Obama's Call to Pass This (Jobs) Bill Now

In last night's speech on jobs, Obama repeatedly demanded: "Pass this bill now!" The only problem is that no such bill exists for the "now" to even happen. When you think about it, Obama's original Stimulus bill was 1096 pages in length. Therefore, it's only logical that this new jobs bill (a mini-me of the original stimulus) should be about 548 pages. So, I ask this question: "Has anyone seen a 548-page jobs bill laying around so Congress can pass it NOW?" I don't think so.

In typical Obama fashion, the "Pass this Bill Now" statement is just one more attempt at political grandstanding without any substance to support it. Let's face it, yesterday's entire speech was just another campaign speech. Tactically, he wants to run around the country and claim that he put forth a jobs plan but the GOP of Congress are holding it up by not passing the bill NOW. It might have been more useful to have worked across the aisle to cobble something together that would be acceptable to both Democrats and Republican. But, Obama, the dictator, prefers ramming things down people's throats and then playing political gotcha games when things don't go exactly his way.

Lastly, the "Pass this bill now" hardly jives with the fact that he sat on this thing for weeks while he was holed-up on an all expense paid trip to Martha's Vineyard. Once again, this President is a complete hypocrite!

The Hidden Agenda Of The Democrats

Deep within the multi-thousand pages of the Stimulus, Heath Care, and Financial Reform bills is language which creates new agencies, reporting to the Executive Branch, which can, at their discretion, impose new regulation, penalties, and taxes that don't require Congress' approval. In addition, the powers of existing agencies like the IRS, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Treasury Department have been greatly expanded; thus, again, bypassing any legislative approval by Congress in the enforcement of almost every activity in American life and not just those related to health care, banking, and finance.

What the Democrats have done is to establish a framework for the Obama Administration to act independently of Congress in the implementation of a highly liberal and progressive agenda. And, it is my belief that the Democratic leadership of this Congress did this because they knew that their radical legislative activities over the last year and a half might cost them their control of Congress in the Fall elections. So, in doing so, they have handed Obama unprecedented powers to "fundamentally change" America; even if the Republicans gain control of Congress for the remainder of Obama's first term in office. Just mark my words. It's the plan!

Mass Layoffs Are On The Rise

In a January 9th posting I wrote:

"Having spent years in the business arena, I know that January through March are important months. It is a time when companies assess their business activity over the last 12 months and make decisions on their operations going forward. If they had a good year, they probably won't make any cuts in either operations or people. However, I believe many will have seen the last year as a negative and will, then, decide to make changes that could result in more lost jobs for the months of February, March, and April."

According to a news story by Reuters, the Labor Department is reporting that mass layoffs (50 or more employees being let go at the same time from any single company) rose to 1,761 layoff incidents in January (Click to See Full Story: US Jan mass layoffs edge up on weak manufacturing). This was the first time this had happened since August of last year.

While the Reuters article speculates that the economy is on the "brink of creating jobs", I think we've got a while before that happens. As predicted in my January 9th blog, I think we will continue to see a rise in corporate layoffs. More than that, though, government layoffs are also on the rise. Just today, it was announced that the New York City Transit System and the San Francisco Schools System will shed 1,000 employees each and the State of Georgia is in the process of reviewing potential layoffs to shore up its budget woes. In the corporate arena, today, Pratt & Whitney announced 163 layoffs at two Connecticut plants. Last Sunday, Boeing announced 1,020 new jobs losses. Even ABC News plans 300 layoffs. Additionally, this year, layoffs, totaling, in the thousands were announced at Ford, Viacom, UPS, Fedex, and a variety of other companies.

It also seems like every school system in America has announced some amount of expense cutting layoffs at the end of this school year. Just Google the word "layoff" and you'll see them all. This fact, alone, just shows that the billions of dollars that were spent in Stimulus Money was just a delaying tactic and that many of those questionable teacher, police and fire "saved" jobs might be in jeopardy again; this time for real. I personally think that the unemployment rate may hit 11 percent or higher this year.

A Word About Taxes

Before the word tax became associated with government economics, it was a word that had the following synonyms:

charge, cumber, drain, encumber, enervate, exhaust, lade, load, make demands on, oppress, overburden, overtax, overuse, overwork, press hard on, pressure, prey on, push, put pressure on, saddle, sap, strain, stress, stretch, task, tire, try, weaken, wear out, weary, weigh, weigh down, weigh heavily on, weight

When I hear politicians say that taxes won't cripple business, I can only think that they don't understand the origins of that word. Taxes are what the word implies. They are a burden and they do cripple the economy.

In the upcoming year, the Bush tax cuts are due to expire. With the current stimulus plan working so poorly, an immediate extension of those tax cuts by this Congress would go a long way in sending a signal to business that they can expand and hire people without worrying about the added burden of increased taxes for next year.

At the same time, while Congress is toying with the possibility of a second stimulus, this economy could get a big kick start if they would consider tax cuts for the average citizen; rather than another boondoggle expense package that solely gives union workers some extra part time work in filling pot holes and building running tracks.

One Who Lives In The Cuckoo's Nest

Today was quite the day for economic data:

• Just last week, 570,000 workers lost their jobs and those remaining on unemployment comp grew by 92,000.
  
• Retail sales were down an overall 2.1 percent despite back-to-school spending.
  
• It was announced that food stamps are now being used by more than 35 million people
• Also announced was the fact that 1.3 million unemployed will lose their benefits by the end of the year.

Yet, despite all that, Joe Biden had the gall to state that the stimulus bill is doing more than they hoped (Click to See Full Story: "Biden: Stimulus doing more 'than we had hoped'"). He points to the fact that 500,000 to 750,000 jobs have been "saved" or "created" by the stimulus in the last 20 weeks; or about 25,000 jobs a week. Putting aside the fact that this is truly an unprovable and unquantifiable set of numbers, this guy has apparently strayed a little too far into the cuckoo's nest with that nonsensical comment.

He seems to overlook the fact that Americans have been losing their jobs, on a weekly basis, at a clip that is greater than all the jobs he seems to think were being saved or created by the stimulus plan. To say that the stimulus is more "than we hoped" is just as dopey. We are well past the 8% unemployment rate that Obama promised would be the unemployment ceiling when the stimulus bill was being rammed through Congress. Many economists now feel like we are beginning another downward fall in what could easily be a double-dip or "W-type" recession.

I don't know if Joe is off his meds or if he just woke up from some kind of "midsummer's night dream"; but, he must think that Americans are totally unaware of the real facts about the state of this economy. Maybe he was somewhat confused. Maybe he was referring to the 10-year budget deficit as being "more than we had hoped" which is now project to be $9 trillion after this President's economic team had originally said -- just 5 months ago -- that it would "only" be $7.4 trillion. Is that it, Joe!