Robert Reich States the Obvious

Actually, jobs should have been the FIRST priority, not Wall Street and not the band-aid of HCR. People by the millions are facing complete destitution, yet nothing is being done about it.

And you have the useless United States Senate which will stonewall any more tiers to unemployment benefits, so there will be millions of us who will either wind up homeless or on public assistance.

Reich:

It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s this way because companies and consumers aren’t able or willing to buy nearly enough to get people back to work, and government hasn’t yet filled the shortfall. The stimulus was too small to begin with and its peak level of spending is now over.

In recent weeks, Congress and the Administration have been working on a bunch of proposals called “jobs bills,” but they’re so small relative to the size of the problem they should be called “almost jobs bills.”

One, recently passed, lets employers avoid paying payroll taxes for the rest of the year on each unemployed worker they hire (at a salary under $106,800), who has been out of work for at least 60 days. If the new hire remains at the job for at least 52 weeks, the employer can get a $1,000 tax credit on its 2011 tax return. The Congressional Budget Office estimated a similar payroll tax holiday proposal – not limited to workers who had been jobless for 60 days – would generate about 200,000 new jobs. With the 60-day limit, though, the number of hires is likely to be half that. Remember: The nation needs 11 million jobs just to catch up.

On Wednesday, House Democrats passed several other morsels they called “jobs bills,” whose likely effect on unemployment is even smaller. One would bestow about $3 billion of tax breaks on small businesses. Another would further expand what are known as “Build America Bonds,” designed to help states and cities with new construction projects. The tab here is about $13 billion. It’s a worthwhile effort but given that the states and cities are running up deficits of some $125 billion this year alone and firing everyone in sight – even teachers – it’s smaller than small potatoes. It’s a lima bean.

They're all band-aid solutions. The feds need to CREATE jobs, thus funneling more money into the economy, which creates even more jobs. It's that our politicians, especially in the Senate, don't have the political will to do it. For that matter, neither does Obama.