Posted on 08/29/2011 6:21:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
Democrats are counting heavily on President Obama's upcoming Labor Day job creation speech to allay the fears of the stock market, the international investor community and the American people. Much like Waiting for Godot, there's been a lot of hype and chatter but very little action.
In fact, considering Obama has no street creds in the area of job creation, and considering few of his advisors have ever created jobs, and considering that two of the most powerful Democrats in the House and the Senate represent the two states with the nation's highest unemployment, it's hard to imagine the president will have an innovative, cohesive or potentially effective job creation plan to roll out in his speech.
Here are five ideas which Obama could announce which could help create jobs and improve the economy. Of course, these ideas are bold -- and Obama is not comfortable with taking bold action --he prefers armchair rhetoric. These ideas also very much go against a Keynesian economic model-- and Obama might not be comfortable with that either. But, then again, since thirty months of Keynesian economic modeling have failed to yield any improvement in the economy, perhaps Obama might consider abandoning the madness and moving over to the free market capitalism team.
1. Create a pro-business environment that encourages investment and growth in areas currently receiving federal subsidies for disaster relief. Creating a tax free zone for five years in Louisiana or Mississippi, areas that still have not recovered economically from Hurricane Katrina, would encourage businesses to relocate to these areas. This move would (a) keep investment dollars in the U.S. (b) create new jobs and hiring opportunities in currently low employment areas (c) eliminate the need for additional federal subsidies in these areas (d) indirectly affect and improve the education systems in these areas as a result of more residents, more jobs and more income.
2. Announce "drill, baby, drill" is back on track, and mean it. Wildcatters and small rig entrepreneurs would rejoice. In addition to creating jobs in states all around the U.S., the announcement would also be an effective way to scare the #@!?# out of the Middle East oil community and would, most likely, result in an immediate lowering in the cost per barrel of oil. Our nation has lost too much credibility and squandered too much American wealth pursuing any number of dubious energy policies. Time to get serious and develop our own resources.
3. Extend payroll tax cuts. Increasing the amount of retained earnings will be good for the economy, but accompany the payroll tax cuts with serious federal budget cuts to an entitlement program such as unemployment by reducing the amount of time an individual can collect unemployment. After all, the president is supposed to be incentivizing Americans to create jobs, not encouraging them to stay home. Paying Americans not to work for 99 weeks is insane and fiscally ruinous.
4. Extend offers of immediate American citizenship to any student earning an advanced degree in science, math, or technology. Currently, the U.S. subsidizes, in the name of diversity, the education of tens of thousands of international students. After they have received the benefit of an excellent (and oftentimes free) American education, for their B.S., M.S. and Ph.D., our broken immigration system demands that they return to their own countries, and does not allow them to stay in America. Unions may be fearful of granting qualified foreigners green cards and work permits, but these protectionist moves are killing our economy. We need more scientists and engineers to power our economy, and we would be wise to attract the world’s most accomplished scientists and engineers to live, work, and prosper in the US. We have seen, through the example of individuals such as Steve Jobs, the ability of one individual, with solid technical credentials, to create millions of jobs (excuse the pun) and change the lives of billions. Of course, while we offer green cards and citizenship to scientists and engineers, no such offer should be made to the many other thousands of international students earning degrees in political science, law, comparative studies. We are all full up.
5. Treat our country like the business it is, and get advice from those who have proven they can walk the walk. The six states in the U.S. with the greatest job creation and the lowest unemployment-- despite the economic downturn--deserve some credit. Ask the governors of Texas, Utah, Vermont, VA, Wisconsin and Wyoming to come to the White House--IMMEDIATELY-- and promise to listen and consider their advice on job creation. In this way, President Obama might learn the high costs of the excessive regulations spewing from Washington, and gain some understanding of just how detrimental many of the Obama Administration’s decisions have been in creating jobs.
Hope springs eternal, and even though President Obama has not shown any ability to learn from his past mistakes we can still dream. Obama has a splendid opportunity to engage the American people, surprise his critics, and to assure the world. Opportunities such as these don't come along every day--the real question is: will Obama seize the opportunity to lead or will he continue to be the grey flannel man in the teleprompted suit?
“Effective immediately, Joe and I resign from our offices. We welcome President Boehner and wish him good luck in his efforts to restore the economy of this formerly great country.”
He has NOTHING to offer...but he's compounded the error by somehow settign up this speech as the BIG~DEAL..It will be ridiculed by everyone, on all sides....
He has NOTHING to offer...but he's compounded the error by somehow settign up this speech as the BIG~DEAL..It will be ridiculed by everyone, on all sides....
The fundamental fallacy of all this type of article is the presumption that The Won wants to create jobs, or to see jobs created.
He does not.
He (and the barbarians giving him orders through the Blackberry) want to destroy freedom, to destroy Western Civilization, and to destroy this country.
To see most of us dead, the rest in chains.
If you keep that in mind, everything he does makes perfect sense.
How about... REDUCING CAPITAL GAINS ON HOMEOWNERS TO (0) AND A CREATE OTHER INCENTIVES THAT MAKE PURCHASING A HOME A NON-RISK INVESTMENT... for the common middle class, that is the only investment they have or can afford.
That might benefit the “wrong people” too much. Can’t have that.
But all of human frailty and failings will be eliminated once they achieve that goal, so it is worth it...
(thus is the mind of the communist)
I really dislike the way the argument has been owned by communists (or socialists or liberals) because they have insinuated the concept that government can create jobs (or wealth). And now nobody even blinks at that kind of language.
The only jobs government can create are a tax upon the citizens and their prosperity. Granted some few government jobs are good and desirable. But not many. Too many government jobs = too much government = loss of liberty.
I can see some enormous unintended negative consequences here.
There is no such thing as a non-risk investment.
Government has no business incentivizing individuals to invest in any certain way.
By describing genuine job-creation ideas, conservatives assist the public in understanding why Obama”s ideas won’t work.
We’ve already got the negative unintended consequences ... after they graduate, they stay on H1b visas and undercut the wages of American grads by working for half-price.
Gov incentivizes all the time... ever heard of mortgage deductions, though that may not be the ideal incentive, it is nevertheless something the home owner looks to when buying. Sure, and make owning a house less risky than betting on the stock market. When the housing market is healthy all other parts of the economy get better. The one thing most of us sink money into is our homes... hey, like it or not, Gov can act to make home ownership more practical, and less risky than say investing in the stock market.
Which is why the article suggests “citizenship” rather than green card or H1b visa. I’m not sure that is going to guarantee they won’t undercut American-born workers’ wages, however. It might prevent employers from automatically lowballing salaries, but it does nothing about foreigners’ willingness to accept a lower standard of living.
These are supposed to be “conservative” ideas ? They sound like more government meddling to me. What we need is LESS picking of winners and losers by ivory tower idiots.
All the US economy needs is for the government to stop playing favorites.
1) Toss out all the regulations including Sarbanes Oxley, Dodd Frank, No Child Left Behind, the EPA, NRC, etc.
2) Toss out any regulation that targets or benefits any specific business. Adopt the least burdensome regulations of any OECD nation.
3) Toss out the Corporate Income Tax and all the credits and exemptions and loopholes and shelters for businesses, while allowing expensing of all capital expenditures and dividend payouts.
4) Apply the same 7.65% FICA tax to the labor costs embedded in imports to reduce the advantage of foreign labor.
5) Change the AMT to an “Alternative Minimum & Maximum Tax” for Individual taxpayers so it includes all income levels and ensures a minimum 10% of AGI is paid by everybody so nobody thinks government is “free”, and nobody pays more than 15% so they don’t feel punished for their success.
It is the attitude of rewarding failure and punishing success that has caused our downward spiral in both the economy and morality. We need to restore the work ethic and that means rewarding success not failure.
The supply of scientists and engineers already exceeds the demand; we don’t need to be increasing supply until demand picks-up.
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.