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The Spectacle Blog
Earlier today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that he’ll bring up part of President Obama’s “jobs” plan for a vote on Friday (October 21).
In particular the bill aims to give states $35 billion to retain public sector union employees (teachers, police, firemen), while adding a 0.5 percent surtax on the incomes of millionaires. About 86 percent of the money would go to teachers.
Reid made the remarkable statement that “private sector jobs have been doing just fine” while trying to make the federal government pay for the state-and-local responsibilities of teachers, cops, and firefighters.
It’s true that government sector employment has been on a modest but steady downward trend for most of the past two years.
And thank goodness that’s true. The bloated bureaucracies and budgets of state and local governments are leeches sucking the blood of the productive members of society, and I say that without animus toward any individual state or local government employee.
The last thing that the federal government should do is take billions more dollars from the private sector to ensure that the coffers of public sector unions are filled with dues. And make no mistake, that’s what this “jobs bill” is about.
Reid’s move is purely, cynically political — part of the Democrats’ only remaining election strategy: class warfare.
In a minor victory for Senator Chuck Schumer over Barack Obama, the war against the “rich” has now been shifted from those who make at least $250,000 per year to those who make at least $1,000,000 per year.
Thus, the Democrats are portraying this vote as the millionaires versus your kids and your safety.
Vice President Joe Biden was none too subtle on Wednesday, saying “Are you going to put 400,000 school teachers back in classrooms, are you going to put 18,000 cops back on the street and 7,000 firefighters back in the firehouses? Or are you going to save people with average incomes of $1 million a one-half of 1 percent increase on tax on every dollar they make over a million?”
Beyond the fact that this is a big pile of Marxism with a “for the children” frosting, even if one were inclined to support the measure (which I am not) it nevertheless leads to a question: “Where will you then draw the line?”
Furthermore, the moral hazard of the federal government bailing out state, county, and local governments is a recipe for keeping the government bubble inflated, in much the same way that the Fed is inappropriately keeping interest rates near zero in order to force Americans to invest and spend rather than to save. The federal government has enough financial problems without taking on the problems of the state. What Obama, Reid and friends want to do — taking from a rich guy to give to teachers (and more importantly teachers’ unions) — would get an individual thrown in jail if he tried the same thing. It is nothing more than what Bastiat termed “legalized plunder.”
Even “moderates” like Mitt Romney, himself playing the class warfare game with his proposal to give capital gains tax relief only to those who make less than $200,00 per year, must come out aggressively against this bill. It must be called out for what it is: the camel’s nose under the tent, the first step toward implementing Obama’s second stimulus — a plan to fail just as surely as the first one did — in one small bite at a time rather than choking down the whole disgusting platter of Progressivism.
I hope, but do not have great confidence, that Republican leaders will aggressively stand up against this truly cynical plan, particularly explaining how Democratic leaders have not a single clue how to create a private sector job.
View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Ross Kaminsky
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/10/19/jobs-bill-no-better-in-small-b
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Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.19.11 @ 7:36PM
President Ford to NYC, "Drop Dead!!". That was the best thing President Ford could've said to New York City at that time (although I'm not sure he ever actually said that, but that was the famous headline). But Drop Dead is what needs to be said to each and every City or State right now, that are so far in debt, that they can't keep their existing Police or Firefighting forces. Drop Dead!! It's not a "fun" answer, but it's a realistic answer. Without a doubt, the answer right now is not "more" debt, it's less debt!! So don't send them a dollar, not a single dollar!! Then when they get their budgets in balance again, and they've made the proper changes to their bloated Public Sector Union contracts, and the good times roll around again (and they always do, finger's crossed!!), then and only then, do you hire more Cops and Firefighters. Does this suck? Why of course it sucks!! But plugging the damn's leaks with your fingers isn't going to stop the damn from breaking, it's going to break!! And then all hell breaks loose!! And then guess what? Then you don't even have the money for the Cops and Firemen that you still have working for you. You've got to fix the broken damn, from the ground up first!! So it's really simple, but it does suck!! Cutback now, get your crap together, and never make the same decisions again in the future!! Too tough? Too bad!! Drop Dead!!
CalMark| 10.19.11 @ 8:44PM
Call me a stickler...
But how can a tax originate in the Senate? I thought taxes had to originate in the House?
Or is Scummy Harry going to strip down a GOP House bill, like say the repeal of Obamacare, and use that as a "vehicle" to try to raise taxes?
Democrats = scumbags. There, I said it. Somebody call "Attack Watch!"
sjccoach| 10.19.11 @ 9:54PM
Watch the RINOs McConnell and Boehner back this bill instead of coming out against it. The will be afraid of the criticism of the main stream media. We don't have the money to fund bills like this. It won't matter to the RINOs.
Ross Kaminsky | 10.19.11 @ 10:17PM
I bet McConnell comes out against it. He's not perfect, but he's not a RINO.
Rogue Elephant| 10.19.11 @ 10:41PM
A turd sandwich is no more appetizing in small bites.
tonypal| 10.20.11 @ 12:28AM
The RNC should be bombarding youtube, social media and to a lesser extent commercial television and radio with clips showing Obama making promises to hire more of this group or that group with funds from the '09 Porkulus bill. Then show the numbers, in terms of who was hired and the cost per hire. Then ask the obvious question: why should you believe him now when you know he lied about this very same thing before.
tonypal| 10.20.11 @ 12:29AM
Silly me. I forgot, we're talking about the RNC. Never mind.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 10.20.11 @ 7:42AM
And, ironically, there isn't any shortage of teachers, firemen or police officers.
ncatty| 10.20.11 @ 9:52AM
I didn't realize the extent of Harry's drinking problem.
Big Jim| 10.20.11 @ 2:47PM
We have to stop calling this pile of manure a "jobs bill", even in quotation marks. I nominate "gobs bill" for the gobs of money it will waste.
Hal (GT) | 10.20.11 @ 3:13PM
Government has forgotten their primary directive at this point: Serve the People.
Instead they seem to have it backward.
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