American Jobs Act Update

On September 5, 2011, after over 2 yr years of recession and 14 million citizens still unemployed the President announced a $447 billion American Jobs bill which included $140 billion in infrastructure construction work. On September 13 this blog applauded the bills’ focus for finally providing direct help to the middle class. We concluded, however, that it could only pass the current Congress if forced to by strong public support.


On September 20, 2011 Gallup released the results of a detailed public opinion poll on the citizen’s response to the bill. It was overwhelmingly favorable for the bill. The infrastructure element was favored by 72% of the citizens polled. A blow-out 80% favored an accompanying tax deduction for small businesses. The reference covers the results by element and political party affiliation.

It is now October 5 and in spite of numerous presentations by the President the bill has not been submitted to either house by party leaders. No target dates have been set. (Of course, the Congress did have a week of vacation to get in). On Sept 28 the Democrats announced that they don’t have the votes for passage in the Senate and won’t bring the issue to a vote until they do. Republican leaders in the house have called the bill “campaigning” and have not announced a date when they would bring it up for debate,--if they do it at all. Today they announced it DOA.

With trillions of dollars worth of infrastructure work to be done and 14 million American citizens out of work you would think that leaders of both parties would be all over each other to work out a plan. They should want to flood the country with projects that would get the citizens off unemployment and back to value-added work. But you would be wrong.

The question is why would the US Congress prefer to write unemployment checks and watch our infrastructure crumble than provide productive value-added work to its citizens? My only observation is that this is the expected behavior of our current Congress. This is exactly why the latest Gallup poll shows citizen approval of Congressional job performance is down to13% and 9% with Independents.

There are many studies which point to the benefits of an immediate national infrastructure plan. On March 5, 2011 the New America Foundation released a widely distributed evaluation estimating that our inadequate infrastructure was costing the nation more than $192 billion a year in wasted fuel consumption, lost time, additional handling and other delays. As a specific example, this article by USA Today discusses the waste and additional costs that inadequate infrastructure is causing the grain export business.

It is apparent that there are ideologues and special interests that do not want the act to pass, but in view of the public support are afraid to be seen voting against it. Hence every delaying trick available will be pulled to avoid a vote.

What can the citizens do to force a vote when Congress refuses to even consider an issue that is so important to the citizens? Although national referendums are common in municipalities and states there is no mention of them in the constitution. (The Founding Fathers apparently never considered the possibility of incompetence at the level we now have.) In the short term we have only the advisory force of public opinion as determined by the countless political polls. In the longer term we have our 2012 election where we have the opportunity to replace all of the Representatives and one third of the Senators.

Keep up the pressure. What are your representatives doing?

The American Jobs Act-A Critical Decision

The American Jobs Act presents an important choice for America. We will have to determine if we want to give up and join the bean counters in their rush to the economic bottom or fight to regain a booming American economy. This decision is so important that a wrong choice could portend the concluding stages of the American dream.


It is not that the proposed Act is the final solution. There is much more to do and this Act is over two years late. But at last there is an aggressive middle class oriented plan put before the nation. It shines when compared to the special interest actions of the ineffective congress with which we have been living. We need it to pass now, however, not in fourteen months with a new congress. Sadly, the only way we will see significant action with the current congress is through such overwhelming public support that each congressman decides that to oppose it would be political suicide.

Your understanding is very important. You will need to educate yourself on its’ contents to withstand the misrepresentations, half truths and delaying tactics that are on their way from the ideologues and their politicians. You can move toward an independent and knowledgeable judgment by reviewing the American Jobs Act Fact Sheet.

The Act addresses four major areas, all focused on middle class issues.

Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow ($70 billion)

Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America ($140 billion)

Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs ($62 billion)

More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family ($175 billion)

The items in each area are explained in detail in the fact sheet. There is also a detailed cost table in the fact sheet. The fact sheet further claims that it is fully paid for as part of the president’s long-term deficit reduction plan.

As the proposed Act is further understood we should begin to see the results of legitimate public polls as opposed to the unscientific self serving ones starting to be published now.

Understand it and you will support it.

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Republicans “Jump the Shark” in Wisconsin

Jumping the shark is an expression used to denote when a particular production effort has surpassed its relevance and reached a point of decline in quality that it is incapable of recovering from. (From Wikipedia)

That pretty much describes the Republicans in Wisconsin

Lucky for the Democrats that after winning the election the Republicans approached their opportunity for governing Wisconsin with the finesse of a T Rex on crack. Now we have thousands of unhappy employees and a national confrontation with the unions that is escalating to the complete middle class. And then there are the pending recalls from the voters who feel they were deceived.

Advice to Wisconsin voters -Be more careful when you vote next time!

But the protest was bound to happen sometime. Lies and half truths by ideologues during campaigns have reached outrageous size. People vote not on the issues but based on the TV channel they watch. When the actual implementation is much different than expected you have serious buyer’s remorse.

Truth, transparency, and honest intent could have gone a long way to solving the Wisconsin dispute fairly without conflict. Some truths I would appreciate to see to resolve the truth of negatives put forth against the unions are:

What is the total amount spent by the unions in influencing the federal government compared to that of corporations? Publish it each year.

Why is the education system criticized and cut while the financial sector who brought us the multi-trillion dollar financial meltdown are receiving bailouts?

After cutting the fat couldn’t the states remaining shortfall for critical areas like safety and education be amortized and paid back over time in an improved economy with less shock.to the citizens?

Why not publish teachers and government employees compensation compared with financial sectors compensation each year?

For some reason we have had a relatively smooth transition here in Virginia, and with a Republican Governor