President Obama never uttered the word “stimulus” when he unveiled the American Jobs Act to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.  He also neglected to put forth estimates of how many jobs the plan could create or how far it might lower the unemployment rate.  What we did learn was the price tag:   $447 billion.

The fine print of the American Jobs Act was presented to Congress last week and confirmed that the President is proposing more of the same unworkable strategies.  He plans to pay for a second stimulus by raising taxes – an idea that members of his own party have rejected before and disagree with now.  More government spending and tax hikes are not incentives for job creators to hire and invest.  Instead of building confidence, President Obama wants to build more bureaucracy.

                           Learning From Past Mistakes

The simple fact that we need another jobs plan is a glaring reminder of the failures of the President’s near $1 trillion stimulus in 2009.  Since then, federal debt has skyrocketed, there are nearly two million fewer jobs, and economic growth is limping along at a meager 1 percent.  If history is our guide, then the President’s “spend now, pay later” approach is not one that works.

Unfortunately, taxpayers end up bearing the brunt of misguided policies and government wastefulness.  A prime example is the recent bankruptcy of the solar energy company Solyndra, which received more than $500 million in loan guarantees funded by the 2009 stimulus.   According to the Energy Department, the $38.6 billion green-tech program that included the Solyndra loan has yielded only a few thousand jobs overall.

                        Encouraging Long-Term Stability

The promise of a stimulus to “jump-start” the economy is no match for measures that promote long-term economic stability.  As Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said, “A workable jobs plan must genuinely reduce regulatory uncertainty, unshackle promising American industries, and not be overly reliant on government spending and subsidies.”
Businesses are more likely to invest and hire when tax rates and regulations can be measured with some degree of predictability.  Reforming the tax code and eliminating Washington overreach are essential to creating a sound climate for job creation.  Changing the rules – without warning – overshadows the market with uncertainty.

                         Putting Job Creators First

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been major players in the big-government expansion that has come to characterize the Obama Administration.  Their unelected bureaucrats have created unnecessary – and unprecedented – stumbling blocks for employers. 

The NLRB’s dispute this year with Boeing illustrates the escalating power grabs.  According to Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal, its action against the airplane manufacturer’s move to a non-unionized plant in South Carolina marks the first time a federal agency has interfered with the decision of an American company about where to do business within the United States.
 
President Obama has at least acknowledged the economic cost of overreach, and his recent withdrawal of a costly ozone regulation is an encouraging step in the right direction. The same careful consideration should be extended to EPA’s 30 major regulations and more than 170 major policy rules still on the horizon.  According to the White House’s own estimates, EPA rules are some of the most harmful to private businesses.  Getting Americans back to work means putting the priorities of our job creators first.

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