Saturday, July 08, 2006

President Bush Root Cause Analysis

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a term used to denote a class of problem solving methods aimed at identifying the root causes of problems or events. The practice of RCA is predicated on the belief that problems are best solved by attempting to correct or eliminate root causes, as opposed to merely addressing the immediately obvious symptoms. By directing corrective measures at root causes, it is hoped that the likelihood of problem recurrence will be minimized. However, it is recognized that complete prevention of recurrence by a single intervention is not always possible. Thus, RCA is often considered to be an iterative process, and is frequently viewed as a tool of continuous improvement.

Root cause analysis is not a single, sharply-defined methodology; there are many different tools, processes, and philosophies of RCA in existence. However, most of these can be classed into four, very-broadly defined "schools" that are named here by their basic fields of origin: safety-based, production-based, process-based, and systems-based.

My background is in Information Technology and even though I was at a level far from the executive staff of major bank and broker corporations, I know my efforts and those of my staff could reach senior executive staff both in a good way and a bad way. Normally, feedback came through the chain of command, the good slowly, the bad lightening fast. I am fortunate that the good feedback outnumbered the bad feedback.

Whenever bad feedback developed it could be 24X7 since we operated 24X7 and usually arrived Murphy time, the worst possible time, like when you are trying to get some sleep before returning to work in the morning. The first issue was always to solve the problem ASAP, and to notify the chain of command if it was a significant problem.

When the problem was solved then certain people were asked to write RCA's about the event. As wikipedia.org defines a RCA one tries to write it so the problem does not ever reoccur. The RCA's are widely delivered to everyone with any interest in the problem and sometimes a managing director would chair a meeting to go over the event and analysis and to define courses of action. Sometimes a final RCA would be written with the results of the courses of action.

President Bush, Why do we have as many illegals jumping the fence to enter the United States today as we did when you entered office as president?

President Bush, Why does the SSA not inform the Justice Department or IRS about employers who pass on bad SSA numbers to the SSA?

President Bush, Why did you coerce the House by arresting a representative, violating centuries of separation of the executive, congress, and the court?

President Bush, Why have you prosecuted the fewest employers of illegal aliens of all previous presidents?

The media, voters, Congress, and the Supreme Court should hold the President to Root Cause Analysis instead of off-hand hot air answers that too many people accept because they do not challenge him adequately.

Personally, folks, it seems we have the same questions and answers from this administration for the past 6 years and no progress is being made. He talked about RCA's in the news recently. The media, voters, Congress, and the Supreme Court should write their own RCA's and put the our leaders on the spot including the President and Congress.

Governor Corzine: Tax Employers of Illegal Aliens

Governor Corzine why not tax employers of illegal aliens?

Set up a budget to pay the public school expenses, NJ Criminal Justice expense, medical and hospital expenses, the cost of translating thousands of state documents into foreign languages, and other expenses of illegal aliens and their children each year. Since there are fewer legal immigrants than illegal immigrants the translation fee that applies to them should be isolated and paid from general revenues of the state of New Jersey.

Set up a fund called the Illegal Alien fund that has to be funded by employers of illegal aliens.

Add rates of contributions to the funds and penalties to the tax laws of the state of New Jersey.

Define the illegal alien as anyone who cannot provide a valid New Jersey drivers license or New Jersey county id card. Maybe we can use drivers licenses of the States of New York and Pennsylvania if illegal aliens cannot obtain them as in New Jersey and are available by computer in New Jersey. Have severe penalties for forging documents or to carry them as personal identification.

Make the rates of the contribution to the Illegal Alien Fund born on the employer only rather than having them withdraw funds from the illegal alien, since the illegal alien is probably already screwed with a low wage and few benefits. Make the reporting of Illegal Alien employment taxes like the New Jersey sales tax reporting, quarterly for small employers and monthly for larger employers.

The state already is involved in examining employees as exempt, non-exempt, and contract employees. The State of New Jersey should examine contract employees for tax reporting. Rules should be setup so that the majority of illegal aliens paid in cash are moved to non-exempt status and reported. Also any funny items should be examined in the tax returns of businesses suspected of hiring illegal aliens.

The State Department of Taxation should work closely with the Federal SSA and IRS to identify employers who hire illegal aliens in the state of New Jersey and follow up to obtain the Illegal Aliens tax from them. For some reason the Federal SSA withholds information like this and should be sued by the state of New Jersey if necessary to obtain this information.

Enable all New Jersey state, county, and local law enforcement agencies to seek out employers of all identified illegal aliens. Enable them to check out New Jersey Department of Labor computers to identify employment history and to note any discrepancies to the Department of Labor. This is important especially if the individual is known to be within the state for several weeks and cannot be found in the DOL computer. Apply vagrancy charges if applicable to the individual.

When the reports for unemployment tax which is already collected by individual worker come in to the Department of Labor the computers can also verify driver license or county card numbers with the Department of Motor Vehicle drivers license file and the file of all county ID cards and violations can be listed. Fine employers heavily for not using common sense to verify employee documents.

Now the major problem is to distribute the money in the fund. It is fair because the tax burden is now on the ones that benefit from the work of the illegal aliens and not the rank and file taxpayers of New Jersey.

My First Eye Opener

In the early 1970's I was working at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the Systems Training Department in Piscataway, New Jersey. The mission of the department was to provide business systems training to employees at all Bell Labs locations, and to other AT&T locations nationwide including the operating companies such as New Jersey Bell, as needed.

This was one of my first jobs since graduating from college.

I always wanted to meet or at least sit in on a presentation given by one of Bell Telephone Laboratories many Nobel Prize winning scientists but never had the opportunity. Most of them had the title of Member of Technical Staff. I worked with and trained many Members of Technical Staff employees of BTL over the years. I also worked with and trained many associates from the operating companies and Western Electric, also.

One day I selected my lunch and walked over to a table of more senior employees than I and sat down to join them. They were celebrating a new employee benefit which I forgot specifically what it was but think it was a dental plan benefit which they never had until then. The discussion boiled down to the fact that the union just won the dental plan and now everyone else (including exempt employees) would get it. They also told me not to say anything to management, but that all employee benefits to us were accomplished by the union employees having a strong union and winning them during labor contract negotiation. If it was not for the union employees having a strong union, then we would not benefit from a good salary, sick leave, vacation, retirement, medical/hospital, annual salary increase, dental, eyeglass, or any other benefit program.

I did not really believe it, until later, and even became a town delegate to the Union County, New Jersey convention a few years later and met George W. Bush and his brother Chad from Florida, while they were supporting their father for vice president of the United states. A couple of years later, I became a registered Democrat.

Dobbs: President and Senate allied with 'corporate supremacists'

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are set to take action on legislation that could determine the financial and social fate of nearly every American for the next 20 years.

Lou Dobbs
Lou Dobbs is the anchor and managing editor of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight. Dobbs also anchors a nationally syndicated financial news radio report, The Lou Dobbs Financial Report, and is a columnist for Money magazine and U.S. News and World Report.

In 2004, Dobbs received The Man of the Year Award from The Organization for the Rights of American Workers and the George J. Kourpias Excellence in Journalism Award from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers for his contributions to the national debate on jobs, global trade and outsourcing. Dobbs was also presented with the Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration from the Center for Immigration Studies for his ongoing series "Broken Borders," which examines U.S. policy towards illegal immigration. He also received the Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership in Media Award at the 2004 Albert Schweitzer Leadership Awards Dinner for his commitment to helping high school students seek out, recognize and develop leadership potential. He is the author of the best selling book "Exporting America" and co-author of the book "Space."

Read the above link. Watch his tv program and learn.

New Jersey Illegal Alien Sales Tax Increase

New Jersey had a huge budget gap and Governor Corzine shut down non-essential state activities until the state legislature and senate gave him appropriate measures to pay the bills. The major impact to the resident of New Jersey is an increase from 6% to 7% of the state sales tax.

Some estimates of the gap have been up to four and one half billion dollars. The sales tax increase is expected to produce a little more than one billion dollars of increased revenue for the state. New Jersey has been balancing the budget for the last eight years by borrowing the funds for the most part. Governor Corzine should be applauded for putting his foot down and forcing New Jersey lawmakers to come up with the proper funding of the state budget.

Now, New Jersey will be known for having the highest state sales tax in the country.

Everyone knows New Jersey had a surplus when Christie Whitman was elected to office, but she led the New Jersey lawmakers to cut taxes for the wealthy and now most lawmakers are hesitant to restore them.

The major factor recently to add to the New Jersey budget deficit are the expences of educating the children of illegal immigrants at a cost of approximately $10,000 each per year, the cost of imprisonment of illegal alien prisoners at more than $28,000 each per year, the cost of medical and hospital expenses of the illegal aliens, the costs to translate and reprint state, county, and local documents into foreign languages, and other costs and expenses. In addition, there is the loss of revenue to the state of New Jersey when illegal aliens are paid in cash. There is also the oppotunity loss of revenue to the state of New Jersey when a qualified American New Jersey citizen or legal alien is replaced by an illegal alien or not even offered the job.

The State of New Jersey, the counties of New Jersey, and the Towns of New Jersey are all stressed with excessively high taxes and cannot afford expenses of the illegal alien population at all. There is no justification for the expense of hundreds of millions of dollars each year for them while we are trying to take care of our legal citizens and immigrants.

New Jersey lost population of legitimate citizens and aliens during the past decades due to the very high cost of living in New Jersey (including tax rates) and would have lost at least one federal house seat if the population inflow of illegal aliens were not counted in the states total population. New Jersey also lost jobs as more employers left the state rather than staying or moving here. Most of us know many friends, relatives, and coworkers who have left the state and very few if any new ones to start living in the state.

New Jersey has cancer and requires drastic reform to survive.

New Jersey and other states will become bankrupt with the expenses of the illegal aliens. At the federal level there does not seem to be any assistance in the support of illegal aliens. It seems to be that they want it to become a local issue at the state level. Governor Corzine should mobilize New Jersey state government as he has for balancing the budget to solve the illegal alien problem in New Jersey.

New Jersey supports legal immigration but cannot support the tidal wave of illegal aliens. Resources are few and New Jersey must prioritize support of legitimate citizens and aliens first. State, county, and local support of illegal aliens is unfair.