Economy & Unemployment: Is $15B A Good Deal For 1M Jobs?

By Janet Peterson on March 7, 2010, 6:00 am Posted in Economy News

On Thursday, the House passed Senate leader Harry Reid’s jobs bill, and pledged to spend $15 billion to either save or create up to 1 million jobs. The vote was much closer in the House than anyone expected, and when the gavel slammed down the tally stood at 217-201, with 35 Democrats voting no and 6 Republicans voting yes. The House vote came on the heels of last month’s passage in the Senate in a surprising 70-28 vote.

What We Get And Who’s To Gain

The bill passed on Thursday would provide tax breaks and other incentives to companies that hire unemployed workers who had been jobless for at least 60 days. Preliminary estimates indicate that somewhere between 250,000 and 1 million workers could be affected. Doing the math, that amounts to paying between $15,000 to $60,000 per job created or saved. Seeing as how the only sector showing any signs of life is the service sector and consumer spending continues to decline, it is possible that the United States government may actually spend more to create jobs than the jobs are actually worth.

Conservatives are quick to point out that this is looking more and more like a jobless recovery. With unemployment hanging upwards of 9%, it is more than likely that unemployment will increase yet again after the temporary influx of incentives are exhausted. Another question left unanswered is that currently 14.9 million workers are without a job according to the U.S. Department of Labor. What about the remaining 14 million not covered under this bill? Just how much is Washington willing to spend?

 

This remains to be seen. The Obama administration will probably continue to make the plea that more government help is needed for an economy that refuses to acquiesce to the administration’s whim.

Related posts:

1. House Leaves Unemployment Insurance Benefits On Table To Go On E.Break
2. Unions Blast Reid’s $15B Jobs Bill As A “Band-Aid”
3. Unemployment Extension: Is Coverage For COBRA Health Ins. In My Check
4. Unemployment: Last Week’s 460,000 Doesn’t Include Easter Holiday Stats
5. Unemployment Extension: Slow Paying States Adding To The Stress

One Response to “Economy & Unemployment: Is $15B A Good Deal For 1M Jobs?”

1. George Douglas says:

   March 7, 2010 at 12:26 pm

   An easy way to employ 8,000,000 Americans quickly would be to deport the 8,000,000 or more illegal aliens taking American jobs right now. There are already rumblings and signs that Obama and the Democrats are about to make them citizens or at least make it legal to work in this country. Obama and the Democrats have dramatically reduced enforcement of the laws against employing illegal aliens. The Obama administration prefers to allow the illegal aliens to take American jobs and use our schools and medical facilities. Every baby born to them automatically becomes an American citizen which further competes with natural born Americans for jobs and social services, schools, and medical care. If the 25,000,000 or more illegal aliens were removed from this country our health care costs would be dramatically reduced. Most of them use our medical facilities free of charge and the working people of America has to pay for that care. What a simple solution to reducing health care costs! Not an elected official has the guts to suggest this.