The piece is available here: http://bit.ly/rmD7Nz
For those who haven't followed along with US media, the AJA is a bill proposed by the White House with the goal in mind to lower the US unemployment, which is currently at 9.1%, or at least it was in august, which are the newest numbers available from the US Department of Labor.
- The bill is estimated at an expense of $ 447 billions and is divided between such things as
- Payroll tax cuts
- Funds for preventing the layoff of teachers and first responders
- School construction work
- Building of infrastructure (both public and private)
- Preventing home foreclosures and vacant commercial structures
- Unemployment insurance
- Temporary assistance for needy families
- Summer jobs
- Work training and retraining
All in all sensible projects that go hand in hand with lowering expenses somewhat for companies and getting people to work and putting more purchasing power in the hands of consumers so the economy can be restarted a little as well.
Well, that was the theory of course.
Then a memo went out in the Republican caucus about what was acceptable in this bill, which parts of it they could support.
What they figured they could support was.. $ 11 billions... 1/44 of the bill.
Ok..somewhat disappointing and disturbing, considering the bill really is a good outline for getting the unemployment down and getting money circulating again.
Then we move on to the more disappointing part, which parts of the bill they would support.
- A 100% tax cut on depreciation expenses for businesses
- A tax credit to businesses hiring veterans
- A job training program in the style of "Georgia works"
Almost half is tied up in the first post.
Most surprising of all (though not really) is the fact that the GOP, the ones that are opposed to taxes..are actually opposing the tax cuts that would help the common working man, their official reasoning being forced and nonsensical at best.
And what they are supporting is pretty pointless, at least on it's own.
Why?
Well the tax cut on depreciation expenses would be helpful if businesses were needing to purchase new equipment to contend with increased demand, but there is nothing in what they are agreeing with that will increase demand so it is worthless and in the end only puts a bit more money in the pockets of companies, pockets it is not coming out of again in a hurry.
The tax credit to hiring veterans is a laudable one, if companies were in a position where they were actually hiring people, they aren't. And who will hire someone they don't need to get a tax credit of X when they have to pay salaries of 10X the first year?..No-one.
The Georgia Works programs.. job training programs can be effective, if there is a demand for labor trained in skills which there is currently no supply for. This isn't really the situation today. Also the Georgia Works program which is to be the foundation for this is pretty much a failure even small scale in southern Georgia with the states own Labor Commissioner saying that the program has significant flaws and would not work as a federal initiative. IT basically is a program that no matter what it was supposed to do basically has ended up supplying unpaid interns to businesses for a couple of months, with no incentives for them to actually retain them. (http://bit.ly/pLTB1d)
Well, for a political party that claims to be pro jobs, pro the little guy and all that.. Actions do speak louder than words..empty words as it turns out.
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