Originally posted by no1marauder
Only 39,000 jobs added in the whole country in November. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40489052/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/?Gt1=43001
Enough already. It's reached the point where wasting time talking about how much or whether to cut the rich's taxes and what measures are needed to cut the deficit is a luxury we can't afford. The Obama ...[text shortened]... , so be it; let it be on their heads.
BUT DO SOMETHING, MR. PRESIDENT.
It’s probably already been referenced somewhere on here, but the 2010 CBO report predicts that that most stimulative bang for the buck is actually “increasing aid to the unemployed”. [http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10803/01-14-Employment.pdf; page 26] The refusal to extend unemployment benefits is likely to have a depressive effect on the economy, including, I would think, business investment.
The items that come closest to your suggestions were: (1) spending on infrastructure (0.50 – 1.50 per dollar cumulative effect on 2010-2015 GDP); (2) reducing payroll taxes for firms that increase their payroll (0.40 – 1.30 cumulative effect; as opposed to 0.30 – 0.90 for a willy-nilly payroll tax deduction); and (3) expensing of business investment costs (0.20 – 1.00). Estimates of employment effects are also given. [NOTE: I know that you also support extending the UE benefits.]
It’s interesting to me the view of economic incentives that would seem to back proposals to make the unemployed work to earn their benefits—instead of, for example, providing infrastructure jobs that would pay more than their unemployment benefits. Some people seem to forget that the unemployed
were employed—and, as you note, earning more than their unemployment benefits. The CBO report points out, for example, that 4.1 million people were hired for jobs in the 3rd quarter 2009, but 4.3 million lost their jobs—while, at the same time, “the number of people
quitting their jobs
declined dramatically”. The notion that significant numbers of the unemployed are slackers that refuse to work is unfounded.
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BTW, The President is doing something: he's still searching for that mythical Isle of the Blest called "common ground".