How many days ago did we watch The Republican Debate where people cheered about Governor Perry's execution record? What was Question asked of Perry in connection with Killing and innocent man? What was his response?
I have posted a story that is 17 pages called Trial by Fire . I ask you to take time to read. A story of how a Texas Governor named Rick Perry had the opportunity to save an innocent man, by reading a Report from Mr Hurst an arson scientist. This report, which was in the file, exonerated the man who was found guilty based on another report, that used no scientific facts to it's conclusion, and now he is dead.
Perry was given the file and yet ignored the report and did not grant clemency. This story is one I am sure he would not want out, but we must re post and get the truth out, if for anything else for the father who was executed for a crime he did not commit. This story should be told over and over again. Rick Perry should never hold the high office of our country. Read Trial by Fire
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT: IMPACT FOR Utah
Since I live in Utah I thought I would post this!
The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the middle class has been under attack for decades. That’s why President Obama believes we need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis – we need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street. We can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by investing in education, and by making things the world buys. The President understands that to restore an American economy that’s built to last we cannot afford to outsource American jobs and encourage reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.
To create jobs, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – nearly all of which is made up of ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and that Congress should pass right away to get the economy moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it would do so without adding a dime to the deficit. The American Jobs Act has five components:
1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
· The President’s plan will cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level. In Utah, 60,000 firms will receive a payroll tax cut under the American Jobs Act.
2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
· The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. Of the investments for highway and transit modernization projects, the President’s plan will make immediate investments of at least $313,700,000 in Utah that could support a minimum of approximately 4,100 local jobs.
· The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, and will provide $303,000,000 in funds to Utah to support up to 5,100 educator and first responder jobs.
· The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. Utah will receive $138,700,000 in funding to support as many as 1,800 jobs.
· The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Utah could receive about $20,000,000 to revitalize and refurbish local communities, in addition to funds that would be available through a competitive application.
· The President’s plan proposes $5 billion of investments for facilities modernization needs at community colleges. Investment in modernizing community colleges fills a key resource gap, and ensures these local, bedrock education institutions have the facilities and equipment to address current workforce demands in today’s highly technical and growing fields. Utah could receive $37,100,000 in funding in the next fiscal year for its community colleges.
3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs.
· Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the most innovative states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years help those without jobs transition to the workplace. This could help put the 40,000 long-term unemployed workers in Utah back to work.
· Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to extend unemployment insurance, preventing 6,600 people looking for work in Utah from losing their benefits in just the first 6 weeks. And, across the country, the number saved from losing benefits would triple by the end of the year.
· The President is proposing a new Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. Pathways Back to Work could place 700 adults and 1,400 youths in jobs in Utah.
4. Tax Relief for Every American Worker and Family
· The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers payroll taxes in half next year. A typical household in Utah, with a median income of around $58,000, will receive a tax cut of around $1,800.
5. Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.
· To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.
The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the middle class has been under attack for decades. That’s why President Obama believes we need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis – we need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street. We can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by investing in education, and by making things the world buys. The President understands that to restore an American economy that’s built to last we cannot afford to outsource American jobs and encourage reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.
To create jobs, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – nearly all of which is made up of ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and that Congress should pass right away to get the economy moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it would do so without adding a dime to the deficit. The American Jobs Act has five components:
1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
· The President’s plan will cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level. In Utah, 60,000 firms will receive a payroll tax cut under the American Jobs Act.
2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
· The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. Of the investments for highway and transit modernization projects, the President’s plan will make immediate investments of at least $313,700,000 in Utah that could support a minimum of approximately 4,100 local jobs.
· The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, and will provide $303,000,000 in funds to Utah to support up to 5,100 educator and first responder jobs.
· The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. Utah will receive $138,700,000 in funding to support as many as 1,800 jobs.
· The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Utah could receive about $20,000,000 to revitalize and refurbish local communities, in addition to funds that would be available through a competitive application.
· The President’s plan proposes $5 billion of investments for facilities modernization needs at community colleges. Investment in modernizing community colleges fills a key resource gap, and ensures these local, bedrock education institutions have the facilities and equipment to address current workforce demands in today’s highly technical and growing fields. Utah could receive $37,100,000 in funding in the next fiscal year for its community colleges.
3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs.
· Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the most innovative states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years help those without jobs transition to the workplace. This could help put the 40,000 long-term unemployed workers in Utah back to work.
· Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to extend unemployment insurance, preventing 6,600 people looking for work in Utah from losing their benefits in just the first 6 weeks. And, across the country, the number saved from losing benefits would triple by the end of the year.
· The President is proposing a new Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. Pathways Back to Work could place 700 adults and 1,400 youths in jobs in Utah.
4. Tax Relief for Every American Worker and Family
· The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers payroll taxes in half next year. A typical household in Utah, with a median income of around $58,000, will receive a tax cut of around $1,800.
5. Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.
· To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Don’t Take Our Word For It: Republicans on Republicans
Tonight’s CNN/Tea Party Express debate confirmed that the Republican candidates are more interested in saying what the ideological Tea Party wants to hear than doing what the American people are demanding: creating jobs and restoring the economic security of the middle-class. At center stage tonight - a fight over whether Social Security, a mainstay of middle class economic security, was a “fraud” or a “Ponzi scheme.” But don’t take it from us, read what they said about it and each other.
ROMNEY ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Romney Said Using The Term “Ponzi Scheme…Was Over The Top And Unnecessary And Frightful To Many People.” Romney spoke about Perry’s views on Social Security. “No, what I'm saying is that what he just said, I think most people agree with, although the term Ponzi scheme I think is over the top and unnecessary and frightful to many people.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Attacked Perry For “His View That Social Security In Unconstitutional” And For Calling It “A Failure, This Is After 70 Years Of Tens Of Millions Of People Relying On Social Security.” Romney attacked Perry’s views on Social Security. “But the real issue is in writing his book, Governor Perry pointed out that in his view that social security is unconstitutional, that this is not something the federal government ought to be involved in, that instead it should be given back to the states. And that view and the view that somehow social security has been forced on us over the past seven years. That by any measure, Social Security has been a failure, this is after 70 years of tens of millions of people relying on social security, that's a very different matter.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Asked If Perry “Continue[s] To Believe That Social Security Should Not Be A Federal Program…Or Is He Going To Retreat From That View.” Romney spoke about Perry’s views on Social Security. “But the real question is does Governor Perry continue to believe that social security should not be a federal program, that it's unconstitutional and it should be returned to the states or is he going to retreat from that view?” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Asked If Perry Still “Believe[d] That Social Security Should Be Ended As A Federal Program As You Did Six Month Ago.” Romney spoke about Perry’s views on Social Security. “But the question is: do you still believe that social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out and returned to the states?” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Attacked Perry For Suggesting The Nation Have A Conversation On The Future Of Social Security: “We're Having That Right Now, Governor. We're Running For President.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Said Perry’s Use Of The “Term Ponzi Scheme” And For “Suggesting That Social Security Should No Longer Be A Federal Program” Was “Frightening” To Seniors. Romney attacked Perry’s views on Social Security during the debate. “Governor, the term Ponzi scheme is what scared seniors, number one. And number two, suggesting that social security should no longer be a federal program and returned to the states is unconstitutional and is likewise frightening. There are a lot of bright people who actually agree with you. That's your view. I think that social security is a fundamental program.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Said Perry Was Dealt “Four Aces” In Texas That Helped Lead To Texas Job Growth; “Zero Income Tax, Low Regulation, Right To Work State, Oil In The Ground And Republican Legislature.” Romney responded to a question if Perry deserved credit for Texas job growth. “Terrific state, no question about that. Some wonderful things that Texas has going for it that the nation could learn from. Zero income tax. That's a pretty good thing. Right to work state. Republican legislature, Republican state court. By the way, a lot of oil as well… Well, look, I think Governor Perry would agree with me that if you're dealt four aces that doesn't make you necessarily a great poker player. And four aces and the four aces that are terrific aces are the ones the nation should learn from, the ones I described, zero income tax, low regulation, right to work state, oil in the ground and republican legislature. Those things are terrific.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Pointed To Job Growth In Texas Before Perry Entered Office And Suggested Perry Would Be A Good President If The Country Was “Like Texas Going Swimmingly.” Romney responded to a question if Perry deserved credit for Texas job growth. “There has been great growth in Texas. Under Ann Richardson growth was under 2% a year, George Bush 3% a year. Those are all good numbers. Texas is a great state. If you think that the country is like Texas going swimmingly well, then somebody who has done that is just terrific. But if the country needs a turnaround, that's what I do.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Attacked Perry’s Immigration Statement And Policies: “Of Course We Build A Fence And Of Course We Do Not Give Instate Tuition Credits To People Who Come Here Illegally.” “With regards to immigration, of course we build a fence and of course we do not give instate tuition credits to people who come here illegally. That only attracts people to come here and take advantage of America’s great benefits. It’s a patina of legal credibility…This is the party that believes in supporting the law. We're going to enforce the law. We're the party of opportunity, we're also the party of legal law abiding citizens.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
PERRY ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Perry Accused Romney Of Trying To Scare Seniors Over Social Security. “The question is, are there ways to move the states into social security for state employees or for retirees? We did in the state of Texas back in the 1980s. I think those types of thoughtful conversations with America, rather than trying to scare seniors like you're doing and other people, it's time to have a legitimate conversation in this country about how to fix that program where it's not bankrupt and our children actually know that there's going to be a retirement program there for them.” [Perry, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Perry Said Romney Called Social Security Criminal In His Book. “You called it criminal -- you said if people did it in the private sector…that it would be called criminal. That's in your book.” [Perry, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Perry Said Romney’s Health Care Plan Was The Model For Obamacare, Doesn’t Think It Was Right For Massachusetts. “But the fact of the matter is that was the plan that President Obama has said himself was the model for Obamacare. I think any of us who know that that piece of legislation will draw a line between the doctor-patient relationship, that will cost untold billions of dollars is not right for this country and, frankly, I don't think it was right for Massachusetts when you look at what it's costing the people of Massachusetts today. But at the end of the day, that was their call. So from a just purely states get to decide what they want to do, I agree with that in the state of Texas, we don't think that's the way we want to go.” [Perry, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
BACHMANN ON HER FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Bachmann: “To Have Innocent Little Twelve Year Old Girls Be Forced To Have A Government Injection Through An Executive Order Is Just Flat Out Wrong.” “I'm a mom of three children. To have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong. That should never be done. It's a violation of a liberty interest. That's -- little girls who have a negative reaction to this potentially dangerous drug don't get a mulligan. They don't get a do-over. The parents don't get a do-over. That's why I fought so hard in , against president Obama and Obama care. President Obama in a stunning, shocking level of power now just recently told all private insurance companies, you must offer the morning-after abortion pill because I said so and it must be free of charge. That same level coming through executive orders and through government dictates is wrong. That's why again we have to have someone who is absolutely committed to the repeal of Obama care and I am.” [Bachmann, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Bachmann Attacked Perry For Contributions From Merck And For Former Chief Of Staff Being A Merck Lobbyist At Time Of HPV Vaccine Decision. “I just wanted to add that we cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there was a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate. We can't deny that…What I'm saying is that it's wrong for a drug company, because the governor's former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company, the drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor, and this is just flat-out wrong. The question is is it about life or was it about millions of dollars and potentially billions for a drug company?... I'm offended for all the little girls and the parents that didn't have a choice. That's what I'm offended for.” [Bachmann, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Bachmann Said Romney’s Support Of Massachusetts Health Care Mandate Proved He Was “Not Committed” To Repealing President Obama’s Health Care Reform. “This is why I'm running for the presidency of the united states because 2012 is it. This is the election that's going to decide if we have socialized medicine in this country or not. This is it. Why? I just have to say this. It's because president Obama embedded 105 billion 464 million dollars in Obama care in postdated checks to implement this bill. We are never going to get rid of it unless we have a president committed to getting rid of it. If you believe that states can have it and that it's constitutional, you're not committed. If you implement this in your state, you're not committed. I'm committed to repealing Obama care.” [Bachmann, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Bachmann Attacked Perry For HPV Vaccine Order: “This Is A Liberty Interest That Violates The Most Deepest Personal Part Of A Little Child.” When asked if Perry’s decision to mandate HPV vaccinations for young girls was against conservative principles, Bachmann said “Yes, of course, it violates liberty. When you have innocent little 12-year-old girls that are forced to have a government injection into their body. This is a liberty interest that violates the most deepest personal part of a little child. And it violates the parental rights. This was an executive order that mandated that every little 12-year-old girl had to have this vaccination, and then you'd have to opt out. Parents don’t necessarily have the backing, the information to know to opt out. This should be an opt in. This is an overreach for government. The governor admitted this was a big mistake. The problem, the little girl doesn't get a do over, once they have that vaccination in their body, once it causes its damage, that little girl doesn't have the chance to go back. You don't get a mulligan, you don't get a do over, you have to get it right the first time, I have a core sense of conviction […] issues and I never would have done that to 12-year-old girls. … Because it's not enough to say I'm sorry, I got it wrong. We have to have a president who understands from the get go with a core sense of conviction what policies will work for the United States and what won't.” [Bachmann, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
HUNTSMAN ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Huntsman Said Romney And Perry Are “Frightening The American People.” “You have Governor Romney who called it a fraud in his book. I don't know if that was written by Kurt Cobain or not. Then you have Governor Perry calling this a Ponzi scheme. All I know is we're frightening the American people who just want solutions. This party isn't going to win in 2012 unless we get our act together and fix the problem.” [Huntsman, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Huntsman Called Perry “Treasonous” For Saying The Borders Couldn’t Be Sealed. “Well, first of all, let me say for Rick to say that you can't secure the border I think is pretty much a treasonous comment. … Rick, we can secure the border, we can secure the border through means of fences, through technology, through the deployment of our National Guard troops, we can get it done.” [Huntsman, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Huntsman Criticized Romney For Taking Multiple Positions On Issues. “We can take all night talking about where Mitt's been on the issues.” [Huntsman, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
PAUL ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Paul Said That Perry Doubled Taxes And Tripled Debt In Texas. When Wolf Blitzer asked Rep. Ron Paul whether Governor Rick Perry deserved credit for increasing the number of jobs in Texas, Paul said, “Not quite. I'm a taxpayer there. My taxes have gone up. Our taxes have doubled since he took office. Our debt has gone up nearly triple. So no, and 170,000 of the jobs were government jobs. So I would put a little damper on this, but I don't want to offend the governor because he might raise my taxes or something.” [Paul, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Paul Criticized Perry For Using An Executive Order To Mandate That Teenage Girls Be Inoculated For HPV. “I think we need to hear what governor Perry’s saying. He's saying that his policy was right. He believes that what he did was right. He thinks he’s went about it the wrong way. I believe your policy is wrong. Why? Ladies and gentlemen, why do we inoculate people with vaccines in public schools? Because we're afraid of those diseases being communicable between people at school. And therefore, to protect the rest of the people at school, we have vaccinations to protect those children. Unless Texas has a very progressive way of communicating diseases in their school by way of their curriculum, then there is no government purpose served for having little girls inoculated at the force and compulsion of the government. This is big government run amok. It is bad policy, and it should not have been done.” [Paul, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
SANTORUM ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Santorum Criticized Perry For Requiring Girls To Be Inoculated Against The Sexually Transmitted Disease, HPV. “Then give the parents the opt-in. Teach them, let them opt in, but do not force them to have this inoculation.” [Santorum, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Santorum Criticized Perry For Opposing The Border Fence. “Unlike Governor Perry, I believe we need to build more fence, we need to secure the border using technology and more personnel.” [Santorum, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Santorum Said That Perry Provided In-State Tuition Rates To Illegal Immigrants To Court The Latino Vote. “What Governor Perry’s done is provided instate tuition for illegal immigrants. Maybe that was an attempt to attract the illegal -- the Latino voters.” [Santorum, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Santorum Called Paul “Irresponsible” For Saying It Was “Our Actions That Brought About The Actions Of 9/11.” “On your website on 9/11 you had a blog post that basically blamed the United States for 9/11, on your website, yesterday. You said that it was our actions that brought about the actions of 9/11. Now, Congressman Paul, that is irresponsible. The president of the United States -- someone who is running for the president of the United States and the Republican Party should not be parroting what Osama bin Laden said on 9/11.” [Santorum, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
ROMNEY ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Romney Said Using The Term “Ponzi Scheme…Was Over The Top And Unnecessary And Frightful To Many People.” Romney spoke about Perry’s views on Social Security. “No, what I'm saying is that what he just said, I think most people agree with, although the term Ponzi scheme I think is over the top and unnecessary and frightful to many people.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Attacked Perry For “His View That Social Security In Unconstitutional” And For Calling It “A Failure, This Is After 70 Years Of Tens Of Millions Of People Relying On Social Security.” Romney attacked Perry’s views on Social Security. “But the real issue is in writing his book, Governor Perry pointed out that in his view that social security is unconstitutional, that this is not something the federal government ought to be involved in, that instead it should be given back to the states. And that view and the view that somehow social security has been forced on us over the past seven years. That by any measure, Social Security has been a failure, this is after 70 years of tens of millions of people relying on social security, that's a very different matter.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Asked If Perry “Continue[s] To Believe That Social Security Should Not Be A Federal Program…Or Is He Going To Retreat From That View.” Romney spoke about Perry’s views on Social Security. “But the real question is does Governor Perry continue to believe that social security should not be a federal program, that it's unconstitutional and it should be returned to the states or is he going to retreat from that view?” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Asked If Perry Still “Believe[d] That Social Security Should Be Ended As A Federal Program As You Did Six Month Ago.” Romney spoke about Perry’s views on Social Security. “But the question is: do you still believe that social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out and returned to the states?” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Attacked Perry For Suggesting The Nation Have A Conversation On The Future Of Social Security: “We're Having That Right Now, Governor. We're Running For President.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Said Perry’s Use Of The “Term Ponzi Scheme” And For “Suggesting That Social Security Should No Longer Be A Federal Program” Was “Frightening” To Seniors. Romney attacked Perry’s views on Social Security during the debate. “Governor, the term Ponzi scheme is what scared seniors, number one. And number two, suggesting that social security should no longer be a federal program and returned to the states is unconstitutional and is likewise frightening. There are a lot of bright people who actually agree with you. That's your view. I think that social security is a fundamental program.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Said Perry Was Dealt “Four Aces” In Texas That Helped Lead To Texas Job Growth; “Zero Income Tax, Low Regulation, Right To Work State, Oil In The Ground And Republican Legislature.” Romney responded to a question if Perry deserved credit for Texas job growth. “Terrific state, no question about that. Some wonderful things that Texas has going for it that the nation could learn from. Zero income tax. That's a pretty good thing. Right to work state. Republican legislature, Republican state court. By the way, a lot of oil as well… Well, look, I think Governor Perry would agree with me that if you're dealt four aces that doesn't make you necessarily a great poker player. And four aces and the four aces that are terrific aces are the ones the nation should learn from, the ones I described, zero income tax, low regulation, right to work state, oil in the ground and republican legislature. Those things are terrific.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Pointed To Job Growth In Texas Before Perry Entered Office And Suggested Perry Would Be A Good President If The Country Was “Like Texas Going Swimmingly.” Romney responded to a question if Perry deserved credit for Texas job growth. “There has been great growth in Texas. Under Ann Richardson growth was under 2% a year, George Bush 3% a year. Those are all good numbers. Texas is a great state. If you think that the country is like Texas going swimmingly well, then somebody who has done that is just terrific. But if the country needs a turnaround, that's what I do.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Romney Attacked Perry’s Immigration Statement And Policies: “Of Course We Build A Fence And Of Course We Do Not Give Instate Tuition Credits To People Who Come Here Illegally.” “With regards to immigration, of course we build a fence and of course we do not give instate tuition credits to people who come here illegally. That only attracts people to come here and take advantage of America’s great benefits. It’s a patina of legal credibility…This is the party that believes in supporting the law. We're going to enforce the law. We're the party of opportunity, we're also the party of legal law abiding citizens.” [Romney, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
PERRY ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Perry Accused Romney Of Trying To Scare Seniors Over Social Security. “The question is, are there ways to move the states into social security for state employees or for retirees? We did in the state of Texas back in the 1980s. I think those types of thoughtful conversations with America, rather than trying to scare seniors like you're doing and other people, it's time to have a legitimate conversation in this country about how to fix that program where it's not bankrupt and our children actually know that there's going to be a retirement program there for them.” [Perry, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Perry Said Romney Called Social Security Criminal In His Book. “You called it criminal -- you said if people did it in the private sector…that it would be called criminal. That's in your book.” [Perry, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Perry Said Romney’s Health Care Plan Was The Model For Obamacare, Doesn’t Think It Was Right For Massachusetts. “But the fact of the matter is that was the plan that President Obama has said himself was the model for Obamacare. I think any of us who know that that piece of legislation will draw a line between the doctor-patient relationship, that will cost untold billions of dollars is not right for this country and, frankly, I don't think it was right for Massachusetts when you look at what it's costing the people of Massachusetts today. But at the end of the day, that was their call. So from a just purely states get to decide what they want to do, I agree with that in the state of Texas, we don't think that's the way we want to go.” [Perry, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
BACHMANN ON HER FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Bachmann: “To Have Innocent Little Twelve Year Old Girls Be Forced To Have A Government Injection Through An Executive Order Is Just Flat Out Wrong.” “I'm a mom of three children. To have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong. That should never be done. It's a violation of a liberty interest. That's -- little girls who have a negative reaction to this potentially dangerous drug don't get a mulligan. They don't get a do-over. The parents don't get a do-over. That's why I fought so hard in , against president Obama and Obama care. President Obama in a stunning, shocking level of power now just recently told all private insurance companies, you must offer the morning-after abortion pill because I said so and it must be free of charge. That same level coming through executive orders and through government dictates is wrong. That's why again we have to have someone who is absolutely committed to the repeal of Obama care and I am.” [Bachmann, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Bachmann Attacked Perry For Contributions From Merck And For Former Chief Of Staff Being A Merck Lobbyist At Time Of HPV Vaccine Decision. “I just wanted to add that we cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there was a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate. We can't deny that…What I'm saying is that it's wrong for a drug company, because the governor's former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company, the drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor, and this is just flat-out wrong. The question is is it about life or was it about millions of dollars and potentially billions for a drug company?... I'm offended for all the little girls and the parents that didn't have a choice. That's what I'm offended for.” [Bachmann, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Bachmann Said Romney’s Support Of Massachusetts Health Care Mandate Proved He Was “Not Committed” To Repealing President Obama’s Health Care Reform. “This is why I'm running for the presidency of the united states because 2012 is it. This is the election that's going to decide if we have socialized medicine in this country or not. This is it. Why? I just have to say this. It's because president Obama embedded 105 billion 464 million dollars in Obama care in postdated checks to implement this bill. We are never going to get rid of it unless we have a president committed to getting rid of it. If you believe that states can have it and that it's constitutional, you're not committed. If you implement this in your state, you're not committed. I'm committed to repealing Obama care.” [Bachmann, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Bachmann Attacked Perry For HPV Vaccine Order: “This Is A Liberty Interest That Violates The Most Deepest Personal Part Of A Little Child.” When asked if Perry’s decision to mandate HPV vaccinations for young girls was against conservative principles, Bachmann said “Yes, of course, it violates liberty. When you have innocent little 12-year-old girls that are forced to have a government injection into their body. This is a liberty interest that violates the most deepest personal part of a little child. And it violates the parental rights. This was an executive order that mandated that every little 12-year-old girl had to have this vaccination, and then you'd have to opt out. Parents don’t necessarily have the backing, the information to know to opt out. This should be an opt in. This is an overreach for government. The governor admitted this was a big mistake. The problem, the little girl doesn't get a do over, once they have that vaccination in their body, once it causes its damage, that little girl doesn't have the chance to go back. You don't get a mulligan, you don't get a do over, you have to get it right the first time, I have a core sense of conviction […] issues and I never would have done that to 12-year-old girls. … Because it's not enough to say I'm sorry, I got it wrong. We have to have a president who understands from the get go with a core sense of conviction what policies will work for the United States and what won't.” [Bachmann, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
HUNTSMAN ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Huntsman Said Romney And Perry Are “Frightening The American People.” “You have Governor Romney who called it a fraud in his book. I don't know if that was written by Kurt Cobain or not. Then you have Governor Perry calling this a Ponzi scheme. All I know is we're frightening the American people who just want solutions. This party isn't going to win in 2012 unless we get our act together and fix the problem.” [Huntsman, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Huntsman Called Perry “Treasonous” For Saying The Borders Couldn’t Be Sealed. “Well, first of all, let me say for Rick to say that you can't secure the border I think is pretty much a treasonous comment. … Rick, we can secure the border, we can secure the border through means of fences, through technology, through the deployment of our National Guard troops, we can get it done.” [Huntsman, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Huntsman Criticized Romney For Taking Multiple Positions On Issues. “We can take all night talking about where Mitt's been on the issues.” [Huntsman, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
PAUL ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Paul Said That Perry Doubled Taxes And Tripled Debt In Texas. When Wolf Blitzer asked Rep. Ron Paul whether Governor Rick Perry deserved credit for increasing the number of jobs in Texas, Paul said, “Not quite. I'm a taxpayer there. My taxes have gone up. Our taxes have doubled since he took office. Our debt has gone up nearly triple. So no, and 170,000 of the jobs were government jobs. So I would put a little damper on this, but I don't want to offend the governor because he might raise my taxes or something.” [Paul, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Paul Criticized Perry For Using An Executive Order To Mandate That Teenage Girls Be Inoculated For HPV. “I think we need to hear what governor Perry’s saying. He's saying that his policy was right. He believes that what he did was right. He thinks he’s went about it the wrong way. I believe your policy is wrong. Why? Ladies and gentlemen, why do we inoculate people with vaccines in public schools? Because we're afraid of those diseases being communicable between people at school. And therefore, to protect the rest of the people at school, we have vaccinations to protect those children. Unless Texas has a very progressive way of communicating diseases in their school by way of their curriculum, then there is no government purpose served for having little girls inoculated at the force and compulsion of the government. This is big government run amok. It is bad policy, and it should not have been done.” [Paul, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
SANTORUM ON HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS
Santorum Criticized Perry For Requiring Girls To Be Inoculated Against The Sexually Transmitted Disease, HPV. “Then give the parents the opt-in. Teach them, let them opt in, but do not force them to have this inoculation.” [Santorum, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Santorum Criticized Perry For Opposing The Border Fence. “Unlike Governor Perry, I believe we need to build more fence, we need to secure the border using technology and more personnel.” [Santorum, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Santorum Said That Perry Provided In-State Tuition Rates To Illegal Immigrants To Court The Latino Vote. “What Governor Perry’s done is provided instate tuition for illegal immigrants. Maybe that was an attempt to attract the illegal -- the Latino voters.” [Santorum, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Santorum Called Paul “Irresponsible” For Saying It Was “Our Actions That Brought About The Actions Of 9/11.” “On your website on 9/11 you had a blog post that basically blamed the United States for 9/11, on your website, yesterday. You said that it was our actions that brought about the actions of 9/11. Now, Congressman Paul, that is irresponsible. The president of the United States -- someone who is running for the president of the United States and the Republican Party should not be parroting what Osama bin Laden said on 9/11.” [Santorum, CNN/Tea Party Express Debate, 9/12/11]
Monday, September 12, 2011
" Support American Jobs Act " Sign "I'M IN "!
click here AMERICAN JOBS ACT sign Im' IN and show your support!
I Just got off a conference call with the President of the United States, of coarse I was not alone, there were tens of thousands of leaders on with me. Obama talked about the American Jobs Act, and what it means to all of us. How important it is for us to amplify our desires to create jobs NOW. Republicans want to go backwards and revert to the old policies that did not work.
Obama claimed a good idea is good no matter where it comes from. I agree! He sent the bill to congress today! He spoke about how this bill keeps true to our values
1.It honors our Vets by giving businesses more incentives to hire our vets. He said everyone who has served our country in the military should not have to grovel for a job when they come home.
2.It does not add to our deficit(Repeat if necessary)
3.Judge on Merits
4. Fair(fair share and fair shake) hard work is rewarded!
This bill has real solutions , Like Lowering taxes on the middle class that puts more money in their pocket allowing them to spend out in the market. It invest in small business, It invest in our kids. Teachers, Firefighters, and nurses will not have to suffer layoffs , which will happen if nothing is done or if we go back to old policies. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah made a comment at his "revenue and spending" speech at UVU, that Obama did not have a clear vision for growing jobs, and the only Jobs Obama wanted to create was union jobs on roads and infrastructure, but let me remind Orrin Hatch of the devastation of Katrina, and the failure to invest in infrastructure! Also he forgets that investing in this puts lots of people to work not just Union. Engineers, drafters, etc. Hatch seems to be more concerned with getting a Republican elected as President and helping the wealthy businesses destroy the Union then he really is in our Jobs creation and helping the American people gain employment NOW! This bill needs to be past and Obama needs our help! Here is a link American Jobs Act to help you and everyone understand it, and as the day's go by more will be added to the site, we are one of the first to get it, and they will also be putting up how it will help each state. Please do your part and get this website out every where. Get informed and help inform others. This link is on True blue party-INFO HIIGHWAY. Get the Facts Get the facts, I see a vision and a clear cut idea for jobs. Call your congressman and tell them to support the bill!!!!
I Just got off a conference call with the President of the United States, of coarse I was not alone, there were tens of thousands of leaders on with me. Obama talked about the American Jobs Act, and what it means to all of us. How important it is for us to amplify our desires to create jobs NOW. Republicans want to go backwards and revert to the old policies that did not work.
Obama claimed a good idea is good no matter where it comes from. I agree! He sent the bill to congress today! He spoke about how this bill keeps true to our values
1.It honors our Vets by giving businesses more incentives to hire our vets. He said everyone who has served our country in the military should not have to grovel for a job when they come home.
2.It does not add to our deficit(Repeat if necessary)
3.Judge on Merits
4. Fair(fair share and fair shake) hard work is rewarded!
This bill has real solutions , Like Lowering taxes on the middle class that puts more money in their pocket allowing them to spend out in the market. It invest in small business, It invest in our kids. Teachers, Firefighters, and nurses will not have to suffer layoffs , which will happen if nothing is done or if we go back to old policies. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah made a comment at his "revenue and spending" speech at UVU, that Obama did not have a clear vision for growing jobs, and the only Jobs Obama wanted to create was union jobs on roads and infrastructure, but let me remind Orrin Hatch of the devastation of Katrina, and the failure to invest in infrastructure! Also he forgets that investing in this puts lots of people to work not just Union. Engineers, drafters, etc. Hatch seems to be more concerned with getting a Republican elected as President and helping the wealthy businesses destroy the Union then he really is in our Jobs creation and helping the American people gain employment NOW! This bill needs to be past and Obama needs our help! Here is a link American Jobs Act to help you and everyone understand it, and as the day's go by more will be added to the site, we are one of the first to get it, and they will also be putting up how it will help each state. Please do your part and get this website out every where. Get informed and help inform others. This link is on True blue party-INFO HIIGHWAY. Get the Facts Get the facts, I see a vision and a clear cut idea for jobs. Call your congressman and tell them to support the bill!!!!
Economists show support for Obama job-growth plan
Economists show support for Obama job-growth plan
By PAUL WISEMAN and DEREK KRAVITZ
AP Economics Writers
Friday, September 9, 2011
WASHINGTON — A tentative thumbs-up.
That was the assessment Thursday night from economists, who offered mainly positive reviews of President Barack Obama’s $447 billion plan to stimulate job creation.
Some predicted it would put hundreds of thousands of people back to work next year, mainly because a Social Security tax cut for workers would be deepened and extended to small businesses.
“Payroll tax cuts are very powerful,” said Allen Sinai, chief economist of Decision Economics. “They provide a boost to direct income and, in turn, spending, which is important to growth.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated that the president’s plan would boost economic growth by 2 percentage points, add 2 million jobs and reduce unemployment by a full percentage point next year compared with existing law.
The heart of Obama’s plan is an expansion of the Social Security tax cut, which took effect this year and is scheduled to expire by year’s end. The tax cut now applies only to workers; it reduces their Social Security tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. Employers still pay the 6.2 percent rate.
Obama would renew the tax cut for a year and deepen it: He would drop workers’ Social Security tax to 3.1 percent.
Under his bigger tax cut, an extra $1,550 would go to taxpayers earning $50,000 a year. The Social Security tax is imposed on the first $106,800 of taxable income. That means the maximum savings would be about $3,300 for an individual and $6,600 for a couple.
Obama would also halve Social Security taxes for businesses whose payrolls are $5 million or less. The White House says that would include 98 percent of U.S. businesses.
Zandi calls this a “creative” way to help small companies, which have struggled more than larger ones to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. During recoveries, small businesses normally drive job creation.
“Something like this is much needed” for an economy grappling with 9.1 percent unemployment, Zandi said. “The economy is on the edge of recession.”
Susan Wachter, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, figures that the Social Security tax cuts alone would add 1 percentage point to economic growth and create 1 million jobs next year.
The president’s plan also takes a shot at long-term unemployment: Companies would get a $4,000 tax break for hiring people who have been unemployed for more than six months. As of August, the government says, 43 percent of unemployed Americans have been out of work for six months or more.
The plan would also extend emergency unemployment benefits; ramp up spending on public works projects; and provide aid to keep state and local governments from laying off teachers. Obama would pay for his program with future budget cuts.
Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.
Some economists cautioned, though, that some factors might blunt the impact of Obama’s enlarged Social Security tax cut. For one thing, the tax cut would deliver only a temporary boost. It would expire at the end of 2012. Most economists foresee unemployment remaining high well after next year.
And Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist for the Progressive Policy Institute, suggested that the link between consumer spending and job creation is weaker in an economy like America’s that’s highly open to foreign goods.
“If the payroll tax cut encourages consumers to buy more (imported) clothing, that’s likely to create more jobs overseas than in the U.S.,” Mandel said.
In addition, Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said many taxpayers might save the extra money from the tax cut rather than spend it.
“In an environment where economic confidence has been almost completely destroyed, there is a risk that both households and small businesses will save a greater proportion of any windfall, particularly if they know the reduction is only temporary,” Ashworth said.
The White House plan would also extend emergency unemployment benefits for another year. Economists note that unemployment checks put money in the hands of people who are most likely to spend it immediately.
That spending tends to boost demand for goods and services and give companies more reason to hire. The forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers has estimated that an additional year of emergency unemployment benefits would support 200,000 jobs in 2012.
Obama also wants $30 billion to modernize schools, $50 billion for road and bridge projects and a bank that would finance more public works projects.
The president’s plan will likely face resistance in Congress. Republicans have opposed further spending and have pushed to reduce the budget and shrink the government.
Still, the Wharton School’s Wachter called Obama’s plan a serious proposal that should be politically acceptable “across the board.”
Menzie Chinn, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, would favor an even bigger jobs package for an economy that grew at an annual rate of just 0.7 percent in the first six months of the year and created zero net jobs in August.
He said he fears that Obama’s plan merely makes up for the expiration of the president’s earlier $862 billion economic stimulus plan.
Even so, Chinn said, the measures Obama proposed Thursday night “might prevent the economy from dropping below stall speed” — at which point it would be vulnerable to another recession.
By PAUL WISEMAN and DEREK KRAVITZ
AP Economics Writers
Friday, September 9, 2011
WASHINGTON — A tentative thumbs-up.
That was the assessment Thursday night from economists, who offered mainly positive reviews of President Barack Obama’s $447 billion plan to stimulate job creation.
Some predicted it would put hundreds of thousands of people back to work next year, mainly because a Social Security tax cut for workers would be deepened and extended to small businesses.
“Payroll tax cuts are very powerful,” said Allen Sinai, chief economist of Decision Economics. “They provide a boost to direct income and, in turn, spending, which is important to growth.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated that the president’s plan would boost economic growth by 2 percentage points, add 2 million jobs and reduce unemployment by a full percentage point next year compared with existing law.
The heart of Obama’s plan is an expansion of the Social Security tax cut, which took effect this year and is scheduled to expire by year’s end. The tax cut now applies only to workers; it reduces their Social Security tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. Employers still pay the 6.2 percent rate.
Obama would renew the tax cut for a year and deepen it: He would drop workers’ Social Security tax to 3.1 percent.
Under his bigger tax cut, an extra $1,550 would go to taxpayers earning $50,000 a year. The Social Security tax is imposed on the first $106,800 of taxable income. That means the maximum savings would be about $3,300 for an individual and $6,600 for a couple.
Obama would also halve Social Security taxes for businesses whose payrolls are $5 million or less. The White House says that would include 98 percent of U.S. businesses.
Zandi calls this a “creative” way to help small companies, which have struggled more than larger ones to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. During recoveries, small businesses normally drive job creation.
“Something like this is much needed” for an economy grappling with 9.1 percent unemployment, Zandi said. “The economy is on the edge of recession.”
Susan Wachter, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, figures that the Social Security tax cuts alone would add 1 percentage point to economic growth and create 1 million jobs next year.
The president’s plan also takes a shot at long-term unemployment: Companies would get a $4,000 tax break for hiring people who have been unemployed for more than six months. As of August, the government says, 43 percent of unemployed Americans have been out of work for six months or more.
The plan would also extend emergency unemployment benefits; ramp up spending on public works projects; and provide aid to keep state and local governments from laying off teachers. Obama would pay for his program with future budget cuts.
Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.
Some economists cautioned, though, that some factors might blunt the impact of Obama’s enlarged Social Security tax cut. For one thing, the tax cut would deliver only a temporary boost. It would expire at the end of 2012. Most economists foresee unemployment remaining high well after next year.
And Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist for the Progressive Policy Institute, suggested that the link between consumer spending and job creation is weaker in an economy like America’s that’s highly open to foreign goods.
“If the payroll tax cut encourages consumers to buy more (imported) clothing, that’s likely to create more jobs overseas than in the U.S.,” Mandel said.
In addition, Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said many taxpayers might save the extra money from the tax cut rather than spend it.
“In an environment where economic confidence has been almost completely destroyed, there is a risk that both households and small businesses will save a greater proportion of any windfall, particularly if they know the reduction is only temporary,” Ashworth said.
The White House plan would also extend emergency unemployment benefits for another year. Economists note that unemployment checks put money in the hands of people who are most likely to spend it immediately.
That spending tends to boost demand for goods and services and give companies more reason to hire. The forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers has estimated that an additional year of emergency unemployment benefits would support 200,000 jobs in 2012.
Obama also wants $30 billion to modernize schools, $50 billion for road and bridge projects and a bank that would finance more public works projects.
The president’s plan will likely face resistance in Congress. Republicans have opposed further spending and have pushed to reduce the budget and shrink the government.
Still, the Wharton School’s Wachter called Obama’s plan a serious proposal that should be politically acceptable “across the board.”
Menzie Chinn, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, would favor an even bigger jobs package for an economy that grew at an annual rate of just 0.7 percent in the first six months of the year and created zero net jobs in August.
He said he fears that Obama’s plan merely makes up for the expiration of the president’s earlier $862 billion economic stimulus plan.
Even so, Chinn said, the measures Obama proposed Thursday night “might prevent the economy from dropping below stall speed” — at which point it would be vulnerable to another recession.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Fact Sheet :THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT
THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT
1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
* Cutting the payroll tax in half for 98 percent of businesses: The President’s plan will cut in half the taxes paid by businesses on their first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms that have payroll below this threshold.
* A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages: The President’s plan will completely eliminate payroll taxes for firms that increase their payroll by adding new workers or increasing the wages of their current worker (the benefit is capped at the first $50 million in payroll increases).
* Extending 100% expensing into 2012: This continues an effective incentive for new investment.
* Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital.
2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
* A “Returning Heroes” hiring tax credit for veterans: This provides tax credits from $5,600 to $9,600 to encourage the hiring of unemployed veterans.
* Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs,while keeping cops and firefighters on the job.
* Modernizing at least 35,000 public schools across the country,supporting new science labs, Internet-ready classrooms and renovations at schools across the country, in rural and urban areas.
* Immediate investments in infrastructure and a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank, modernizing our roads, rail, airports and waterways while putting hundreds of thousands of workers back on the job.
* A New “Project Rebuild”, which will put people to work rehabilitating homes, businesses and communities, leveraging private capital and scaling land banks and other public-private collaborations.
* Expanding access to high-speed wireless as part of a plan for freeing up the nation’s spectrum.
3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs.
* The most innovative reform to the unemployment insurance program in 40 years: As part of an extension of unemployment insurance to prevent 5 million Americans looking for work from losing their benefits, the President’s plan includes innovative work-based reforms to prevent layoffs and give states greater flexibility to use UI funds to best support job-seekers, including:
o Work-Sharing: UI for workers whose employers choose work-sharing over layoffs.
o A new “Bridge to Work” program: The plan builds on and improves innovative state programs where those displacedtake temporary, voluntary work or pursue on-the-job training.
o Innovative entrepreneurship and wage insurance programs: States will also be empowered to implement wage insurance to help reemploy older workers and programs that make it easier for unemployed workers to start their own businesses.
* A $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring long-term unemployed workers.
* Prohibiting employers from discriminating against unemployed workers when hiring.
* Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults through a fund for successful approaches for subsidized employment, innovative training programs and summer/year-round jobs for youth.
4. Tax Relief for Every American Worker and Family
* Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million workers next year: The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last year to cut workers payroll taxes in half in 2012 – providing a $1,500 tax cut to the typical American family, without negatively impacting the Social Security Trust Fund.
* Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages at today’s near 4 percent interest rates, which can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket.
5. Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.
AMERICAN JOBS ACT OVERVIEW
The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the middle class has been under attack for decades. That’s why President Obama believes we need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis – we need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street. We can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by investing in education, and by making things the world buys. The President understands that to restore an American economy that’s built to last we cannot afford to outsource American jobs and encourage reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.
To create jobs, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – nearly all of which is made up of ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and that Congress should pass right away to get the economy moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it would do so without adding a dime to the deficit.
Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
New Tax Cuts to Businesses to Support Hiring and Investment:The President is proposing three tax cuts to provide immediate incentives to hire and invest:
* Cutting the Payroll Tax Cut in Half for the First $5 Million in Wages:This provision would cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level.
* Temporarily Eliminating Employer Payroll Taxes on Wages for New Workers or Raises for Existing Workers:The President is proposing a full holiday on the 6.2% payroll tax firms pay for any growth in their payroll up to $50 million above the prior year, whether driven by new hires, increased wages or both. This is the kind of job creation measure that CBO has called the most effective of all tax cuts in supporting employment.
* Extending 100% Expensing into 2012:The President is proposing to extend 100 percent expensing, the largest temporary investment incentive in history, allowing all firms – large and small – to take an immediate deduction on investments in new plants and equipment.
* Helping Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses Access Capital and Grow: The President’s plan includes administrative, regulatory and legislative measures – including those developed and recommended by the President’s Jobs Council – to help small firms start and expand. This includes changing the way the government does business with small firms. The Administration will soon announce a plan to accelerate government payments to small contractors to help put money in their hands faster. The President is also charging his CIO and CTO to, within 90 days, stand up a one-stop, online portal for small businesses to easily access government services. As part of the President’s Startup America initiative, the Administration will work with the SEC to conduct a comprehensive review of securities regulations from the perspective of these small companies to reduce the regulatory burdens on small business capital formation in ways that are consistent with investor protection, including expanding “crowdfunding” opportunities and increasing mini-offerings. Finally, the President’s plan calls for Congress to pass comprehensive patent reform, increase guarantees for bonds to help small businesses compete for infrastructure projects and remove burdensome withholding requirements that keep capital out of the hands of job creators.
Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
* Tax Credits and Career Readiness Efforts to Support Veterans’ Hiring:The President is proposing a Returning Heroes Tax Credit of up to $5,600 for hiring unemployed veterans who have been looking for a job for more than six months, and a Wounded Warriors Tax Credit of up to $9,600 for hiring unemployed workers with service-connected disabilities who have been looking for a job for more than six months, while creating a new task force to maximize career readiness of servicemembers.
* Preventing Layoffs of Teachers, Cops and Firefighters:The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, requiring that funds be drawn down quickly. Under the President’s proposal, $30 billion be directed towards educators and $5 billion would support the hiring and retention of public safety and first responder personnel.
* Modernizing Over 35,000 Schools – From Science Labs and Internet-Ready Classrooms to Renovated Facilities:The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. This includes a priority for rural schools and dedicated funding for Bureau of Indian Education funded schools. Funds could be used for a range of emergency repair and renovation projects, greening and energy efficiency upgrades, asbestos abatement and removal, and modernization efforts to build new science and computer labs and to upgrade technology in our schools. The President is also proposing a $5 billion investment in modernizing community colleges (including tribal colleges), bolstering their infrastructure in this time of need while ensuring their ability to serve future generations of students and communities.
* Making an Immediate Investment in Our Roads, Rails and Airports: The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. The President’s plan includes investments to improve our airports, support NextGen Air Traffic Modernization efforts, and resources for the TIGER and TIFIA programs, which target competitive dollars to innovative multi-modal infrastructure programs. It will also take special steps to enhance infrastructure-related job training opportunities for individuals from underrepresented groups and ensure that small businesses can compete for infrastructure contracts.The President will work administratively to speed infrastructure investment through a recently issued Presidential Memorandum developed with his Jobs Council directingdepartments and agencies to identify high impact, job-creating infrastructure projects that can be expedited in a transparent manner through outstanding review and permitting processes. The call for greater infrastructure investment has been joined by leaders from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue.
* Establishing a National Infrastructure Bank:The President is calling for Congress to pass a National Infrastructure Bank capitalized with $10 billion, in order to leverage private and public capital and to invest in a broad range of infrastructure projects of nationaland regional significance, without earmarks or traditional political influence. The Bank would be based on the model Senators Kerry and Hutchison have championed while building on legislation by Senators Rockefeller and Lautenberg and the work of long-time infrastructure bank champions like Rosa DeLauro and the input of the President’s Jobs Council.
* Project Rebuild: Putting People Back to Work Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and Communities. The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Building on proven approaches to stabilizing neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreclosures, Project Rebuild will bring in expertise and capital from the private sector, focus on commercial and residential property improvements, and expand innovative property solutions like land banks. This approach will not only create construction jobs but will help reduce blight and crime and stabilize housing prices in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis.
* Expanding Access to High-Speed Wireless in a Fiscally Responsible Way: The President is calling for a deficit reducing plan to deploy high-speed wireless services to at least 98 percent of Americans, including those in more remote rural communities, while freeing up spectrum through incentive auctions, spurring innovation, and creating a nationwide, interoperable wireless network for public safety.
Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs
* Reform Our Unemployment Insurance System to Provide Greater Flexibility, While Ensuring 6 Million People Do Not Lose Benefits: Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the most innovative states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years help those without jobs transition to the workplace. Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to extend unemployment insurance, preventing 6 million people looking for work from losing their benefits and extending what the independent Congressional Budget Office has determined is the highest “bang for the buck” option to increase economic activity.
* Reemployment Assistance: States will be required to design more rigorous reemployment services for the long-term unemployed and to conduct assessments to review the longest-term claimants of UI to assess their eligibility and help them develop a work-search plan. These reforms are proven to speed up UI beneficiaries’ return to work.
* Work-sharing:The President will expand “work-sharing” to encourage arrangements using UI that keep employees on the job at reduced hours, rather than laying them off.
* State Flexibility for Bold Reforms to Put the Long-Term Unemployed Back To Work:The President is proposing to provide additional funds to allow states to introduce new programs aimed at long-term unemployed workers, including:
* “Bridge to Work” Programs:States will be able to put in place reforms that build off what works in programs like Georgia Works or Opportunity North Carolina, while instituting important fixes and reforms that ensure minimum wage and fair labor protections are being enforced. These approaches permits long-term unemployed workers to continue receiving UI while they take temporary, voluntary work or pursue work-based training. The President’s plan requires compliance with applicable minimum wage and other worker rights laws.
* Wage Insurance: States will be able to use UI to encourage older, long-term unemployed Americans to return to work in new industries or occupations.
* Startup Assistance: States will have flexibility to help long-term unemployed workers create their own jobs by starting their own small businesses.
* Other Reemployment Reforms: States will be able to seek waivers from the Secretary of Labor to implement other innovative reforms to connect the long-term unemployed to work opportunities.
* Tax Credits for Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed:The President is proposing a tax credit of up to $4,000 for hiring workers who have been looking for a job for over six months.
* Investing in Low-Income Youth and Adults: The President is proposing a new Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. The Initiative will do three things: i) support summer and year-round jobs for youth, building off of successful programs that supported over 370,000 such jobs in 2009 and 2010; ii) support subsidized employment opportunities for low-income individuals who are unemployed, building off the successful TANF Emergency Contingency Fund wage subsidy program that supported 260,000 jobs in 2009 and 2010; and iii) support promising and innovative local work-based job and training initiatives to place low-income adults and youths in jobs quickly.
* Prohibiting Employers from Discriminating Against Unemployed Workers: The President’s plan calls for legislation that would make it unlawful to refuse to hire applicants solely because they are unemployed or to include in a job posting a provision that unemployed persons will not be considered.
More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family
* Cutting Payroll Taxes in Half for 160 Million Workers Next Year: The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers payroll taxes in half next year. This provision will provide a tax cut of $1,500 to the typical family earning $50,000 a year. As with the payroll tax cut passed in December 2010, the American Jobs Act will specify that Social Security will still receive every dollar it would have gotten otherwise, through a transfer from the General Fund into the Social Security Trust Fund.
* Helping More Americans Refinance Mortgages at Today’s Historically Low Interest Rates: The President has instructed his economic team to work with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, their regulator the FHFA, major lenders and industry leaders to remove the barriers that exist in the current refinancing program (HARP) to help more borrowers benefit from today’s historically low interest rates. This has the potential to not only help these borrowers, but their communities and the American taxpayer, by keeping borrowers in their homes and reducing risk to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.
* To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.
$, bn
Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
70
Cut employer payroll taxes in half & bonus payroll cut for new jobs/wages
65
Extend 100% expensing in 2012
5
Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
140
Teacher rehiring and first responders
35
Modernizing schools
30
Immediate surface transportation
50
Infrastructure bank
10
Rehabilitation/repurposing of vacant property (neighborhood stabilization)
15
National wireless initiative
0*
Veterans hiring initiative
n.a.
Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs
62
UI Reform and Extension
49
Jobs tax credit for long term unemployed
8
Pathways back to work fund
5
More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family
175
Cutting employee payroll taxes in half in 2012
175
TOTAL
447
* Proposal has a gross cost of $10bn, but a net deficit reducing impact of $18bn because of spectrum auction proceeds.
1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
* Cutting the payroll tax in half for 98 percent of businesses: The President’s plan will cut in half the taxes paid by businesses on their first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms that have payroll below this threshold.
* A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages: The President’s plan will completely eliminate payroll taxes for firms that increase their payroll by adding new workers or increasing the wages of their current worker (the benefit is capped at the first $50 million in payroll increases).
* Extending 100% expensing into 2012: This continues an effective incentive for new investment.
* Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital.
2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
* A “Returning Heroes” hiring tax credit for veterans: This provides tax credits from $5,600 to $9,600 to encourage the hiring of unemployed veterans.
* Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs,while keeping cops and firefighters on the job.
* Modernizing at least 35,000 public schools across the country,supporting new science labs, Internet-ready classrooms and renovations at schools across the country, in rural and urban areas.
* Immediate investments in infrastructure and a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank, modernizing our roads, rail, airports and waterways while putting hundreds of thousands of workers back on the job.
* A New “Project Rebuild”, which will put people to work rehabilitating homes, businesses and communities, leveraging private capital and scaling land banks and other public-private collaborations.
* Expanding access to high-speed wireless as part of a plan for freeing up the nation’s spectrum.
3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs.
* The most innovative reform to the unemployment insurance program in 40 years: As part of an extension of unemployment insurance to prevent 5 million Americans looking for work from losing their benefits, the President’s plan includes innovative work-based reforms to prevent layoffs and give states greater flexibility to use UI funds to best support job-seekers, including:
o Work-Sharing: UI for workers whose employers choose work-sharing over layoffs.
o A new “Bridge to Work” program: The plan builds on and improves innovative state programs where those displacedtake temporary, voluntary work or pursue on-the-job training.
o Innovative entrepreneurship and wage insurance programs: States will also be empowered to implement wage insurance to help reemploy older workers and programs that make it easier for unemployed workers to start their own businesses.
* A $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring long-term unemployed workers.
* Prohibiting employers from discriminating against unemployed workers when hiring.
* Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults through a fund for successful approaches for subsidized employment, innovative training programs and summer/year-round jobs for youth.
4. Tax Relief for Every American Worker and Family
* Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million workers next year: The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last year to cut workers payroll taxes in half in 2012 – providing a $1,500 tax cut to the typical American family, without negatively impacting the Social Security Trust Fund.
* Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages at today’s near 4 percent interest rates, which can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket.
5. Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.
AMERICAN JOBS ACT OVERVIEW
The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the middle class has been under attack for decades. That’s why President Obama believes we need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis – we need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street. We can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by investing in education, and by making things the world buys. The President understands that to restore an American economy that’s built to last we cannot afford to outsource American jobs and encourage reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.
To create jobs, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – nearly all of which is made up of ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and that Congress should pass right away to get the economy moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it would do so without adding a dime to the deficit.
Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
New Tax Cuts to Businesses to Support Hiring and Investment:The President is proposing three tax cuts to provide immediate incentives to hire and invest:
* Cutting the Payroll Tax Cut in Half for the First $5 Million in Wages:This provision would cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level.
* Temporarily Eliminating Employer Payroll Taxes on Wages for New Workers or Raises for Existing Workers:The President is proposing a full holiday on the 6.2% payroll tax firms pay for any growth in their payroll up to $50 million above the prior year, whether driven by new hires, increased wages or both. This is the kind of job creation measure that CBO has called the most effective of all tax cuts in supporting employment.
* Extending 100% Expensing into 2012:The President is proposing to extend 100 percent expensing, the largest temporary investment incentive in history, allowing all firms – large and small – to take an immediate deduction on investments in new plants and equipment.
* Helping Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses Access Capital and Grow: The President’s plan includes administrative, regulatory and legislative measures – including those developed and recommended by the President’s Jobs Council – to help small firms start and expand. This includes changing the way the government does business with small firms. The Administration will soon announce a plan to accelerate government payments to small contractors to help put money in their hands faster. The President is also charging his CIO and CTO to, within 90 days, stand up a one-stop, online portal for small businesses to easily access government services. As part of the President’s Startup America initiative, the Administration will work with the SEC to conduct a comprehensive review of securities regulations from the perspective of these small companies to reduce the regulatory burdens on small business capital formation in ways that are consistent with investor protection, including expanding “crowdfunding” opportunities and increasing mini-offerings. Finally, the President’s plan calls for Congress to pass comprehensive patent reform, increase guarantees for bonds to help small businesses compete for infrastructure projects and remove burdensome withholding requirements that keep capital out of the hands of job creators.
Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
* Tax Credits and Career Readiness Efforts to Support Veterans’ Hiring:The President is proposing a Returning Heroes Tax Credit of up to $5,600 for hiring unemployed veterans who have been looking for a job for more than six months, and a Wounded Warriors Tax Credit of up to $9,600 for hiring unemployed workers with service-connected disabilities who have been looking for a job for more than six months, while creating a new task force to maximize career readiness of servicemembers.
* Preventing Layoffs of Teachers, Cops and Firefighters:The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, requiring that funds be drawn down quickly. Under the President’s proposal, $30 billion be directed towards educators and $5 billion would support the hiring and retention of public safety and first responder personnel.
* Modernizing Over 35,000 Schools – From Science Labs and Internet-Ready Classrooms to Renovated Facilities:The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. This includes a priority for rural schools and dedicated funding for Bureau of Indian Education funded schools. Funds could be used for a range of emergency repair and renovation projects, greening and energy efficiency upgrades, asbestos abatement and removal, and modernization efforts to build new science and computer labs and to upgrade technology in our schools. The President is also proposing a $5 billion investment in modernizing community colleges (including tribal colleges), bolstering their infrastructure in this time of need while ensuring their ability to serve future generations of students and communities.
* Making an Immediate Investment in Our Roads, Rails and Airports: The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. The President’s plan includes investments to improve our airports, support NextGen Air Traffic Modernization efforts, and resources for the TIGER and TIFIA programs, which target competitive dollars to innovative multi-modal infrastructure programs. It will also take special steps to enhance infrastructure-related job training opportunities for individuals from underrepresented groups and ensure that small businesses can compete for infrastructure contracts.The President will work administratively to speed infrastructure investment through a recently issued Presidential Memorandum developed with his Jobs Council directingdepartments and agencies to identify high impact, job-creating infrastructure projects that can be expedited in a transparent manner through outstanding review and permitting processes. The call for greater infrastructure investment has been joined by leaders from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue.
* Establishing a National Infrastructure Bank:The President is calling for Congress to pass a National Infrastructure Bank capitalized with $10 billion, in order to leverage private and public capital and to invest in a broad range of infrastructure projects of nationaland regional significance, without earmarks or traditional political influence. The Bank would be based on the model Senators Kerry and Hutchison have championed while building on legislation by Senators Rockefeller and Lautenberg and the work of long-time infrastructure bank champions like Rosa DeLauro and the input of the President’s Jobs Council.
* Project Rebuild: Putting People Back to Work Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and Communities. The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Building on proven approaches to stabilizing neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreclosures, Project Rebuild will bring in expertise and capital from the private sector, focus on commercial and residential property improvements, and expand innovative property solutions like land banks. This approach will not only create construction jobs but will help reduce blight and crime and stabilize housing prices in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis.
* Expanding Access to High-Speed Wireless in a Fiscally Responsible Way: The President is calling for a deficit reducing plan to deploy high-speed wireless services to at least 98 percent of Americans, including those in more remote rural communities, while freeing up spectrum through incentive auctions, spurring innovation, and creating a nationwide, interoperable wireless network for public safety.
Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs
* Reform Our Unemployment Insurance System to Provide Greater Flexibility, While Ensuring 6 Million People Do Not Lose Benefits: Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the most innovative states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years help those without jobs transition to the workplace. Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to extend unemployment insurance, preventing 6 million people looking for work from losing their benefits and extending what the independent Congressional Budget Office has determined is the highest “bang for the buck” option to increase economic activity.
* Reemployment Assistance: States will be required to design more rigorous reemployment services for the long-term unemployed and to conduct assessments to review the longest-term claimants of UI to assess their eligibility and help them develop a work-search plan. These reforms are proven to speed up UI beneficiaries’ return to work.
* Work-sharing:The President will expand “work-sharing” to encourage arrangements using UI that keep employees on the job at reduced hours, rather than laying them off.
* State Flexibility for Bold Reforms to Put the Long-Term Unemployed Back To Work:The President is proposing to provide additional funds to allow states to introduce new programs aimed at long-term unemployed workers, including:
* “Bridge to Work” Programs:States will be able to put in place reforms that build off what works in programs like Georgia Works or Opportunity North Carolina, while instituting important fixes and reforms that ensure minimum wage and fair labor protections are being enforced. These approaches permits long-term unemployed workers to continue receiving UI while they take temporary, voluntary work or pursue work-based training. The President’s plan requires compliance with applicable minimum wage and other worker rights laws.
* Wage Insurance: States will be able to use UI to encourage older, long-term unemployed Americans to return to work in new industries or occupations.
* Startup Assistance: States will have flexibility to help long-term unemployed workers create their own jobs by starting their own small businesses.
* Other Reemployment Reforms: States will be able to seek waivers from the Secretary of Labor to implement other innovative reforms to connect the long-term unemployed to work opportunities.
* Tax Credits for Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed:The President is proposing a tax credit of up to $4,000 for hiring workers who have been looking for a job for over six months.
* Investing in Low-Income Youth and Adults: The President is proposing a new Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. The Initiative will do three things: i) support summer and year-round jobs for youth, building off of successful programs that supported over 370,000 such jobs in 2009 and 2010; ii) support subsidized employment opportunities for low-income individuals who are unemployed, building off the successful TANF Emergency Contingency Fund wage subsidy program that supported 260,000 jobs in 2009 and 2010; and iii) support promising and innovative local work-based job and training initiatives to place low-income adults and youths in jobs quickly.
* Prohibiting Employers from Discriminating Against Unemployed Workers: The President’s plan calls for legislation that would make it unlawful to refuse to hire applicants solely because they are unemployed or to include in a job posting a provision that unemployed persons will not be considered.
More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family
* Cutting Payroll Taxes in Half for 160 Million Workers Next Year: The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers payroll taxes in half next year. This provision will provide a tax cut of $1,500 to the typical family earning $50,000 a year. As with the payroll tax cut passed in December 2010, the American Jobs Act will specify that Social Security will still receive every dollar it would have gotten otherwise, through a transfer from the General Fund into the Social Security Trust Fund.
* Helping More Americans Refinance Mortgages at Today’s Historically Low Interest Rates: The President has instructed his economic team to work with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, their regulator the FHFA, major lenders and industry leaders to remove the barriers that exist in the current refinancing program (HARP) to help more borrowers benefit from today’s historically low interest rates. This has the potential to not only help these borrowers, but their communities and the American taxpayer, by keeping borrowers in their homes and reducing risk to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.
* To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.
$, bn
Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
70
Cut employer payroll taxes in half & bonus payroll cut for new jobs/wages
65
Extend 100% expensing in 2012
5
Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
140
Teacher rehiring and first responders
35
Modernizing schools
30
Immediate surface transportation
50
Infrastructure bank
10
Rehabilitation/repurposing of vacant property (neighborhood stabilization)
15
National wireless initiative
0*
Veterans hiring initiative
n.a.
Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs
62
UI Reform and Extension
49
Jobs tax credit for long term unemployed
8
Pathways back to work fund
5
More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family
175
Cutting employee payroll taxes in half in 2012
175
TOTAL
447
* Proposal has a gross cost of $10bn, but a net deficit reducing impact of $18bn because of spectrum auction proceeds.
Employment Situation in August
· The August employment report shows private sector payrolls increased by 17,000 and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent.
· Despite strong headwinds throughout the year slowing down economic growth, the economy has now added private sector jobs for 18 straight months, for a total of 2.4 million jobs over that period.
· We know times are tough. The reality is the challenges facing middle class Americans weren’t created overnight, and they can’t be solved overnight.
· The unemployment rate is unacceptably high and we need faster economic growth to replace the millions of jobs lost during the recession.
· As the President has said many times, he will not be satisfied until every American who wants to work can find a job. We’re working tirelessly to promote hiring and spur economic growth so families across the country can feel confident in their future and the future of their children.
· On September 8th, President Obama will give a speech to a Joint Session of Congress on a series of proposals to accelerate economic growth and create jobs.
· The President will lay out bipartisan proposals for Congress to take up immediately that will support the American economy by helping small businesses, getting Americans back to work, and putting more money in the back pockets of middle class and working Americans, all while reducing the deficit and getting our fiscal house in order.
· The President said: “It is our responsibility to find bipartisan solutions to help grow our economy, and if we are willing to put country before party, I am confident we can do just that.”
· These proposals build on what the President has been pushing Congress to get done for the American people, but will include new ideas to spur job growth in the short term.
· The package will include tax cuts to promote job growth and economic security for the middle class, new infrastructure ideas to get more folks working, and proposals to help the long term unemployed.
· These proposals will be full of ideas that have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past. They are supported by a wide range of economists as the most efficient and effective way to create jobs and strengthen the economy.
· On top of the ideas President Obama will put forth after Labor Day, he will continue to put forward other economic ideas to provide economic security to the middle class and rebuild the economy. These will be both legislative and executive actions.
· Middle class Americans have met their responsibilities, and now it’s time for leaders in Washington to do the same. We need to come together, reach across the aisle and start acting in unison to move the country forward. We need to put politics and political gain aside to work together solving the problems that face our nation.
Additional information on numbers:
· The payroll numbers for August include a temporary strike that depressed employment the week of the survey—taking this into account, in August private sector payrolls increased by 62,000.
· Growth sectors during August included health care and social services (+35,500) and professional and business services (+28,000). Sectors that declined included information (-48,000, which includes Verizon employees who were on strike), construction (-5,000), and manufacturing (-3,000).
· Local governments lost 20,000 jobs in August and have shed 398,000 jobs since February 2010. State government added 5,000 jobs as approximately 22,000 furloughed state workers in Minnesota returned to work.
· Despite strong headwinds throughout the year slowing down economic growth, the economy has now added private sector jobs for 18 straight months, for a total of 2.4 million jobs over that period.
· We know times are tough. The reality is the challenges facing middle class Americans weren’t created overnight, and they can’t be solved overnight.
· The unemployment rate is unacceptably high and we need faster economic growth to replace the millions of jobs lost during the recession.
· As the President has said many times, he will not be satisfied until every American who wants to work can find a job. We’re working tirelessly to promote hiring and spur economic growth so families across the country can feel confident in their future and the future of their children.
· On September 8th, President Obama will give a speech to a Joint Session of Congress on a series of proposals to accelerate economic growth and create jobs.
· The President will lay out bipartisan proposals for Congress to take up immediately that will support the American economy by helping small businesses, getting Americans back to work, and putting more money in the back pockets of middle class and working Americans, all while reducing the deficit and getting our fiscal house in order.
· The President said: “It is our responsibility to find bipartisan solutions to help grow our economy, and if we are willing to put country before party, I am confident we can do just that.”
· These proposals build on what the President has been pushing Congress to get done for the American people, but will include new ideas to spur job growth in the short term.
· The package will include tax cuts to promote job growth and economic security for the middle class, new infrastructure ideas to get more folks working, and proposals to help the long term unemployed.
· These proposals will be full of ideas that have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past. They are supported by a wide range of economists as the most efficient and effective way to create jobs and strengthen the economy.
· On top of the ideas President Obama will put forth after Labor Day, he will continue to put forward other economic ideas to provide economic security to the middle class and rebuild the economy. These will be both legislative and executive actions.
· Middle class Americans have met their responsibilities, and now it’s time for leaders in Washington to do the same. We need to come together, reach across the aisle and start acting in unison to move the country forward. We need to put politics and political gain aside to work together solving the problems that face our nation.
Additional information on numbers:
· The payroll numbers for August include a temporary strike that depressed employment the week of the survey—taking this into account, in August private sector payrolls increased by 62,000.
· Growth sectors during August included health care and social services (+35,500) and professional and business services (+28,000). Sectors that declined included information (-48,000, which includes Verizon employees who were on strike), construction (-5,000), and manufacturing (-3,000).
· Local governments lost 20,000 jobs in August and have shed 398,000 jobs since February 2010. State government added 5,000 jobs as approximately 22,000 furloughed state workers in Minnesota returned to work.
FOR MIDDLE CLASS TeXANS, PERRy’S “MIRACLE” IS JUST A TALL TALE
While Perry might like to talk about the “Texas miracle,” the reality is it’s just another Texas Tall Tale. When he talks about the Texas economy, just remember that growth has been driven by factors he didn’t control - like rising oil prices and increased military spending. And those jobs he claims to have created are low wage jobs. In fact, Texas ties for the highest percentage of minimum wage jobs in the nation. When Americans look at restoring middle class security and the jobs of the future, this is hardly a miracle, it’s a recipe for more of the same.
REALITY: TEXAS’S JOB GROWTH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PERRY’S LEADERSHIP
Texas Job Growth “May Have Little To Do With Perry.” [ABC News, 7/8/11]
Major Economic Drivers Of Texas Growth “Were In Place Long Before Gov. Perry Took Office And Will Remain Long After He’s Gone.” [New York Times, 7/18/11]
USA Today Editorial: Texas’s Job Growth Is “Largely Attributable To Its Population Growth” As Well As “Factors That Have Virtually Nothing To Do With State Government Policies In Austin” Like Oil Prices And Proximity To Trading Partners. [Editorial, USA Today, 8/25/11]
* Texas’s Job Growth Is “The Result Of Hard-To-Duplicate Factors, Such As A Fast-Growing Population, And Unusually Low Wages.” [Bloomberg, 7/8/11]
REALITY: TEXAS HAS GROWN LOW-WAGE JOBS AND TIES FOR THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF MINIMUM WAGE JOBS
Under Perry, Texas’s “Employment Trends Shows Substantial Growth In Low-Wage Jobs.” [Dallas Morning News, 8/20/11]
2010: Texas Was Tied For The State With The Highest Percentage Of Minimum Wage Workers, At 9.5 Percent. [Bureau of Economic Analysis, Minimum Wage Workers In Texas – 2010, accessed 9/1/11]
REALITY: PERRY HAS GROWN GOVERNMENT JOBS FOR HIS “TEXAS MIRACLE”
Under Perry, “The Number Of Government Jobs In Texas Has Grown At More Than Double The Rate Of Private-Sector Employment During Perry’s Tenure.” [Washington Post, 8/18/2011]
* Under Perry, Government Job Growth Increased By 18.98%, While Private Sector Job Growth Increased By 7.96%. [data.bls.gov, 9/4/2011]
Since December 2007, Government Jobs In Texas Have Increased By 6.17%, While Private Sector Jobs Have Decreased By 0.66%. [data.bls.gov, 9/4/2011]
2010: Texas’s Largest Industry Was Government, Which Accounted For 11.8 Percent Of GDP. [Bureau of Economic Analysis, Top Five State Industries as a percent of Total GDP, 2010, accessed 9/1/11]
REALITY: TEXAS UNEMPLOYMENT HAS INCREASED SINCE THE END OF THE RECESSION, WHILE NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT HAS DECLINED
June 2009 – June 2011 Texas Unemployment Increased From 7.7 Percent To 8.2 Percent. [data.bls.gov, 8/17/2011]
Austin American-Statesman Headline: “Texas Unemployment Rate Hits Its Highest Mark Since 1987.” [Austin American-Statesman, 8/19/11]
* June 2009 To June 2011: While The Percentage Change In U.S. Unemployment Showed A 3% Decline, The Percentage Change In Texas Unemployment Showed A 6% Increase. [data.bls.gov, 8/17/2011]
REALITY: UNDER PERRY, TEXAS HAD THE HIGHEST RATE OF ANY STATE OF PEOPLE WITHOUT INSURANCE
2009: Texas Had The Highest Percentage Of People Without Health Insurance Of Any State In America, At 26%. [Kaiser Foundation, State Health Facts – 2009, accessed 8/31/11]
* 2009: Texas Had 6.2 Million Uninsured People. [Kaiser Foundation, State Health Facts – 2009, accessed, 8/31/11]
Under Perry, 2000 – 2009: The Percentage Of Texans Without Health Insurance Increased From 22.4% To 26.1%. [State Health Access Data Assistance Center, Current Population Survey Data – 2000 and 2009, accessed 8/31/11]
REALITY: TEXAS HAS 1.3 MILLION UNINSURED CHILDREN
2009: Texas Tied For The Highest Percentage Of Children Without Health Insurance Of Any State In America. [Kaiser Foundation, State Health Facts – 2009, accessed 8/31/11]
* 2009: Texas Had 1.3 Million Uninsured Children. [Kaiser Foundation, Texas State Profile, accessed, 8/31/11]
REALITY: TEXANS DO NOT HAVE ADEQUATE ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
2009: Texas Ranked 43rd Among States For Rate Of Physicians (Per 100,000 Population). [State Rankings, CQ, 8/11/11]
2009: Texas Ranked 44th Among States For Rate Of Registered Nurses (Per 100,000 Population). [State Rankings, CQ, 8/11/11]
2009: Texas Ranked 45th Among States For Rate Of Dentists (Per 100,000 Population). [State Rankings, CQ, 8/11/11]
REALITY: TEXAS’S JOB GROWTH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PERRY’S LEADERSHIP
Texas Job Growth “May Have Little To Do With Perry.” [ABC News, 7/8/11]
Major Economic Drivers Of Texas Growth “Were In Place Long Before Gov. Perry Took Office And Will Remain Long After He’s Gone.” [New York Times, 7/18/11]
USA Today Editorial: Texas’s Job Growth Is “Largely Attributable To Its Population Growth” As Well As “Factors That Have Virtually Nothing To Do With State Government Policies In Austin” Like Oil Prices And Proximity To Trading Partners. [Editorial, USA Today, 8/25/11]
* Texas’s Job Growth Is “The Result Of Hard-To-Duplicate Factors, Such As A Fast-Growing Population, And Unusually Low Wages.” [Bloomberg, 7/8/11]
REALITY: TEXAS HAS GROWN LOW-WAGE JOBS AND TIES FOR THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF MINIMUM WAGE JOBS
Under Perry, Texas’s “Employment Trends Shows Substantial Growth In Low-Wage Jobs.” [Dallas Morning News, 8/20/11]
2010: Texas Was Tied For The State With The Highest Percentage Of Minimum Wage Workers, At 9.5 Percent. [Bureau of Economic Analysis, Minimum Wage Workers In Texas – 2010, accessed 9/1/11]
REALITY: PERRY HAS GROWN GOVERNMENT JOBS FOR HIS “TEXAS MIRACLE”
Under Perry, “The Number Of Government Jobs In Texas Has Grown At More Than Double The Rate Of Private-Sector Employment During Perry’s Tenure.” [Washington Post, 8/18/2011]
* Under Perry, Government Job Growth Increased By 18.98%, While Private Sector Job Growth Increased By 7.96%. [data.bls.gov, 9/4/2011]
Since December 2007, Government Jobs In Texas Have Increased By 6.17%, While Private Sector Jobs Have Decreased By 0.66%. [data.bls.gov, 9/4/2011]
2010: Texas’s Largest Industry Was Government, Which Accounted For 11.8 Percent Of GDP. [Bureau of Economic Analysis, Top Five State Industries as a percent of Total GDP, 2010, accessed 9/1/11]
REALITY: TEXAS UNEMPLOYMENT HAS INCREASED SINCE THE END OF THE RECESSION, WHILE NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT HAS DECLINED
June 2009 – June 2011 Texas Unemployment Increased From 7.7 Percent To 8.2 Percent. [data.bls.gov, 8/17/2011]
Austin American-Statesman Headline: “Texas Unemployment Rate Hits Its Highest Mark Since 1987.” [Austin American-Statesman, 8/19/11]
* June 2009 To June 2011: While The Percentage Change In U.S. Unemployment Showed A 3% Decline, The Percentage Change In Texas Unemployment Showed A 6% Increase. [data.bls.gov, 8/17/2011]
REALITY: UNDER PERRY, TEXAS HAD THE HIGHEST RATE OF ANY STATE OF PEOPLE WITHOUT INSURANCE
2009: Texas Had The Highest Percentage Of People Without Health Insurance Of Any State In America, At 26%. [Kaiser Foundation, State Health Facts – 2009, accessed 8/31/11]
* 2009: Texas Had 6.2 Million Uninsured People. [Kaiser Foundation, State Health Facts – 2009, accessed, 8/31/11]
Under Perry, 2000 – 2009: The Percentage Of Texans Without Health Insurance Increased From 22.4% To 26.1%. [State Health Access Data Assistance Center, Current Population Survey Data – 2000 and 2009, accessed 8/31/11]
REALITY: TEXAS HAS 1.3 MILLION UNINSURED CHILDREN
2009: Texas Tied For The Highest Percentage Of Children Without Health Insurance Of Any State In America. [Kaiser Foundation, State Health Facts – 2009, accessed 8/31/11]
* 2009: Texas Had 1.3 Million Uninsured Children. [Kaiser Foundation, Texas State Profile, accessed, 8/31/11]
REALITY: TEXANS DO NOT HAVE ADEQUATE ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
2009: Texas Ranked 43rd Among States For Rate Of Physicians (Per 100,000 Population). [State Rankings, CQ, 8/11/11]
2009: Texas Ranked 44th Among States For Rate Of Registered Nurses (Per 100,000 Population). [State Rankings, CQ, 8/11/11]
2009: Texas Ranked 45th Among States For Rate Of Dentists (Per 100,000 Population). [State Rankings, CQ, 8/11/11]
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