I’m not really thrilled with how they plan on paying for it but late this afternoon the Senate finally agreed to have a vote on part of the president’s jobs bill. They needed 60 votes to invoke cloture and they got ninety-four. It seems that McConnell’s steal curtain of obstruction melted when it came time to deny veterans a chance at employment.
Aimed at helping unemployed veterans, the bill gives employers tax credits of up to $5,600 for hiring those who have been unemployed longer than six months. It would also give employers a tax credit of up to $9,600 for hiring long-unemployed disabled veterans.
The October unemployment rate for veterans who left the military after 2001 was 12.1%, leaving about 240,000 veterans out of work, according to the White House. The measure to help veterans is one small piece of President Obama’s job package.
This bill will probably pass both houses of Congress, get signed by the president, and become law. And that means that the president’s persistence in demanding that Congress do something about high unemployment will finally pay off. Nothing pretty is going to get through this Congress, and this bill is paid for by making it harder to qualify for Medicaid, making it easier for contractors to evade their tax obligations, and charging veterans more for their mortgages. But any progress on the jobs front is welcome.
I can’t agree that this is progress. It gives incentives to hire only the longer term unemployed. That means the deck is now tilted against the recently unemployed guaranteeing that the length of unemployment will increase. And stacks the deck against you if you are not a veteran, including the disabled.
We need a WPA/CCC style program for the long term unemployed. Restoring ravaged coal mining areas, planting trees and bushes against erosion. That takes care of the young and healthy, giving them jobs that are hard physical work so that they have an incentive to keep looking for that cushy office job. For the old and the unhealthy, well first there should be a SS system that pays adequate benefits and is not under constant attack. Then we need something for the middle aged, not so physically fit. The USPS used to have millions of these jobs, but has automated them out of existence. Factory jobs would be ideal, but they have all been shipped to China. Perhaps, backing out of the WTO is the best thing that could be done for employment.
But smoke and mirrors programs, cutting back employment with one group to boost another group is not the answer.
I hear you, Voice. I’m all for a WPA/CCC type program on a large scale. And for strengthening Social Security and Medicare for the elderly. And for other job-creating measures for the middle-aged.
Here’s the thing, though: None of those things will happen as long as the current version of the Republican Party has as much power as it does.
That’s why, on this particular measure, I come down on Booman’s side. It’s not much progress. But it’s a little bit of progress. Given the situation we’re in right now, even a little bit of progress is worth taking.
Just getting a vote on anything is progress.