Posted by Sir Four at 4:02pm Mar 11 '10This is one area where Democrats really screwed up. They should have had a bold jobs policy a year ago. I don't understand why this was neglected.
I haven't followed along closely on the current bill in Congress. It seems to be focused mostly on giving employers tax breaks for hiring. This was a stupid idea when Republicans came up with it, and it remains a stupid idea now that Democrats have adopted it. Many business leaders have spoken about its ineffectiveness. If you are an employer, you simply aren't going to add a new employee that's going to cost you, let's say $50,000/year (salary + benefits), just to get a $4,000 tax break. If you do, it means you likely going to hire that person anyway. If you have no pressing need of that person, you're behaving in a very foolish way by adding to your payroll unnecessarily.
The winners on this tax cut strategy are mostly going to be businesses that happen to be hiring, regardless of this particular benefit.
Here's what they should be doing: something like the CCC and other New Deal programs that simply hired up thousands of unemployed people to do useful work and learn a trade. Enough of these targeted tax cuts, bail-outs, and other stuff. Just put people directly to work!
Democrats talk about getting people to work in "green jobs". Okay, let's do it--everything from technology jobs to retrofitting old buildings with energy-saving materials. Hire half a million people. Give the program a fancy name. They'll write about it in the history books. Come on now. Unemployement is at its highest since WWII. Not only do the people need work, it's also smart politics. Time the announcement to coincide with another announcement that you've found an equivalent amount of spending to cut, so we're revenue neutral. I bet it could be done. Hard, but doable.
I haven't followed along closely on the current bill in Congress. It seems to be focused mostly on giving employers tax breaks for hiring. This was a stupid idea when Republicans came up with it, and it remains a stupid idea now that Democrats have adopted it. Many business leaders have spoken about its ineffectiveness. If you are an employer, you simply aren't going to add a new employee that's going to cost you, let's say $50,000/year (salary + benefits), just to get a $4,000 tax break. If you do, it means you likely going to hire that person anyway. If you have no pressing need of that person, you're behaving in a very foolish way by adding to your payroll unnecessarily.
The winners on this tax cut strategy are mostly going to be businesses that happen to be hiring, regardless of this particular benefit.
Here's what they should be doing: something like the CCC and other New Deal programs that simply hired up thousands of unemployed people to do useful work and learn a trade. Enough of these targeted tax cuts, bail-outs, and other stuff. Just put people directly to work!
Democrats talk about getting people to work in "green jobs". Okay, let's do it--everything from technology jobs to retrofitting old buildings with energy-saving materials. Hire half a million people. Give the program a fancy name. They'll write about it in the history books. Come on now. Unemployement is at its highest since WWII. Not only do the people need work, it's also smart politics. Time the announcement to coincide with another announcement that you've found an equivalent amount of spending to cut, so we're revenue neutral. I bet it could be done. Hard, but doable.