President Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner in the background, speaks before both houses of Congress about the jobs bill. (AP Photo)
In one of his most anticipated speeches last night, President Obama implored Congress to urgently pass a larger-than-expected $450 billion plan which would "jolt an economy that has stalled. He urged lawmakers to slash Social Security taxes for tens of millions of Americans and for almost every business to encourage hiring. Obama told Congress to stop the political circus and implored lawmakers to "pass this jobs bill." He made that statement numerous times. He said lawmakers need to pass "this bill" right away to put Americans back to work.
One of the biggest elements to Obama's plan is to increase and extend a cut in the payroll tax from workers which goes into Social Security. The tax cut also would apply employers as well. I know some critics would argue that making a payroll tax cut would mean less revenue going toward social security. The problem with Social Security isn't the lack of revenue that's paid into the program. The problem is the fact that Congress takes the money that's supposed to be earmarked for Social Security and use it for other programs. They repeatedly dip their hands into the Social Security fund, which is a crime as far as I'm concerned. The president's plan would also spend $25 billion on school infrastructure to modernize at least 35,000 public schools, including money being spent on computer labs and emergency repairs. Also, some of that money would be used to help prevent layoffs of 280,000 teachers and support the hiring of thousands more.
The "jobs" plan that President Obama urges Congress to pass isn't going to spur the recovery of the private sector. President Obama and the Democrats' idea of creating jobs is spending taxpayer dollars to create new government jobs. They want to take the taxpayer's money and redistribute it in other areas. The economy won't recover unless the private sector industry recovers. It will take more than providing tax breaks for small businesses, which I'm in favor of. The problem is with the onerous regulations placed upon businesses which make them financially difficult to operate. The problem with many business owners is they're concerned about what President Obama's going to do to the economy. It's not an issue of not having money, it's just they don't know how much money they're going to have to spend on Obamacare and in complying with stifling regulations handed down by the government. The federal government also has allowed the EPA to impose stifling environmental rules which makes it difficult for businesses to compete. I'm not insinuating that we should pollute the environment, but we can find ways to keep the environment safe without destroying jobs.
One other thing the federal government can do is to renege on these free trade agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA which have caused an unfair trading balance between the United States, Mexico, and other countries. The most important thing our federal government can do is to allow the private sector to have free rein in growing the economy. I do believe the government has a role in business when it comes to breaking up monopolies or restraining unbridled capitalism. I believe there's a need for limited regulation in regards to fraud and abuse, for example, but otherwise the government needs to leave the private sector alone. The old Keynesian model of spending government money to revive the private sector isn't the answer. The answer is for the free market to control the factors of production and allow the free market system to run the economy. It's not the government's place to run the economy, which is something the Obama administration is trying to do. The Obama administration is all about destroying capitalism in America and raising socialism in its place.
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