If something is too big to swallow, you cut it into bite-sized pieces. But that won’t improve the taste—unless you jettison any stinky stuff. Likewise, the notion of splitting-up President Obama’s Senate-rejected 326-page “jobs bill” won’t improve any of the proposals. It’s good that the break-up would prevent the classic congressional strategy of blending the good and the bad together into one piece of legislation. That strategy expects that Congressmen will hold their noses and vote for a package when they’re not given a choice to remove the worst parts. …
In the currently battered U.S. economy, with high unemployment and bleak growth prospects, politics has become a contest of dueling jobs plans: politicians of every stripe have them. Their motivation may be sincere, but their concept is wrong – and they are just perpetuating the myth that government can create jobs. It can’t. It can only maintain conditions that are conducive to economic growth. That is the real engine of job creation, and it’s where policymakers should place their focus. Job creation is a function of producers meeting the demands …
Yesterday at the White House, President Barack Obama faced the media to once again plug the American Jobs Act–his plan for more stimulus spending, paid for with even more taxes on America’s job creators. And this morning, not a day later, America received a reminder of why a continuation of the President’s tried-and-failed policies is not a prescription for success: In September, the U.S. unemployment rate held steady at a dismal 9.1 percent with 14 million Americans still out of work. About 103,000 jobs were added, but 45,000 of those …
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blocked a vote on President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act tonight. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had pledged to offer an unchanged version of the President’s American Jobs Act as an amendment to the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Bill (S. 1619). Reid stopped a vote on the President’s so called jobs bill by filling the amendment tree. Last year I wrote about Reid’s obstructionism and argued that Reid’s strong arm tactics by constantly filling the amendment tree as a means to block out all amendments were against the spirit …
Senate Republicans sought to answer President Obama’s demands for a vote on his jobs plan this afternoon, but were thwarted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who used a parliamentary maneuver meant to block amendments on the Senate floor. Reid then proceeded to accuse Republicans of “obstruction” and engaging in a “political stunt.” Reid used a procedural move known as “filling the tree” – a tactic Reid has perfected during his tenure in the Senate leadership. Filling the tree involves loading legislation with amendments until the limit is reached. …
While the Energy Department’s efforts to create “green jobs” have received significant attention – and criticism – since the collapse of solar company Solyndra, another federal agency may soon be in the spotlight for its lackluster performance in stimulating the economy through employment in the green technology sector. The Labor Department’s “Green Jobs Program,” designed to train workers for employment in the field, has placed 8,034 trainees, according to a report from the department’s inspector general. That is less than 10 percent of its target placement rate. What’s more, 39 …
President Obama is touting his new mega tax on millionaires–a.k.a. “the Buffett Rule”–as the best thing since sliced bread (or since his plan to spend $447 billion on more stimulus), but not everyone agrees–namely, entrepreneurs and those who have seen the effects of soaking the rich in order to pay for more government spending. In today’s Washington Post, Eric M. Jackson, formerly of PayPal and now CEO of CapLinked, an online platform for private investing, explains how the President’s plan to set a minimum tax rate for those with annual income above $1 …
Maybe the Department of Energy (DOE) would lend me money to buy lottery tickets. For the tickets that win, I’ll pay them back their dollar (plus $0.001 for a week’s interest). For those that lose, well, that just happens in this sort of business. They have to expect losses. That’s the argument we now hear from the Solyndra apologists: “Hey, it’s a risky business.” But venture capitalists get equity positions so that they get the big rewards when a risky venture pays off. Nobody should be making loans to high-risk …
Which comes first: supply or demand? This question has serious policy implications, especially as President Barack Obama proposes $447 billion in additional stimulus spending in order to try to spur job growth in America. “Demand-siders,” also known as Keynesians (after influential economist John Maynard Keynes), insist that short-run economic fluctuations are caused by shocks to the economy that leave aggregate demand—the total amount of money spent on goods and services in the economy—below full capacity. In their view, since less money is spent on goods and services, businesses must lay …
Heritage’s experts watched President Barack Obama’s debt reduction and tax increase proposal. Here are their immediate reactions: Obama’s Plan Is More Bad News for Defense President Obama’s approach to deficit reduction, which he outlined in a Rose Garden statement today, means additional bad news for the defense budget and the nation’s security. According to the fact sheet provided by the White House, accompanying his statement from the Rose Garden, the deficit reduction plan sees the continued application of $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending cuts already included in debt ceiling law …
