Gibbs: Cost of Obama's jobs push in range of $100B

[The Northerner]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says President Barack Obama's push to create jobs may carry a price tag in the $100 billion range.

Gibbs says the idea is to help fill in the hole from jobs lost in the deepest recession to hit the country in decades.

In his State of the Union address last week, Obama called for a program costing about $30 billion in incentives to employers to hire workers. The plan would include tax breaks to small businesses that increase their work force.

Gibbs did not say in an interview Sunday with CNN's "State of the Union" how the $100 billion figure would be broken down. That total includes money set aside for public works projects.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100131/ap_on_bi_ge/us_white_house_jobs

[babylonsister]

1. This sounds like great news to me-thanks, and rec'd. nt

[truthisfreedom]

2. 7 million jobs lost in 2 years. $100,000,000,000 divided by 7,000,000 is

$14K per job.

[activa8tr]

3. Yes, but the government cost is projected at the $5000 subsidy per job to

the private sector, so we could get almost 3 times that number of jobs if
every dollar went to those subsidies, not to paying workers.

Then there is also the fact that not all of these subsidies would be paid out in one single year alone.

So there were two errors with that logic and math.

[mrcheerful]

4. Not to mention the more folks working means more tax dollars gained

then lost. Funny how that simple fact always escapes the conservative mind, opps I forgot, cons also think that they can do business without customers to buy their products. Which is why the cons always end up breaking the bank, they refuse to realize that without the worker they have no business nor do they have profits.

[Tejas]

6. "the government cost" - correction: cost to taxpayers

Welcome to the DU!

[Edweird]

5. A jobs bill is vital, but he's RW'ing it up from the start with talk of tax cuts and

'the private sector'. Dude, the infrastructure of our country is collapsing on itself BECAUSE OF TAX CUTS! Maybe a new WPA would be a better idea than tax cuts. Put some people to work.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Krugman Said All Along That The Stimulus Was Half What It Should Be

It needed to be at least twice what it was (~ $750 billion) to keep unemployment below 10%.

So if Krugman's correct, then it needs to be $750 billion or more to have a strong impact.

Summers has been saying that jobs are coming back in the spring, so Obama figures he'll only put $100 billion in so that when things get better in a few months, he can claim credit. Obama has forgotten that Summers has been, historically, virtually always wrong.

So, this looks to be another flaming turd for all of us.

[stuart68]

9. Won't work

this can't be a push, it has to be a pull.

Companies should get subsidies (aka evil tax cuts) to buy a new machine or 2x that to hire a new employee. They start to put people to work, and as the economy comes back online, it supresses the desire to run a lot of overtime.

I don't like the "road project" crap for stimulus, because it ends up as big overtime checks to out of town workers as opposed to a new body back to work.

It is far better to have 1500 people working than 1000 getting 60 hours/week.

[wuushew]

13. Baloney

Infrastructure is the best thing we can possibly spend on. Listen to Volker he is correct.

When somebody builds a road where do you think they get the gravel for the road bed or the cement? They get get it a local or county level.

Where you think that traveling constuction workers are lodged or eat their meals. Their money does get spread and circulated in the local economy many times over.


Didn't Bush prove that cutting taxes is a fraudulent scam? We need more Keynes not Friedman.

[stuart68]

14. You misinterpret what I said

I am not calling for "tax cuts" per se, but incentives for companies to hire new employees (which might include tax cuts as part of the comprehensive package).

If you believe traveling workers buying lunch will spur local economies, you are sadly mistaken As for gravel for the roadbed, that is purely a commodity that will come from the same pits that are already supplying commodities.

If all this roadwork is so good, why are so many people still unemployed ?

Infrastructure needs to be addressed, but it will NOT be the spark the economy needs.

[madrchsod]

8. good number to start with but........

throw in some trade policies and we`ll be off and running again!

[stuart68]

10. that's the ticket

We are prohibited from selling high tech components over seas in the interest of "security", and those same items are legally available elsewhere.

If you can get them overseas, they let our own folks build and sell them. These are usually big ticket items.

[lib2DaBone]

11. Yes.. this is great... but they HAVE to address NAFTA...

Before anything can change.. they have to reverse NAFTA.... and they have to stop the tax breaks for companies that offshore.

There is no way in hell that we can rebuild America as long as we are building up China.

[howaboutme]

12. ILL gotten compensation

When they start talking about cost of government support for new jobs why aren't they talking about stripping the ill gotten compensation from Goldman Sachs and the other Wall street hucksters? There is a case to be made that many (in the media and elsewhere) hope is covered-up that these people have made billions through scamming the world.

Why aren't they suing the ratings agencies? Why aren't they reinstating fair tax rates (>80%) for the ultra rich bankers and hedge fund managers and others who have had years of lower marginal tax rates than Wal-Mart workers?

We sometimes hear some fluff news on this by officials such as Obama and others but then it dies without action. Why not? Our government needs a mega infusion of capital and the fairest and best place that it could come from are the Wall Street financial guys who have spent years scamming both the USA and the global markets.

I won't be happy until every NY financier is paying back what they've stolen as well as punitive damages that will help to lower the deficit and provide opportunities to all Americans, and not just those with special connections and Ivy League degrees.

[lib2DaBone]

15. The United States is rapidly falling behind the rest of the world...

China is starting to build over 20,000 miles of high speed rail and Mag-Lev. They are also starting over 50 nuclear power plants and rebuilding their power grid.

In the meantime, our CONgress and Senators are so busy stuffing corporate cash in their pockets that they can hardly walk from the weight.

Our roads, bridges and schools are falling apart.. and no one seems to notice.. no one seems to mind..

[Mari333]

16. let's start by cutting the defense budget by 2/3

and then tax the living shit out of any corporation that outsources jobs for slave wages.
will they? no, because they are owned by the mficking corporations.