Unfortunately, the AP review on payment for this jobs program is not favorable. Consider some conclusions within the first few paragraphs of the analysis:
- President Obama's promise that everything in his jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions.
- It will only be paid for if a Congressional committee he can't control does his bidding.
- If the committee helps out his needs, than the entire Congress would still have to pass the plan.
- The plan he presented used conventional Washington rhetoric - it employs slight of hand accounting.
- As we pointed out yesterday in our analysis of his speech, Obama does not say how he will find the $450 billion he needs to implement the ideas in his speech. Absolutely no specifics at all but he does promise to come up with some details within a week. However, his spokespeople are already hedging their bets by hinting that the near term expenses to finance this effort would be paid for out of future budgets, not current budgets and expenses.
[Note: the President did release his plan late yesterday and it included the old, tired, unimaginative approach of taxing the rich and will, indeed, pay for near term expenses out of future, way out in the future (10 year) budgets.]
If this is indeed his plan, kick the expense and cost of his ideas down the road to future politicians and future generations, then it is a cowardly way to run a government. This type of approach is how we got into a nearly $15 TRILLION national debt hole today. Past politicians spent money wastefully and unwisely, knowing that the bill for that spending would come due and be paid after they got out of office. It is a selfish and dangerous way to do business. We will have to wait and see if that is the case when he presents his proposals.
There is plenty of wasteful spending going on today in the Federal government. It is a question of whether Obama and the rest of the political class have the courage to "pay as they go," i.e. pay for next year's job programs with next year's tax recipients, cutting unnecessary programs next year and not promising to cut programs somewhere in the undefined future. Remember, that is how we got to almost $15 TRILLION in debt.
- Obama claims that everything in his jobs proposal has the support of both Democrats and Republicans, many of whom are currently in Congress. Not a true statement when he includes the word "everything." He will not get the Republicans to terminate the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning over $250,000 a year. It did not happen in the debt ceiling debate and it will not happen here.
Was the President just careless with the word "everything" or was he being deceptive again, similar to what we talked about yesterday, i.e. "the wealthy want to pay more in taxes." His credibility is so low with me now that I am assuming he is making up facts again or being deceptively loose with the language. However, "everything" is incorrect.
- The President said his actions and program "answers the urgent need to create jobs right away." A couple of problems with this. First, he still seems to have the failed mentality that government can create jobs out of thin air. It cannot and his economic stimulus package proved that. The stimulus package might have created some short term work, it did not create a business and economic environment where long term business expansion and job hirings resulted.
Second, according to the analysis by the Associated Press, the President wants to establish a Federal public/private "infrastructure bank" to address the need to repair infrastructure and hire construction workers. However, the AP analysis points out that this Federal infrastrucutre bank would likely take up to two years to set up before any projects were funded and jobs filled.
Thus, a major portion of his program would not see any unemployed people become employed construction workers until at least two years from the passage of his proposal, assuming Republicans went along with the concept. Thus, two years with no jobs on infrastructure is best, best case. Who knows where the economy will be by then.
A better option would be to give that infrastructure funding to exsiting state infrastructure banks that already exist and have already mapped out projects that need work. That would certainly cut down the time needed to hire construction workers and would solve our biggest problem with these types of programs: powerful Congressional people steering funds into secondary, non-priority projects in their home districts and home states (e.g. remember how the political class used stimulus money to repair over a thousand bridges that were not in need or repair?).
However, such a logical approach would cut down the power and influence of the Washington D.C. political class, something they do not look kindly on, regardless of how much sense it makes. Thus, I predict the Federal infrastructure idea will go forward, will be delayed by the Republicans for good reasons, and if and when it comes to fruition, the economy will be in a totally different place.
Does not seem like the AP is overly impressed with the President's speech and ideas either. Nowhere in their analysis did I see the words bold, courageous, innovative, efficient, etc. Just a lot of "ifs" and "maybes" and the same old stuff from the political class.
That is why the President should have read "Love my Country, Loathe My Government" before the speech. The steps in the book would have given him specific ideas on how to cover the shortfall in Social Security funding that his tax plans will generate, it would have given him ideas on how to fix our education system, our health care system, and our energy problems.
It would illustrate how to use and leverage the brains and skills of smart Americans, bypassing Congress in many ways, to identify root causes of problems, develop solutions, removing uncertainty, and making the country more efficient. The steps in the book could certainly not be any worse than the tired ideas he put forth which also lacked specificity and a strategic framework.
If he is reading this, the book is available on Amazon and from other sources. It certainly would have helped him out last Thursday by providing some strategic thinking and innovative approaches to problem solving vs. what we ended up hearing.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available, at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/
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