Create, Save, Bring Back(?) Jobs

President Obama has set aside $787 billion of your money to create jobs. That’s $787,000,000,000.00. This started in February 2009. Today Oregon’s unemployment rate is around 11% and our under-employment rate is around 21%. I encourage you to look at recovery.gov to see how the money is being spent and the results. From what I see, I don’t want the federal government spending any more of my money trying to “create or save” jobs.

We can do much better in Oregon and we can do it without spending one thin dime (not literally for those of you who will one day want to pick apart every word I ever said). The President wants to “create or save” jobs. We’re going to take it one step further because we have the ability to actually have a creative thought that doesn’t involve taxing someone or spending money we don’t have.

Lets bring jobs back to Oregon. We’ll start with manufacturing jobs from China and call center jobs from India. I know, it sounds crazy, but it also sounds crazy that we send hundreds of billions of US dollars to foreign countries for these services. WE NEED THE JOBS HERE IN OREGON AND WE NEED TO KEEP THE MONEY IN OUR OWN COUNTRY. So lets start thinking like AMERICANS and figure out a way to get it done.

I have some ideas for this that do not involve paying children slave wages and working women 20 hours per day, 6 days per week. THIS CAN BE DONE. Get it out of your head that I’m crazy and it can’t. Instead, post to this blog some of your own ideas of how it CAN be done. We’re talking about a whole new industry that can be brought to Oregon, something that no one in the country has even considered.

So, on to creating or saving jobs in Oregon…

Oregon is a piss poor place to do business. Believe me, I know. I own a very small carpet cleaning business and dealing with the state on the very limited basis that I do is enough to drive me crazy. I can only imagine the headache the state causes larger businesses that have to deal with multiple state agencies on a regular basis. I hear horror stories frequently from friends and people I run in to. Based on what I hear and the opinions of these people, most, if not all of this is unnecessary. From what I’ve seen of almost every thing else the state does, I would have to agree.

Businesses, this is what I’m going to do for you. I want to make Oregon the best place in the world to have a business. I’m not going to create boards and panels to study this and that. I’m going to take action from day one.

By electing me, I’m going to consider it a referendum of the people that they want jobs and economic stability in Oregon. I’m going to enter an agreement with any private business in Oregon to release them from paying state corporate income tax, payroll tax, and measure 67 tax. This is similar to the deal Facebook received when they agreed to build their facility in central Oregon. In exchange, the businesses will agree to pay the money once paid to the state in payroll tax to their employees, essentially giving their employees a raise.

This may sound extreme but remember, when measures 66 and 67 passed, we Oregonians learned from commercials on TV and radio (tongue-in-cheek) that corporations in Oregon only pay $10 per year in corporate income tax so letting them off the hook for that isn’t going to cost very much. Payroll tax goes to pay unemployment claims which will drastically decrease when companies begin coming to Oregon and people go back to work. There will be more income from the raises employees receive so income tax revenue will increase.

We’re also going to need to cut some spending. We’re going to start by cutting 10% from the following non-essential departments. I’m betting there’s at least 10% waste so services won’t suffer one bit. If this isn’t enough, we’ll cut more. If that isn’t enough, we’ll begin to cut entire agencies within the departments. Before you freak out, ask yourself, “are jobs and our state not going bankrupt more important than some of these departments?” Also keep in mind, we’re not doing this so rich people can get more rich. We’re doing it so Oregonians can have jobs.

Total cuts of 10% from the departments below will be $2.1 billion. Measures 66 and 67 raised $733 million. Needless to say, they were not needed. Oregonians were duped. I will also do what I can do rescind measure 66.

Consumer and Business Services: Budget increase from 2007-2009 – 21.9% $1,067,892,695

Economic Development: $4,733,654,135

Natural Resources: Budget increase from 2007-2009 – 4.5% $1,643,646,999

Transportation: Budget increase from 2007-2009 – 23.35% $4,340,034,464

Commission for the blind: $14,766,173

Administration: Budget increase from 2007-2009 – 17.7% $9,659,590,181

Judicial Branch: Budget increase from 2007-2009 – 23.17% $761,602,271

Legislative Branch: $89,184,923

Total: $21,548,769,570 (21.5 billion dollars)


I’m going to do everything I can to make Oregon the best state in the nation, and the best place in the world to do business. I’m going to review every single aspect of doing business in Oregon with the people who actually have to deal with the state and figure out what we have to do to make things better. We’re going to assert our rights as a sovereign state and get the federal monkey off our back so we can be more competitive on every level. This is going to be priority number one. We need to clean up the business atmosphere in Oregon right away and get people back to work.