After yesterday's report detailing a rise in unemployment, president Obama announced that the reason for the rise was the refusal of Republicans to pass his jobs plan. There could be no better reason to vote this man out of office. He has no jobs plan and there has been no vote on it. Let's look at this in detail.
Obama has stated in speeches that he has a three part plan for the economy. First, and by far most important, Obama wants to raise taxes on those making over 200,000 dollars per year. Everyone agrees that this tax increase will not create jobs; it will reduce job growth. Indeed, in 2010, an overwhelmingly Democrat House and Senate voted to keep the current rates in effect and not to raise them. Obama signed the bill and announced that it was a bad economic move to raise taxes when the economy is shaky. Of course, at that time, the economy was growing much more quickly than it is now. In other words, if the economy was shaky in 2010, it is now almost comatose. Raising taxes on anyone will not promote job growth, it will stunt it. President Obama well knows this and said exactly that in 2010. So, he should cut the crap about raising taxes as being part of a "jobs plan".
Second, Obama wants to promote education in order to get a more talented work force. Again, this is no remedy for the current dearth of jobs. While education is important in the long run, like over the next decade, there are plenty of talented and trained people who are already out of work. These people do not need others with their skills to enter the market; they need jobs now. Adding more skilled workers in five or ten years will do nothing to create jobs now. Again, this is not part of a "jobs plan". Moreover, there have been no votes on education bills that have been blocked by the GOP. Obama is just lying on that point.
Third, Obama wants to increase spending on infrastructure projects. In other words, Obama wants a mini "son-of-stimulus" bill that will allow construction workers to gain employment. There are some major problems here, however. Obama talks in general about these projects, but he never tells us what they are. In 2009, when the stimulus was passed, we heard a great deal about shovel ready jobs. There turned out, however, to be very few such jobs. Instead, most of the funds were used for regular maintenance work that towns, cities and states would have done anyway. No jobs were created, but the money got spent anyway. If Obama were actually leading rather than campaigning, he would tell us what he wants built. His administration would gather up major projects and offer these to Congress for approval. For example, when Franklin Roosevelt wanted similar public works projects used to create jobs during the Depression, he proposed specific projects. The dams of the TVA were built this way. Thousands of new post offices were built that way. Many other large projects were built that way. When Eisenhower wanted to create a nationwide highway system, he proposed the interstate system. He did not just tell Congress to vote for shovel ready highways; he got the project together an presented it as a whole to Congress.
There have been no votes in Congress for additional public works spending. The subject has not been raised even in the Senate where the Democrats control everything. Obama is just spewing BS like usual.
Simply put, Obama's excuse is a blatant lie on many levels.
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