This is change?! A noninnovative, counterproductive, same ole same ole, bad for your children jobs bill is starting to work it's way through congress. Building more highways, tax breaks for businesses, and a full 1/3 going to support the unemployed. Things are just getting started, and if they go down this path we're all in real trouble.
Peak Cheap Oil
Global Warming
If you're not creating real long term jobs to address these problems, you're out in left field and wasting our precious resources.
Building more highways?
When the worlds entire ecosystem is at risk of collapse because we're pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, why in the world would you want to build more highways for CO2 belching behemoths? When the worlds oil supplies are reaching their peak and prices are rising, why in the world would want to build more highways so we can stick that foreign oil needle deeper into our arm?
Tax cuts for businesses?
What business in their right mind is going to go out and hire people because of a tax credit when they have plenty of inventory, plenty of production capacity, and their sales are dropping. The only businesses that will use this credit are the few businesses who are actually increasing sales and would hire people whether there's a tax credit or not. Just like the house tax credit that went to people who would have bought a house anyway, this is simply a give away of our money to businesses.
Job sharing credit? If done right, this could be the only very innovative program I've heard. Rather than tax payers paying unemployment to people who would have lost their jobs, the government provides an incentive for the company to cut back on everyones hours and everyone keeps their job. This actually can save the government money.
This ain't rocket science! We have to address the problems of Peak Cheap Oil and Global Warming or your children are going to hate you and all of us for leaving them a world more like something out of a terminator movie rather than something that lets them live an enjoyable, productive life. There is no better way to address these 2 critical problems than through a jobs program.
Many others here have been writing diaries about the need for green jobs. Incentives to transition our economy from a fossil fuel economy to a renewable energy economy would create long term jobs and get America back to an economy that produces real things in a sector which will be far bigger than the internet. Most of this can be payed for by moving the incentives/tax breaks for fossil fuels to renewables.
Why are we wasting our time with the same old jobs program approach that creates temporary jobs, and few of them, and ties us down to an old economy that can not be revived.
Retrofitting for energy conservation;
Mass transit, both train and bus;
Energy efficient products for people and businesses;
Research for Alt-E;
Solar Panels on all roof tops;
Wind generators both commercial and residential;
Geothermal technologies;
Distributed storage technologies;
Add your own here...
This jobs bill should be filibustered if it is not aimed at transitioning out economy to Alt-E. Don't let them turn this critical jobs bill into another watered down piece of crap like HCR. It needs to create real long term jobs in the new economy, not more bail out for businesses with short term jobs that dig our nation into a deeper hole. Our children's lives depend on it.