The Democrats’ $862 billion stimulus bill turns a year old today, but don’t fret if you didn’t get a party invitation. Most Americans haven’t seen much in the past year of stimulus worth celebrating.
Democrats claimed their stimulus bill would have an immediate impact on job creation and the economy. Clearly, that was ridiculous. Just take a look at the bill – it’s mostly a hodge-podge of expensive giveaways and programs with little real impact on job creation.
Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), who just announced that he won’t seek reelection this year, recently had some sharp comments about this Congress’ record on jobs:
“If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months,” Bayh said.
That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of Democrat policies, and no wonder. The number of jobs our economy has lost in just the last year is approaching 4 million, and the unemployment rate has hung around 10% for the past 6 months. And then there’s the 6.1 million unemployed Americans who want to work but aren’t included in the oft-quoted unemployment rate.
Even these numbers don’t paint the whole picture. Conventional wisdom says the U.S. needs to create about 125,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with population growth. That’s where the Democrats’ job-killing agenda rears its ugly head. Employers aren’t likely to risk hiring and expanding without confidence that their businesses will be able to thrive in the future. When confronted by a government takeover of health care, a national energy tax, card check, skyrocketing debt, and higher taxes, most job creators aren’t trying to expand. They’re hunkering down in self-defense.
For robust and sustainable job growth, our entrepreneurs, small businesses, and other job creators require a job-friendly environment in which individuals and businesses can keep more of their hard-earned money without seeing the future mortgaged by irresponsible spenders in Washington.
Moe Lane
Neil Stevens
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Democratic policies are creating the world seen in Atlas Shrugged...
kyoufuu (Diary) Wednesday, February 17th at 3:45PM EST (link)the only difference is that instead of purposely striking, job creators are just reacting to the economy. Either way, the outcome will likely end up being the same.
I’m waiting from some Democratic member of Congress to propose a bill that would require businesses making above a certain profit level to convert those profits into jobs… Stimulus, indeed!
“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” — James Madison
“I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
last year
jackquil36 Wednesday, February 24th at 11:43AM EST (link)The last year has shown — just as economists have long said — that aid to states and cities may be the single most effective form of stimulus. Unlike road- or bridge-building, it can happen in a matter of weeks. And unlike tax cuts, state and local aid never languishes in a household’s savings account.
The ideal follow-up stimulus would start with that aid. It would then add on extended jobless benefits, which also tend to be spent, as well as tax credits carefully drafted to get businesses to hire and households to spend, like the cash-for-clunkers program.
By this yardstick, the $154 billion bill that the House passed in December is decent. It includes $27 billion in state and local aid, $79 billion for jobless benefits and other safety nets, and $48 billion in infrastructure spending.
The smaller bills being considered by the Senate are worse. They may end up with no state aid at all, and their tax credits sound better — with promises to help the long-term unemployed and small businesses — than they are. The economic impact of the Senate bill, at this point, is starting to look very small.
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Jack
Jack