Congressional Democrats are interested in introducing some legislation that would help create jobs; however, the White House is lukewarm about the proposals that could inflate the deficit in the process. While both groups agree on the idea that the U.S. jobless rate must be taken care of, how to get it done is largely up from debate.
The U.S. Jobless Rate and the Economy
In Oct. 2009, the U.S. jobless rate reached an astounding 10.2 percent, the highest rate in over 20 years. And now, the government is faced with the responsibility of creating more jobs – and fast. The only problem is if a government plan is placed into contention to help create more jobs – in addition to the $787 stimulus package – the nation could be driven further into debt. This is the White House’s main concern.
How to Create New Jobs
With President Obama’s pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class, and the nation’s deficit sitting at $1.4 trillion, he is trying to avoid another stimulus package at all costs. So far, with the original stimulus package, only 640,000 jobs have been created, which is less than the number of jobs lost in January alone.
So how will Congress come up with a way to create jobs without inflating the deficit? A few ideas have already been proposed:
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats are considering a tax on various financial transactions that could raise as much as $150 billion per year; however, the White House isn’t excited about that idea deeming it inappropriate for the U.S.
- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel suggested promoting hiring in the small business and energy sectors by expanding tax credits or lending.
President Obama has already noted putting together a job summit in December, which would pool the ideas of various job sectors to come up with ideas for how to improve the jobless rate. But with little-to-no consensus in the government so far, it looks like the road to creating jobs could be a long one.
How do you think Congress and the White House should go about creating jobs?