Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says “the American people need a message. The message that they need is that we are doing something on jobs.” Reid’s real message is to confirm what is now obvious to all, which is that he and his congressional allies have nary a clue as to how an economy creates jobs.
In lieu of an ineffectual bi-partisan compromise bill crafted by Chairman Baucus (D-MT) and Senator Grassley (R-IA), Reid has reportedly developed a slimmed down, equally ineffectual bill including a new payroll tax exemption plus extensions to three existing programs – Build America Bonds, small business expensing, and a one-year extension of the highway program.
To get a sense of how nonsensical this is, suppose the Federal government actually had an effective stimulus program somewhere, and suppose it was slated to expire. Extending the program would not create any new jobs, but would merely preserve the jobs already created. Calling such an extension a “jobs bill” demonstrates messaging once again trumping substance. Yet this is essentially what is happening with the three existing programs reported to be included in the Reid bill, except of course that two of the three have little or nothing to do with employment one way or the other. Only the small business expensing clearly is a job creator.
So the only new element of the Reid jobs bill that offers a glimmer of hope for creating jobs is a payroll tax exemption. This exemption would encourage businesses to create some jobs but only if paid for by cutting spending. Whatever job gains it might create would be lost if the exemption were paid for through more borrowing or through harmful tax hikes on other taxpayers. And even analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, which casts a disturbingly benign eye on such proposals, suggests that $10 billion in payroll tax relief would create as little as 80,000 jobs. To put that in perspective, that’s creating 1 job for every 100 jobs lost thus far, and again even that figure ignores the actions Congress would be taken simultaneously to destroy jobs.
Whether the Reid mini-bill, the Baucus-Grassley compromise, or last year’s $872 billion monster stimulus, the result is the same – failure. And these bills fail because they ignore the processes by which the private sector creates jobs. Jobs are created when businesses are hopeful about the future. When they see opportunity and are confident enough to take the risks in pursuit of gain.
The American economy is a fountain of opportunities for new businesses, growing businesses, and jobs. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and willing. But it is not foolish. American businesses see Washington awash in conflict, its leaders messaging on jobs while threatening higher taxes and more regulations. They see an endless train of trillion dollar budget deficits. They worry about resurgent inflation.
Risk and uncertainty are fundamental to business investment. Without risk, there would be no reward. But businesses considering the investments that lead to hiring today must weigh the risks emanating from Washington along with the risks inherent in business. If Senator Reid and his colleagues want a message on jobs, a good one would be: We get it. We’re the problem.
He would then vow to oppose any tax hikes for the balance of this Congress, and offer legislation delaying the tax hikes scheduled for 2011 for at least 5 years. President Obama would join in by telling his bureaucracies to freeze all regulatory projects that involve imposing more risks and more burdens on business. And together with Republicans, they would slash federal spending to restore some sense of fiscal discipline to the federal budget.
According to a CBS/NY Times poll out this morning, only 1 voter in 8 approves of the job Congress is doing. The Reid bill is a good of example of the source of the voters’ ire.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released a 1,990 page House version of Obamacare, yet Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has yet to release the Senate version of Obamacare. On Monday, Reid announced that the secret negotiations on Obamacare had come to an agreement and he was submitting that legislation to the Congressional Budget Office. This was followed by Senator Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) announcement on Tuesday that he may join a filibuster of Obamacare putting Obamacare in critical condition.
The National Journal’s Congress Daily (subscription required) reported that Reid “is angling for a favorable CBO score on his health proposals to win support from deficit hawks, even as he keeps those senators, and everyone else, largely in the dark. The secrecy might make sense as a strategy because it prevents an unfavorable score from getting out, but it does not make it easy to nail down senators on their votes on a motion to proceed to the bill.” Clearly the secret and non-transparent nature of the crafting of Obamacare is part of a plan to pull a fast one on the American people.Congress Daily further reported that the secret negotiations are down to Reid and Emanuel. “The administration was in on those Reid-Baucus-Dodd meetings as well, but when asked if consultation would continue, the aide replied “Reid talks to [White House Chief of Staff Emanuel] all the time.” There was no mention of White House health care czar Nancy Ann DeParle or OMB Director Orszag. Reid sent multiple draft proposals to CBO Monday and plans to ‘cherry-pick the best scores/language and put that in the final bill,’ the aide said.” This is further evidence that there are multiple versions of this bill and Reid is going to make the decision on what version of Obamacare the Senate considers.
The problem is that this bill is still not public today and Reid has been extremely tight lipped about his melding of the two Senate health care bills. When contacted by The Foundry, Reid’s staff refused to answer simple questions such as: Does the bill contain actual legislative language, or is it a framework like the original Finance Committee version? How many pages is the bill? And when do you intend to release the bill to the public?
The Congressional Budget Office also refused requests by The Foundry to answer the simple question of whether they had received a bill yet from Senator Reid.
The House has just unveiled their final version of a complete overhaul of America’s health care system. Pelosi announced during the roll out of the bill today that it would be available for viewing on the House website. However, the Senator who represents Las Vegas continues to keep his poker face up and his cards down, because the Senate bill is not yet publicly available. The American people and all of their elected representatives in Congress deserve to know what’s in the Senate version of a bill that may propose a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy.
Co-authored by Shawn Ryan.