Schumer jobs proposal should get quick Senate approval
Cutting taxes for hiring unemployed should help.
The Senate’s new focus on job creation could result in action, rather than just talk, in a matter of days.
That’s good, because lawmakers need to prove to voters that they’re serious. Even better is that both Democrats and Republicans are voicing support.
Last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Orrin Hatch, Republican from Utah, released a plan that gives tax cuts to employers who hire people who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. Employers would not have to pay their share of the Social Security payroll tax on eligible workers hired in 2010.
The bill is a better tactic than the tax credits that President Obama has proposed because employers get immediate relief. Under the Schumer plan, employers who keep these new hires on the payroll for 52 consecutive weeks would get an additional $1,000 credit on their 2011 tax return.
It’s expected that the Schumer-Hatch proposal will be part of a larger bill the Senate plans to unveil this week.
That bill would also extend unemployment benefits for people whose benefits have run out, and it would renew the subsidy for health insurance premiums under the COBRA program.
The House barely passed its own jobs bill at the end of 2009. That bill also extended unemployment benefits and the COBRA subsidy, but also had a controversial provision — taking $75 billion in money earmarked for the Wall Street bank bailout and using it for infrastructure and aid to states.
The Senate bill is the one lawmakers should concentrate on getting to Obama’s desk quickly, while recognizing that employers won’t add jobs until they feel confident the economy is recovering. That’s why Congress must examine other tactics, such as getting lenders to loosen up credit, to improve the business climate.
