Thread: URGH!: Senate Approves Tax Breaks for New Hires

Feb 24, 10:50 AM EST

Senate approves tax breaks for new hires

By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate has passed a bill aimed at boosting job growth by giving tax breaks to businesses that hire the unemployed.

The jobs legislation would also extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump $20 billion into them in time for the construction season. Economists say the tax breaks could create perhaps 250,000 jobs.

It's the first of several job-creation measures promised by Democrats, who also want to give cash-strapped states further help with their budgets and give subsidies to people who make their homes more energy efficient.

The measure passed by a bipartisan 70-28 and now goes back to the House, which passed a far more ambitious version in December.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... TE=DEFAULT


This bill contains NO requirement that employers 1) receiving an exemption from payroll taxes for new employees hired in 2010 or 2) a tax credit for those who keep these new employees for 52 weeks (its two major provisions) use E-Verify or any other method to verify that these "new employees" are U.S. citizens or immigrants legally documented to work in the United States! In fact, there are NO requirements that these "new employees" be legal workers at all: evidently hiring and keeping illegal workers will do equally well to be rewarded with taxpayer funds for the majority of our lawmakers!

Related:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-189232-hire.html

So what!!! If it puts people back to work, it's a good thing!

Republicans Join Democrats in Passing Jobs Bill on Wednesday
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press

(Update: The Senate passed a bill aimed at boosting job growth by giving tax breaks to businesses that hire the unemployed. The measure passed on Wednesday morning by a bipartisan 70-28 and now goes back to the House, which passed a far more ambitious version in December.)

Washington (AP) - Companies that hire the unemployed would claim new tax breaks under a jobs-promoting bill that's expected to pass the Senate on Wednesday.

It's the first of several jobs bills promised by Democrats, and passage would give President Barack Obama and Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a much-sought victory. But the measure's impact on hiring is likely to be relatively modest, economists say.

The bill up for a vote Wednesday would exempt businesses hiring the unemployed from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December and give them an additional $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year.

It would also extend federal highway programs through the end of the year and make a $20 billion cash deposit into the highway trust fund to make up for shortfalls from lower-than-anticipated gasoline tax revenues.

The measure cleared a key hurdle Monday when the Senate's newest Republican, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and four other Republicans broke party ranks to defeat a filibuster. Republican leaders said Reid had used strong-arm tactics in bringing the measure to the floor.

Reid's $35 billion proposal -- blending $15 billion in tax cuts and subsidies for infrastructure bonds issued by local governments with the $20 billion in highway money -- is a far smaller measure than the $862 billion economic stimulus bill enacted a year ago.

House Democrats passed a far larger $174 billion jobs measure in December and many consider the pending Senate measure too puny. But they may simply adopt the Senate measure in order to get the win.

The new hiring tax credit could spur about 250,000 new jobs, according to economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com.

In addition to the hiring tax incentives and highway funding, the bill would extend a tax break for small businesses buying new equipment and modestly expand an initiative that helps state and local governments finance infrastructure projects.

Separately, Reid announced Tuesday that he wants upcoming legislation to extend unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless through December and help cash-strapped states with their Medicaid budgets. Taken together, these proposals would cost about $100 billion.

Republicans and some Democrats were unhappy that Reid brought the jobs bill to the floor after abruptly dumping about $70 billion worth of tax breaks for businesses and individuals, help for the unemployed and additional Medicare payments to doctors that had been unveiled earlier this month by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman and ranking Republican on the Finance Committee.

Most, if not all, of those ideas are expected to return in subsequent legislation.

While lawmakers in both parties promise to focus on jobs-producing legislation, their options are limited by cost considerations and rules that require new initiatives to "paid for" so they don't increase the deficit. But other measures, such as a passel of expired tax breaks for individual and businesses, are competing for the available dollars.

Source: The Associated Press

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/61825