REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Pres. Obama's Jobs for America Plan

POSTED BY: GEEZER
UPDATED: Monday, September 12, 2011 15:34
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Saturday, September 10, 2011 2:22 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up


Quote:

To create jobs, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – nearly all of which is made up of ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and that Congress should pass right away to get the economy moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it would do so without adding a dime to the deficit.

Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow

New Tax Cuts to Businesses to Support Hiring and Investment:The President is proposing three tax cuts to provide immediate incentives to hire and invest:

Cutting the Payroll Tax Cut in Half for the First $5 Million in Wages:This provision would cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level.
Temporarily Eliminating Employer Payroll Taxes on Wages for New Workers or Raises for Existing Workers:The President is proposing a full holiday on the 6.2% payroll tax firms pay for any growth in their payroll up to $50 million above the prior year, whether driven by new hires, increased wages or both. This is the kind of job creation measure that CBO has called the most effective of all tax cuts in supporting employment.
Extending 100% Expensing into 2012:The President is proposing to extend 100 percent expensing, the largest temporary investment incentive in history, allowing all firms – large and small – to take an immediate deduction on investments in new plants and equipment.
Helping Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses Access Capital and Grow: The President’s plan includes administrative, regulatory and legislative measures – including those developed and recommended by the President’s Jobs Council – to help small firms start and expand. This includes changing the way the government does business with small firms. The Administration will soon announce a plan to accelerate government payments to small contractors to help put money in their hands faster. The President is also charging his CIO and CTO to, within 90 days, stand up a one-stop, online portal for small businesses to easily access government services. As part of the President’s Startup America initiative, the Administration will work with the SEC to conduct a comprehensive review of securities regulations from the perspective of these small companies to reduce the regulatory burdens on small business capital formation in ways that are consistent with investor protection, including expanding “crowdfunding” opportunities and increasing mini-offerings. Finally, the President’s plan calls for Congress to pass comprehensive patent reform, increase guarantees for bonds to help small businesses compete for infrastructure projects and remove burdensome withholding requirements that keep capital out of the hands of job creators.
Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America

Tax Credits and Career Readiness Efforts to Support Veterans’ Hiring:The President is proposing a Returning Heroes Tax Credit of up to $5,600 for hiring unemployed veterans who have been looking for a job for more than six months, and a Wounded Warriors Tax Credit of up to $9,600 for hiring unemployed workers with service-connected disabilities who have been looking for a job for more than six months, while creating a new task force to maximize career readiness of servicemembers.
Preventing Layoffs of Teachers, Cops and Firefighters:The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, requiring that funds be drawn down quickly. Under the President’s proposal, $30 billion be directed towards educators and $5 billion would support the hiring and retention of public safety and first responder personnel.
Modernizing Over 35,000 Schools – From Science Labs and Internet-Ready Classrooms to Renovated Facilities:The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. This includes a priority for rural schools and dedicated funding for Bureau of Indian Education funded schools. Funds could be used for a range of emergency repair and renovation projects, greening and energy efficiency upgrades, asbestos abatement and removal, and modernization efforts to build new science and computer labs and to upgrade technology in our schools. The President is also proposing a $5 billion investment in modernizing community colleges (including tribal colleges), bolstering their infrastructure in this time of need while ensuring their ability to serve future generations of students and communities.
Making an Immediate Investment in Our Roads, Rails and Airports: The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. The President’s plan includes investments to improve our airports, support NextGen Air Traffic Modernization efforts, and resources for the TIGER and TIFIA programs, which target competitive dollars to innovative multi-modal infrastructure programs. It will also take special steps to enhance infrastructure-related job training opportunities for individuals from underrepresented groups and ensure that small businesses can compete for infrastructure contracts.The President will work administratively to speed infrastructure investment through a recently issued Presidential Memorandum developed with his Jobs Council directingdepartments and agencies to identify high impact, job-creating infrastructure projects that can be expedited in a transparent manner through outstanding review and permitting processes. The call for greater infrastructure investment has been joined by leaders from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue.
Establishing a National Infrastructure Bank:The President is calling for Congress to pass a National Infrastructure Bank capitalized with $10 billion, in order to leverage private and public capital and to invest in a broad range of infrastructure projects of nationaland regional significance, without earmarks or traditional political influence. The Bank would be based on the model Senators Kerry and Hutchison have championed while building on legislation by Senators Rockefeller and Lautenberg and the work of long-time infrastructure bank champions like Rosa DeLauro and the input of the President’s Jobs Council.
Project Rebuild: Putting People Back to Work Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and Communities. The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Building on proven approaches to stabilizing neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreclosures, Project Rebuild will bring in expertise and capital from the private sector, focus on commercial and residential property improvements, and expand innovative property solutions like land banks. This approach will not only create construction jobs but will help reduce blight and crime and stabilize housing prices in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis.
Expanding Access to High-Speed Wireless in a Fiscally Responsible Way: The President is calling for a deficit reducing plan to deploy high-speed wireless services to at least 98 percent of Americans, including those in more remote rural communities, while freeing up spectrum through incentive auctions, spurring innovation, and creating a nationwide, interoperable wireless network for public safety.

Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs

Reform Our Unemployment Insurance System to Provide Greater Flexibility, While Ensuring 6 Million People Do Not Lose Benefits: Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the most innovative states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years help those without jobs transition to the workplace. Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to extend unemployment insurance, preventing 6 million people looking for work from losing their benefits and extending what the independent Congressional Budget Office has determined is the highest “bang for the buck” option to increase economic activity.
Reemployment Assistance: States will be required to design more rigorous reemployment services for the long-term unemployed and to conduct assessments to review the longest-term claimants of UI to assess their eligibility and help them develop a work-search plan. These reforms are proven to speed up UI beneficiaries’ return to work.
Work-sharing:The President will expand “work-sharing” to encourage arrangements using UI that keep employees on the job at reduced hours, rather than laying them off.
State Flexibility for Bold Reforms to Put the Long-Term Unemployed Back To Work:The President is proposing to provide additional funds to allow states to introduce new programs aimed at long-term unemployed workers, including:
“Bridge to Work” Programs:States will be able to put in place reforms that build off what works in programs like Georgia Works or Opportunity North Carolina, while instituting important fixes and reforms that ensure minimum wage and fair labor protections are being enforced. These approaches permits long-term unemployed workers to continue receiving UI while they take temporary, voluntary work or pursue work-based training. The President’s plan requires compliance with applicable minimum wage and other worker rights laws.
Wage Insurance: States will be able to use UI to encourage older, long-term unemployed Americans to return to work in new industries or occupations.
Startup Assistance: States will have flexibility to help long-term unemployed workers create their own jobs by starting their own small businesses.
Other Reemployment Reforms: States will be able to seek waivers from the Secretary of Labor to implement other innovative reforms to connect the long-term unemployed to work opportunities.
Tax Credits for Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed:The President is proposing a tax credit of up to $4,000 for hiring workers who have been looking for a job for over six months.
Investing in Low-Income Youth and Adults: The President is proposing a new Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. The Initiative will do three things: i) support summer and year-round jobs for youth, building off of successful programs that supported over 370,000 such jobs in 2009 and 2010; ii) support subsidized employment opportunities for low-income individuals who are unemployed, building off the successful TANF Emergency Contingency Fund wage subsidy program that supported 260,000 jobs in 2009 and 2010; and iii) support promising and innovative local work-based job and training initiatives to place low-income adults and youths in jobs quickly.
Prohibiting Employers from Discriminating Against Unemployed Workers: The President’s plan calls for legislation that would make it unlawful to refuse to hire applicants solely because they are unemployed or to include in a job posting a provision that unemployed persons will not be considered.
More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family

Cutting Payroll Taxes in Half for 160 Million Workers Next Year: The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers payroll taxes in half next year. This provision will provide a tax cut of $1,500 to the typical family earning $50,000 a year. As with the payroll tax cut passed in December 2010, the American Jobs Act will specify that Social Security will still receive every dollar it would have gotten otherwise, through a transfer from the General Fund into the Social Security Trust Fund.
Helping More Americans Refinance Mortgages at Today’s Historically Low Interest Rates: The President has instructed his economic team to work with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, their regulator the FHFA, major lenders and industry leaders to remove the barriers that exist in the current refinancing program (HARP) to help more borrowers benefit from today’s historically low interest rates. This has the potential to not only help these borrowers, but their communities and the American taxpayer, by keeping borrowers in their homes and reducing risk to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.

To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.



http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/08/fact-sheet-ameri
can-jobs-act


A few things almost word-for-word from the Republicans "No-Cost Jobs Plan": The "Georgia Plan" for unemployment assistance, and the payroll tax reductions for employees and employers. Also a good bit about reducing regulation and encouraging small businesses. Wonder how these will fly.

What with so many homes already on the market, I'm not sure of the utility of spending money to refurbish more that may stand empty. The idea to provide/support/underwrite loans to folks who wouldn't otherwise qualify seems like a possible money-pit.

I am wondering how the reduction in payroll taxes will eventually be paid for, or if future SSA earnings will be reduced by the amount not paid. I've seen no discussion of this.



"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Saturday, September 10, 2011 2:35 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!



Cutting the SSI 'contributions' in half, while trying to save the program , seems counter productive. Less $ going in, with more $ coming out...I don't get it.

It's basically more of the same of Obama's stimulus concept, but with a couple of trinkets tossed in, to appeal to the GOP. As Herman Cain says, it's little more than a hodge podge of ideas, the majority of which are nonsensical, laced with the class warfare rhetoric - tax the rich.

Politically, I look for the GOP to seriously look at passing some of this stuff, but hopefully not the majority.


" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Saturday, September 10, 2011 4:03 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


Quote:


Establishing a National Infrastructure Bank: The President is calling for Congress to pass a National Infrastructure Bank capitalized with $10 billion, in order to leverage private and public capital and to invest in a broad range of infrastructure projects of nationaland regional significance, without earmarks or traditional political influence. The Bank would be based on the model Senators Kerry and Hutchison have championed while building on legislation by Senators Rockefeller and Lautenberg and the work of long-time infrastructure bank champions like Rosa DeLauro and the input of the President’s Jobs Council.

Project Rebuild: Putting People Back to Work Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and Communities. The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Building on proven approaches to stabilizing neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreclosures, Project Rebuild will bring in expertise and capital from the private sector, focus on commercial and residential property improvements, and expand innovative property solutions like land banks. This approach will not only create construction jobs but will help reduce blight and crime and stabilize housing prices in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis.



Hello,

These items do not really excite me. The 'infrastructure bank' seems rather ill defined to me, and I'm wondering if the money wouldn't be better diverted to known infrastructure concerns such as highway, bridge, and rail rehabilitation. I'm not sure what this money will eventually be used for, given the broad nature of the description.

'Project Rebuild' seems foolhardy to me. Spending money to repair and refurbish hundreds of thousands of buildings nobody wants seems like a waste. I'd rather see this money diverted to the consumer in the form of additional tax cuts. Imagine my irritation if the empty house up the street gets repaired with public funds while I try to figure out how to afford repairs to my own roof in my inhabited home.

I expect that proposals to lower taxes will be met with unanimous support. The impact of revisions to unemployment law is hard to predict. Much of this sounds good, but I do wonder how it will pan out in the long run.

My overall impression is that the proposal is mostly good, but I wish it had a greater emphasis on alleviating the tax burden on the middle and lower classes while maintaining the tax incentives for hiring and retaining personnel for businesses. Indeed, if such tax reductions were the singular aim of the program, I suspect it would be better than it is presently.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Saturday, September 10, 2011 6:47 AM

KIRKULES


This is pure pre-election insanity, we spent 4 trillion and it had very little effect on the economy so now 400 billion is going to make all the difference. This program will have zero positive effect on the economy and the message it sends to businesses is that government spending is still out of control. Businesses wont hire no matter how much they get in government payments to do so. Businesses know that this additional spending means years of slow to no economic growth ahead and they will just retrench and prepare for a future of higher taxes, insurance mandates and intrusive regulation.

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Saturday, September 10, 2011 7:15 AM

JONGSSTRAW


Quote:

Originally posted by Kirkules:
we spent 4 trillion and it had very little effect on the economy so now 400 billion is going to make all the difference. This program will have zero positive effect


The host network and moderators for the recent Republican debate would strongly disagree with those assessments. Give Obama the money he asked for on Thursday, because any remaining pretense of a shred of Republican dignity and intelligence went out the window Wednesday night.









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Saturday, September 10, 2011 10:33 AM

FREMDFIRMA


You mean they had any left, Jong ?
Yeah, that was sad, damn sad.

That said, this is a ridiculous plan, vague and untrustworthy, and since it comes with no military spending cutbacks I'll not support it - in fact I refuse to support any bill or program till those happen, period.

And I am most certainly not in favor of offering any benefit whatever to folks I firmly believe have broken their Oath of Service, none whatever.

So.. no, I'll not support this.

-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.

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Saturday, September 10, 2011 11:34 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


I'm at a loss to explain how cutting the payroll tax in half is going to have anything but a negative effect on Social Security. I mean, you'd have to create twice the number of jobs we have now (not halving the number of unemployed, but rather DOUBLING the number of the EMPLOYED) to just net the same revenue. 1 x 1 = 1. 0.5 x 1 = 0.5. 0.5 x *2* = 1.

So this plan looks like a surefire way to collapse Social Security in half the time.



"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Saturday, September 10, 2011 1:04 PM

M52NICKERSON

DALEK!


You have to remember SS has been running a yearly surplus for many years now. The problem is that the surplus has been getting rolled into general revenue.

I do not fear God, I fear the ignorance of man.

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Saturday, September 10, 2011 5:17 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Surplus or no, they're starting to pay out more than they take in - which would be fine if that $2.5 trillion they'd collected had been left the fuck alone, but it wasn't; it was spent on productive, great, wonderful things like... well, war in Iraq for one. And war in Afghanistan. And Pakistan. And Libya. And tax cuts for the richest Americans.

So after spending the Social Security "lockbox", the GOP turns around and yells, "See!? We told you it wouldn't work!"

And everybody gives the whining crying babies exactly what they wanted.



"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Monday, September 12, 2011 6:36 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


It's all moot anyway. The Republicans were quite clear they're going to defeat it, "whatever it is", before it was even out. And yes, it does contain a number of things the Republicans themselves propsed at other times; which means nothing because they'll vote against ANYTHIHG he offers, unless it was nothing but tax cuts and de-regulation...and even then, the Tea Party might hold 'em up because it's agreeing with something Obama wants!

Heard a pundit this morning who was right on. Asked whether the Republicans will try to do something to improve the situation or wait and let it get worse in hopes of winning in 2012, and he said "of course they'll wait!" And they will...anyone wanna take bets?

To answer where the money's coming from, what I heard was from closing of some tax loopholes...which of course the Republicans would rather DIE than do. Some of it I like, some I don't, but I never kidded myself that it had a chance anyway.

It was doomed to failure before he even announced it, surely we all knew that. Even if the sensible Republicans saw hope for some kind of compromise, the Tea Party won't let them!


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off



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Monday, September 12, 2011 7:34 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...


Quote:

Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

That said, this is a ridiculous plan, vague and untrustworthy, and since it comes with no military spending cutbacks I'll not support it - in fact I refuse to support any bill or program till those happen, period.



Amen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States





"Interest on debt incurred in past wars" are you kidding?

Timely too what with 9/11 - we can recall what some of that spending bought us.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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Monday, September 12, 2011 8:25 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Absolutely--I've heard nothing about any cuts to military spending, so I imagine there aren't any. I curse them for that, yet for talking endlessly about cutting "entitlements" and programs which would benefit actual PEOPLE. We're so screwed up nowadays we don't seem to know which way we're going anymore, yet nobody will even talk about cutting the military!

Then, too, there's how we were side-swiped by the cost of the wars being kept OUT of the "official" budget by Bush. I wonder, if that had not happened, do you think the people would have allowed it to get to this point? We'll never know.


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off



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Monday, September 12, 2011 3:34 PM

FREMDFIRMA



And don't forget the extra couple trillion for black ops shit we're not allowed to know about, much less even vote on, despite shit like that being DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for two of the wars we are currently up to the neck in...

Democracy my ass - how can people or their reps vote against shit they're not even allowed to know exists ?

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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