The American Jobs Act

Back in August President Obama embarked on a bus tour through the Mid-west, the supposed purpose of which was to allow the President to listen to the American people.  Subsequently, in the beginning of September, the President called a joint session of Congress (generally reserved for the State of the Union Address), and announced his new American Jobs Act bill.  He repeatedly stated, "pass this bill".  This past week Obama was again out on a bus tour, trying to promote his bill which had just failed a Senate vote.  The full bill received down votes from two Democratic senators, Ben Nelson (Nebraska) and Jon Tester (Montana) along with all 47 Republican senators.

The President began his tour by essentially insulting the intelligence of Congress by stating "Maybe they couldn't understand the whole thing at once".  He also said, "we're going to break it up into bite sized pieces". After the ‘no’ vote, therefore, the Senate is attempting to pass the bill chunks at a time, with the first section failing on Friday.  There have been different ideas about what Obama's true motives are in the constant campaigning for his bill.  Some people believe that his motive is truly what he says it is, which is to get his bill passed, however others believe that it is a way for him to justify his perpetual campaigning for the 2012 race.  I believe that Obama wants it both ways, he sincerely wants this jobs bill passed, but he also looks at it as a great campaigning tool.

Why it is good that this bill did not pass...

The first section of the bill was aimed at providing funds for public sector jobs in struggling states, jobs for educators, and various municipal workers.  With deficit talks continuing, Obama plans on receiving the additional funds to pay for this bill from a 0.5% tax increase on the people making a million dollars or more.  This tax increase is the main problem with the bill.  People argue that the rich do not pay enough in taxes, however in 2007 the wealthiest 1% of Americans began contributing more to taxes than the bottom 95%.  In that year the top 1% of income earners provided 40.42% of the national income tax revenue, and now Obama is attempting to raise taxes on those who already contribute so much.  One of the biggest goals of the president should be improving employment numbers, and taxing the rich is counterproductive to that goal.  Rich Americans are the wealth creators, they are the small business owners that do private sector hiring, and they are the ones that invest in this economy.  Therefore, when the rich are taxed, small businesses are taxed, and there are less funds to hire additional workers in the private sector.

According to Harry Reid we should not be concerned with the private sector because as he stated earlier "it is very clear that private sector jobs are doing just fine".  I do not believe that is very clear at all.  The unemployment rate in September was 9.1% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, yet the unemployment rate for government workers was only 4.7%.  The private sector has fared much worse than the public sector since 2007, with the private sector losing 6.3 million jobs, and the public sector only losing 392,000.  I believe those statistics make it pretty clear as to which sector is faring worse.

However, what is the real reason President Barack Obama wants this bill to pass?

As mentioned earlier, a big goal of this first section of the American Jobs Act is to provide more jobs for teachers.  While this seems like it may be a good goal, does Obama have ulterior motives?  Public school teachers belong to teachers' unions.  Teachers’ union members pay dues.  A portion of these dues go toward the political funds of the union.  Can you guess who the teacher's unions are supporting in 2012?...That's right, Barack Obama.  Back in July the NEA, the nation's largest teachers’ union voted to support Barack Obama in the 2012 election, long before the Republicans have even come close to deciding on a candidate!  This was back when Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, and Rudy Giuliani were all possible contenders.  Recently Obama requested of his advisors, when talking about the bill, “scour this report, identify all those areas in which we can act administratively, without additional congressional authorization, and just get it done.”  This means that when more teachers receive jobs, with or without passed legislation, those dues will essentially just go into the Obama campaign.

Obama has tried before to boost the economy through a stimulus, and it failed, so what is different about this attempt?  The main difference is that this stimulus will indirectly go toward the 2012 Obama Campaign.  Therefore while I do believe that Obama sincerely wants this jobs bill passed, I don't believe that his motives are noble.  He knows that when more teachers receive jobs, his campaign fund grows larger by the day.  This bill will continue to pull the private sector and the economy downward, and the only winner from the passage of this bill will be Obama.  That is why I believe that Congress should continue to do everything within their power to block this bill.