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Last week, the White House hosted a "Forum on Jobs and Economic
Growth" to address the soaring unemployment rate and to discuss new
ways and policies to promote job growth. This is not the first time
President Obama has attempted to address the nation's job crisis, and
there are real doubts whether he'll be more successful this time
around.
When President Obama took office in January, the unemployment rate was
7.6 percent. He quickly called for action and in March he signed into
law a $787 billion "stimulus" package that would allegedly create 3.3
million net jobs and "save" millions more.
Since then, 3.4 million more net
jobs have been lost, pushing the unemployment rate above 10 percent.
In short, the president's "stimulus" package, which was supposed to
cap unemployment at eight percent, failed horribly. This is because
every dollar Congress 'injects' into the economy must first be taxed
or borrowed out of the economy. Therefore, the more
the government spends, the more taxes Americans will have to fork over
to Washington. This is exactly what we're seeing now.
Since taking office, President Obama has proposed massive new taxes on
our ailing economy. These taxes may come in many different forms but each of them will
eventually affect every American:
* Energy Tax: Cap-and-tax climate change legislation would cause
energy prices to "necessarily skyrocket," as even President
Obama admitted. This would cost the average American family an
additional $3,000 each year.
* Health Care Tax: Funding a Washington takeover of the health
care industry, which represents one-sixth of our economy, will
require massive new taxes from individuals, families, small
business and employers.
* More Deficits and More Debt: The President's ever-expanding
budget will likely produce $13 trillion in deficit spending over
the next 10 years, which is a debt Americans will have to pay.
These massive taxes create a poor environment for economic growth. But
there are alternatives, like lowering tax rates to encourage
investment. If the President wants the economy to
create more employees today, then he has to stop threatening the
employers with taxes, red tape, and a bleak future.
The administration and its Congressional allies have been presented
with numerous opportunities to cut tax rates -- such as the highly
unpopular death tax -- and thereby permit greater economic
prosperity. Nonetheless, the House voted 225 to 200 to "kill job
creation again" by making the current estate tax rate permanent rather
than completely abolishing it in 2010, as was planned.
A better jobs plan
Speaking at The Heritage Foundation on Wednesday, House Minority Whip
Eric Cantor (R-VA) presented an alternative vision for a jobs bill --
one that would actually create and save more jobs without raising
taxes and redistributing wealth.
Cantor's alternative includes reforms that Heritage experts have
long-supported:
* Resist unaffordable expansions of government and energy
subsidies;
* Take back unspent bailout and "stimulus" money;
* Limit annual spending increases and enact firm sending caps that
will force lawmakers to prioritize truly worthwhile programs;
* Embrace pending agreements to expand free exchange with other
countries; and
* Create a Bipartisan Entitlement Commission to oversee reforms of
government programs like Social Security and Medicare that
threaten to bankrupt our nation.
The economy will likely recover on its own, but these policies are a
sure way to speed up the mending process without causing further
damage.
If the President is truly concerned about jobs, both he and the
Congress should abandon their reckless policies and instead consider
alternatives like Cantor's. Unfortunately, the best we can hope from government is that it keeps to a minimum the jobs it prevents and the income and wealth it destroys.
