{"id":34642,"date":"2011-05-19T01:20:42","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T01:20:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T01:20:42","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T01:20:42","slug":"the_truth_about_the_jobs_bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/05\/19\/the_truth_about_the_jobs_bill\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About the “Jobs” Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Okay, the ‘jobs bill.\u2019 The Democrats have unveiled their ‘jobs bill.\u2019 ‘Jobs bill.\u2019 Reuters reports this breathlessly. (panting) ‘Senate Democrats released a long-awaited jobs bill on Thursday [panting] that relies on business tax breaks [panting] and construction projects to bring down the unemployment rate [panting]. The bill also extends a number of other programs from unemployment insurance to Medicaid payment rates that have either expired or will expire soon.\u2019 Just as we foretold, ladies and gentlemen, much of the money (that we don\u2019t have) will go to unemployment insurance. Now, leaving aside the merits of extending unemployment benefits or Medicare payments, what do either of these have to do with creating jobs? Not a damn thing. But it sounds better to call it a ‘jobs bill\u2019 rather than ‘an unemployment compensation extension bill.\u2019 <\/p>\n

<\/a>And from a breathless Politico writer we get more details on what\u2019s in the unveiled Senate ‘jobs bill\u2019 and how it\u2019s designed to give the Democrats cover. The headline\u2019s all you need to hear but you\u2019ll hear more from me. ‘Baucus, Grassley Cut Deal on Jobs — The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday morning announced a breakthrough on an $85 billion jobs bill that includes a series of small-business tax breaks and other tax provisions designed to draw Republican support,\u2019 the emphasis there on SMALL. ‘The joint announcement — by Chairman Max Baucus of Montana and the panel\u2019s top Republican, Chuck Grassley of Iowa — is aimed at giving the proposals some bipartisan heft in a Senate chamber mired in partisan gridlock on just about every other major issue. In fact, the release announcing the bill used the word ‘bipartisan\u2019 seven times in just a few paragraphs.\u2019 (sigh) What a mistake. <\/p>\n

The Democrats need to own all of this. They don\u2019t need to be able to say Republicans participated in this. ‘Baucus and Grassley said their package was a ‘first step,” I\u2019m sure, ‘and urged Senate leadership to allow at least three days for lawmakers to review the bill. The Finance Committee did not attach a price tag to its bill,\u2019 but Reuters breathlessly calling it an $85 billion bill. ”It is especially important that all members and the public have sufficient time — at least 72 hours — to review and comment on this package before the Senate begins voting on the bill …\u2019 the two senators wrote in a statement.\u2019 Now, we assume it goes without saying here that it will not be posted on the Internet. Why should a tax-paying public be allowed to see how their money is being spent? Dingy ‘Harry Reid wanted to pass a jobs bill before Congress left for recess Friday. But two punishing blizzards made it difficult to schedule votes this week. The Finance Committee agreement, however, may be the breakthrough [Dingy Harry] needs if he wants a vote after next week\u2019s Presidents Day recess.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Now, everything I\u2019ve said and heard call this bill incredibly urgent. It\u2019s incredibly urgent! Why, we gotta do this now. But apparently, folks, it\u2019s not urgent enough for the Senate to give up its Presidents Day week-long recess — after having been off all this week. So it\u2019s not urgent enough to get it signed in two weeks, but it\u2019s urgent enough to have to get it done. Now, ‘The bill includes an infusion of funds into the Highway Trust Fund,\u2019 this jobs bill, ‘the so-called doc fix for Medicare reimbursements\u2019 in a jobs bill ‘and an extension of unemployment insurance and other benefits for\u2019 out of work people, in a jobs bill. I haven\u2019t read one thing yet about the creation of jobs. Oh. ‘It also includes several provisions outside the panel\u2019s jurisdiction, like a reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, the national flood insurance program and $1.5 billion in agriculture disaster assistance\u2019 in a jobs bill! It\u2019s called a jobs bill. <\/p>\n

‘Grassley and Baucus also fired a warning shot aimed at partisans on both sides… ‘Any efforts to needlessly delay Senate completion of consideration of this package through partisan means will undermine our goal of timely action in the current economic climate,\u2019 the senators wrote.\u2019 Again, this bill is so urgent but they won\u2019t give up one of their endless recesses for it. So you\u2019re saying, ‘What the hell is in there about jobs? What\u2019s in there about jobs?\u2019 Here it is. What\u2019s in there about jobs is this. It ‘would exempt businesses from paying a 6.2 percent Social Security tax on the wages of new employees, as long as the workers have been unemployed at least 60 days. The tax break would run through the end of the year. A company could save a maximum of $6,621 if it hired an unemployed worker after the bill is enacted and paid that worker at least $106,800 — the maximum amount of wages subject to Social Security taxes — by the end of the year. <\/p>\n

‘The company could get an additional $1,000 on its 2011 tax return if it kept the new worker for at least a full year.\u2019 I don\u2019t have to tell you what this is going to do. Guys are going to lay off people for two months, hire \u2019em back, and escape Social Security taxes. Let\u2019s just consider the incentives built into this plan. It forces businesses to hire people who got laid off earlier in the process — which, in general, would indicate that they may have been more dispensable to their previous employers. People that got laid off first are generally the ones that were the least necessary. So in order to take advantage of the tax break, the business would have to keep them employed all year long (regardless of their performance), for a full-time worker and have to pay them the max, 106 grand, in order to escape $6,000 of taxes? Who\u2019s going to do that? Nobody\u2019s going to do this!<\/p>\n

Pay somebody $106,000 in this climate, all for a $6,000 tax break? Plus somebody\u2019s been outta work for longer than two months? This… Let me put it directly: This subsidy is nothing more than the normal business decisions made by growing companies. This is not going to incentivize anybody in their right mind to start a hiring spree. Now, over at Bloomberg.com: ‘Small Business Has Some News for Big Government.\u2019 This is Caroline Baum, and let me just summarize the story for you. The first line here is ”Washington doesn\u2019t get it,” and there are numerous small business people quoted in the story. (begin summary) Dear Washington: We need sales, not new employee tax credits. That\u2019s Economics 101. You hire somebody if that worker generates revenues to cover his salary. For that you need sales! We\u2019re not interested in tax breaks. We\u2019re interested in the growth of our business. We are not here to fulfill Obama\u2019s promise to put people back to work. That\u2019s not why we\u2019re in business. (end summary) That\u2019s the message from the small businesses. It is absolute — and that\u2019s all that\u2019s in there about jobs. The rest of this is nothing more than another slush fund spending bill, and I gave you all the details. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Okay, the ‘jobs bill.\u2019 The Democrats have unveiled their ‘jobs bill.\u2019 ‘Jobs bill.\u2019 Reuters reports this breathlessly. (panting) ‘Senate Democrats released a long-awaited jobs bill on Thursday [panting] that relies on business tax breaks [panting] and construction projects to bring down the unemployment rate [panting]. The bill also extends a number of other programs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Truth About the "Jobs" Bill - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/05\/19\/the_truth_about_the_jobs_bill\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Truth About the "Jobs" Bill - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Okay, the ‘jobs bill.\u2019 The Democrats have unveiled their ‘jobs bill.\u2019 ‘Jobs bill.\u2019 Reuters reports this breathlessly. 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