Thread: The Jobs Speech

The President spoke last night, the proposed bill isn't here yet but last night the President outlined many points.

Claim: "everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything."

goal-1: put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working.

goal2: create more jobs for construction workers

goal3: create more jobs for teachers

goal4: more jobs for veterans
(companies will get extra tax credits if they hire America’s veterans)

goal5: more jobs for the long-term unemployed
(companies will get a $4,000 tax credit if they hire anyone who has spent more than six months looking for a job.)

goal6: a tax break for companies who hire new workers

goal7: cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business

goal8: provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled (give companies confidence that if they invest and hire)

goal9: create customers for their products and services



rebuilding America:

"we have badly decaying roads and bridges"

"Our highways are clogged with traffic"

"Our skies are the most congested in the world."

goal10: repair and modernize at least 35,000 schools

goal11: make sure the money is properly spent and for good purposes, we’re building on reforms we’ve already put in place. No more earmarks. No more boondoggles. No more bridges to nowhere.

goal12: cut red tape, set up an independent fund to attract private dollars and issue loans based on two criteria: how badly a construction project is needed and how much good it would do for the economy.

goal 13: hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people will have the hope and dignity of a summer job next year

goal 14: low-income Americans who desperately want to work, will have more ladders out of poverty.

spending cuts
cuts1 : adjustments to health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid,
cuts2: reforming our tax code in a way that asks the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share
cuts3: eliminating pages of loopholes and deductions in tax code
cuts4: lower one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world

gola15: cut away the red tape that prevents too many rapidly-growing start-up companies from raising capital and going public

goal16: work with Federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4% -- a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket

goal17: speed up the outdated patent process

goal18: a series of trade agreements that would make it easier for American companies to sell their products in Panama, Colombia, and South Korea

So a grand plan that on the surface requires something we are short of: Money

I was surprised to see nothing about Green Jobs. (Did I miss it?)

Transportation reform was mentioned but a solution of High-Speed Rail was not.

He has peppered the speech with talk of "cuts" which look to be a trap agaisnt his political opposition. If this is good or not for the nation we have yet to see.

There were only a few concrete claims and dollar figures given to us and while they certainly look good on the surface they may have deeper impact on systems that must be reformed to deal with the cuts.

Not as bad as previous Jobs speeches but a whole lot of possibilities and only a few solutions mentioned.


Text of speech (used in my review of speech) here: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...43.html?page=1

He was brimming with frustration last night, throwing anything and everything at the wall in hopes that something will stick.

But he can't cover up two fundamental facts, we can't afford anything else without bleeding his sacred cow and source of power, entitlements, and even if we could, there was nothing was nothing of substance in the infrastructure proposals that would make a fundamental and lasting impact on the private sector, rendering it to be just another bubble.

I didn't watch the speech, but I didn't have to. It's just the same stuff he always says, recycled. His strategy -- which he thinks is unbeatable -- is just to propose spending ...but spending that you "can't" be opposed to. Like "jobs for teachers." Who could be against more jobs? And for teachers, the people who teach our children? Nobody! What? You mean we're going to get out of this recession by making jobs for teachers? Cool. How about more jobs for someone NOT in a union and who ISN'T paid by taxpayers? "Repair and modernize schools." Huh? Again, who could be against repairing schools? What? It's like "you mean that right now we don't spend money on repairing schools?" Because that's what that implies. Like, our economy is in the toilet and the liberals are like "after much brainstorming, we decided we want to modernize schools." Uh, OK, what does that have to do with anything? It's like you're unemployed and your solution is to paint your house. Guess what, there's a reason you're unemployed.

Originally Posted by Commodore

But he can't cover up two fundamental facts, we can't afford anything else without bleeding his sacred cow and source of power, entitlements, and even if we could, there was nothing was nothing of substance in the infrastructure proposals that would make a fundamental and lasting impact on the private sector, rendering it to be just another bubble.

He didn't even try to cover it up really by mentioning reforms to Medicare and Medicaid and reducing payroll taxes (which invokes social security as well) he pretty much set entitlements right down in the middle of the table. Is it a trap for the right , or has he decided he can trick the middle by lying about how deep into their wallets he wants the feds to stick their hands?

Originally Posted by JDJarvis

He didn't even try to cover it up really by mentioning reforms to Medicare and Medicaid and reducing payroll taxes (which invokes social security as well) he pretty much set entitlements right down in the middle of the table. Is it a trap for the right , or has he decided he can trick the middle by lying about how deep into their wallets he wants the feds to stick their hands?

Entitlements are not on the table in a substantive way. The payroll deduction is just further generational theft to cover up generational theft.

He spent a good portion of the speech defending the welfare state, citing the "other thread woven through America" where we have common responsibility to one another. It makes one want to reach through the TV, grab him by the scuff of the neck, shake him, and yell, WHO IS THIS WE OF WHICH YOU SPEAK?!?

We do have a responsibility to one another. Husband to Wife. Parent to Child. Sibling to Sibling. Friend to Friend. Child to Parent. We don't need a bureaucratic middleperson to enslave us.

Originally Posted by JDJarvis

The President spoke last night, the proposed bill isn't here yet but last night the President outlined many points.

First, I did not listen to the Obamajobs speech. FER cryin' out loud, the Pack was playing the Ain'ts: Man gots to have his priorities. So I spent a good part of this morning searching for the points he made, eventually to my frustration.

I should have stopped in here first because, JD, that was the best summary I've seen of the points he made. Thank you for your dilligence! As Joey used to say to the other Li'l Rascals, "re-MARK-a'boh."

I'm not going to go interlinear on you here. But I do have some questions about his plan as you've outlined it:

1. that $300 Billion to "rebuild America:" Where have we heard that before? OH yeah, what happened to the stimulus money that was supposed to be held aside for "shovel ready" jobs? America's roads and bridges are still in disrepair so was that money wisely spent or spent at all?
2. He said it would be "paid for, all of it," but as you noted, he didn't say how or by whom it would be paid. Then I read the part about raising the $1/5 Trillion debt goal to pay for it. THAT, to me, is not "paid for, all of it." That is just borrowing more.
3. He's going to come out with Obamaspending on September 19th wherein he will put "everything" on the table, including those items vigorously protected by both sides of the aisle. Uhm, O.K., but where was he during the Budget debates (and as far back as November, 2010), when "everything is on the table" was so resoundingly criticized by the liberals? Back then, republicans were trying to make gran'ma eat dog food but, now because he's got his own plan, he's O.K. putting everything on the table?

I'm not sure how it will work out, but I do like the sound of a business being allowed to hire and train someone without having to pay him for up to 8 weeks. I assume the government will pay him for those 8 weeks but I do like the sound of it: Remains to be seen whether or not it will be abused... RECOGNIZE as I do how similar to a union program it is, it still sounds O.K..

Interesting that he proposes "adjustments" to medicare and medicaid but nothing about Obamacare...
Speed up patent process: O.K.
Trade Agreements: O.K.
Spiff up 35,000 schools: O.K. as long as we know how we'll pay for it...

All in all, I'm satisfied with my decision to watch the game, but now the REAL show starts as Congress takes up the legislation. Stand by for frivolity and mischief...

Originally Posted by Commodore

He spent a good portion of the speech defending the welfare state, citing the "other thread woven through America" where we have common responsibility to one another. It makes one want to reach through the TV, grab him by the scuff of the neck, shake him, and yell, WHO IS THIS WE OF WHICH YOU SPEAK?!?

We do have a responsibility to one another. Husband to Wife. Parent to Child. Sibling to Sibling. Friend to Friend. Child to Parent. We don't need a bureaucratic middleperson to enslave us.

We do have the responsibilities you outlined but we also have responsibilities in regards to our neighbors, communities, states and country. Those responsibilities should not be manufactured liabilities.

Everyone seems to be missing one of the points that stuck out to me;

The plan also extends unemployment insurance for another year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/us...pagewanted=all

... because the quickest way to lower unemployment obviously is to pay people to not work.

Originally Posted by Good1

I should have stopped in here first because, JD, that was the best summary I've seen of the points he made. Thank you for your dilligence!

You and everyone else is most welcome. I wanted to get the points as I could spot them right out in the open so discussion could be accurate.

As to the points you raise.
1. Billions to "rebuild America" sure has a familiar ring to me that I don't find very stimulating. His rhetoric seems to indicate a desire to get things right this time around but I remain very skeptical as to how Washington bureaucrats are able to reduce bureaucracy.

2. Paying for all of it does seem to be a hat trick when we see other talk of cuts. It looks like he wants to coerce private industry into bank-rolling part of the plan but how that is going to be leveraged is yet to be seen. Further borrowing certainly seems to be the only solid solution the federal government can manage.

3. It going to be a full table and the arguments look engineered to be full of political gotcha moments.

Some of the goals and skeletal propositions to meet them so far sound plausible if the funds were somehow present to implement. But there's the rub...funds aren't flowing so freely these days.

To sum up the President's speech, "I have a plan, and I wil tell you about it when I figure it out myself."