Obama jobs speech

Obama jobs speech

Neal Boortz
Sept. 9, 2011

In case you didn’t get the memo, Dear Ruler wants his American Jobs Act passed “right away.” He told us that at least eight times: Yup … he was pretty certain about at least that much. We need to pass this plan and we need to do it right-by-God-now.

Why the urgency? Because when Congress fails to pass it right away, Obama can throw up his hands and say, “Hey, I told them we needed to pass it right away. Congress didn’t. The Republicans blocked it. The congress is broken. Republican obstructionism and partisanship is destroying our economy. It’s not my fault. Our economy would have recovered by now if they had only listened to me.” And then you will hear that line from now until November 2012.

So … what did we hear in Ruler Obama’s speech? I worked to try to distill it into basic points.

1. Spend about a half-trillion dollars we don’t have.
   
2. Insure that as much of the new spending is spent by the government sector as possible. Governments spending on roads, bridges and schools. Keep as much of the spending out of the private sector as we can.
   
3. Make sure that to the greatest extent possible the beneficiaries of the spending are union workers --- teachers, construction workers and the like.
   
4. Tell the masses once again that the evil rich and the nasty corporations are not paying “their fair share” of taxes.
   
5. Get the phrase “millionaires and billionaires” in there at least once to generate a little more class envy.
   
6. Call for the increased spending, but pass the buck on how to come up with the money to the super committee of 12 Senators and Congressmen, that way Dear Ruler doesn’t have to take the heat for the tax increase proposals or spending cuts in next year’s election.
   

There are parts of Obama’s plan that have merit. Yes, I am about to say something positive about Dear Ruler. Prepare yourselves.

• Obama called for Medicare reform. Good for him. He recognizes that it will be obsolete by the time our children go to collect it, because it is unsustainable at this rate.
  

• He also seems dedicated to the cause of decreasing burdensome government regulations. While I can’t trust that he will actually follow through on this, his move last week with the EPA smog regulations was a glimmer of hope.
  

• Obama wants all businesses to be able to continue writing off investments they make in 2012.
  

• Passing free trade agreements, that Obama hasn’t bothered to send to Congress. Let’s remember, though, that these trade agreements don’t go to the Senate for action until Obama gets some favors for unions … costly
  favors.
  

Now there is another idea in Obama’s speech that I agree with, though I did not appreciate the way he presented it. Unlike some Republicans, I support extending the payroll tax cut for employees and cutting payroll taxes in half for small business owners. However, I called this one many weeks ago. The current payroll tax rates are a temporary extension of a tax cut passed sometime last year. Now, all of the sudden, Obama says that not extending these tax cuts is considered an increase in taxes on the middle class. Here’s what Obama had to say …

If we allow that tax cut to expire – if we refuse to act – middle-class families will get hit with a tax increase at the worst possible time. We cannot let that happen. I know some of you have sworn oaths to never raise any taxes on anyone for as long as you live. Now is not the time to carve out an exception and raise middle-class taxes, which is why you should pass this bill right away.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are calling on the Bush tax cuts to expire for the evil rich. But they refuse to call this a tax increase on the evil rich. Instead they insist that they are “letting the Bush tax cuts expire.” See how convenient that argument is for the libs and progs?

He also wants tax credits for employers who hire veterans or the long-term unemployed. Fine. But do any of these plans actually foster any long-term certainty for employers? Can employers build business plans based on these ideas? The answer is no. And Obama didn’t address perhaps the biggest elephant in the room when it comes to business cost uncertainty: ObamaCare. Not one word about how that is affecting employers and their willingness to invest in new workers. None of these ideas is about growing our economic pie .. it is all about small-nose “sugar” incentives.

So let’s move on to some of the ideas that aren’t sending tingles up my legs.

• Building a world-class transportation system (aka. high-speed rail)
  

• An independent fund to attract private dollars and issue loans (aka. an infrastructure bank)
  

• Paying government school teachers to go back to work (teachers unions)
  

• More spending on infrastructure: schools, bridges, highways (Stimulus II)
  

• Again with reforming patent process!
  

But perhaps the most heinous part of Obama’s speech was his insistence on …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5f-FwN2ZJs