While one politician in New Jersey may be getting the message, politicians in Washington remain clueless about the fiscal mess they face. Or what they need do to increase the number of jobs in this great country. A bipartisan groups of Senators has proposed a jobs bill that shows little understanding of the private sector. (If that’s what bipartisanship is, I don’t want any.)
The Baucus-Grassley extends payroll tax exemptions to employers hiring someone who has been unemployed for more than 60 days while granting at $1,000 tax credit for new hires who stay on the job for 52 weeks.
Based on his experience in the private sector, Hugh Hewitt believes there “is no way these ‘incentives’ will create many real jobs, though they will lower the cost of workers who would be hired anyway by expanding businesses.” The talk show host/blogger has a better idea:
If the Congress would simply order water deliveries in California’s Central Valley or rewrite the absurd Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act of 2008 or any of a dozen other common sense measures to increase economic activity, the jobs outlook would be much better off than with this election year posturing.
Simply put, we need eliminate regulations that make it difficult for entrepreneurs to do business. Methinks though that the White House doesn’t much care for elimination of anything which might reduce the power of the federal government. No wonder “small businesses are less than impressed with the administration’s latest plans to create more jobs.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may well be trying to scrap Baucus-Grassley, but I doubt he’ll replace it with regulatory relief.Effe
Dan,
What precisely are your objections to the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act of 2008?
Yes!
And spending/deficit relief. (Deficit relief through deep spending cuts, not tax increases.)
Isn’t that the act that says no second hand sales of anything that might contain lead, which means no used books can be sold? (or at least no used childrens’ books)
I know all the unemployment extensions are killing my ex business partner (he had a couple businesses) and his small business. He had to start paying people he hadn’t seen in forever. Which means he didn’t have money to replace them with productive employees and work on his business. In fact his business is about to go under. It’s crazy, the poor out of work employees get all this “relief”, but the guy who is not rich but owns a small business gets screwed.
Of course, he will never stop voting Democrat.
What precisely are your objections to the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act of 2008?
Here’s one, for starters.
Since taking effect Feb. 10, the law passed has made it illegal to sell off-road vehicles and accessories — including used vehicles and replacement parts — aimed at children 12 and younger because of small amounts of lead in alloys used in parts of the vehicles. Smith says he is prohibited even from selling helmets and other safety gear aimed at youth.
Motorcycle industry leaders say the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is costing $1 billion in retail sales and related economic impact. Like many other powersports dealers, Smith says, he is stuck with 45 to 50 youth vehicles that he cannot sell under the new law.
And here’s another.
At least one local business is closing its doors as a result of a new law aimed at greater safety in children’s products.
A Kidd’s Dream, located at Oak and Court streets, will close on Feb. 9, the day before the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act goes into effect. Brenda Kidd and daughter Gayla Wade opened the business, a children’s consignment shop, in February 2007. The law, passed in August 2008 in response to widespread recalls of children’s products, requires third-party testing of “not just toys, but everything from cloth diapers to hair bows,” according to a story from the Associated Press.
Not to mention the effects on US-based small businesses that manufacture and sell children’s products, inasmuch as it puts them at an enormous cost disadvantage since they have much less volume over which to spread testing costs.
So let’s see; the law disproportionately harms small businesses and applies to ludicrous items, all in the name of “doing something”.
What’s really funny is that, if Barack Obama wants to protect poor children from exposure to dangerous things, he could start with the housing projects in which he and his cronies put them. But of course, he doesn’t care, because he’s pocketing the money for that.
Water deliveries to the Central Valley. Has anyone driven I-5 lately between San Fran and Los Angeles? Once lush orchards are reverting to desert, once green fields of soy and lettuce are now sand dunes. Unemployment in areas like Fresno is approaching 40%. All this for the sake of the delta smelt. Smelts live, people starve. Priorities.