Adios to A Jobs Bill Only a Politican Could Love

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

This was too much, even for Harry Reid.

The Senate Majority Leader this afternoon scrapped a "jobs" proposal that Charles Grassley and Max Baucus had proposed only hours earlier. (The Hill reports that Reid intends to narrow the bill's focus in a rewrite.)

Probably the smart move. Baucus and Grassley earlier in the day unveiled a "jobs bill" that would have rewarded employers in the form of modest payroll tax exemptions as well as income tax credits for new hires.(It was entirely circumstance but Grassley and Baucus announced their draft $85 billion bill on the same day that another poll showed voters strongly in favor of the president's slightly more generous package of tax cuts for small business and government spending to boost employment.) The White House's official reaction was welcoming - bringing on early signs of agita with some on the left. But you had to wonder whether the president's advisors were willing to trust Baucus and Grassley again.

That's because this duo couldn't sell health care, even in its most watered-down incarnation. Would they have had any easier of a time selling this one? Few experts believed the proposal would have done much to put many people back to work. Take Bill Rys, the tax counsel for the National Federation of Independent Business.

He told the Associated Press that while "there's certainly nothing wrong with giving a tax break to a business that's hired a new worker, especially in these tough times...in terms of being an incentive to hire a lot of workers, we're skeptical." That was a kind putdown. Hugh Hewitt, who is far to Grassley's right, dismissed the announcement as an "an absurd bit of political theater". Hewitt went slightly overboard as the bill wasn't a total bust. It turns out the 361-page proposal would have helped Grassley's Iowa constituents quite nicely with a provision for extending biodiesel and renewable diesel credits (See Section 502.) The giveaway got inserted after the Senate allowed a $1-per-gallon tax credit to expire last year and well, when it comes to certain kinds of welfare programs, the farm states take a back seat to nobody (For the record, the National Biodiesel Board claims that "production has pretty much dropped to zero since the tax credit expired.")

Folks who live in places like New York and California might have asked why they're subsidizing programs that can't support themselves, let alone inquire why Uncle Sam should be in the business of picking winners and losers.

[vernongetzler123]

Hat?s off. Well done, as we know that ?hard work always pays off?, after a long struggle with sincere effort it?s done.
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[Freedomforever88]

Lower taxes for everyone and cut spending in every department by 50%. Reduce the federal govt to nothing!

[TVO1CITW]

Business people, NOT Politicians, need to put together a plan. The ONLY thing politicians know how to do is spend 25 times the amount to put 75% less people to work. The cost of government programs for the return on the dollar is no more that 15 cents for every $1 spent. A business would go bankrupt with that approach.

[Freedomforever88]

A govt will also go bankrupt! I think the gov is already bankrupt.

[wmb1957]

Politico
"Pelosi ? along with the rest of the Democrats, indicated that she supported more infrastructure spending, including ?greening? efforts throughout the country."

Politico
Obama wanted a capital gains cut. That was in the previous bill, along with the hiring tax credit. The capital gains is apparently out.


Politico
"Obama made a pitch for a bipartisan jobs bill that would include funding for infrastructure, a cut in capital gains tax and the hiring tax credit, sources said. "

The biodiesel fuel credit was in there as well. There are 44 states that produce biodiesel with 23,000 jobs threatened by it. EPA saysthat biodiesel?s emissions were low enough to qualify it for use under federal biofuels mandates. The finalized RFS2 called for refiners to use 1.15 billion gallons of biodiesel in 2010.

There was unemployment and COBRA subsidy taken out.

I believe that some of these were in there "McConnell called for bipartisan support on four issues that Obama mentioned in his State of the Union address: trade, offshore drilling and expanding nuclear production and clean coal technology."

Some clean coal tax cuts that a West Virginia Democrat has been hoping for that, Sen. Jay Rockefeller


This actually had tax breaks for business and could have helped. Instead apparently the progressive left wanted much the same as the house bill, "green" stuff and national service org (Americorp) wonkroom.thinkprogress.org

[rightbehind]

They need to cut their losses with baucus. Everything he writes would serve the public better as toilet paper.He's done a lot of damage to the democratic party with the legalised extortion health care bill. He's a republicrat.

[SueZeeeQue]

Does anyone really think Republicans will support anything a Democratic President proposes even if it was their idea in the first place?

Check this video out if you want to see the depth of Republican hypocrisy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eyWg_fJPeM

[wmb1957]

This wasn't the Republicans not supporting the President, it was some of the Democrats. The bill had tax breaks for business which the President and some Democrats and Republicans wanted.

Progressive Democrats didn't want it.

[SueZeeeQue]

Does anyone really think Republicans will support anything a Democratic President proposes even if it was their idea in the first place?

Check this video out if you want to see the depth of Republican hypocrisy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eyWg_fJPeM

[TVO1CITW]

It is neither Republicans or Democrates that are particularly hyprcrites. It is the "political science" both apply to everything they do. Both are hypocritical in EVERYTHING they do because they are politicians.