Jobs? You want jobs?
Kari Chisholm
The president's new Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Austan Goolsbee, took to YouTube to explain - with crystal clear and unambiguous language - what's going on with jobs in the United States.
Check it out.
And if you want a little background on the guy named "Washington's Funniest Celebrity", here's a nice profile by NPR - on the occasion of his appointment as the Chair last month. (Unfortunately, the video's good - but it's not a stand-up routine. We'll keep an eye out for that later.)
Hat tip to Chip Lazenby, who posted this on Facebook.
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connect with blueoregon
11:11 a.m.
Oct 22, '10
The bars on the graph ought to be colored purple, as it was the Clintonistas, in concert with the GOP, who wrought this mess.
And Robert Rubin hasn't learned- he refuses to learn anything! Along with being the cheerleader for the banking de-reg, he now takes the David Cameron-Tory anti-Keynesian position, against stimulus!
But it sounds like Austan Goolsbee is not that stupid. Let's hope the measures to be taken are bold.
And, still as yet to be undertaken: stabilize the housing market (a Chap-11 restructuring law for homeowners would be great) and prevention of hybrid banks from gambling with federally-insured money. It's obvious what needs to be done.
12:00 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
this is the kind of thing that needed wide distribution months ago. even if they are getting to it late, it's great to see the Obama team starting to aggressively inform Americans about what actually happened & what we need to be doing.
and that he's cut taxes for middle-class Americans and small businesses. something the Republicans refuse to do.
1:06 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
I'm considered middle-class, and I haven't noticed any change in my taxes; although, my healthcare costs more, and my company is being told to expect another 20% increase each year for at least the next two years. So personally, I'm not experiencing any savings.
I do believe the following elements of the Jobs Bill will be beneficial:
Permitting up to $500,000 in capital investments that businesses can expense - Extends Bonus Depreciation, allowing small business taxpayers to immediately write off 50 percent of the cost of new equipment - Increases to $10,000 the tax deduction for start-up expenditures – doubling the current levels. ls investing in tax shelters - Allows self-employed individuals to deduct health insurance costs for purposes of paying the self-employment tax
The Capital gains deduction is good, but I question giving banks money in hopes they'll lend. Even banks that are well capitalized are very conservative and strategic as to who they loan to. Even if more money is available to loan, only companies with a sound business plan, good equity or collateral are going to be approved.
The riskier loans and money needed by entrepreneur's should be left up to investors, not banks.
1:19 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
in re: taxes
"Making Work Pay" Tax Credit (Sec. 1001, Page 195). In tax years 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay provision will provide a refundable tax credit of 6.2 percent of earned income up to $400 for individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns.
If I am not mistaken, this was done through a reduction in your FICA rate.
Here is a link to the 25 tax cuts passed by the Dems.
1:40 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
The middle-class tax cut was part of the stimulus. It was added to your weekly or monthly paycheck thus making it stimulative (i.e., make you more inclined to spend it rather than save it like a lump sum). There are only two options. Either you are part of the 95% of Americans who got it (and you just didn't notice). Or you make over $250,000 and therefore you are not middle class. The average family got $65 month increase in their tax-home pay.
Compare your pay stub from Jan. 2009 to April 2009. It's there.
1:42 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
The impact was negligible. I'm salaried, so my paycheck is the same each month. It hasn't changed in two-years.
I guess that's my beef with this whole "tax cut" for the middle-class rhetoric. If you want to sell a policy to the general public, then the benefit of it should be noticeable, or have some sort of positive impact. Maybe others have noticed a difference, but I know I haven't.
2:02 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
I'm salaried as well, and either you simply are ignorant of the fact that your take home check increased slightly, or you being dishonest in your claims here in your comments. Which is it?
FYI, this healthcare increases were coming regardless, and in fact the increases would be more down-the-road if the Protection and Affordable Care Act had not been signed into law last year.
10:20 a.m.
Oct 23, '10
The rationale for giving the tax cut in the form of a small increase in take-home pay was that people would be more likely to spend it and stimulate the economy, whereas if they got a relatively large lump-sum check they'd be more likely to save it. Unfortunately that strategy negated the PR value of the administration's tax cut.
1:42 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
Can the Obama Administration use a good PR firm, OR WHAT???
I heard JUST yesterday, that only 12% of Americans know they got a tax cut. But who cares? Obama is a Muslim anyway. </snark>
1:50 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
Sonya,
I knew about the tax cut, but I haven't noticed a difference. My wife and I looked out our paychecks for the last 12 months and there's no difference - expect for paying more in health insurance!
I would say that most people don't know about the tax cuts, because like me, they haven't noticed a significant difference; or enough of a difference to go out and spend more.
1:57 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
No change at all?
If you had absolutely no change, then something is wrong with your employer's accountant. We own a business and use Quickbooks. It was automatically generated as a software update to Quickbooks (I am also the company bookkeeper) As a couple, we are getting over $1200/yr back. I literally did not have to do a thing but download the latest tax updates from QB.
1:55 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
And, yes, my wife and I are certainly in the middle-class range. We make less than $75,000 annually together.
2:00 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
The other thing is, if it WASN'T taken out of your check, you probably got it in your tax return this year. It should have gone into your paycheck, though.
2:04 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
Then you need to re-check your paperwork then because you got it. So as I noted up-thread, you are either simply ignorant of the fact that your take home check increased slightly, or you being dishonest in your claims here in your comments. Which is it?
2:07 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
There's a $1 difference on my paycheck from 12/18/2008 to 10/19/2010.
So in talking with my wife, there was a small increase on our federal return, but not enough for us to really notice for two reasons:
We generally get money back from the feds because we have two kids
She's a self-employed contract worker so her tax implication is higher.
2:13 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
You need to look at your Federal witholding from prior to Mar|Apr 2009 and today. The change took effect in one of those two months depending on the taxpayer. If you don't see a $33 +/- reduction in Fed WH, you need to contact Payroll for an explanation.
2:23 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
Maybe that's the case, because I'm looking at my payroll checks for the last 24 months and there's hardly a difference. The only change is related to the number of hours in the pay period.
2:10 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
Mitchell,
I'm so thankful for encouraging people like you. My Friday wouldn't be complete with being called ignorant or a liar.
9:18 a.m.
Oct 23, '10
You are welcome. FYI being ignorant of something is not always a pejorative. I freely confess to being ignorant of a myriad things. From brain surgery to how to pack a parachute.
3:51 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
30 dollars a paycheck is chump change.
4:48 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
We got $1200/yr increase as a result. Instead of thinking about yourself, look at it as it was meant. To stimulate the economy. If you got your $720 in one lump sum, you might have saved it rather than put it back into the economy during a recession. When George Bush gave us $300 lump sum checks, the cost of issuing and mailing checks cost the taxpayer millions.
Obama could have done that. Maybe he should have. But chances are good you'd still be bitching.
4:18 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
You want funny and economist all in one?
Watch routines by Yoram Bauman PhD, "the world's first and only stand-up economist". And there's more by this Reed grad at www.standupeconomist.com.
6:10 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
Prepare your rotten tomatoes, eggs & catapults Blue Oregonian's. It was W who signed off on the last major tax cut and all taxpayers have paid less as a result. Obama also reduced my middle-class tax burden to a lesser degree. Please feel free to correct me if my calculations are incorrect.
7:45 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
You got a one-time lump sum of $300, or $600 as a couple from Bush's tax cut. We taxpayers also paid HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars to pay for cutting checks and mailing them versus Obama just putting it in your pay check. Your total take from Obama's tax cut is on average $65 per monthly pay check and YOU'RE STILL GETTING IT. This amounts to the largest Middle Class tax cut in HISTORY!
7:51 p.m.
Oct 22, '10
This is a good CS Monitor article about the tax cut and why no one noticed it:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Tax-VOX/2010/1022/Surprise!-You-got-a-tax-cut!-You-just-didn-t-notice.
10:12 a.m.
Oct 23, '10
That's a good presentation, but it's too little and way too late. Democrats should have been getting this message out there months ago.
Of course when you don't have your own propaganda machine to match the Republicans' Mighty Wurlitzer, it's tougher.
7:36 p.m.
Oct 25, '10
The Dems have the White House, Senate, and the House. They have an excellent communicator leading the way. People are hearing the message loud and clear; they just aren't buying it.
It's not the messenger in this case; it is the message.
9:47 a.m.
Oct 27, '10
http://www.anadolucambalkon.com