President Obama's Job Creation Initiative Framework Speeches

[Gaspar]

Awesome speech!  Probably the second best of his career (Healthcare speech was the best).  Emotional, engaging, and there was a lot of common ground issues that Republicans can work with.

$447 in new spending, he says "is 100% paid for."  I was thrilled about that, but kept asking HOW?  Finally at the end of the speech he mentioned that the new spending was going to be added to the $1.5 trillion in spending that the new Deficit Reduction Panel is responsible for finding cuts for.  pancakes?  So, is he now using the new Deficit Reduction panel as his new blank check?  That part is not going to fly.

Cutting payroll taxes by 50% is fantastic, but he may face opposition from his own party on this because once you do it, it's hard to reverse.  He also mentioned larger incentives to hire unemployed workers, as he has before.  This didn't work the first time because it was too small to offset the additional costs.  Now he has introduced it again, but in almost the same breath promised increases in taxes on the same business owners.  So that's ineffective.


I think there were several bullet points that Republicans can include in their plan, but we won't know until the president presents the list in 10 days or so.  As we may recall, his healthcare bill outline speech preceded a 2,000 page bill that we learned had little resemblance to what he outlined.  I am hopeful that there won't be as much bait and switch in this one.

1. Tax Cuts to Help America's Small Businesses Hire and Grow
•   Cutting the payroll tax in half for 98 percent of businesses: The President's plan will cut in half the taxes paid by businesses on their first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms that have payroll below this threshold.
•   A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages: The President's plan will completely eliminate payroll taxes for firms that increase their payroll by adding new workers or increasing the wages of their current worker (the benefit is capped at the first $50 million in payroll increases).
•   Extending 100% expensing into 2012: This continues an effective incentive for new investment.
•   Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital.

2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
•   A "Returning Heroes" hiring tax credit for veterans: This provides tax credits from $5,600 to $9,600 to encourage the hiring of unemployed veterans.
•   Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs, while keeping cops and firefighters on the job.
•   Modernizing at least 35,000 public schools across the country, supporting new science labs, Internet-ready classrooms and renovations at schools across the country, in rural and urban areas.
•   Immediate investments in infrastructure and a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank, modernizing our roads, rail, airports and waterways while putting hundreds of thousands of workers back on the job.
•   A New "Project Rebuild", which will put people to work rehabilitating homes, businesses and communities, leveraging private capital and scaling land banks and other public-private collaborations.
•   Expanding access to high-speed wireless as part of a plan for freeing up the nation's spectrum.

3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs.
•   The most innovative reform to the unemployment insurance program in 40 years: As part of an extension of unemployment insurance to prevent 5 million Americans looking for work from losing their benefits, the President's plan includes innovative work-based reforms to prevent layoffs and give states greater flexibility
to use UI funds to best support job-seekers, including:
o Work-Sharing: UI for workers whose employers choose work-sharing over layoffs.
o A new "Bridge to Work" program: The plan builds on and improves innovative state programs
where those displaced take temporary, voluntary work or pursue on-the-job training.
o Innovative entrepreneurship and wage insurance programs: States will also be empowered to implement wage insurance to help reemploy older workers and programs that make it easier for unemployed workers to start their own businesses.
•   A $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring long-term unemployed workers.
•   Prohibiting employers from discriminating against unemployed workers when hiring.
•   Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults through a fund for successful approaches for subsidized employment, innovative training programs and summer/year-round jobs for youth.

4. Tax Relief for 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 year to cut workers payroll taxes in half in 2012 – providing a $1,500 tax cut to the typical American family, without negatively impacting the Social Security Trust Fund.
•   Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages at today's near 4 percent interest rates, which can put more than $2,000 a year in a family's pocket.



5.  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. So, it's not paid for at all, it's simply lumped onto the debt.

I think his delivery was awesome. I think Republicans heard a lot of things they can agree with him on.  I think we will get a bill passed quickly that will include payroll tax deductions, and incentives for businesses to hire.  I think we will get some spending but it will be paid for by additional spending cuts included in the actual bill, not just written up a additional deficit spending.

I also think the plan that comes out of congress will include actual reductions in regulation related to the energy sector and business growth incentives in the form of tax relief.  I can only be hopeful that this will include a simplification of the current tax tables as the president mentioned.  We still flitter around $4 a gallon for fuel, and much of that is artificial in the form of taxes, and regulatory expenses.  For every 10 cents that you decrease the cost of gasoline, you add $17-$20 billion into the economy.  If we can just lower the cost of gas by $2.50 we can add $425 billion into the economy.  That would have a far more dramatic effect on economic growth.

Overall, I am pleased with his speech.  I think he has come to learn many of the realities of economics and grown as a president.  Lets hope the list he presents to Congress resembles this speech, and hope that he delivers it in plenty of time for everyone to read before they have to pass it.

[Gaspar]

I want to create new jobs rather than expand the now existing corporate domination and their oligarchy...

You're starting to sound like Palen now.  From today's New York Times:


She made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a "permanent political class," drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called "corporate crony capitalism." Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private).

In supporting her first point, about the permanent political class, she attacked both parties' tendency to talk of spending cuts while spending more and more; to stoke public anxiety about a credit downgrade, but take a vacation anyway; to arrive in Washington of modest means and then somehow ride the gravy train to fabulous wealth. She observed that 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the United States happen to be suburbs of the nation's capital.

Her second point, about money in politics, helped to explain the first. The permanent class stays in power because it positions itself between two deep troughs: the money spent by the government and the money spent by big companies to secure decisions from government that help them make more money.

"Do you want to know why nothing ever really gets done?" she said, referring to politicians. "It's because there's nothing in it for them. They've got a lot of mouths to feed — a lot of corporate lobbyists and a lot of special interests that are counting on them to keep the good times and the money rolling along."

Because her party has agitated for the wholesale deregulation of money in politics and the unshackling of lobbyists, these will be heard in some quarters as sacrilegious words.

Ms. Palin's third point was more striking still: in contrast to the sweeping paeans to capitalism and the free market delivered by the Republican presidential candidates whose ranks she has yet to join, she sought to make a distinction between good capitalists and bad ones. The good ones, in her telling, are those small businesses that take risks and sink and swim in the churning market; the bad ones are well-connected megacorporations that live off bailouts, dodge taxes and profit terrifically while creating no jobs.

"This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk," she said of the crony variety. She added: "It's the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest — to the little guys. It's a slap in the face to our small business owners — the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70 percent of the jobs in America."

[Cats Cats Cats]

You're starting to sound like Palen now.  From today's New York Times:


The good ones, in her telling, are those small businesses that take risks and sink and swim in the churning market; the bad ones are well-connected megacorporations that live off bailouts, dodge taxes and profit terrifically while creating no jobs.

"This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk," she said of the crony variety. She added: "It's the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest — to the little guys. It's a slap in the face to our small business owners — the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70 percent of the jobs in America."

Umm, hate to break this to you but in Capitalism her "bad" capitalists are actually the really good capitalists.  I think this socialistic view of capitalism isn't going to get her any votes.  However, her "good capitalists" does follow the Republican misconception that because somebody makes more money it means they hire more people.  What is the government going to do?  Force companies to hire?

[Gaspar]

Umm, hate to break this to you but in Capitalism her "bad" capitalists are actually the really good capitalists.  I think this socialistic view of capitalism isn't going to get her any votes.  However, her "good capitalists" does follow the Republican misconception that because somebody makes more money it means they hire more people.  What is the government going to do?  Force companies to hire?

Yeah, crazy huh?

[Cats Cats Cats]

Yeah, crazy huh?

I know!  Buying the government and making the most amount of money by whatever means necessary is what capitalism is all about.  People who complain about companies that figure its cheaper to let people die than to fix a problem.  That is what capitalism is!

[Gaspar]

I know!  Buying the government and making the most amount of money by whatever means necessary is what capitalism is all about.  People who complain about companies that figure its cheaper to let people die than to fix a problem.  That is what capitalism is!

Sounds like you really hate capitalism.  Must be hard to live here.

[Cats Cats Cats]

Sounds like you really hate capitalism.  Must be hard to live here.

Huh?  In my side business I have people ask me to lower my price so their children can have the gift they want (yeah right).

Real e-mails (people like to grumble that you are charging double MSRP even though they aren't going and haven't purchased it)

Her:  "I bought the ring for 19.99 in the store.  You are gouging people and it's ridiculous.  It's also available at Borders for 24.99 and Hastings for 19.99.  Your price makes no sense at all.  "

Me:  "Thank you for the extra sources"

Later she hit me with "With businessmen like you,  no wonder our economy is the way it is."

I dare say I am a better capitalist than you.

[we vs us]

If that's truly Palin talking (cite please?) she's come a long, weird way.  A lot of that critique is standard lefty boilerplate.  I wonder if she knows that . . .?

[Cats Cats Cats]

If that's truly Palin talking (cite please?) she's come a long, weird way.  A lot of that critique is standard lefty boilerplate.  I wonder if she knows that . . .?

She might have said Good Capitalist Good Bad Capitalist BAAAAD!  Which is "she differentiated between good and bad capitalism, in that those that hire and those that buy policy".

[Gaspar]

If that's truly Palin talking (cite please?) she's come a long, weird way.  A lot of that critique is standard lefty boilerplate.  I wonder if she knows that . . .?

The amazing part is that it's in the NEW YORK TIMES, the very paper that has spent millions trying to destroy her.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/us/10iht-currents10.html?_r=4&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1315569719-RpR5AuX40tZqZl8xOiUg7g

[Gaspar]

Huh?  In my side business I have people ask me to lower my price so their children can have the gift they want (yeah right).

Real e-mails (people like to grumble that you are charging double MSRP even though they aren't going and haven't purchased it)

Her:  "I bought the ring for 19.99 in the store.  You are gouging people and it's ridiculous.  It's also available at Borders for 24.99 and Hastings for 19.99.  Your price makes no sense at all.  "

Me:  "Thank you for the extra sources"

Later she hit me with "With businessmen like you,  no wonder our economy is the way it is."

I dare say I am a better capitalist than you.

It just sounded like you were being very critical of capitalism as a whole in your posts above.  Capitalism delivers a higher standard of living than any other economic system.  I must have misunderstood you, if so, I apologize.

[Cats Cats Cats]

It just sounded like you were being very critical of capitalism as a whole in your posts above.  Capitalism delivers a higher standard of living than any other economic system.  I must have misunderstood you, if so, I apologize.

It is what it is..  Its definitely not some form of morality as some try to assign to it.  That somehow it "looks out" for anybody.  Its all about making money.  That is it.  I believe back in the earlier days companies had some loyalty to employees as necessary to the growth of a company.  Now employees are a necessary liablity that hopefully some day can be discarded completely.  I just think the previous method is better for everybody.  We move more and more away from it as time goes on.  I mean the end game of capitalism is 1 company that owns everything.

[Cats Cats Cats]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2011%2F09%2F10%2Fus%2F10iht-currents10.html&ei=KyBqToyyLovEsQKio4S_Bg&usg=AFQjCNF3xwBoqY2t5UZZla_RSk60grrlqg

is this the article?  I hate pay walls, if you search NYT through google and find it you dn't have to sign in (not sure if the link will work)

[we vs us]

Notice he says that she meant ______.  She might have said Good Capitalist Good Bad Capitalist BAAAAD!  Which is "she differentiated between good and bad capitalism, in that those that hire and those that buy policy".

Kind of on the side . . . I always think it's weird that we try to make those good/bad distinctions about participants in the economic system.   Capitalism is amoral -- the only real judgement of any sort within the system is whether an entity is profitable or not.  Within that framework, the megacorps in question have succeeded to the highest order.  By capturing politicians and regulators, forcing loopholes into the tax structure, litigating regulation into oblivion, and setting up financial-corporate feedback loops . . . these  are simply companies using market leverage to remain successful.  Why are people surprised by this?  Why is SARAH PALIN surprised by this?

EDIT:  Essentially what Sheen said.

[Cats Cats Cats]

Kind of on the side . . . I always think it's weird that we try to make those good/bad distinctions about participants in the economic system.   Capitalism is amoral -- the only real judgement of any sort within the system is whether an entity is profitable or not.  Within that framework, the megacorps in question have succeeded to the highest order.  By capturing politicians and regulators, forcing loopholes into the tax structure, litigating regulation into oblivion, and setting up financial-corporate feedback loops . . . these  are simply companies using market leverage to remain successful.  Why are people surprised by this?  Why is SARAH PALIN surprised by this?

Now I see he quoted the article directly.  I thought she wrote and opinion piece specifically and he paraphrased but those weren't his words.