The great jobs debate
Jobs, jobs, jobs, with the rate of unemployment in this country, job creation is on the minds of every voter and should be on the minds of every politician. There are a lot of “plans” and “ideas” and pseudo plans and pseudo ideas being batted around by multiple campaigns around the country. Recently I posted the job creation plans of both John Yarmuth and Todd Lally (or at least what they said on their websites). Libertarian candidate Ed Martin who is also running for the 3rd district congressional seat wanted to jump in and have his say on job creation as well.
Mr Martin sent me a couple of press releases from his campaign that outline his specific ideas for job creation. In a nutshell Mr Martin states that small business is the most important job creation engine in this country and any real job creation plan should start with small business. His plan to encourage small business to grow is to exempt the first $25,000 in profit a business earns from federal tax. Simple as that. He goes on to explain why this will create jobs, here are his points:
The $25,000 profit tax exemption will:
- allow more businesses to stay afloat by improving their cashflow. The business goes under – people lose jobs
- keep businesses from taking out a loan to pay their taxes, then they could use loans to invest in the business and stay afloat
- encourage businesses to keep their money in their business, thereby growing and creating more jobs, instead of taking money out of the business to avoid more taxes
- make opening a business more attractive, encouraging more people to open businesses, which hire people and grow the economy
Mr Martin also addresses critics by rolling out some numbers to counteract anyone who says the US can’t afford tax cuts. By Mr. Martin’s calculation each unemployed person costs the government $12,000 a year but his tax exemption plan will only cost the government $3,500 – $7,500 a year per person hired.
So there you have it, another plan to consider for job creation. This one is pretty straight to the point. What remains to be seen is whether any plan that offers specifics actually takes any root in Washington. Plans can come from campaigns (most often the don’t) or from pundits, or even academia. But Washington chews them up and grinds them down. As we have seen with the Health Care bill the final plans still come from back rooms with the chosen few making the decisions. As voters we can send those chosen few decision makers home. Pick your plan, pick your candidate and Vote on November 2.
