Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Democrats Don’t Want Americans to Work Act

by Humphrey Stevenson

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) along with Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), Harry Reid (D-NV), et al has introduced a new bill in the Senate to get Americans back to work. The bill is entitled “The Americans Want to Work Act” (S.3706). The bill contains three basic provisions. The first provision of the bill would provide for twenty additional weeks of unemployment compensation. (I’m sorry, but did I miss something?) The second extends and increases the HIRE Act payroll tax exemptions to businesses. Finally, the bill doubles the tax credit for businesses to hire the long term unemployed.

The bill would create a fifth tier of unemployment insurance to provide twenty additional weeks of benefits for those who have exhausted their benefits and live in states with unemployment rates of 7.5% or higher. Now that’s an interesting number. Let’s look at some of the states with significantly high unemployment rates, like California (12.3%), Florida (11.4%), Illinois (10.4%), Michigan (13.2%), Nevada (14.2%), and Ohio (10.5%). One wonders if this is a benefit specifically targeted at states the Democrats are counting on to maintain control of the House and Senate after November and are electorally rich which Obama will need in 2012.

That is twenty additional weeks of unemployment benefits on top of the ninety-nine weeks that have already been approved. It is little wonder why many have started to refer to unemployment as “funemployment.” Many of the unemployed are weighing the relaxation of going to the beach or playing golf and collecting unemployment benefits against the drudgery and pay of some job that might be available.

Obviously, the loss of a job and that income is not a welcomed occurrence. However, the replacement of that income becomes a necessity and necessity is the mother of invention as my parents used to say. These extended unemployment benefit de-incentivizes people from stretching themselves, looking for work in another field or possibly starting their own business. They certainly don’t provide much incentive to take any job that is available simply because the person needs the income. To quote John Lott in an article on the Fox News website, “You subsidize something and you get more of it.” Most people are not self-starters, regardless of what their resume’ says. They need a push. It’s simply human nature. Unfortunately, our government is subsidizing laziness.

The bill would also extend the HIRE Act through the end of 2011. This act was signed into law earlier this year and provides certain tax incentives for businesses to hire the long term unemployed. Specifically, employers are exempt from their share of a new employee’s Social Security payroll taxes. The employee must still pay their share. The employer also receives an additional $1,000 in tax credits if the employee is retained for one year. The business receives these exemptions if the employee had been unemployed for at least 60 days. Additionally, this new bill would double the tax credits if the new employee had exhausted all unemployment benefits and the employee is retained for at least one year.

Senator Stabenow stated that from February to June of this year, businesses had hired 5.6 million long term unemployed people for a “potential tax savings of $10.4 billion” as evidence that the HIRE Act was creating jobs. Once again, a Democrat fails to understand basic business principles. Companies are not in business to provide jobs. They are in business to produce and market goods and services, hopefully, at a profit. Employees are a means to that end. I’m not saying that employers would not take advantage of these tax credits if they happen to hire an eligible employee, they probably would. But the need for that employee must exist first. If a business has no need for any additional employees, they will not hire no matter how many tax incentives the government offers.

If the Democrats were truly interested in creating jobs, they would cut personal and corporate taxes period, and not tie the cuts to hiring a certain type of worker. This would incentivize the purchase and thereby the production of goods and services. Businesses would need to hire more employees to keep up with increased demand (not to mention they would not be punished for making a profit) and unemployment would fall naturally.

The Kings of Our Age

by Humphrey Stevenson

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This beautiful sentence begins the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. This was a statement of what the Founders believed about mankind; that no person is created any better than any other person. We all came into the world the same way; that’s why we all have a bellybutton. Further, that all rights granted to the individual come from God not from any other person or government.

Do our leaders today really believe that they are no better than we are? They have a bloated sense of moral superiority. Their values are unattainable to the unwashed masses. They believe themselves to be superior to the Founders therefore the Constitution is an obstacle to be circumvented. They are so needed that any failings are to be disregarded. Just as kings, the elite were born to rule.

We, the surfs, are to pay the taxes the elite prescribe. We are to be told what to eat, what to drive, how to live. If sacrifice is needed, we are to suffer the lack. In the eyes of the elite, we are at best hick, hayseed boobs and at worst racist, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.

We know that our ruling elite class believes that they can create rights. They told us they could. They say that with ObamaCare they have made health care a right. However, for one person to have a right means that no other is deprived of their rights. Rights are not transferred from one person to another. For instance, your right to life does not require that someone else die. But for person A to have a “right” to health care means that person B must pay for it, which means that person B is deprived of his right to his property. This is not a transfer of rights; it is simply a transfer of wealth. Therefore, health care is not a right no matter how many laws the elite pass.

They couldn’t have passed ObamaCare by calling it what it really was, a wealth transfer; so they declared it a human right and as long as no one understands what rights are and from where they come, the elite will keep on doing it.

The elite can take $ 26 billion of our money and pay off their friends in the teachers’ unions and public sector unions for their support in the November elections. I know, Obama said it was fully paid for by closing tax loopholes for multinational corporations. If this is true, then once again it proves the elite have no idea of the consequences of their tax policies. They obviously don’t realize that these policies will cause these multinational corporations to completely leave the U.S. and cause even more loss of jobs. Or maybe they do and it is part of the plan to create more dependency on the Federal government.

The ruling elite believe that they can control the economy better than the market. Thomas DiLorenzo in an article on the Ludwig von Mises Institute website describes how similar the regulatory control the Federal government exercises over the economic life of the US today is similar to the way F.A. Hayek describes the economic control by the German government of the late 1920’s and 1930’s. Our ruling elite have set up a system in which economic control is not direct but more hidden by the myriad of regulations of the various executive branch “alphabet” Federal agencies. In Germany, the government controlled about 53 percent of the means of production. Today the Federal government controls roughly 45 percent of the means of production. As DiLorenzo said, “It may sound shocking to some, but modern-day America compares "favorably" to fascist Germany of the 1930s with regard to the degree to which the state interferes with and controls economic activity.”

The solution to the problem of our elite ruling class will not be found in the Federal government no matter how many Republicans we elect to Congress. Congress is becoming irrelevant by the power it has transferred to the executive branch. The Federal government binds the states to itself by offering the so called aid to states. We must elect state legislators and governors that will exercise financial discipline and thereby be in a position to disconnect your state from the Federal government system.