The American Jobs Act (Obama Jobs Bill) Should be Passed

It is of my opinion that the American Jobs Act should not be past. This Keynesian economic approach has been tried before and failed numerous times. FDR tried to tax-and-spend his way out of a recession and we had nearly a decade of 20% unemployment. While our current economic situation isn't as bleak, it would still do no help to pass the American Jobs Act. I will critique each element of the act and explain why I am opposed to it. 1. Cutting and suspending $245 billion worth of payroll taxes for qualifying employers and 160 million medium to low income employees. While cutting taxes to stimulate economic growth is not a bad strategy, you can get a lot more bang for your buck in other places, particularly by eliminating the corporate income tax. That would only cost $191 billion and would have a tremendous impact on economic growth, particularly if we make it permanent. Businesses would flock to the United States because of our low taxes. 2. Spending $62 billion for a Pathways Back to Work Program for expanding opportunities for low-income youth and adults. Spending billions on a program such as Pathways Back to Work is inefficient. The best way to expand opportunities for low-income youth is to expand charter schools so they have an opportunity to escape their failing public school. An expensive jobs-training program has too much potential for abuse. 3. Spending $50 billion on both new & pre-existing infrastructure projects. There is no such thing as a shovel-ready job. It may take years for a project to be approved given our current litigation system. A deficit-neutral way to create jobs would be to streamline regulations and make it easier for construction projects to be approved. 4. Spending $49 billion on extending unemployment benefits for up to 6 million long-term beneficiaries. Unemployment benefits should not be extended. They do more harm than good because they encourage laziness. Many people have been on unemployment for 2 years. They receive money for doing nothing and that is not just a waste of money but violates the dignity of that person. Unemployment would go down if we cap the time period for unemployment benefits at 1 year or less. People would then be more motivated to find a job. 5. Spending $35 billion in additional funding to protect the jobs of teachers, police officers, and firefighters This is just code for protecting labor unions. Teachers, police officers, and firefighters have an important purpose, but they are government employees. Having too many government employees is bad for the private economy because it crowds out private investment. 6. Spending $30 billion to modernizing at least 35,000 public schools and community colleges. This would provide little economic stimulus because this modernization would take place next summer. My plan of lowering taxes would create jobs now. Another idea is repatriation of profits: allow all companies to take money back to America tax free. This would inject billions into the economy. 7. Spending $15 billion on a program that would hire construction workers to help rehabilitate and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes and businesses. The best way to spur construction jobs is through eliminating the corporate tax. This would help a lot more than another stimulus. 8. Creating the National Infrastructure Bank (capitalized with $10 billion), originally proposed in 2007, to help fund infrastructure via private and public capital. Similar, streamlining regulations is a better idea than spending more taxpayer money on projects that may take years to be reauthorized. 9. Creating a nationwide, interoperable wireless network for public safety, while expanding accessibility to high-speed wireless services. I do not oppose this part of the bill. 10. Creating additional regulations on businesses who discriminate against hiring those who are long-term unemployed. While this has good intentions, more regulations mean less jobs. Businesses spend over a trillion dollars on regulatory compliance. That money could be used to add 43 million workers. Finally, to pay for this plan, Obama puts a huge surtax on millionaires and tax and fee increases. Taking money out of the private economy is never good during a recession, even according to Keynesian economic theory. My plan stimulates economic growth by allowing businesses to keep more money to create jobs, streamlining regulations, and restoring economic freedom.