American Jobs Act speculation (unemployment, illegal, poll, holidays)

[Nepenthe]

Here is a collection of the various ideas I've been hearing and reading about might be contained within the American Jobs Act. Some of these seem as if they might be promising. This is kind of the 'checklist' I'll use as I watch the speech tonight. The dollar amounts are the media guesses I've seen for a few of the programs (in $billions). Some of these ideas are more fleshed out than others.

Interested in opinions from all sides on the overall and the individual ideas. Interested in a "before and after" speech view of these. We'll have to hear the speech and then see the numbers before we can make a real determination, but I don't think it's a bad idea to look at the broad concepts ahead of time.

Also wondering about the procedure here -- would these be ten different bills or one mega bill, or split it into a few smaller pieces of legislation? Comments?
-------------------------------------------

• Infrastructure Development (stimulus) -- $100
• Infrastructure Bank -- $10
• Mortgage Relief Program
• Unemployment (current 99 week benefit continued) -- $50
• Payroll tax cut 2% extended into 2012 for employees -- $120
• School refurbishing program -- $30
• Payroll tax cut 2% implemented for 2012 for employers (possibly only for hiring unemployed workers)
• Tax credit for new hires (possibly only for hiring war vets and/or unemployed workers)
• Job internship program (modeled after the Georgia program)
• Patent reform
• Build America Bonds (federal government subsidizes interest on taxable muni bonds)
• Repatriation tax holiday for foreign invested corporate assets
• Free trade agreements with Korea, Panama, Columbia
• State aid to prevent or reduce further teacher layoffs

-------------------------------------------
To pay for it (pretty vague at this point):

• Higher taxes for top earners, closing of “loopholes”
• Other cuts elsewhere
• Deficit spending

-------------------------------------------
Ideas not being discussed or those Republicans might favor:

• Reducing collective bargaining powers for public unions
• Addressing the NLRB issue (Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act)
• Reducing or eliminating Obamacare restrictions
• Reducing or eliminating EPA regulations including farm dust
• Reducing restrictions on energy mining and pipelining
• Cut corporate tax rates

-------------------------------------------
Tertiary items:

• Pullback on new ozone standards / EPA
• QE3 lite/twist

-------------------------------------------

[Nepenthe]

Here are my concerns:

--Which of these proposals will make it into the speech, and which have any chance of passing the House (that's why I'm interested in how the legislation will be split up)?

--Do we get too dependent on 'tax holidays' such that when they fall off they're seen as 'tax hikes'? I get about $142/month extra because of the SS cut from 6.2% to 4.2%, but I've basically just absorbed that into my budget (Excel) and added it to my savings. Also, familiarity with that tax cut seems extremely low among the people I've talked to.

--What is the substance of these FTAs? Will they hurt our trade balance even more? Do they depend on a weakening dollar for their efficacy?

--Isn't aid to prevent teacher layoffs a bit too late? I know where I live the damage has already been done at this point.

--I haven't heard much about the mortgage relief program, is it just refinancing assistance or something more sweeping (like markdowns)?

--I like the job internship program idea, but what incentive is there for a company to accept it and what is the cost?

--How much are the things that WON'T be in the speech / proposal (regulations) going to still keep job growth stagnant?

[INTN]

I'm curious too of seeing ideas besides tax cuts and repeat stimulous.

I think if he comes out and says he will scrap Obamacare that would be a big plus. Many employers claim the reason they are not hiring is due to the unknown and costs with this one.

Along lines of the unknown do all he can to eliminate these, have a regulation holiday or something and make a real plan and stick to it. Right now most people just would like to have more certainty.

Things I'd personally like but others might not is that he say let's get back to America and buy American and to that end we'll do all we can to make American products and services attractive on price if that means tariffs, scraping trade deals, giving grants to build factories in America or having grants for American R&D, cutting visas and illegals, etc...

It almost seems as if the "recession/depression" whatever this is, is psychological as well. I wasn't alive when American was in the flight to space, but it seems like people were united around a common goal that inspired them.

[justus978]

...well, just wait a few hours and we'll all find out...

[HappyTexan]

Sounds very much like stimulus II.
Most money going into pockets of friends and well connected.
No real infrastructure work done (studies take years)
school budget gaps closed yet again for another year.

[Nepenthe]

Here we go...

[BirchBarlow]

Seriously how many times tonight will Obama complain about how the richest American's don't pay enough taxes? How many times will he blame everything that's wrong with the world on the fact that he doesn't think rich people pay enough in taxes and that they're greedy and selfish for not wanting to part with more of their property? Any takers?

[Bulldogdad]

Originally Posted by BirchBarlow

Seriously how many times tonight will Obama complain about how the richest American's don't pay enough taxes? How many times will he blame everything that's wrong with the world on the fact that he doesn't think rich people pay enough in taxes and that they're greedy and selfish for not wanting to part with more of their property? Any takers?

Sounds like a drinking game to me. LOL

Or a betting pool.

[Memphis1979]

Most Americans Say Tax The Rich To Balance The Budget: Poll

Sixty-one percent of Americans polled would rather see taxes for the wealthy increased as a first step to tackling the deficit, the poll showed.

Poll After Poll Shows: Americans Want Higher Taxes For Rich, Preservation of Social Safety Net | AlterNet




Who would fault the President for doing what Americans want him to do?

[summers73]

If I could steal from someone legally, I'd do it.