Obama Looks to Pitch More Jobs Ideas on Tuesday

Here’s an idea that will rescue the
U.S. economy and bring it back to life:
President Obama, VP Joe Biden, and
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi all resign
their posts immediately!
Then maybe, just maybe, we can have
people running this country who actually
know what they are doing!
The American People don’t need Panels,
Committees, or Summits!
They Need JOBS! Duh!
I would repeat James Carvilles phrase
“It’s the economy, stupid” but that
would be redundant!
The Obama administration is proving
itself to be the definition of Stupid
and not just on the economy!

Tax cuts for the rich do not create jobs. The rich spend their money on lobbyists, political campaign funds, the stock market and various forms of derivatives. The stock market rises every time the unemployment rate rises, so the rich have no real vested interest in increasing employment. Yeah, if the rich get a tax break they may eat in fancy restaurants more frequently. But if the kitchen help is all undocumented immigrants, and the servers are paid $ 2.00 an hour, a fancy restaurant is not contributing much to the economy.
Eliminating government regulations may create jobs, but what sort of government regulations should we eliminate? Government regulations ban child labor. They keep minors from entering porno shops and prevent porno shops from locating across the street from a public school. They ban industries from dumping toxic chemicals into rivers. They prevent pharmaceutical companies from adding cocaine to cough syrup (a common practice before the FDA.) Eliminating all these regulations may produce more jobs and certainly will help certain businessmen get a profit, but the long term costs to society far outweigh the short term gains.
Helping small businesses may provide more jobs, but small businesses can provide jobs only if the public can afford to buy the goods and services that small businesses offer. Also Wal-Mart and other big box stores with cheaper prices make it difficult for a lot of small businesses to succeed. If people have to spend all their income on housing and health insurance, the less money they can spend elsewhere. The same applies to student loans. If we eliminate minimum wage laws, a pesky government regulation, then we also eliminate potential customers. So small business thrive only if the average wage-earner has more disposable income.
Roosevelt’s solution to unemployment was a vast public works program, far more extensive than Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Once Roosevelt instituted these programs, the unemployment rate decreased. When he cut the budget for these programs, the unemployment rate rose. Ultimately, World War II brought full employment and generated the post-war boom. But World War II involved massive government spending, something no one seems to recognize. I might also add that the wealthy paid a much higher tax rate than they do now.
Reagan had nothing but contempt for Roosevelt. During Reagan’s first year, the unemployment rate was higher than it is now. However Ronald Reagan followed the Roosevelt model. He insisted on a massive defense budget. This created some jobs, but wasted a lot of money. Because of the tax cuts gave to the the rich, Reaganomics left us with a massive public debt. Reagan also de-regulated the banking industry, so whatever gains Reagan made were lost when savings and loans tanked in 1987. Furthermore, Reagan’s contempt for green technology has set our country back 20 years.
Ironically, Republicans always want to increase defense spending as a way to generate jobs, but they forget defense spending is a government expenditure. If you consult a list of government expenditures published by the Moody Economic Institute, you will find that unlike investing in mass transit or education which have a positive return per dollar invested, defense spending has a negative return.
Right now, our infrastructure is in shambles. Last winter, I remember reading articles about our infrastructure, and the common consensus was that Obama’s economic stimulus was merely a down payment. We also need to invest more into green technology, and we need a smart grid. Again the economic stimulus package was only a down payment. It is not nearly enough to build the smart grid we need.
So, the solution to our problems would be to rebuild the infrastructure at a faster pace, including expanding rail and public transportation systems, and to raise the taxes of the superrich to pay for it. We could also tax stock market transactions, since most of these merely fuel a casino economy. We could grant exemptions for rich people who actually create high quality jobs, rather than slash payrolls for profit. We could grant exemption for people who invest in the smart grid or for investments made in sound green technology (No corn-based ethanol and NO nuclear energy, both which are very inefficient forms of energy.) The superrich do not really invest in jobs any way, so taxing the super rich at a higher rate will have no effect whatsoever on the economy.
Jobs revolve on re-structuring our economy from fossil to clean, green, renewables., as well as a number other measures that you will find in both the Apollo alliance and Al Gore’s book Our Choice. Green tech is an an emerging multi-trillion dollar market. And the long-term costs of doing nothing will cost us trillions of dollars a year. We need to recognize the wave of the future and invest in that future now.

Posted by: Foghorn Leghorn | Dec 5, 2009 1:42:52 PM
A couple of more question:
- How many current jobs will be replaced by government-favored/subsidized “green jobs” and at what cost to taxpayers?
- Spain implemented a program over the past decade to encourage “green jobs”. What was the cost to Spanish tax payers for each job? (hint: it is measured in the hundreds of thousands per job)

Real jobs or the kind the politicians
can seize as a photo op and then disappear?

How about hiring more investigators to look into ACORN and SEIU ?

we really shouldn’t do anything to change anything, lets just keep on doing the same and arguing and blame someone else,, let the arabs and the speculators hold us hostage for oil and slowly bleed us, we need more abandoned corporate toxic waste sites around america, we need more ENRON’s to slowly crush americans,
more religion in schools, we don’t need science.,
things are great, aren’t they?

Maybe if the Government would STOP taking over industry, the banks, and dreaming up of new ways to tax buisness instead of let them have enough capital on hand to expand and create jobs, let alone add on more taxes to people who are underemployed or unemployed, things could stop heading in a downward spiral.
The best thing the government can do is nnothing, give buisness the certainty to invest to create jobs, and let people come forward with innovate ideas to create industry and employment.
Central planning cannot create jobs, because circumstances change and policy cannot adapt to take advantage of situations, or adapt to them. The only flexibility comes from non governmental professions where they have the ability to modify and innovate relative to what is available at the given time.
You need flexibility and creativity to create jobs, government targets one aspect, while punishing the other. The only answer is less government NOT more! Government’s only take other people’s wealth, they NEVER create it, without taking it from somebody else. It’s a zero sum game, that is inadequate to meet the needs of a fluid economy and hypersensitive job market.

“So, the solution to our problems would be to rebuild the infrastructure at a faster pace, including expanding rail and public transportation systems, and to raise the taxes of the superrich to pay for it”
There is and always will be people with more money than most of can ever dream of. And it wold be simple to say, hand over the money because someone else needs it more but that is not the way our system was suppose to work. Everyone should have some responsibility for the upkeep of this country yet 40% pay no taxes and many get cash back at tax time for contributing nothing.If any person gets something for nothing there is no value to them for the things that they get.
The past quarter of century has seen remarkable profits for banks and other financial institutions yet flat earning for workers but what can you expect when the government in all their wisdom allowed the institutions to take the profits and allow the tax payers to guarnatee their investments when the bubble burst? And then who got bailed out by the government via the taxpayers while these same tax payers lost their homes and jobs?
As Government has allowed social security and medicare be sucked dry of money perhaps they should be in the business of being good stewards of programs already in place and be better at enforcing monetary laws in place, before biting off more than they can chew with other programs.

“Obama Looks to Pitch More Jobs Ideas on Tuesday”
Is this going to be like the All Star pitch where Obama wears “comfortable” mom jeans and his pitch doesn’t even clear the plate?
His enablers and handlers will cheer and the rest of us will shake our heads in disbelief…

Hey moooo…when the only defense of your guy is “but the other guy was worse.” You’re already admitting failure…not a good sign.

Have to admit the President likes to talk about jobs and seems to get that his support from pretty much everywhere depends on whether the economy really grows or not. He talks alot about having saved us from the brink and we are all supposed to be grateful, appreciative, respectful – but, in the end, this economy is about jobs and long term, sustainable growth. If nothing else, this President gets that his performance is measured as the direct result of how the economy goes and grows.

Besides the contractors building tents and water pipes for the incoming troops in Afghanistan, does the 30,000 troops that Mr. Obama will be sending over there count as 30,000 jobs created or saved?

Ironically, Obama’s most dedicated supporters are those suffering the most under his policies.
From CNN/Money — “While the overall unemployment rate for Americans fell in November, the jobless gap between African-Americans and all other races actually rose, continuing a disturbing trend that has many lawmakers up in arms.
The black community has suffered the hardest during the economic downturn, with an unemployment rate that currently stands at 15.6%. That’s a much higher rate than for all of the other races that the Labor Department tracks, including Hispanics (12.7%), whites (9.3%) and Asians (7.3%).
The jobless rate for blacks has also grown much faster than for other races.”
Gallup recently stated: “Blacks’ support for Obama has averaged 93% during his time in office, and has been at or above 90% nearly every week during his presidency. Thus, part of the reason Obama’s support among nonwhites has not dropped as much as his support among other groups is because of his consistent support from blacks.”
Cognitive dissonance? Yes indeed.

“The Democratic President shines in comparison to all that nonsense. While business gets taken care of, the right sinks further and further into juvenile, paranoid, fear mongering slop.”
Rasmussen: 30% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction, Lowest Level Since February
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We’ve been in a major recession that started in 2008, perhaps the biggest since the Great Depression – is it any surprise people would want to see things turn around and head in a different direction?
Your logic is typically weak and biased.

Krakatoa | Dec 5, 2009 10:54:44 PM posted “His enablers and handlers will cheer and the rest of us will shake our heads in disbelief…”
Seriously Krakatoa, please explain how returning to tax cuts and government deregulation will magically re-employ 15 Million when the past EIGHT years of Supply Side economic policies only created a measly 5 Million new jobs.

Mary | Dec 7, 2009 6:55:40 AM posted “Please explain how tax increases and more government regulation will magically re-employ 15 million unemployed Americans.”
OK ! here goes – I’ll use my state, Oregon, as an example. We’ve suffered through recessions more deeply than other states because of our economy’s dependence wood products. Also, Oregon is one of the few states without a sales tax.
During the last economic downturn, Oregon issued bonds to create jobs and also opened wider eligibility for federal food stamps. The money circulated throughout the state, helping build jobs. We rebounded, and attracted new high tech employers like INTEL. We even built a rainy day fund.
During this Recession, the housing bust hit us hard and we’ve been at the top of the country’s unemployment numbers. But in April we started State spending on infrastructure projects to get people working and off unemployment.
However, the key focus has been building family wage jobs, so we have also used Federal Stimulus money to build healthy new tax payers by investing in school districts, training and community college scholarships. A well trained workforce has already attracted new employers like the country’s largest Solar Panel plant, Bio Sciences, Health Care, High Tech, and Renewable energy.
Moody’s has predicted Oregon be one of the leading states out the recession.
And meanwhile, every day Oregonians continue to enjoy the value, jobs, and benefits created by 1930s New Deal spending – hydro-electric dams, bridges along the coast, roads, stands of timber, and our magnificent Timberline Lodge.

Here’s a jobs idea for Obama.
Release the stimulus money.
Why has large amount of it STILL not been spent?
oh yeah I forgot, it’s not an election year.
It is being held as a slush fund to elect Democrats in 2010 because it’s purpose was NOT to create jobs (unless you count the jobs of Democratic congressmen).
Just wait til you see Obama buy up health care votes on the Hill in the summer of 2010 to finally get a bill passed.

Mary – Texas has not been immune from this Recession – the unemployment rate is at a 22 year high. And what kind of jobs did Texas create back in 2008? Construction? Minimum Wage? This October, according to the Bureau of Labor, Texas saw the largest monthly decline in jobs. For example, back in 2008, McAllen may have been booming with construction – but now the unemployment rate is over 11%. And along with being the state capital, Austin has been called the minimum wage capital.
Part of the “Texas Success” did in fact come from Governor Perry – he gave a $20 Million state grant to the notorious Countrywide Financial in return for a promise “to create 7,500 new jobs in the state by 2010.”
To reverse the longstanding rise in unemployment, our country needs solid, family wage jobs that pay more than poverty level wages.
The Economic Policy Institute defines a “good job” as one that pays at least 60% of the median household income + health care and retirement benefits
The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour or ~ $15,080 per year. That income is BELOW the poverty level for a family of 4 people. In 2008 a “good job” salary was $14.51 per hour, or $30,180 a year — twice as much.
We need a national agenda to help create those “good jobs” – we may not all agree with Governor Perry’s spending with Countrywide, but certainly a jobs solution can be a mix of government spending and a business friendly environment.

Turns out, I happen to live in Texas and have been here since 1980 (I wasn’t born here but got here as quickly as I could).
We have some genuine advantages over California – I can’t speak to the mountains versus flat land issue but I can speak to a couple of key issues.
1. Texas does not have a State income tax. California does – our plan is working, you might check up on the state of the government finances in California.
2. Our real estate values never went stupid high, California’s was the forefront of the how the real estate bubble started.
3. I can’t speak to California on Unions but Texas doesn’t have a real Union presence like most of the states north of the mason Dixon. This is a right to work state and not having that union intervention has given us real legs to navigate our way through this recession. We have lagged well behind the rest of the nation in unemployment numbers – currently in the 9% range.
You may not like the weather in Texas but people are flocking to Texas in droves – and many are from California – because, quite frankly, this State has the best prospects of remaining relatively stable through the rebuilding of this economy – all things being equal Texas has done and continues to do pretty well in comparison.