The Little Engine That Couldn't Because His Tracks Weren't Maintained and They Laid-Off His Engineer

The President is still at it with the American Jobs Act.  To the President's credit, I actually support many of the ideas he has proposed in his Bill.  The problem is that like all of Obama's ideas they are either half measures or poorly implemented.  Not that those two things are even the biggest problem with the American Jobs Act.  Like always, Democrats and Republicans continue to bitterly fight over whose friends will benefit and nothing will get done.  Let's get done to the details though so that you can see the facts and how screwed up this entire situation is considering that his Bill is not, surprisingly to me, a bad idea.  He is still treating symptoms instead of the cause.  But I will give the President his due, it is a good step in the right direction.

On September 9, 2011 President Obama unveiled the American Jobs Act before Congress that “...answers the urgent need to create jobs right away."  The American Jobs Act consists of five major points: One, tax cuts for small buisnesses, not large corporations, to help hire and expand now. Two, the Act will invest substantial capital into American infastructure that will help to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges, hire more teachers to help the failing school system, and to start programs to help train and educate low-income citizens that need job training.  Third, it will extend all unemployment benefits, punish employers who discriminate against laid off workers, and to give tax cuts to companies that hire workers who have been unemployed for over six months.  Fourth, it cuts middle and lower class payroll taxes and restructures morgage loans to historically low rates. "Last, the plan won’t add a dime to the deficit and is fully paid for through a balanced deficit reduction plan that includes closing corporate tax loopholes and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share."

Supporters of the American Jobs Act claim that in passing this legislation the United States would see immediate and effective results in the American infastructure, in education, and also in the nonprofit sector.  The President's plan will provide $850,700,000 in imediate investments to the highways, bridges, and public transit system in Massachusetts alone.  Massachusetts will also see another $378,000,000 in immediate investments for the public education system with another seperate $68,000,000 solely going toward community colleges.  Not to mention the fact that the payroll tax will be reduced to %3.1 for employers up to the first $5,000,000 in wages.   All of these proposals will vastly improve our state, and our communities at large.

Opponents of Obama's proposed plan continue to deter this Bill from passing.  They claim that tax cuts for buisnesses do not increase the demand of their products.  They also claim that by taxing the rich, or job creators, that it will truly be detrimental to the American economy.  Obama's opponents claim that with the tax hike from %33 to %39.5 for the wealthiest Americans will hinder job creation and will encourage the economy to flounder.  They also continue to argue that a $4000 tax credit and $3500 payroll tax deduction are hardly worth making an employer hire a $50,000 a year employee.  The unemployment insurance restructing that is proposed in the Bill is also wholly foolish according to it's opponents.  The insurance has too few guidelines and relies mostly on states to implement.  And with 44 states facing budget shortfalls it is clear that many states just plain do not have the capitol to fund these plans.  Opponents also believe that a large portion of American debt is directly associated with the massive and vague social programs that have no clear cut off dates, are unregulated and poorly enforced.

After doing my research of the American Dreams Act I think that it will certainly not pass.  Atleast not hollistically.  Obama's plans just seem very half measured, poorly implemented and contain too many loopholes.  Taxing the "rich" is a good idea.  They should pay more in taxes than the middle class.  Though I say this in all my blogs, I support a flat tax inwhich everyone would pay the same percentage of their wages.  To think that the rich pay a smaller sum than the middle class is outright ludicrous and criminal.  Investing in the infastructure is a great idea in the Bill.  I just hope that, if that section of the Bill is passed, the government will hire American and will pay a fair and honest price for the work done instead of lobbyists and Unions sucking away at our tax dollars. 

America needs to fix it's tax system and infrastructure before it starts working on anything else. By doing just those two things jobs will come back and jobs will be created. That fact has been proven throughout the history of civilization and let's hope that we do not repeat the mistakes of our predecessors like Rome, Egypt, or even Britain.  On the whole, Obama is going in the correct direction but I doubt he will get where he needs to go due to the partisanship in the government on both sides. 

Facts:

• Obama Proposed American Jobs Act on the 8 September 2011 and released the Bill publicly on 19 September 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/us/politics/09payroll.html?pagewanted=all
• The American Jobs Act contains 5 major points regarding lower payroll taxes, closing loopholes in tax code, investing in infrastructure, social programs extended such as unemployment, and the Bill will not add to the nation debt http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/08/american-jobs-act
• Massachusetts will recieve over $2Billion in direct funding to help support infrastructure, education and to create jobs. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/08/american-jobs-act
• Both Rome collapsed due to expensive wars, poor financing and crumbling infrastructure http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7.html