Will New Jobs Bill Create Jobs? Republicans Say No | Print | E-mail
Written by Steven Yates
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 15:27
Where do the kinds of jobs that will grow the economy come from? Can the federal government simply create them through more spending? We are about to find out — yet again.

Last fall, congressional Democrats authored a new jobs bill, entitled the Jobs For Main Street Act (H.R. 2847). They attached it to last month’s $174 billion spending package. This effort follows in the wake of the $787 billion economic recovery plan passed earlier last year.

Democrats argue that the bill establishes job prospects in a number of areas: infrastructure and public sector spending ($75 billion), construction (tens of thousands of new jobs), 5,500 new police officers, 25,000 new Americorps members, 250,000 jobs for disadvantaged youth, and 14,000 jobs for park and forestry workers.

Few of these will lead to stable, long-term work in the private sector, i.e., work that will not increase the government's spiraling indebtedness. President Obama had proposed tax credits for small businesses that create jobs. This measure is absent from the version of the bill that the House passed — narrowly, 217–212, without a single Republican vote.

Republicans note that much of the money appropriated in the new bill is not intended to create jobs. For example, $41 billion is set aside to extend unemployment benefits for six months. Another $12.3 billion aims to extend health insurance subsidies to those who have lost their jobs. Yet another $23.5 billion assists states to cover Medicaid costs. Twenty three billion is set aside for education, and $2.8 billion goes for clean water and environmental restoration projects.

Thus they scoff at the new measure. “Why don’t we just put everybody in the United States on the federal government payroll and call it a day?â€