Oh Boy, The House Republican Plans For Jobs

After some 140 days in office and dozens of anti-abortion bills later, the House Republicans have unveiled their seminal proposal to create jobs and embark on a pro-growth policy. It's about time. So I'm sure that they have learned from the past, when the last Administration created over 1 million public sector jobs but lost jobs in the private sector. At last glance, we would losing over 750,000 jobs in the private sector per month, now we are created about 240,000 jobs a month but this is too little. So I'm sure they recalibrated some of thie thinking on economic policies.

Ezra Klein today has a light-hearted approach to the Republican 10-page brochure. Steve Benen has more pointed comments to make at Washington Monthly. And we can forget Paul Krugman because he is not appreciative of graphic design.

Well, clearly, with American companies sitting on trillions of dollars, their reluctance to invest in the United States to create jobs is because of Too Many Regulations. Now what we need is Congress to conduct an audit of all business regulations to eliminate those that are redundant and too restrictive. (It seems I remember President Obama embarking on a similar project--no mind because if he does it, it doesn't count.) What we really need is to take regulations away from the regulatory agencies--Nixon thought that up--and allow Congress to vote on every regulation. Sort of like passing laws to regulate women's health care. That approach. Now what are the types of regulations that prevent growth and job creation--Regulating Greenhouse Gas, Net Neutrality, and Pesticide Controls. I kid you not.

And obviously, our businesses, especially small businesses like Koch Industries and Bechtal, are over-burdened by Taxes. On paper, the United States has some of the highest business taxes in the industrialized world. But then again less than 25% of our largest corporations pay any taxes. So we must help the Job Creators, which also include the wealthiest Americans because they hire assistants and maids. So we flattened the tax code--actually not a bad idea--and put the top rate for businesses and individuals at 25%. Now the House claims it wants to eliminate tax loopholes for special interests. The problem seems to be what interests because they voted to extend the tax breaks for the oil companies.

Now once we cut taxes for the corporations and the wealthy,the big job boom really can't start until we allow Companies to repatriate their overseas profits--said to be in the trillions--without them having to pay taxes. This will encourage them to create jobs in the United States.

The House Republicans will Expedite The Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Now holding up our competitive edge in the world are Patent Backlogs. There are over 700,000 patent applications backlogged. (Reforming this is already in process by the Obama Administration). So the House Republicans want to modernize and improve the patent system. So one of their ideas is to Discourage Frivolous Lawsuits.

Now that we have all the profits repatriated, the free trade pacts done and patents streamlined, we have to be sensitive to the problem our high-tech industries face in struggling to find skilled American workers. So we must change our immigration system to provide visas to the highly skilled. So while foreign workers can run the high-tech industries, many thousands of Americans will be hired as janitors and this will have a trickle-down effect on the economy.

Since our health care industry, particularly the drug companies,are the vanguard of the world, we must facilitate the FDA approval process and stop the delay in approving "life-saving" drugs. So we should cancel the fees the health industry as to pay for prescription drug approval and medical device approvals.

And of course, we must deal with America's energy needs. We must maximize our domestic energy. So we must encourage energy exploitation and production. There is no mention in their plan of alternative energy sources that actually do create jobs. But no matter.

But we also have to reassure investors that America will pay its bills so we must Pay Down the Debt. This is actually a new Republican theme since Dick Cheney always said "Deficits don't matter." But the House Republicans proudly have cut $6 trillion from the debt by passing the Paul Ryan Budget. Coupon Care will alleviate the future Medicare problem. Americans will then become Solyent Green after their last coupon runs out.

Ezra Klein says that you would have to read this plan without remembering or knowing anything that happened in the last decade. A more charitable economist said that this plan might--I stress might--have the long-term effect of increasing America's GDP by 1%. That's over a period of years. No the collateral damage might negate any benefit.

Since the tea party people have trouble reading, the brochure is in very large type and half are glossy color pictures so it's easy to read. What I found nice is that the government should have no role in encouraging areas of investment in our economy so that we might actually be competitive in the future. Instead, the wonderous powers of the free market with the Koch Brothers' guidance will produce this new Brave World.

I forget who said this was an example of how brain dead the Republican party is. Take out your golden oldies and say we need more of them or else America will end. Do it now.

To reassure investors and the market, Mitch McConnell says he will not agree to raising the debt ceiling unless there are dramatic cuts to Medicare. This is the new tactic to get around Coupon Care, insisting that Democrats and President Obama are the ones cutting Medicare. Hey, maybe it will work. It did in 2010.

I think they missed other opportunities like ensuring that we have no public school systems because the private sector can educate children better about the needs of business. But this is a minor quibble. Because America is exceptional.