The senate is proposing another bill to create jobs. $87 billion that focuses on business tax breaks and construction projects in an effort to bite into the unemployment rate. So, really? This sounds an awful lot like the New Deal in the construction project approach. But it’s something. And will we see action on this soon? If by soon you mean February 22, then yes. If you mean not until the Senate gets over their “paralysis” by the snowstorm and makes it through their week-long (!) recess next week, then not really.

The bill is being presented as a bipartisan effort, claiming support from Republican senators Orrin Hatch and Charles Grassley.

"We offer it as the first step in the Senate process for consideration of these time-sensitive proposals," said a joint statement from Grassley and Senator Max Baucus (D).

So, we can expect smooth sailing once this bill makes it through the snowstorm and the vacation, right? Doubtful. There are people on both sides of the aisle who don’t like it. And the bottom line is, it’s the government printing more money to pay for projects. Is that a good idea? Is it the only idea? It’s pretty much that approach that got the Greek government into trouble… is Republican Senator Judd Gregg right to blast a wasteful provision for $19.5 billion to fund state and local government highway construction projects? How will Washington and the rest of America respond to his threats to use budget rules to take it out of the bill? Sounds very similar to what Obama and the Democrats are threatening on the health care reform initiative. Which, by the way, is still happening or no?

Another contentious element in the bill is a proposed tax credit for businesses that hire people who have been unemployed for at least 60 days- liberals are saying that it could cost between $56,000 and $125,000 in lost tax revenue for every job created, based on information from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Wow.

So the job debate is going to come down to arguing about how wasteful the spending is to create the jobs vs. how much tax revenue will be lost trying to create the jobs.

The point is, people need jobs or else the government will have to repay them through some other government program, right?

There’s a lot going on in Washington right now, and most of it is out of touch with the day-to-day lives of people who don’t live there. It’s a brutal, hand-to-hand battle for votes in November, which is unfortunate. The Republicans have done a great job of blocking most of Obama’s initiatives while he has been in office, and Obama has done a less than popular job of dealing with a collapsing economy and the rising cost of, well, everything.

From my point of view, there is little that can be done within our system. It’s a breaking point for the system where everything is going wrong at once and the two parties won’t agree on anything. What will spark action is for one party to be completely in control or for a new system to take over- and you know what that means?

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk (via Flickr under CCL)