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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > December > 18
Friday, December 18, 2009
Editorial: Boehner, Republicans have plan to do nothing
In evaluating President Barack Obama’s next efforts to create jobs, it’s useful to look at what his opponents propose. Enter John Boehner.
Nobody’s happy about the jobs situation. Jobs might have stopped shrinking dramatically in number, but they’re not rising dramatically, to offset recent losses. And they’re not expected to.
What the president wants to do isn’t entirely clear. But he’s talked of more infrastructure spending, tax breaks for small businesses, a version of “Cash for Clunkers” for home energy conservation projects and for using money that banks are paying back to the government for more stimulus.
He has also asked Republicans to weigh in.
Rep. Boehner, of West Chester, in his capacity as leader of the House Republicans, responded with a column printed by The Washington Post. He used the phrase “job-killing” four times to describe the president’s policies.
“Democrats’ job-killing agenda is making matters worse,” he wrote. “Americans are asking where the jobs are, but all they are getting from Washington is more spending, more debt and more policies that hurt small businesses.
“Republicans,” he said, “have offered common-sense solutions to break down barriers to economic growth … starting with a recovery plan focused on encouraging investment and allowing families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn.”
The column (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/10/AR2009121003436.html) did not get more specific than that. When you look at the specifics of the package he’s talking about (gopleader.gov/UploadedFiles/GOPNoCostJobsPlan.pdf) you can see why.
The “Republicans’ No-Cost Jobs Plan” is mainly about what shouldn’t be done. It would “halt any proposed rule or regulation expected to have an economic cost, result in job loss or a have a disparate impact on small business.”
It would “eliminate job killing federal tax increases.”
It would ban increases in “domestic discretionary spending” (meaning it would exempt Social Security, Medicare and veterans’ benefits, the bulk of domestic spending from the ban).
On the positive side, there isn’t much.
The plan would make changes in the unemployment compensation system and in tax rules relating to depreciation of property.
It would “remove unnecessary barriers to domestic energy production” and “provide an incentive for companies to repatriate earnings back to the United States.”
And it would push for passage of three pending trade agreements.
The package is mainly a collection of long-standing proposals pulled off the Republicans’ shelves. Some of the ideas have always had merit, including the push for free trade.
But this is not an energetic response to a crisis. Can anybody really believe that the next year or two would be dramatically different — as to job creation — if this package alone were enacted?
What’s most striking is what’s missing: major tax cuts. For the last generation or so, when Republicans have turned to economic activism, they have called for tax cuts.
Now they are turning away from activism, if this list is any indication. What Rep. Boehner is really saying is that, in the short run, the government should just let nature take its course, unimpeded by government action.
That’s easy for the party that’s out of power to say.
The absence of major tax cuts is presumably attributable to the country’s astronomical deficits. But, after all, in the past, conservatives argued that tax cuts reduce the deficit by increasing revenues. If that faith is giving way to reality, good.
But the disappearance of major tax cuts seems to have left the Boehner Republicans lacking in big legislative ideas. These proposals are not much different from sitting still.
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