Obama's Jobs Proposals

In the State of the Union address on Wednesday, and again at the Republican annual conference meeting on Friday, President Obama outlined several proposals for a "jobs bill". I'm trying to think through the pros and cons of each.

1) An up to $5000 tax credit for businesses for each employee hired in 2010.

2) A payroll tax refund (dollar for dollar) for employers who give raises to employees earning under $100,000 for the amount of the raise that is greater than the rate of inflation.

3) Eliminate the capital gains tax for small business investment.

4) Take $30 Billion returned from the Wall Street banks, and give it to community banks to start lending to small businesses again.

(well, I've typed out the proposals, but gotta run for now -- will analyze later)


Here's some more proposals from the meeting with Republicans on Friday:

5) A "modest fee on the nation's largest banks and financial institutions to fully recover for taxpayers' money that they provided to the financial sector when it was teetering on the brink of collapse, and it's designed to discourage them from taking reckless risks in the future."

6) "I propose that we close tax loopholes that reward companies for shipping American jobs overseas, and instead give companies greater incentive to create jobs right here at home."

7) "I've proposed a 3-year freeze in discretionary spending, other than what we need for national security... that's consistent with a lot of the talk... we can't blink when it's time to actually do the job."

8) PAYGO rules -- just passed in Senate.

9) Bipartisan fiscal commission -- I'm going to establish one by executive order, after one died in the Senate the other day. "I hope you participate fully..."

Obama goes on to health insurance, but I don't have time to fisk it all.