American Jobs Act up for vote in the Senate this week

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This week, the Senate will vote on its version of President Obama's American Jobs Act.

The Congressional Budget Office has scored S. 1660 [PDF], the Senate Democrats' version of the American Jobs Act, President Obama's jobs plan. The Senate bill replaces a number of tax increases on the oil and gas and financial industry in Obama's plan with a millionaires' surtax, a change the White House approves. Daily Kos: CBO: Senate version of American Jobs Act reduces deficit by $6 billion in next decade:

The CBO says that the Senate bill would raise slightly more revenue than the original plan, and cut the deficit.

CBO and JCT estimate that, in total, enacting S. 1660 would decrease deficits by about $6 billion over the 2012-2021 period (see enclosed table). That estimated deficit reduction of $6 billion over the coming decade is the net effect of $447 billion in additional spending and tax cuts in titles II through III and $453 billion in additional tax revenue from the surtax specified in title IV.[…]

That's an additional $3 billion in revenue in the proposal, over the original plan and thus an addition $3 billion in deficit reduction. The CBO estimated that the original plan "would increase the budget deficit by $288 billion in 2012 and decrease deficits by $3 billion over the 2012-2021 period. That estimated deficit reduction of $3 billion over the coming decade is the net effect of $447 billion in additional spending and tax cuts in titles II through III and $450 billion in additional tax revenue from the offsets specified in title IV."

By the way, it's been 276 days since the Republicans took the House, and they still don't have a jobs plan.

Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?

President Obama's weekly address on Saturday encouraged Americans to contact their senators to support the Senate version of the American Jobs Act. Yes, I know. Arizona's twin embarrassments will vote against the bill out of pure partisan hatred for Obama, and by extension for unemployed Americans, but call their offices anyway.

Transcript of WEEKLY ADDRESS: Growing the Economy with the American Jobs Act. Money quote:

[A]ny Senator out there who’s thinking about voting against this jobs bill needs to explain why they would oppose something that we know would improve our economic situation. If the Republicans in Congress think they have a better plan for creating jobs right now, they should prove it. Because one of the same independent economists who looked at our plan just said that their ideas, quote, wouldn’t “mean much for the economy in the near term.”

At Thursday's press conference, President Obama had a compelling suggestion for the lame media villagers in attendance. Political Animal – The ‘homework assignment’ on the missing GOP jobs plan:

“[H]ere’s a little homework assignment for folks,” he said.”Go ask the Republicans what their jobs plan is if they’re opposed to the American Jobs Act, and have it scored, have it assessed by the same independent economists that have assessed our jobs plan. These independent economists say that we could grow the economy as much as 2 percent, and as many as 1.9 million workers would be back on the job. I think it would be interesting to have them do a similar assessment… Have those economists evaluate what, over the next two years, the Republican jobs plan would do.”

At a certain level, Obama was being deliberately coy. There is no Republican jobs plan, at least not in the formal sense. The president and his team, love them or hate them, put pen to paper — they introduced a serious and detailed plan, unveiled a bill, and allowed it to be scrutinized by independent analysts. GOP leaders, in contrast, put some vague platitudes on a website.

But to her credit, the New York Times’ Jackie Calmes saw value in the president’s suggestion and put Obama’s proposition to the test.

While economic forecasts are not definitive, in that they are predictions, Macroeconomic Advisers, a St. Louis-based firm that the Federal Reserve often uses, has projected that the Obama jobs plan could increase economic growth by 1.25 percentage points and add 1.3 million jobs in 2012. Moody’s Analytics, another firm, has estimated it would add two percentage points and up to 1.9 million jobs.

Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, said Republicans had “reasonable ideas” but not ones that could be measured by the firm’s forecasting model. He said he believed the [GOP] proposals “would have little immediate effect relative to a plan that stimulates aggregate demand” — that is, a plan like Mr. Obama’s, with tax cuts and spending programs.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, similarly said the Republican proposals “are generally good longer-term economic policy, but they won’t mean much for the economy and job market in the next year.” He continued: “Given the high odds of another recession in the next few months, it is vital for Congress and the administration to provide some near-term support to the economy.” [emphasis added]

None of this comes as a surprise, of course, which is probably why so few reporters took up Obama’s challenge — the results were pretty obvious.

* * *

With 9.1% unemployment and a genuine jobs crisis, we have two competing approaches: (a) a credible White House plan with ideas from both parties that, according to independent analyses, would boost an economy that desperately needs a hand; and (b) a vague Republican wish list of tired ideas that, as is clear after any serious evaluation, wouldn’t make matters better.

Until GOP officials come up with a sincere alternative to the American Jobs Act, why should anyone take their whining seriously?