John Boehner gave his jobs speech this morning. He is an excellent speaker. We’ll start with an overview of his speech.
Boehner stated some of the President’s proposal leave room for common ground. He stated that the private sector creates jobs. Boehner reflected on his business experience before he entered politics. He claimed politicians have a fundamental misunderstanding of the economy. Incentives to hire must outweigh costs. Government mandates have been overwhelming. Uncertainty is due to threat of tax increases and government intervention and short term gimmicks. He criticized TARP. He accused government of causing despair. Recent economic initiatives have more to do with the next election than with the next generation. Economic decisions should liberate the economy. The public is affected by the past four years. Stagnant job growth may be permanent. Anger of voters is turning to fear. US is a land of opportunity. The concept that if people work hard, they will succeed is vanishing. We need to liberate the economy from Washington and allow the economy to grow.
Excessive regulation is hindering economic growth. Government hinders growth. He spoke of recent raid of Gibson Guitar Factory. Boehner criticized the Labor Relations Agency for prosecuting Boeing and declared that the Labor Relations Board was trying to close down Boeing. Boehner remarked on the US jobs lost if the Labor Relations Board succeeds. He complained about cost of regulations. Is it wise to be enforcing regulations at this time?
Spending has created a massive debt crisis that hinders economic growth and job creation. The government must act in a bipartisan way to revive the economy. He spoke of Government’s inability to let our economy work. He said we should remove barriers to liberate our economy.
Joint Super Committee should recommend methods of economic growth and deficit reduction. The current tax code discourages investment and rewards special interests. Boehner discredited Obama’s tax incentive that encourages companies to hire US workers as making the tax code more complex when the tax code should be simplified. The Super Committee should lay ground work for tax reform. We should implement lower rates for business and individuals. We should close tax loopholes. The tax code should be simpler and fairer for everyone. Tax increases are a step in the wrong direction. Producing savings on our debt means reforming entitlement programs and cutting spending.
Changes in spending programs today will have positive effects tomorrow. He spoke about entitlement program reforms. Spending cuts should be larger than the increase in the debt ceiling. Address structural problems in the entitlement programs. The President should disclose cost of pending regulations. President cabinets should be focused on impediments to job growth.
The House of Reps is working on bill to halt National Labor Board from pursuing legal action against Boeing. Stop excessive regulations that inhibit jobs. Remove barriers that hinder energy production. Link infrastructure improvement with energy creation. Bolster confidence in our economy be assuring no government shut down and no default on debt payment.
Eliminate unnecessary government barriers. Develop modern infrastructure to support new energy development. Ratify balanced budget amendment and send it to states. The ‘My way or highway’ approach is not a workable concept. Everyone must put our economy ahead of politics. We need to end name calling and yelling. We need to put politics aside and get to work. We need to liberate our economy.
Now here is my response:
I agree with a some of Boehner’s plan but I don’t think his plan will work. I think his plan will increase the national debt and hurt the US worker. The reasons are simple. First, he has not provided a means of financing the lower corporate and individual tax breaks. Unfinanced tax breaks increase the national debt in a weak economy and unconditionally create a higher debt during the next recession because the government income will be less than it is during the current recession. Second, he criticized Obama’s tax incentive to encourage employers to hire US workers but he did not criticize tax subsidies that make favored large corporations dependent on big government. Third, he wants to restructure Entitlement programs instead of improving them. As the majority leader of the House of Representatives stated today, we can eliminate aid to other nations and use those funds for other purposes. We can eliminate tax incentives and subsidies to corporations that are earning up to and over a trillion dollars a year. Tax incentives and subsidies should be temporary. Creating or extending tax incentives and subsidies should require the affirmative vote of 66% of our US Congress and the signature of the President. Republicans often complain about abuse of Welfare and Entitlement programs. They refer to it as dependency on big government. Extending tax incentives and subsidies for companies earning good or record profits does create dependency on big government and is an abuse. It is no different from abuse of the Welfare system except that the former abuse consumes far more of our hard earned tax dollars. Tax incentives and subsides for favored corporations are an example of big government intervention into our economy.
Boehner made one patently false statement. He stated that the National Labor Relations Board wants to shut down Boeing. The National Labor Relations Board wants to enforce Federal and State laws prohibiting businesses from retaliating against workers. The Republican Congress members declared war against the middle class workers when they advocated repealing the minimum wage and initiated their savage attack on unions. Their goal of their war appears to be the destruction of the middle class via allowing unlivable wages.
The Republican Congress members have declared war on the poor and the needy with deliberate false claims of laziness and other savage attacks. They blocked extending unemployment benefits for the unemployed workers. They blocked FEMA funding for businesses and people who lost property during the last hurricane. Instead they complain about how their tax dollars are spent. They made false claims against the unemployed calling the unemployed lazy. Now that’s nothing more than selfish cold blooded acts intended to destroy the skilled and unskilled working class. They don’t complain about the hundreds of billions of tax dollars wasted on tax incentives and subsidies for corporations that do not truly need those tax breaks.
The Republican War on the middle class, the poor and the needy must end. The Republican freebies to corporations earning billions of dollars must end. Only after this is done should the Republicans address the national debt, entitlement programs, welfare and the annual budget.