I’m not sure when this happened, but the Republicans are pushing a jobs bill that is actually really truly called “Plan for America’s Job Creators.” Seriously.
I downloaded the full version of the Plan from the GOP site; it is all of ten pages long, and roughly half of that is big graphics. Republicans don’t sweat those pesky details.
The Plan has eight parts. Just for fun, I will list them before below the fold, so you can try to guess what they are without looking. I’m betting all of you will guess at least four of them.
- Cut regulations. Too easy, right?
- Cut taxes on businesses. I bet you’re two for two.
- Pass free trade agreements, specifically with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.
- Streamline the patent system.
- Reform the visa system to make it easier for businesses to import highly skilled workers from other countries. I call this one the “screw America’s college grads” provision.
- Streamline FDA approval of new drugs.
- Drill, baby, drill.
- Cut government spending.
None of these will do shit as long as people are not spending money to buy stuff, but at least the GOP can say it has a jobs plan.
One must admire their consistency, especially when it is maintained so forcefully in the direct face of contradictory facts and conditions.
Now all the GOP comments will call for the Democrat jobs plan as well as a budget. The problem is that only ALEC reads within the GOP. All Republicans will pass this jobs plan. Romney is already planning on how to outsource government jobs to lower costs. There are many items he can sell overseas. All money saved will be used for corporate tax reduction. Put fracking and the pipeline on rush. All “public” services to be privatized. Legislation will be passed at midnight with no accurate vote count as is currently done in red states. Votes will be prepared by billionaires and people allowed to check the “choice”.
Shame on the Republicans for not including the only thing they’ve added in the past 100 years:
9. PRAYER!
Because nothing says jobs better than complete deregulation, taxes on people, but not on rich ones or the businesses they run, cheap S. Korean crap replacing Chinese crap, slapping patents on untested things, screwing our workers and college grads by replacing them with cheaper labor from other countries, new drugs which are as likely to kill ya as cure ya, drilling for energy willy-nilly, regardless of ecological consequences, and drowning any form of government that doesn’t help the rich and powerful, and praying to Jesus, that this will fix the economy and create jobs.
It’ll FIX the economy alright – for the rich and powerful.
And the only jobs remaining will be:
Soup Kitchen aids.
EMS workers.
Suicide hot-line personnel.
Grief councelor’s.
Funeral home greeters.
Coroners.
Morticians.
Obit writers.
Headstone engravers.
And finally, heavy equipment operators to dig mass graves.
Not so nice work – if you can even get it.
Shorter Republican “Plan for America’s Job creators”:
Laissez-Faire.
Because that worked so well under the Articles of Confederation. Or something.
I want to cry.
That’s not a real Republican/Teabagger jobs plan, there is no mention of abortions.
1,3,5, and 8 are actually job KILLERS.3 and 5 for obvious reasons; 1 and 8 because Republicans don’t seem to comprehend that enforcing regulations CREATES jobs not just for government people, but for people who make safety-related products– air-bags, sanitary packaging, refridgeration equipment, sterile syringes.
Here’s MY job creation idea;
Nationalize the big banks, they got bailed out and still want to screw the consumer “units” .The game is up, boys.
Allow people to pay down their credit cards minus the usury; this will bring back consumer spending.
Tax churches like they’re businesses because they are.
End ALL aid to Israel; as long as Bibi comes over here to the trained seals in congress and gets anything he wants while pissing in the tent, CUT HIM OFF.This is the single issue that is driving a wedge between us and the Muslim world.
It NEEDS TO BE FIXED!!
Forgive all student loans.
Adjust all home mortgages to 1% above prime until the economy comes back
Create a giant public works program, including high speed rail; wind, solar, and ocean current energy production projects, and a plan to convert our big rig trucks to natural gas.
Eliminate all income tax and payroll tax on anything over 40 hrs per week.
Reel in the insurance industry, THEY are killing jobs and home ownership.
Quit funding these never ending wars.
Leaglize hemp in all forms.
Decriminalize all drug abuse; its a health issue, not a criminal one.
Reform the medical industrial complex, besides war, that industry is driving the true “cost of living” into the stratosphere.
Get people trained up for the next generation of industry.
Be prepared to nationalize the big oil companies, one more “Deep Ocean Horizon” incident and that crap’s done.
Gotta say, I love page 4 of their plan.
Several years ago, I had a great idea for a business. Realizing I needed to have insurance for the project, I shopped around.The insurance companies work on a percentage of what the expected receipts are, and are subject to the perceived safety of the endeavor. My idea involved underwated activities.
The insurance agents thought underwater activities are highly risky, even though my business would be conducted in a pool. There are tourist participation activities in Orlando that include zip lines , bungee cords launching tourists 200 feet in the air, waterskiing, and boat rental; all far more dangerous than what I wanted to do.
I couldn’t get an underwriter because of the percieved danger and lack of history.
It killed the idea and my business prospect.
This had NOTHING to do with government, everything to do with a private industry wanting their “cut” and no risk.
When Republicans site “government” as the obsticle, they are blowing smoke up your ass; the banks and insurance industry want their 20% or more of ALL business.
That needs to be fixed.
Off-topic: June 17, 2012, will be the 40th anniversary of the night that a security guard found tape on a door in the Watergate. C-Span3 is having programs all month on this incredible event for those who are too young to remember it and for those like me who need my memory refreshed. That was probably the last time a Congressional investigation actually found the truth. Now, they are all show and used to obfuscate the truth.
Tom B:
Regulations are actually a kind of funky thing. (NB: I’m *not* an economist, I’m trying to understand economics.) See, they do create some jobs, on both sides.
But, they still can be a drag on the economy. Why? Well, because there’s some resources that could be spent doing what people want to do, and they’re being “wasted” doing things that they don’t want to do. If Apple has to deal with iPad and iPhone regulations, then some of the money it could be spending making new iPads or iPhones, or researching he next cool product.
Or, take a baker – every minute s/he spends filling out forms is a minute spent not baking, or planning, or whatever.
So it’s a balance. Less regulation should, typically, create more economic growth – it should at full employment, at least. At that point, regulation does cost jobs because economic growth is held back.
The perfect goal is, obviously, to only have those regulations that are vital, and to make them perfectly simple to fulfill. It’ll never happen, of course.
The Republican ideal of “deregulate” reminds me of a programming maxim. Any program can be shortened by one line; every program has at least one bug. Apply this iteratively, and you find that *every* program can be reduced to one line that doesn’t work.
I’ve read that some industries actually welcome regulation, because it prevents bad business owners from ruining business for everyone else. For example, if you own a motel in a resort area, you want certain standards to be maintained in all the motels so that the whole area has a good reputation as a vacation spot. What visitors tell their friends about their vacation experiences can help or hurt future business, even if those experiences were at another motel.