If President Obama is to have any hope of winning re-election the Associated Press had better be dead wrong in their reporting of Obamas jobs speech Thursday. According to the AP Obama will push for a $300 billion stimulus bill more than half of which will be made up of existing policies that have already proven to be job-creation failures.
About $170 billion of Obamas jobs plan will consist of extensions of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. Obama has been extending unemployment benefits since he was sworn into office and the economy has only gotten worse since the payroll tax cut went into effect this January. An unspecified amount will also be devoted to the extension of an existing advanced depreciation tax break for businesses. Again not a new policy
Obama does plans to spend another $50 billion on infrastructure and propose a new $30 billion temporary tax credit for businesses that hire the unemployed. But why will these infrastructure projects be any more shovel-ready than the ones Obama funded in his 2009 $820 billion stimulus? And why would businesses make long-term hiring decisions based on a temporary tax cut.
Worst of all Obama reportedly will try and pay for all this by explicitly promising to raise taxes sometime in the future. This is exactly the opposite of what the U.S. economy needs: more threats of future tax hikes.
The candidate who most succinctly describes the emptiness and futility of Obamas new jobs plan should win tonights Republican presidential debate.
If President Obama is to have any hope of winning re-election the Associated Press had better be dead wrong in their reporting of Obamas jobs speech Thursday. According to the AP Obama will push for a $300 billion stimulus bill more than half of which will be made up of existing policies that have already proven to be job-creation failures.
About $170 billion of Obamas jobs plan will consist of extensions of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. Obama has been extending unemployment benefits since he was sworn into office and the economy has only gotten worse since the payroll tax cut went into effect this January. An unspecified amount will also be devoted to the extension of an existing advanced depreciation tax break for businesses. Again not a new policy
Obama does plans to spend another $50 billion on infrastructure and propose a new $30 billion temporary tax credit for businesses that hire the unemployed. But why will these infrastructure projects be any more shovel-ready than the ones Obama funded in his 2009 $820 billion stimulus? And why would businesses make long-term hiring decisions based on a temporary tax cut.
Worst of all Obama reportedly will try and pay for all this by explicitly promising to raise taxes sometime in the future. This is exactly the opposite of what the U.S. economy needs: more threats of future tax hikes.
The candidate who most succinctly describes the emptiness and futility of Obamas new jobs plan should win tonights Republican presidential debate.
