Posted by Tina
President Obama and a few allies in Congress are setting up a jobs bill. Unfortunately for small business the jobs portion is just an invitation to play a game of hoops as the liberal Congress, thinking itself sly, bets that special baggage won’t be noticed. The tax incentives offered are manipulative…if you do this we will give you points; do that and we’ll cry foul. Racking up points would be tough for some businesses since the court they’re on may be better suited to tennis or dodge ball. Figuring out the rules of the game will probably require a lot of tedious running back and forth to the tax expert who may or may not be able to tell you if you qualify for the playoffs or will be disqualified from the game. And just to make it more interesting, the distasteful “card check” legislation is being considered as an add-on in a deal that would only rough up and blacken the eyes of business players.
So what is the big idea that the legislators think will create incentives and make employers excited about hiring people? According to a draft leaked to the press:
The “Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act” ensures that control remains with the government and employers must jump through some hoops to take advantage of incentives
TITLE I–INCENTIVES FOR HIRING AND RETAINING
UNEMPLOYED WORKERS – Sec. 101. Payroll tax forgiveness for hiring unemployed workers. ** Sec. 102. Business credit for retention of certain newly hired individuals in 2010. ** TITLE II–EXPENSING – Sec. 201. Increase in expensing of certain depreciable business assets.
Don’t bother! Why would anyone hire new employees, featuring long term commitments and added financial burdens, when business is slow and the future is so uncertain? The answer is simple, they wouldn’t! The President has also suggested that businesses should borrow to make payroll; clearly he’s never met one. If you have to borrow to make payroll you’re gasping for breath and about to fall out of the game.
The remainder of the bill reads like a list of good reasons to throw the bums out, something voters seem very anxious to do:
63% Say Better for Country If Most of Congress Not Reelected – Rasmussen
Most voters think the country would be better off if the majority of the current Congress wasn’t reelected this November, and their confidence in their own congressman continues to fall. ** A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of likely voters believe, generally speaking, that it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November. ** Just 19% disagree and say it would be better if most congressional incumbents were reelected. Another 18% aren’t sure.
Clearly the lofty positions that lawmakers hold don’t guarantee that they have even the slightest clue about how business works or what the people want. You would think they would at least listen to those who do… business people.
Excessive taxes and manipulative mandates are the playbook for this administration; these only act like the bad referee or the lousy playing field that will undermine business efforts. Government should be doing what it can to support business if they want to put the American people back to work and see the economy thrive again and grow. (The more socialist leaning representatives should also realize they will have nothing left to tax if business cannot thrive.) Jumping through hoops or playing a game of dodge ball doesn’t cut it…try getting a better playbook.