Obama's latest "jobs plan"

In his weekly radio address, president Obama today called for action by Congress to get things done by putting "country ahead of party". So we got another attack on the Republicans coupled with some interesting suggestions.

Obama now says that he wants Congress to pass a cut to the payroll tax. Let's be clear what this is. Last December, Obama reluctantly agreed to a GOP idea to stimulate the economy by cutting by 2% the payroll taxes deducted from American paychecks. That cut expires in December and Obama is now calling for it to be extended into 2012. There is no announced Republican opposition to this move, but there will need to be a way found to pay for the reduction in tax revenues. In fact, the most likely outcome is that this reduction will get rolled into the report by the special committee set up as part of the debt reduction bill.

Obama also says that he wants to get the free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and others passed. It is ridiculous that he is now blaming Congress for the delay. The agreements were negotiated by the Bush Administration and then held up from passing the Senate due to Democrats who followed their union supporters in fighting any further free trade agreements. When Obama took office, he decided to withdraw the agreements and try to make changes to them. Although nothing but cosmetic changes were made, Obama finally resubmitted the agreements back to Congress for action. Now, after delaying the passage by over two years, he is griping about the failure to get them passed. One does wonder, of course, why the Democrats who control the Senate have not acted.

Anther Obama suggestion is a plan to help returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan find jobs. That may be a good idea, but it will not create jobs. It will only change who gets the few jobs out there.

Finally, Obama is now pushing for a road construction bill. He first suggested this last week. LAST WEEK! And yet there he is on national radio blaming congress for inaction. Congress has not even been in session since Obama first came out for the roads bill and he well knows that. What a hypocrite. The truth is that there are two competing road bills in Congress. One, in the Senate, is a short term appropriation that will add 12 billion dollars in extra spending. The senate is now trying to find somewhere else to cut spending to offset that 12 billion increase. The second bill is a long term appropriation pending in the House that would use all the highway taxes but not increase spending. This bill, however, would provide more order in the process since there would be no question about the funding being in place for most projects. By the end of September, there will likely be a compromise on the entire issue with a bill passed.

I have to wonder if Obama really thinks he can get away with just lying to the American people.