Excellent summary of Obama's latest "jobs" bill. As Einstein once said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. This proposal (there is no bill and no money to pay for it) is more of the same thing ...more deficit spending, more government jobs, more government dependency, more class warfare, and more payoffs to organized labor. Ellen
Editorial: The President's Old, New Jobs Program
Investors Business Daily - Posted 06:43 PM ET
Leadership: President Obama's jobs program is disappointing, to put it mildly. Given our economic troubles, this heavily politicized rehash of failed policies is a slap in the face to 27 million Americans without full-time jobs.
In an angry speech clearly intended to rally his demoralized troops, the president on Thursday unveiled a $457 billion jobs plan that was touted as "new," but really just recycles past failed policies.
Looking at markets' responses around the world, including a 304-point nose dive on the Dow, his cynical message doesn't seem to be selling well. And indeed, it's shocking to behold a leader who, three years into a presidency, seems oblivious to the harsh reality of his policy failures. But that's what we got Thursday.
The new spending, the targeted tax cuts for some and the much higher taxes on the successful have all been tried before. It was called "stimulus." It entailed massive borrowing and spending. It didn't work.
And it won't work now. Take Obama's plan to give $4,000 in tax credits "if" a company hires someone who's been unemployed for six months. What business will hire a permanent worker for $50,000 a year for a one-time credit of $4,000? This is just plain foolish.
A new "infrastructure bank" and higher spending on roads, bridges and other public works? Half the $45 billion in infrastructure stimulus from two years ago for supposedly "shovel-ready" projects remains unspent. Now, Obama wants another $105 billion.
Then there's his plan to help homeowners refinance their homes through government agencies. Isn't that what got us into trouble in the first place?
There's lots more, like more subsidies for state employee unions. But conspicuously missing from Obama's plan is spending cuts. Since 2008, federal spending has soared 28% to $3.82 trillion. It's hard to think of anything else that has risen that far, that fast — unless it's gold prices or Obama's unfavorable ratings.
Remember, this was supposed to be "temporary" stimulus, a classic Keynesian injection meant to get the patient up and walking again. Now the increased spending — pushing outlays from the long-term average of 20% of GDP to 25% — looks to be permanent.
Obama's plan only adds to our $14.5 trillion debt, but the president is trying to put a fiscally responsible face on it. "Everything in this bill will be paid for," he insists. "Everything." Well, only if you accept that his promise of certain unspecified "revenue enhancements" — i.e., tax hikes — will be passed in the middle of what looks like a double-dip recession.
Even congressional Democrats won't go for that.
While delivering his speech, Obama surrounded himself with corrupt union leaders like AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and job-killing crony capitalists like GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Looking at this plan, it's obvious they're the ones who have his ear, not the real job creators — small to midsize businesses.
They tell a different story of how government can help create jobs: Get out of the way. Stop taxing them so much. Stop regulating them to excess. Stop meddling in their businesses. Stop printing money.
Stop spending money you don't have. Today, that's called "anti-Keynesian" thinking. It used to be called common sense.
