The problem with Washington and jobs is that almost everything that lawmakers will do will fail to foster real job growth. A major reason for this is that the leftists who keep Russ Carnahan, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in power want Washington to decide who wins and who loses in the economy. They want those winners and losers singled out based on their political agenda.
Consider the tax credit being offered to businesses for hiring. At its core, this is an attempt by Washington to get businesses to do something specific rather than liberating them to do whatever they see fit. Do what Washington wants, and you get money. Don’t, and your business gets stuck with the bill.
What if your boss doesn’t need tax relief to hire someone right now? What if she needs to buy software, or a lathe, or build a website? What if she would be better off being able to order more inventory to get a cheaper cost of goods? If your boss’ customers had their taxes cut without Washington strings attached, perhaps they could purchase more goods and services rather than shoveling it down the rat hole of federal waste.
Washington has decided that the only thing they will subsidize is a narrow business decision among many thousands of potential decisions. They want to pick the winners rather than just make sure the game is played fairly and that the rules apply to all players.
Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and her low-maintenance colleague Russ Carnahan clearly have little interest in helping small businesses out in a way that is suitable to small business. Their proposals will give businesses that dance to Washington’s tune an advantage at the expense of businesses that don’t or simply can’t. The general principles behind the jobs bill being considered is more of the same from Washington – do what we say.
The first word in free market is “free”. Washington interferes far too much in the decisions that businesses make – the last thing we need is more. We need congress to reject attempts to “focus” tax cuts. We need broadly based tax cuts that will benefit anyone who pays taxes, just not those who do the government’s bidding.
