Jobs bill needs bipartisan push
Americans didn't expect Franklin Roosevelt to end the Great Depression, but they certainly expected him to try.
The same might be said of Barack Obama. Although this isn't a depression, it feels close enough. And although Obama is no Roosevelt, his latest jobs initiative is an encouraging effort to generate growth, however feeble, in a sputtering economy that has left millions of Americans jobless and driven poverty to new heights. Details aside, the president's initiative is especially encouraging as a sign that the nation's leader may at last be laying aside his passivity when faced with hard problems and legislative animosity.
The president's plan, presented with welcome gusto before a joint session of Congress, is hardly radical; more than half the $447-billion cost would be for cutting payroll taxes paid by employers and employees alike, thereby temporarily lowering the cost of hiring and putting more money into the pockets of most people with jobs. The plan also includes a $4,000 tax credit for firms that hire the long-term unemployed, a group that is sadly all too numerous; $90 billion in spending on infrastructure and school modernization; and $35 billion to prevent the layoff of teachers, cops and firefighters. There is a tax break for business investments, an extension of jobless benefits, and help for Americans who want to refinance homes at record-low interest rates.
Let's be realistic: These programs won't catapult the economy back into healthy growth. But they will help millions of Americans while stimulating spending. And they signal to citizens and markets alike that the government isn't just sitting on its hands.
The question, of course, is how to pay for all this. The president proposes to do so in part by rolling back some tax breaks enjoyed by oil and gas companies and high-earners. Profit-based compensation known as "carried interest," for example, would be treated as regular income, resulting in higher taxes for hedge fund managers and the like.
House Republicans won't like all this, but the important thing is that they seriously engage the plan and work out a deal before the economy goes off a cliff. The level of suffering -- and the peril at the polls -- is too great for reflexive intransigence. Ideally the GOP will counter with a proposal for a larger bargain that could be hashed out by the so-called supercommittee, a bipartisan congressional panel that has until Nov. 23 to recommend $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. A grand scheme for a larger long-term reduction should include lower income tax rates; an end to deductions and loopholes that fail every reasonable test of fairness and good sense; and sensible adjustments to entitlement programs so that future generations can enjoy Social Security and health care without driving the nation into bankruptcy.
Such a deal could produce both the short-term stimulus that the president rightly desires, and the longer-term reforms that are crucial to rein in deficits and set the stage for future economic growth. These reforms should warm the heart of any fiscal conservative, including the most ardent ones in the House. That Obama might just go along with such a deal is no reason for Republicans to reject it.
