Should President Obama use TARP funds to help fix the unemployment crisis?
Mon Dec 7, 2009 3:43 PM EST
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Should President Obama use TARP funds to help fix the unemployment crisis?
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If a person wants to work they should be able to work.
Best Thoughts
Dan
How much is that work worth? The federal minimum wage has gone up by 40% in the last three years. Now the administration is mandating that employers must provide full health care benefits to all employees.
Is it any wonder that teenagers and highschool drop outs can't get a job?
In 2006 the minimum cost of hiring a full-time worker was $10,712 per year (if the employee was willing to accept minimum wage.)
Today the minimum cost of hiring that same worker is $15,080 + health benefits which alone cost between $4,824 and $13,375 for a family.
People who would work for $10,712 per year (mainly teenagers and high school students) are no longer allowed to work for that wage. Instead the employer must be willing to spend at least $20,000 on that same employee - which many employers aren't willing to do. The percentage of teenage income that is "disposable" is disproportionately high which results in outsized reductions in discretionary spending in the broader economy.
I agree entirely. People who are willing to work for a given wage should be allowed to do so, alas the government won't allow it. It's cheaper to higher an illegal under the table than it is to hire an American kid legally.
alas, we're trying to get adults decent paying jobs - not too many teenagers out there supporting families. See the idea is to help the folks - companies are doing fine - just check out my portfolio.
My company depends to a certain extent on teenage customers. If they still had jobs, so too would about a quarter of my company.
Show me any company in which teenagers don't make up a sizable portion of the customer base. Entire industries of decent paying jobs for adults thrive on the teenage market. My point is that you can't decimate any part of the workforce and expect it to have no impact on all other parts of the work force.
And ask yourself, where would you be today, if nobody was willing to give you your first job.
Mr. Obama should have been focused on jobs creation during his first stimulus plan that didn't work. If they are to use this extra (ROFL) money for jobs creation can we expect to be told that it will save jobs? or is there a guarantee to create new jobs? Cause if the desired affect is to use this money to buy off senators at $300million a pop for Health Care Reform then I am NOT for it!
This seems to me just another opportunity for Dem's to spend the rest of America's wealth pushing their agenda, there is no real desire on their part to create jobs or they would have done it in the first trillion dollars they spent!
I do not trust this administration nor do I believe that America will improve under their direction. For me the best way to use this money is exactly the way the legislation was written that it go to paying down the National debt!
The Average American is the smallest portion of the economy but when you add them all together they are the Economy. Focus on the people and they will level out the companies.
Invest in the people and quit trying to decide whats best for us. Give us the money and we will invest and pay back debt which is what we need to happen. Don't just benefit the companies as they are nothing with out the people who consume and produce these products. To me its a Duh!@ what are you doing????????
We need a ground up upgrade not a company first atmosphere which is why we are in this situation. Care for the people as they make the economic wheels turn.
Communities where first than industry and banking. How easily we all forget where our roots come from.
People built this country not companies, not elitist, not the powerhungry folks who lead through control of resources. The consumer and worker are the economy.
Balance.
Huge payout to the top only created a bigger gap on the bottom. trickle effect? Where? We need an investment for the working American. Let us decide where the monies should be placed as we are the consumer and the worker and we absolutley know whats best for our unique needs. We need Balance not LEADERSHIP!!
I agree that businesses, not gov't, create more jobs, but business credit is practically non-existent now. Bailed out banks should've been forced to lend to sm & med. size businesses. We need JOBS! How can the Republicans not get it? We'll have to remind them next November.We can, and we must, change things in Washinton.
Jim your beloved Democrates have cost more jobs than the Republican Party. Look at how many US jobs have been lost since NAFTA took effect. Look what happens to jobs when taxes on the rich and companies are increased.
If you want to remind anyone next November, how about doing the right thing and voting against EVERY incumbant on the ballot. Both parties will get it when they are'nt being elected. Until then this country will sink faster than Britain did after WWII. Neither party is your friend and untill you and people like you understand this it will be the same old story over and over.
"If the Government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is also powerful enough to take away everything you have."
"If the government is big enough...blah, blah, blah" Lost any freedoms yet I haven't - pure unadulterated hogwash. Okay, Bush took a few but as far as big government is concerned I'm more afraid of big corporations.
As you should be, but there is no corporation larger than the federal government. And any government with unlimited power should rightfully be feared.
at this point the socialist corporations have unlimited power and if you don't think this is true you are not realy aware of what is going on. the health care system is a monopoly with no competition at all and is why this country is sinking. when the republicans started decimating regulation they started the destruction of the middle class.
Health care is a government sponsored monopoly. And that is the problem.
Monopolies are already illegal, and the government needs to regulate them. The answer isn't to take a government sponsored monopoly and replace it with a government run monopoly, it should be to break the monopoly and allow companies to compete in a fair free market. Government IS the problem. They should regulate the industry, not control it.
Isn't this plan exactly what the original Stimulus Package should have been???
Yes, the banks should have been forced into loaning money to the small and medium size businesses. It's just a bit to late for the businesses that have already folded. But now, given the economy for the past 2 years, most small to medium size businesses that have been struggling have lost their creditworthiness.
Yup. And banks should also be forced into lending money to poor people to buy houses they can't afford.
Now that banks have rediscovered the existance of risk and are finally figuring out how to do proper underwriting, I think it would be a tragedy to have a new banking crisis caused by misguided government mandates. But it wouldn't be the first time...
lets get something straight , the Obama administration is not going to create jobs in America [ a name we forgot] they have made no changes anywhere except helping us slide faster into economic disaster . we have no industry , companies make products over seas not here, we need to force all our companies to produce and and hire only in the states . our factories are gone, not everyone wants a desk job , at one time u could go from high school work at a company for a good pay , insurance and retirement , [ that is how it should be . ] we are the only country that has it all yet a few have decide to take it all away . cost of war and goverment and just Obama alone has help destroy a country [ no one in the past ] just Obama , bail out the people not the wealthy , he could have paid all the mortgages off and we would have money to spend , 10.00 an hour jobs will not help nothing unless u are illegal and work 3 of them / ahhhh the American dream , thers alot to say for higher education , but i can not seem to think of anything right now , wake up the land of oportunity is dried up close the doors , kick the illegals out forever , start from the beginning , and yes change goverment , shoot all of them , it will take 10 yrs for them to be currupt again . i am 53 yrs old ,working since i was 14 , 3 kids , 3 grand children , i see no future for them as long as the elites are in office , the castle still exists and we have had many kings , and they are still doing very well living off my paycheck...all Obama has done is to guranty his families future. ok no more spending , the white house is not a home but a place of bussiness, no more social parties ect , stop trying to give the lazy people free stuff, no insurance [ ask the world economy why] i need to hear one good thing that any president has done lately to insure our futures are as good as theirs . GOD BLESS AMERICA
I find it funny how you use the term "force" when saying what the government should do to companies.
Personally I think that if the government merely "encouraged" companies to hire Americans and create domestic jobs, we would be much better off.
Instead we are left of the idea that we should somehow force companies to do something that they have been financially discouraged from doing. Clearly our businesses need more punishment.
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Typical GOP BS. Anyone not working is lazy.Let's see if you feel the same way should you get layed off by no fault of your own, can't find a job and lose health insurance then get sick or hurt.
The bridges and ppower grid are in horrible shape, people need jobs. lets walk and chew gum at the same time.
I find it funny how you use the term "force" when saying what the government should do to companies. Personally I think that if the government merely "encouraged" companies to hire Americans and create domestic jobs, we would be much better off.
What you fail to see (or is it refuse to see?) is that the government's idea of "encouragement" is the use of force!
Instead we are left of the idea that we should somehow force companies to do something that they have been financially discouraged from doing. Clearly our businesses need more punishment. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Well, I hope when they get "punished" according to your wishes, that you're then next poor dumb bastard who loses their job.
Anton...
The American taxpayers stepped up to the plate with TARP and the Stimulus Bill. Now is the time for any business owner in this Country to do their part and hire someone if their business employs a minimum of 100 people and is operating in the black. They should hire at least one person and that number should increase by a certain percentage based on the total number of employees in a Company or Corporation. Businesses have been able to operate freely in this Country for over 200 years. time to give a little back to get the ball rolling again. Stockholders may feel the pinch in the short run but will benefit in the long run with more people employed and spending money again. It may sound simple, but I believe it would work.
Seriously, wtf are you talking about. you want to create jobs, go take a risk and start a company, otherwise sit down and stfu, you have no business telling anyone else what to do.
So, you're saying they should hire someone to sit on their butt and do nothing but get paid? If there isn't any work to do, why would they hire someone? If their product isn't selling or no one is using their service, NO ONE has the right to tell them that they HAVE to hire another person. That is absolutely insane! The original stimulus bill was supposed to help create jobs and we have not seen that happen yet. Banks got billions of $ to get them out of their mess, but businesses still cannot get loans to invest in their companies and expand so that they can hire more people.
On top of all that, now you have this global climate change crap, with all the cap and trade ridiculousness. How are you going to create jobs then? Many of our factories will have to be shut down, jobs are going to be shipped overseas, and we will be importing even more than we are now! Wake up, people! Too many of you buy this "progressive" nonsense and swallow it whole without thinking about the damage it will do. Start thinking for yourself again, stop relying on the govt to do everything for you, and do your best to make it through the next few years, because it's going to suck for a while now.
All the TARP money will go right into Obama's friends pockets and not one cent will help the needy! Nothing has changed in fact the very people that ran all those organizations into the ground are still there doing business just like they used too! Next year they will be ready to be bailed out again by you mr/mrs taxpayer!
All of you are idiots. Cut taxes, cut payroll taxes - and get the engine humming. Mothball healthcare - quit talking about cap and trade and get the hell out of the way.
Republican hogwash! That's all you guys (or gals) ever say. Cut taxes. Remember how well that worked for Bush. Seems to me he had a nice hefty surplus when he became President and then left office with an astronomical deficit. Repubs had their chance, now step out of the way and let the Dems lead us back to prosperity.
I also love that quote in the teaser ...."in his young administration" - hey its a quarter over.
If economics were as simple as an engine we could just vote you into office and everything would be humming along! But then you might have to wake up to the fact that Americans pay the least in taxes of just about any other country but we want want want and complain, "why do most other country's have universal health care?","and how do they do that education thing anyway?" Perhaps government is just naturally proportional to the amount of complex problems which ultimately perplex the average American. But good luck telling most of them they couldn't possibly just admit that they are wrong, or don't know what they are talking about!
i don't rightly give a crap ! ! , i've been unemployed for 20 months now..
if there's a way to get me working again, i'll take my chances ! ! , i'd shovel at a
sewer treatment plant with a smile on my face and be a half hour early to work,
if there was work.... i love this " just cut taxes " .. morons ! ! how can you cut what
i don't have, if i don't make any paycheck taxes, what the hell good is cutting taxes
going to do for me... i don't care, just get us back to work ! ! what is so hard to
understand about that.. i have no plans to win the battle, i just want to work...
if you think standing up and denying any of us the slightest chance to have
some kind of work is going to help get your party elected is nuts ! ! , i don't give
a damm about the deficit, that's always going to be there, if there's a chance that
there's going to be jobs out, let's get it done, if we can bail out big banks, we can
put people back to work, just give me / us a chance at that shovel at the sewer
plant, we've failed long enough to not see this growing unemployment problem,
10% / 11% , is just the ones that can get unemployment benefits.. 16% is
closer to what it really is
jack c - good luck, I mean that, I hope you can get work soon.
TARP stands for Troubled Asset Relief Plan - it was not really a stimulus so much as it was TOURNIQUET. Now that the BANKS have been bailed out, I don't find ANYTHING wrong with bailing out the taxpayers with their OWN MONEY - especially the FORMER taxpayers like john that are now out of work b/c the banks didn't LEND with the money they were given.
It's like a casino right now. The house always wins, except in this case, it's the government. They ARE going to do what they want with the money whether we like it or not - UNLESS more people remember that the Government only has power when we LET them.
So, unless there are some educated people out there that know their way around an Economics book and are running for office right now (and naive enough to think they'll get anything accomplished without PAC and Lobby money) - SHUT UP and SIT DOWN.
SPEND the money on Job creation. GET John hired. STOP whining about who's mucking up what and do something about it if you have a better idea.
The use of Tarp for the community organizer's new plan is illegal but doing things illegal does not seem to bother the Chicago crowd of mental midgits in the White House.
Investment tax credits to small, medium & large company's who buy products that creates jobs to manufacture, sell, deliver and install!!!!!!!!!
"WOW" what a concept.....[it's called trickle down] and by damn it works!
use tarp for what is was intended and make those that use it pay it back as anticipated. If BO wants funds for jobs, then tell congress what the funds are for and who they will benefit. They can take them out of the slush fund stimulus program, that at present is onlt hiring political bearocrats
Ahhh, I'm a tax payer so it's my money too? Now I am gonna loan it to a bank but not receive any intrest for the loan in my pocket? Or anything from helping the same bank that charges me for every thing they offer me?
Ahhh , Can ya just give me 150k? That will get me outta the hole. Back up and to a new start. And I should be able to give 1-2 people a job in the community with it too.
The only reason the last deficit enhancement dorkculous plan failed was we did'nt spend enough. The reason dumbocrats can't pass crap and trade and spend and spend and spend was we did'nt elect enough of them in the senate, and Bush, and republicans support slavery blah blah blah. The only reason we can't insure the last 10 percent pof the population is becuase we have'nt screwed the other 90 enough yet or spent you tax dollars to bribe enough cronnies. As always the lobotomized jobless drones cheer while OBama steals them and their children blind. I guess if we have become such a nation of morons we deserve this crooked con man who only consults and enriches his freinds. He is laughing alll the way to the bank while bankrupting us.
The banks didn't lend the TARP money, so it went to make them rich, and forced the rest of the USA into the ditch.
Use the money to help the people. That's the only way to maintain and build capacity necessary to pay back all the debt. Otherwise, we're goners.
This is a joke. You don't spend your way out of a recession, you spend your way into a depression and financial collapse. How can he be talking about spending on the one hand while claiming to be concerned about the national debt on the other. This is the worst administration since the Carter era, and I thought that would be hard to achieve.
Carter was a fair bit better than Obama... However Obama is shaping up to be quite a Herbert Hoover. The parallels between their presidencies are frightening.
This is just another reward the unions bill. They want to create jobs, get big gov't off small businesses backs.
All the Democrats know how to do, is spend, tax and regulate, it is drowning this country right when we need common sense policies. Gov't only takes wealth, it never creates any, as witnessed by the total failure of the federal and most state gov't to spend within their means.
Oh, just look at some of these proud Republicans screaming about how Obama is doing such a bad job! Get a grip! Ex-President Bush did more damage to this country than Obama can do in 1 hour. It's the Republican regime that killed the Ma and Pa businesses of this country by allowing companies like Walmart, Sears, and K-Mart (before the merger with Sears), to build their super stores in places where it really wasn't even needed. Walmart came into my town and killed the supermarket that was in the old part of town causing the start of unemployment where I live. Now everyone has no choice but to go to Walmart for groceries if they don't shop at Albertson's or Smith's and even these businesses are heading into the red.
I can't get the funds I need to start my grocery store in a small town where the people have to drive 23 miles to go to the aforementioned Walmart to buy the things they need and then 23 miles back. The political machine here won't allow it and why? Because they are all Republicans with their own agenda that don't have a compassionate bone in their bodies for the small business person. All you do is sit and complain. Have any of you done anything to boost the economy and create jobs? Our infrastructure is falling apart and Obama wants to create jobs buy repairing it and you criticize this?
Some of you need serious help if you think that Obama's approach to our current crisis if a faulty one. I never saw one Republican step up to the plate and offer any plan except for those that benefited the rich and more well to do business owner while the rest of us were left out in the cold. Jeez, you people make me sick with your selfishness and criticism.
Because Bush was bad (and I agree he was), then it is ok for Obama to be bad? President Obama is continuing ex-President Bush's policies, if you will just look at what he is doing: more troops out, continue "homeland security" (by the way, homeland security would be closing that mexican border but they refuse to do that, they don't want to opress the mexicans for God's sake, just you and me). All of us need to speak up. Urge your congresspeople to introduce legislation to reverse some of this stuff...like NAFTA for instance. Auditing the Federal Reserve Bank should be interesting. Will you be shocked at the corruption we find?The government has no right to tell you and I that we must purchase health insurance or face jail and fines. The government has no right to make you take vaccines or face jail and fines. The President has no right to go sign treaties without 2/3 senate approval. Do you think he has that for Copenhagen? So guess what, someone thinks they can have the EPA (unelected) regulate this harmful CO2 that plants love. Well, they can't. Only congress and senate can legislate laws. What about all these UN resolutions we are asked to abide by? The UN isn't my government! All these things make profit for someone, ask yourself who. Did NAFTA profit workers? (obviously not we see the results of that today). Who do you think is gonna profit off cap and trade? Al Gore already has, but he says "it all goes to charity" mmhm sure. He didn't say which one or when he started giving it to them. He also has been linked to Enron, supposedly that's how he came up with cap and trade, then began the global warming propaganda. It's not to save the world (plants love co2 and water), it is to profit for AL Gore and people like him. Who is the vaccine scare good for--I'd say for the people that can't be sued by you when you get neurological damage, chronic immune system damage or even die from it. Also, if the EPA is so concerned about me and everyone else, why don't they get flouride (a pesticide ingredient and hazardous waste from industry) out of my water!! We all have to work and not stop because there isn't much left to save.
The Republicans have steadily destroyed the middle class; ever since Reagan and Greenspan destroyed Social Security and used these funds to fix Reagan's deficit.
The erosion started by these socialist corporations who destroyed regulation so that the rich could cheat and betray our country has decimated our economy with no criminal accounting for this thus far.
The Republicans destroyed any Federal institution thay did not want with lack of funding and then says "big government doesn't work." IE: Medicare watch dogs to make sure the criminal element doesn't abuse the system.
Republicans have let the health care system (private) destroy our economy and destroy small businesses with the runaway costs of monopolies.
It's unfortunate that the Democrats have no guts and I'm losing my patience with Obama but the intransigence of the corrupt and cowardly Republicans is hard to surrmount unless Obama becomes "IMPERIAL" as Bush did.
PS: for all of those who are ignorant of the right wing Christians who are behind the majority of Republicans and some Democrats as well, take heed, they are trying to turn this democracy into a theocracy. This is a fact.
when are people goin to realize that it doesn't matter whether someone puts on a republican or a democrat label (or a libertarian or a greenparty or whatever!). What matters is what they do and who they associate with. we don't live in a democracy, and it was never meant to be a democracy. We live in a 'democratic republic' to ensure as best possible that EVERYONE's free from oppression by government. Go ahead and blame republicans and democrats for everything. That will get us nowhere. Trusting your government (they're just people) got us where we are today! We have to stay aware of what is happening around us, and speak up when government oversteps its boundaries. It is our job to be part of the checks and balances.