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Herman Cain on JobsRepublican Businessman & Talk-Show Host; 2011 GOP frontrunner |
CAIN: The government has been intellectually dishonest about entitlement programs for 50 years. Ultimately, all these programs work together and what we come back to is that education and a job are the two best things that get people off these programs. We need to look at how to get people back to work, want to get off it, and there will be a few people who are lazy and they don't want to help themselves. I would restructure unemployment so that if you got 26 weeks unemployment one time, then next time you would only get 13 weeks, then 7.5 weeks so that you are encouraged to get and keep a job.
GINGRICH: I would connect the unemployed to the jobs we can't fill.
CAIN: The answer is absolutely yes, because I was a worker before I was an executive and before I was a business owner. Absolutely. I know how to be pro-worker because I came from a pro-worker family. My mother was a domestic worker, my father was a barber, a janitor, and a chauffeur, all at the same time. I understand work because that's how I came up. So the answer is, absolutely yes. The two are not mutually exclusive, but what we need is the right leadership, starting with, are we working on the right problems? If we keep tinkering around the edges on the tax code or tinkering around the edges on Social Security, we're not going to solve the right problem.
A: The opposite is necessary: the president must make the government smaller and reduce regulations on businesses. Government doesn't create jobs. Businesses create jobs. Government needs to get out the way. Lower top corporate and personal tax rates to a MAX of 25%. And most importantly, make them permanent! Uncertainty kills the economy.
A: The thing we need to do is to get this economy boosted. This economy is stalled. It's like a train on the tracks with no engine. And the administration has simply been putting all of this money in th caboose. We need an engine called the private sector. That means lower taxes. Uncertainty is killing this economy. This is the only way we're going to get this economy moving, and that's to put the right fuel in the engine, which is the private sector.
PAWLENTY: People shouldn't be forced be a member in any organization. And the government has no business telling you what group to be a member of or not.
GINGRICH: I hope that N.H. does adopt right-to-work. I'd keep it at the state level because as each new state becomes right to work, they send a signal to the remaining states.
CAIN: I do believe that the states should have the right. I believe in right-to-work, and I hope that N.H. is able to get it passed. And I agree with the speaker and the others who believe that if the federal government continues to do the kinds of thing that this administration is trying to do through the back door, through the National Labor Relations Board, that's killing our free market system, which made this economy great. And we have to keep the free market system strong.
Currently, the employees vote directly twice, one of which is the secret ballot, and a third time through their bargaining representatives. Under the proposed rules, the employees would sign a card and then they are totally out of the process from that point on. Proponents think that's "free choice."
Proponents have also alleged that employers intimidate employees into not joining a union. That's ridiculous, because most employers work at trying to keep their workers happy for competitive reasons and because it enhances employee morale. I personally know of many more stories of union intimidation of employees than instances of employer intimidation.
Workers have every right to unionize if they choose to do so, but employers have some rights also. They have the right to simply shut the doors.