Out-of-Work Coal Miners and Hillary's Caracol, Haiti Project

Hillary Clinton lost West Virginia because she blurted out that she was going to put a lot of coal miners out of work.  Then she tried to soften it by saying that she had a plan to budget $30 billion to create small businesses and retrain the unemployed of Appalachia and elsewhere.  At the same time, she would use that money to protect the coal miners pensions and health benefits.  That's asking a lot from just $30 billion. To be fair though, this sounds better than what President Obama promised.  In his case, he simply told them to "take welfare".

But, if you're a soon-to-be-unemployed coal worker, I wouldn't count on Hillary to do much about it and I would certainly take Obama's advice.  One only needs to look at Hillary's failed Caracol, Haiti project for an example of her incompetence at job creation.

Following the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010, around 40% of that nation's 4+ million workers became unemployed.  That's about 1.7 million. Then, Secretary of State Clinton toured the rubble as she and her team put together a plan to spend millions in U.S. aid to build a nice new industrial park just north of a remote, tin-roofed fishing village called Caracol.  The target was to create a total of 65,000 jobs in a country where 1.7 million were unemployed.  Again, we can already see the lack of competence.

In order to build the park, 640 acres were needed and hundreds of subsistence farmers were "coaxed" off the their land in order to provide the required acreage.  The park was also too remote for access to the power grid, so a power plant was built.  Today, 95 percent of the vacated land is still vacant.

By 2015, Caracol had been open for 3 years.  Only 11,300 of the promised 65,000 jobs were created.  A $70 million expansion of the park by 2018 may add another 6,800 jobs.   Oh, and Bill Clinton and the Clinton foundation managed the project for which it and he were well compensated. Of course, Bill Clinton is the person who Hillary claims she will put in charge of jobs and the economy, if she is elected President. God help us all!  Of course, this is also an obvious admission that the economy has been horrible under Obama's watch.

The sad and simple truth is that Hillary is inept and has little knowledge of how jobs are created.  Nor does she understand the coal business, and how entire towns exist only because of coal. No amount of job training or small business creation is going to put those towns back on their feet.  Again, she has no idea what she was doing; just as in Caracol, Haiti.  

References:

Fact Check: Hillary Clinton And Coal Jobs: http://www.npr.org/2016/05/03/476485650/fact-check-hillary-clinton-and-coal-jobs

Obama Costs Miners Their Job — Tells Them Take Welfare: http://www.libertynewsnow.com/obama-costs-miners-their-job-tells-them-take-welfare/article1446

A glittering industrial park in Haiti falls short: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/10/a-glittering-industrialparkfallsshortinhaiti.html

Hillary’s Half-Baked Haiti Project: https://www.google.com/search?q=Hillary%E2%80%99s+Half-Baked+Haiti+Project&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Hillary Clinton says she'll put Bill 'in charge' of fixing economy: http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/16/news/economy/hillary-bill-clinton-economic-job-growth/

Obama's EPA Reg's Are At Odds With The Coal Miners

The United Mine Workers Union has been a traditional voting base for the Democrats.

However, Obama's plan to kill the coal industry through harsh EPA restrictions on coal usage may just bring that relationship to an end; and, in doing so, ruin the lives of 20,000 active miners.  But, the pain won't stop there.  40,000 retired workers and their 50,000 dependents and spouses could lose their pension benefits because there just won't be enough active workers left to support those benefits.

This is why, on October 7th, 300 miners picketed on the steps of the main headquarters of the EPA.  So, I guess the President has a choice.  Continue with the current course and tick off the mine workers and other sympathetic union members, or put a halt to the harsh restrictions on coal usage and tick off the environmental wing of the Democratic party.  With both actions costing votes.

By the way.  The pain won't only be felt by the current miners, retirees, and their families.  Whole communities depend on the dollars spent by all those workers.   As a result, some towns may cease to exist with people being literally forced to leave behind their homes in an attempt to survive.

References:

Unions protest EPA power plant proposal: http://washingtonexaminer.com/unions-protest-epa-power-plant-proposal/article/2554495

Wikipedia: United Mine Workers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mine_Workers