Posted on 08/25/2011 2:13:13 PM PDT by Qbert
President Obama is finalizing a jobs package that could include a program to refurbish school buildings nationwide and tax breaks to encourage firms to hire workers.
[Snip]
But economists and advisers familiar with his strategy say Obama will argue next month that the financial crisis was worse than anyone thought at the time and say more stimulus is needed to make any real dent in the unemployment rate.
The details are still being discussed during the president's annual vacation in Martha's Vineyard, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
But the broad contours of the jobs package are quickly coming into focus.
The president is widely expected to repeat his calls for an extension of a payroll tax cut, push for patent reform and bilateral free trade deals, and suggest an infrastructure bank to upgrade the country's roads, airports and other facilities.
Retrofitting schools with energy efficient technology would allow the government to directly hire for labor-intensive work and also give a boost to the clean energy sector that Obama has said could be an important U.S. economic motor.
Other measures being considered, according to economists who have advised the White House, include tax credits for firms hiring more workers, funds for local governments to hire teachers, and retraining help for the long-term unemployed. Steps to boost the ailing housing market are also under review.
"What's going to be included in this plan are some reasonable ideas that could have a tangible impact on improving our economy and creating jobs ... the kinds of things that Republicans should be able to support," Earnest said. "These are bipartisan ideas that the president is going to offer up."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
The payroll tax cut is not a cut for employers. It reduces the employee's Social Security withholding. The employer's portion of that withholding has never been cut by this administration.
It is not, nor was it ever intended to be any sort of supply-side tax cut. It is pure Keynesian twaddle -- put a few bucks in the consumer's pocket each week and sit back and watch nothing happen.
“The business “tax incentive to hire” is more BS.”
Yep- few business are going to increase hiring (especially of non-temp workers) based upon a short-term “incentive to hire” when they know that real tax increases are going to go into effect in little over a year from now, when Obama lets the Bush tax rates expire.
Doesn’t he have to have money to do this? Wouldn’t the house have to approve a spending bill for this?
Oh, I agree completely on that point. I was referring more to the supposed “incentive to hire” credits that some of his aides have been suggesting.
Since when do the Feds have any business spending money to upgrade state and county run school buildings?
We really need to abolish the Dept. of Education and return full control to the state and local level.
I went to a TWO-Room Catholic school and learned more in the first 3 years than I learned after that.
Like the WPA hiring people to rake leaves during the Depression?
Any jobs Obama tries to create will presumably be union jobs, or mostly union jobs. Maybe that's why the head of the AFL-CIO was talking about maybe cutting back their support for the Democrats--to get some concessions from Obama.
My personal message to obamma: "Obamma, either do your job or get the heck out of the White House and let someone who has the brains fix it! Apparently you do not! Quit always blaming others and other things! You were not elected to complain!"
Two years without COLA...when will Seniors rise up??
This again confirms my suspicion that the Obama administration is trying to fashion itself after FDR.
FDR had 12 or so years to grow Gov't at the expense of business all the while blaming his predecessor and using class warfare to blame the rich.
I think that Obama thinks that the longer he tries to do things the FDR way, the greater the chance that the liberals will get a long 12 year span in which to "change the rules of power" as he puts it.
The Republicans should ask how it is that Obama...who said that he needed to be elected because we were suffering from near Depression levels...can now say it was worse than he thought? His whole rationale for his “stimulus” was that the economy was near-depression levels, so what could have been worse? The “not shovel ready” stimulus will AGAIN be not shovel ready since what he is proposing is the same thing that has already failed. It’s just another slush fund to pay back the unions and his other cronies.
OF course if Obummer really wanted to get the economy moving, he would get rid of regulations (instead of adding thousands more) and most importantly get rid of the spectre of Obamacare, but he only wants it to LOOK like the economy is getting better so he can get reelected to finish his job of ruining this country.
Obama truly believed that he could push Obamacare first because historically, recessions “bounce back” and he would not have to pay politically. Of course, he is too stupid to realize that his policies would actually prevent the economy from rebounding.
Take money from the producers, borrow another 40% from the producers grandchildren, and transfer the wealth to public sector unions.
Community Organizer Economics 101.
“worse than thought”? As I recall the finance and banking folks were in a state of terror. Things had to be done right then or the whole system was going to seize up and then tear itself apart. Now, things were actually “worse” than previously thought? Wow, what a mess.
And the unions are like, “Gee, I wonder if there will be any proposals in this plan for US?”
Right.
Spending money is Obama’s hammer and everything else is a nail.
I didn't see seniors rise up when they got a massive 5.8% COLA in 2008, the largest since 1982.
It's expected a modest 1-2% COLA is coming.
The larger point is that this "payroll tax cut" isn't a tax cut at all since it's borrowing from Social Security. It must be replaced with general tax revenues. Further it's all been employee-side, not employer-side so it does nothing to lower cost of new hires.
Kids then learned how to be a part of society and the basics of how to learn. Indeed - better than many schools today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.