Jobs

CHART OF THE DAY: CBO Says Dem Plans Create More Jobs

Brian Beutler | November 16, 2011, 5:53AM

Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf

CBO Director Doug Elmendorf's testimony before the Senate Budget Committee Tuesday was full of bad news for the unemployed, and thus for President Obama. This is the stuff Republicans blasted out to reporters: Unemployment will likely be sky high through next year, GDP growth has been and will continue to be anemic.

But his prepared remarks confirm this is in part a product of the GOP's unwillingness to pass the big-ticket items in Obama's jobs bill. And they also imply that the GOP's economic counter-proposals would do almost nothing to actually improve things.

Here's a chart that lays out pretty clearly:

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Jobs

Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Two Pieces Of President Obama's Jobs Bill

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2011, 2:51PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to pass two modest pieces of President Obama's jobs bill.

The final vote was 95-0 with one senator voting "present." The legislation, which is expected to pass in the House, will provide tax credits to businesses who hire unemployed veterans, and, separately, will eliminate a requirement that the IRS withhold three percent of government contracts, to assure compliance with the tax code. That requirement isn't currently in effect, but is scheduled to be implemented January 1, 2012.

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Jobs

Free Money! Why The U.S. Can, But Isn't Putting New Jobs On The Credit Card

Brian Beutler | November 9, 2011, 1:50PM

Dmitry Rukhlenko / Shutterstock

Here in the United States, Republican lawmakers are busy blocking plans to spend money on jobs and infrastructure improvement, while both parties work in earnest to find ways of cutting $1.2 trillion or more from the budget over the next 10 years.

They're doing this at a time when demand for America's debt is so high that investors will essentially pay the U.S. to borrow.

You read that right. Here are the numbers. They may appear hard to parse, but it's pretty straightforward: when you adjust for inflation, the interest creditors get for parking their money here is negative. That's not a deal you'd accept from your bank, but it's the deal we're getting now.

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Barack Obama

Hill Democrats Pleased With Daley's Diminished Role

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2011, 1:10PM

Congressional Democrats weren't surprised Tuesday to learn, in a story first reported by the Wall Street Journal, that White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley had handed a big chunk of his portfolio over to senior adviser -- and former acting Chief of Staff -- Pete Rouse. Indeed, they've been living under the new regime for several weeks, and according to one highly placed Senate Democratic aide the improvement has been self evident.

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Super Committee

Why The Super Committee Is Heading For Super Catastrophe

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2011, 5:48AM

As of Tuesday morning, betting on the Super Committee to succeed would be playing the odds.

A key member of the Senate Democratic leadership team has openly predicted the panel will gridlock and fail, and placed the blame squarely on Republicans.

As GOP committee members met privately, Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen -- a Democrat on the panel -- told Bloomberg, "You need to close some of these tax loopholes and you need to generate additional revenue. And so that balance is going to be important. We saw the dueling letters just last week. We had a bipartisan group in the House that said, 'Look, everything is on the table including revenues - tax revenues.' And within 24 hours you had 33 [Republican] Senators say, 'no new net tax revenues.'"

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American Jobs Act

Democrats Tee Up Another Vote On Obama Jobs Bill Provision -- With A Twist

Brian Beutler | November 4, 2011, 12:11PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Senate Democrats are teeing up yet another vote next week on a provision of President Obama's jobs bill. This time with a twist -- they're not going to ask that it be paid for with a surtax on millionaires.

They're calling this one the "Vow to Hire Heroes Act of 2011." A version of it passed the House on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis last month. It would offer a tax credit to companies that hire out of work veterans and increase an existing credit that already goes to companies that hire veterans with service-related disabilities. Dems propose to cover the $1.6 billion cost of the bill by delaying fee reductions that are scheduled to apply to mortgage loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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Super Committee

Chart: Super Committee Dems, GOP Differ On Jobs

Brian Beutler | November 4, 2011, 5:42AM

As noted previously, the deficit Super Committee is gridlocked largely because the GOP is unwilling to accept higher taxes on wealthy people as part of a compromise with Democrats that also cuts Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. But the parties also differ on the question of whether their recommendations should include any near term spending and/or tax cuts to give the weak economy a much-needed boost.

Recently committee Republicans and Democrats presented each other with competing plans -- some details of which were leaked to the press. Aides note that the Dem plan contained about $300 billion in expansionary measures, while the GOP plan contained... well, see for yourself.

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Jobs

Republicans Block Key Component Of Obama Jobs Bill

Brian Beutler | November 3, 2011, 3:33PM

Senate Republicans Thursday blocked debate on yet another portion of President Obama's jobs bill -- one that would have provided $60 billion for funding transportation projects, and seeded a new infrastructure bank.

The vote was 51 - 49 with only 2 members of the Dem caucus -- Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) -- joining the GOP.

It was the third test vote on jobs measures Republicans have stymied. In recent weeks they filibustered debate on the whole American Jobs Act, and on legislation that would have provided states $35 billion to hire and retain teachers and emergency responders. All the bills are paid for with tiny surtaxes on income over $1 million.

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Unemployment

CHART OF THE DAY: Long Term Unemployment Is A Huge Problem -- Especially If You're Old

Brian Beutler | November 3, 2011, 10:32AM

ildogesto/ Shutterstock

The economy is showing modest signs of improvement, but probably not enough to help the people who've taken the biggest hit: the long-term unemployed.

The number of people who've been out of work for over a year has skyrocketed since the financial crisis and ensuing recession to the point where Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has called it a "national crisis" -- employers are reluctant to hire people who haven't been on the job in months, and after such long stretches peoples' skills deteriorate and they become genuinely less marketable.

How bad is it? Extremely bad -- and even worse if you're old.

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Jobs

Senate Dems Face Major Challenge On Key Part Of Obama Jobs Bill

Brian Beutler | November 1, 2011, 5:55AM

Senate Democrats will continue to force Republicans to filibuster popular pieces of President Obama's jobs bill in the days weeks ahead -- to bolster their narrative that Republicans would rather see the economy fail than help Obama, or raise taxes by even a fraction of a percent on millionaires and billionaires.

But sometime between now and the end of the year, Dems will either have to interrupt their strategy or risk watching as two key provisions that helped bolster the economy this year lapse, and threaten what's already expected to be modest economic growth in 2012.

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