Ohio town faces bleak job news

Optimism has an open stool these days inside the Friendly Korner, a tavern in the shadow of the sprawling steel and ball-bearing plant that for more than a century has defined this city's economy.

With the local unemployment rate at 9.9 percent, there's a distinct feeling in the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame that the global economy's playing field has become decidedly uneven.

"It's very somber and stressed," bartender Nina Johnson said of the mood, as she poured 80-cent draft beers last week. "All the major employers are outsourcing."

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The news that 1,300 jobs will be cut could hardly have been worse--or more awkward--for President Bush (news - web sites), who returned to the key battleground state of Ohio last week for the 17th visit of his presidency.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2027&e=4&u=/chitribts/20040530/ts_chicagotrib/ohiotownfacesbleakjobnews

I have long suspected that Bush's chronies would go on a hiring spree close to the election to help out their benefactor. But I'm now of the opinion that these guys are more greedy than smart.

Ultimately, they have to report to a board of directors and a gaggle of OTHER greedy, not so smart people and can't hold their wad until next quarter. The rate of outsourcing will continue to increase because of sheer GREED!!!!! These fuckers don't care about you, me or anyone. They're just plain fucking evil.

they just do not f***ing care; it is obscene.

Something tells me that not too many Timken workers are worried about the dividend tax right now.

<snip>

Timken is a dividend-paying company. I say it's a dividend-paying company, after all, Timken has paid a dividend for the last 324 consecutive quarters. (Applause.) That's a solid record. It says to me the people who run Timken care a lot about their shareholders and the employees -- after all, there are 44,000 Timken shareholders: employees, retirees, teacher retirement funds, college endowments, a lot of ordinary investors here in Canton who take great pride in owning stock in a local company.

Right now, dividends are taxed twice. When the company makes a profit, the dividend -- the profits are taxed. And that's good. That's the way it should be. However, when the shareholder receives his or her part of the profits, it's taxed again. And that doesn't make sense to me. Taxing something twice is not good public policy, particularly when you're worried about investment and job creation, and when you're worried about shareholders and their ability to save and invest -- and worry about retirement citizens who rely upon dividend income. The double-taxation is bad for the citizens of this country, and we need to eliminate it. (Applause.)

Ending the double-taxation of dividends, according to many economists, will help the stock market. It will create value in the stock market. And that's positive. After all, we're becoming an ownership society -- whether it be in your pension plan or directly, you own stock. And when the market is strong, it creates a sense of optimism. It gives you a sense of security. If getting rid of the double-taxation of dividends increases the markets, it will be good for millions of investors all across America. It will be good for our economy. And it will reduce the cost of capital, which means companies like Timken have got a better capacity to expand, which means jobs.

Ending the double-taxation of dividends would be good for our seniors who receive half of all taxable dividend income. And that's important. The Freelands here -- mentioned they're retired; they receive dividend income. It would be helpful to the Freelands in their -- in their retirement to not have their dividends taxed twice. Ending the double-taxation of dividends will be good for Timken workers. And that's important for you to understand. Last year, this company paid out more than $30 million in dividends -- and a lot of that went to Timken employees. So when you hear politicians say the tax cut is only for the rich, they're talking about you. When you have more money to save and invest, it's good for your future. It's good for this economy.

Economists estimate that ending the double-taxation of dividend will create more than 400,000 by the end of year 2004. And sooner the Congress gets this done, the sooner we'll see new jobs for the American people. (Applause.)

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My apologies to Bruce Springsteen for stealing his words-but that song says it all-especially about Bush economics--"we made you rich enough to forget our names"-great but sad post

I was born and raised in Ohio. My father was born and raised near Youngstown.

I feel sure that Ohio will vote against the evil Chimp in droves this fall.