AP harsh towards Obama jobs plan

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President Barack Obama's promise Thursday that everything in his jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions.

It will only be paid for if a committee he can't control does his bidding, if Congress puts that into law and if leaders in the future - the ones who will feel the fiscal pinch of his proposals - don't roll it back.

Underscoring the gravity of the nation's high employment rate, Obama chose a joint session of Congress, normally reserved for a State of the Union speech, to lay out his proposals. But if the moment was extraordinary, the plan he presented was conventional Washington rhetoric in one respect: It employs sleight-of-hand accounting.

A look at some of Obama's claims and how they compare with the facts:

OBAMA: "Everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything."

THE FACTS: Obama did not spell out exactly how he would pay for the measures contained in his nearly $450 billion American Jobs Act but said he would send his proposed specifics in a week to the new congressional supercommittee charged with finding budget savings. White House aides suggested that new deficit spending in the near-term to try to promote job creation would be paid for in the future - the "out years," in legislative jargon - but they did not specify what would be cut or what revenues they would use.

Essentially, the jobs plan is an IOU from a president and lawmakers who may not even be in office down the road when the bills come due. Today's Congress cannot bind a later one for future spending. A future Congress could simply reverse it.

Currently, roughly all federal taxes and other revenues are consumed in spending on various federal benefit programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, food stamps, farm subsidies and other social-assistance programs and payments on the national debt. Pretty much everything else is done on credit with borrowed money.

So there is no guarantee that programs that clearly will increase annual deficits in the near term will be paid for in the long term.

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OBAMA: "Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, including many who sit here tonight."

THE FACTS: Obama's proposed cut in the Social Security payroll tax does seem likely to garner significant GOP support. But Obama proposes paying for the plan in part with tax increases that have already generated stiff Republican opposition.

For instance, Obama makes a pitch anew to end Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which he has defined as couples earning over $250,000 a year or individuals earning over $200,000 a year. Republicans have adamantly blocked what they view as new taxes. As recently as last month, House Republicans refused to go along with any deal to raise the government's borrowing authority that included new revenues, or taxes.

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OBAMA: "It will not add to the deficit."

THE FACTS: It's hard to see how the program would not raise the deficit over the next year or two because most of the envisioned spending cuts and tax increases are designed to come later rather than now, when they could jeopardize the fragile recovery. Deficits are calculated for individual years. The accumulation of years of deficit spending has produced a national debt headed toward $15 trillion. Perhaps Obama meant to say that, in the long run, his hoped-for programs would not further increase the national debt, not annual deficits.

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OBAMA: "The American Jobs Act answers the urgent need to create jobs right away."

THE FACTS: Not all of the president's major proposals are likely to yield quick job growth if adopted. One is to set up a national infrastructure bank to raise private capital for roads, rail, bridges, airports and waterways. Even supporters of such a bank doubt it could have much impact on jobs in the next two years because it takes time to set up. The idea is likely to run into opposition from some Republicans who say such a bank would give the federal government too much power. They'd rather divide money among existing state infrastructure banks.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_JOBS_FACT_CHECK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-09-08-19-52-31

This is more Democrat/Republican B.S. Why are there not many decent jobs? The answer is simple. There are plenty of jobs, but they are located in Communist China as well as any other place where the multinational corporations can pay poverty level wages. Who do we blame for all of this? Bush Sr. William Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama. All of these people have made it so hard for producers to make anything in this country. Even non-profits are routinely shaken down for money by local, state and federal governments. It is done all in the name of "safety" and regulatory compliance. The money it takes to comply with the myriad of rules usually flow to those who have a nice cozy relationship with the various governments. If we want to have decent jobs in this country, then this government needs to quit giving preferential treatment to overseas producers. Until this happens, American will continue to hemorrhage money and jobs. We can only survive as a nation for so long selling hamburgers to each other. Having a "service" economy forced upon us makes us SERVANTS.

Jay Ohh Bee

Makes me think of the movie Friday. Anyway, lots of talk no words on paper.

Oh here is something for everyone to consider.

How can there be construction ready jobs for roads, buildings, etc. when we're coming up on winter? That's normally when people are not building things.

lol what job plan?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYt0ny3lqJg&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]

The rules have been rigged to allow the top to grab almost all the loot so it's only fair to take measures to reverse that. The only effective way to "pay for" any stimulus plan is to tap the money that has the lowest stimulus value. That money is the money going to low MPC people - the wealthy. You see, taxes have an anti-stimulus effect, but not all taxes are equally anti-stimulatory. The least anti-stimulatory taxes are those on the wealthy and so scientifically speaking there is no alternative if you don't want to increase the deficit and stimulate the economy.

Large construction companies and union labor, the various R&D Doners.

It does nothing for main street, housing, or most of the unemployed.

It will not increase trade, we have lots of roads, trains and trucking are down. It will cause long term traffic jams.

Translation, the companies that have been building bases and airports in Iraq and Afganistan are out of work. They would like to come home to a big bonus job.