1) Actually, Both major parities cut funding to WIOA. Obama slashed it by $500m last year as part of his budget.
When the WIOA Congressional Budget Justification for 2016 boosted the annual request from $3.1bn to $3.4bn, that's an example of Obama lopping $500m off the budget? When it got enacted at $3.3bn, does that count? When the 2017 request went up to $3.5bn, was that also a cut?
Are Republicans now fans of the Department of Labor?
2) Unions are ABSOLUTELY useless when you are competing overseas.
We're not talking about overseas competition. We're talking about politicians working on behalf of their constituents, and that tends to happen when some of those constituents unionize, and try to exert influence on their behalf. Oh, that happens to include things like opposition to NAFTA, or going on strike against outsourcing... (
Big Gains for Striking Verizon Workers in New Agreement | Communications Workers of America)
No, regulation is actually doing. Industries that survived for 20 years after NAFTA are now going out of business left and right. We are talking about jobs that can't be transplanted because of wages.
There's no evidence any companies left the US because of Sarbanes-Oxley. Banks didn't leave because of Dodd-Frank. Companies didn't even bust lots of workers down to part-time because of the ACA. Even you acknowledge that labor costs are the primary driver in that very same post.
Which regulations drove companies out? Perhaps it's the laws banning child labor? Or the ones stipulating proper fire safety codes? Or maybe you like it when companies can dump toxic waste on the side of the road?
The evidence indicates that regulation has little effect on jobs, and doesn't drive out companies. It mostly just shifts jobs around.
https://www.propublica.org/blog/item/whats-the-evidence-that-regulations-kill-jobs
Coal power plants are closing at rates unseen since EPA rule changing in 2011. AEP has closed 6,500 megawatts since 2011. Use to be for every two closed plant, one would be built. Now it's more like 4 to 1. Coal went from 50% of all MW provided in the US to less then 34% since 2008. That has meant 83,000 jobs lost in Appalachia.
Yes, that had absolutely
nothing to do with increased automation, competition from cheaper coal mines in the Western US, China dropping coal consumption, and Appalachian mines having tapped out much of their easy-to-reach coal.
Wyoming produces 58,000 short tons per miner, per year. West Virginia produces 5,700 short tons per miner. Do you really think an increase in coal demand will benefit Appalachian coal miners?
You do know that coal production barely changed between 2010 and 2014? It dropped around 10% in 2015, and is looking lower in 2016. Did all those West Virginia coal miner jobs only evaporate 6 months ago?
https://www.eia.gov/coal/production/quarterly/pdf/t1p01p1.pdf
Answer: NO. In 1980, the US had 228,000 coal miners and produced 829m short tons. In 2013, it took 80,000 miners to produce
982m short tons. Individual productivity shot up from 3.6 to 12.25. I don't suppose THAT could have anything to do with the loss of mining jobs? Unpossible!
You do understand that as coal-related jobs dropped between 2008 and 2015, twice as many jobs were created in NG, and 1.5 times more jobs were created in the wind and solar industries? Oh, wait. Because those jobs were not all created in West Virginia, they don't count.
Appalachia doesn't have a weak educational system. We are talking about an area which Penn State, Pitt, VA Tech, WVU, Ohio University, University of Tennessee, University of Kentucky, and Clemson.
Yes, I'm sure the primary and secondary education in Appalachia is just as good as in Newton, MA or Mill Valley, CA.
C'mon, man. Most education funding is local; Appalachia is Not Rich. Since when is poverty, combined with low population density, the key to educational success?
You do know that Appalachia is at roughly half the US average for attending postsecondary education? That 17% of adults aged 25 and older have a college degree? That 27% of adults over 24 did not complete high school?
ARC budget varies and how it's calculated. I.E. Highway funding can come out of the Highway Trust Fund and not count against the ARC. But since 1965 $10b (not adjusting for inflation, it's close to $20b then) has been spent.
Uh huh.
We're talking about $20 billion spent over a
50 year period -- and that includes highway spending.
We're also talking about Appalachia going from 295 high poverty counties in 1965, to 110 in 2010. Someone must've done something right.
