wages and benefits). I asked the listeners why the unions don’t seem to get it. Greg from Grand Island is the head of his union and was a great caller. He gets it and helps his union members understand that if they don’t work really hard and help to make the company profitable none of them will have jobs. A retired GM employee called and added to the history of these jobs banks.
If ALL workers don’t understand that a company must be profitable or will cease to exist this community is in for a very big fall.
